At Maastricht Law & Tech labhttps://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/about-um/faculties/law/research/law-and-tech-lab we are looking for a PhD candidate to work on the intersection of Machine Learning, Data Science and Law. We are explicitly looking for candidates that have proven experience working on NLP and ML. See recent examples of our work [1https://aclanthology.org/2023.eacl-main.203.pdf,2https://aclanthology.org/2023.acl-long.481.pdf,3https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.17050]

Deadline is December 10th. The full text of the position is herehttps://www.academictransfer.com/en/334212/phd-candidate-position-on-machine-learning-data-science-and-law/ and attached below.

Feel free to reach out if you have questions, enquiries, etc.

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Maastricht University invites applications for a fully funded PhD position focused on integrating machine learning and data science techniques with the law.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Law affects us all, but technology often benefits the wealthy the most. In your project, you will seek to contribute to a better understanding of how technical methods can assist in the application, interpretation, and evaluation of laws, for instance by developing innovative solutions for start-ups and ordinary citizens. Data sources may include legal texts (e.g. laws, court decisions), social media data, or computer code itself. You will work closely with industry partners and public authorities and have tangible real-world impact with your work. The ability to find innovative technical solutions to legal challenges could become a key skill of your future career be it as a researcher, entrepreneur, or engineer.

Your project will connect to previous research. In prior research, we have analyzed whether AI can assist in (I) retrieving relevant legal information given a layperson’s question, (ii) detecting vendors on the Dark Web, (iii) measuring where a user’s data ends up when using Android and IOS, (iv) researching cancel culture, and (v) detecting important court decisions. You will undertake PhD research at the intersection of law and computer science under the supervision of professors of the Maastricht Law & Tech Lab. Your primary task is conducting the research for your PhD project. Your exact project will be determined in consultation with you. A small proportion of the appointment may be devoted to teaching activities, which commonly amounts to teaching activities in a period of eight weeks per year.

You will be offered the opportunity to collaborate with researchers from different disciplines, including machine learning, data science, and law. You will be part of an exciting, vibrant, and quickly growing community where researchers from different disciplines meet and form interdisciplinary teams that conduct academically and societally relevant research. You will be offered the opportunity to gain insights not only on applying computational techniques, but also on law, regulation, and ethics. For this, you will be encouraged, coached, and allowed to attend courses, conferences and workshops that will add social and legal knowledge to your skillset. PhD researchers participate in the Maastricht University Graduate School of Law.

REQUIREMENTS

Requirements

MSc degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or Data Science (or equivalent).

Proven experience with applying machine learning, natural language processing and/or data science.

Interest in learning about other disciplines, law in particular.

Community-friendly team player.

Excellent oral and written English communication.

Optional: geek-friendly.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

As PhD candidate at Faculty of Law, you will be employed by the most international university in the Netherlands, located in the beautiful city of Maastricht. In addition, we offer you:

Good employment conditions. The position is graded in scale P according to UFO profile Promovendus, with corresponding salary based on experience ranging from €2770,00 and €3539,00 gross per month (based on a full-time employment of 38 hours per week). In addition to the monthly salary, an 8.0% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end bonus apply.

An employment contract for a period of 12 months with a scope of 1,0 FTE.

At Maastricht University, the well-being of our employees is of utmost importance, we offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work partly from home if the nature of your position allows it. You will receive a monthly commuting and internet allowance for this. If you work full-time, you will be entitled to 29 vacation days and 4 additional public holidays per year, namely carnival Monday, carnival Tuesday, Good Friday, and Liberation Day. If you choose to accumulate compensation hours, an additional 12 days will be added. Furthermore, you can personalize your employment conditions through a collective labor agreement (CAO) choice model.

As Maastricht University, we offer various other excellent secondary employment conditions. These include a good pension scheme with the ABP and the opportunity for UM employees to participate in company fitness and make use of the extensive sports facilities that we also offer to our students.

Last but certainly not least, we provide the space and facilities for your personal and professional development. We facilitate this by offering a wide range of training programs and supporting various well-established initiatives such as 'acknowledge and appreciate'.

The terms of employment at Maastricht University are largely set out in the collective labor agreement of Dutch Universities. In addition, local provisions specific to UM apply. For more information, click here.