The Applied Data Science lab at Utrecht University (UU), the Information Systems group at Technical University Eindhoven (TUe) and the Psychiatry department of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) seek to appoint 2 full time Postdoc Researchers or PhD candidates for the project “COVIDA: Computing Visits Data for Dutch Natural Language Processing in Mental Healthcare” led by Dr. Marco Spruit. The COVIDA project kickstarts the interuniversity and interdisciplinary COVIDA research group by furthering the state-of-the-art in Natural Language Processing technologies for Dutch to improve daily practices in Mental Healthcare.

COVIDA’s scientific objective comprises the development of a hybrid Dutch language model to better understand human language in general, and Dutch Mental Healthcare language use in particular. We operate within the Design Science Research paradigm to model our computational experiment findings from both Computational Linguistics (i.e. knowledge-based) and Machine Learning (i.e. data-driven) inspired representations. Our societal contribution consists of a publicly available self-service facility for Natural Language Processing (NLP) of already routinely collected Dutch medical texts. Thus, COVIDA aims to deliver a game-changing innovation of Dutch mental healthcare institutions’ daily practices by enabling healthcare professionals throughout the Dutch language area to reuse their daily clinical notes by nurses and doctors from patients’ EHRs to predict inpatient violence risk assessment, depression, and more. Your core research task is to design, implement and evaluate NLP pipelines for Dutch clinical texts which utilise linguistic and domain knowledge and structured data in a privacy-by-design architecture from both Deep/Transfer Learning and symbolic NLP perspectives.

• For the Postdoc positions, you hold (or will obtain during the application period) a doctorate (PhD) in Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Data Science, Computational Linguistics or other relevant areas. For PhD candidates, you hold a MSc in one of the areas above.
• You have demonstrable expertise in Computational Linguistics (Natural Language Processing) and/or Machine Learning (including Deep Neural Networks and Transfer Learning techniques).
• You have good programming skills (preferably in Python).
• You preferably have a good understanding of Dutch.
• You have a track record of publications in impact journals and/or NLP/ML conferences.
• You also have good English language skills in academic writing and presentation.

For the Postdoc positions, the candidate is offered a full time position for two years. Further funding will be aimed for, to extend the project. The gross salary is in the range between € 3,255 and maximum € 4,272 (scale 10 Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full time employment.

For the PhD candidate position, the candidate is offered a full-time position of four years. Further funding will be aimed for, to extend the project. The gross salary is in the range between € 2,325 and maximum € 2,972 (P-Scale Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities) gross per month for a full time employment.

The salary is supplemented with a holiday bonus of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8,3% per year. In addition we offer a pension scheme, a partially paid parental leave and flexible employment conditions. Conditions are based on the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. The research group will provide the candidate with necessary support on all aspects of the project. For further information, visit our website: working at Utrecht University.

We stimulate an open and positive work environment and will aim to accommodate your personal preferences.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The city of Utrecht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, with a charming old centre and an internationally oriented culture that is strongly influenced by its century-old university. Utrecht city has been consistently ranked as one of the most liveable cities in the Netherlands.

The Faculty of Science consists of six Departments: Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Information and Computing Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Mathematics. The Faculty is home to 6,500 students and nearly 1,500 staff and is internationally renowned for the quality of its research. The Faculty's academic programmes reflect developments in today's society. Read the overall impression 2018 of the Faculty of Science.

About the organization: UU

The Department of Information and Computing Sciences is nationally and internationally renowned for its research in Computing Science and Information Science. Current research groups are Algorithmic Data Analysis, Algorithms and Complexity, Decision Support Systems, Simulation of Complex Systems, Geometric Computing, Multimedia, Human-Centered Computing, Social and Affective Computing, Visualisation and Graphics, Interaction Technology, Process Management and Analytics, Organization and Information, Natural Language Processing, Intelligent Systems, Data Intensive Systems, Software Technology and Software Technology of Learning and Teaching.

The Applied Data Science Lab in the Dept. of Information and Computing Sciences develops novel analytical applications to improve the real world around us. The team currently consists of 3 staff members, 11 PhD students and 1 scientific programmer. A strategic objective of the Lab is to establish and lead an authoritative national infrastructure for Dutch natural language processing to facilitate and popularise self-service data science.

The Department offers Bachelor programmes in Computer Science and Information Science, and four English language research Master programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Business Informatics, Computing Science, and Game and Media Technology.

About the organization: TUe

The Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences (IE&IS) engages in education and research in the area of operational business processes and transitions in societies in relation to technical changes. In the IE&IS Department, scholars and students work together on critical problems at the interface of engineering, management, innovation, and human behavior.

The Information Systems group in the Dept. of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences performs research and teaches in business information systems, focusing on advanced support of operational business processes and business services, both within individual organizations and in the context of dynamic networks of organizations. Research aims at decision support systems, design and analysis tools, and information system architectures, using advanced prototypes.

The research approach is model-centric and engineering-oriented, integrating basic and applied research with contemporary real-world cases. Main application domains are the services industry, health care, supply chains and logistics, and high-tech manufacturing. The research of the group is organized in an open, topic-oriented, dynamic cluster structure.