Ph.D Fellow in Natural Language Processing

Ph.D Fellow in Natural Language Processing

Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Science
University of Copenhagen

The Natural Language Processing Section at the Department of Computer Science invites highly-motivated applicants for a Ph.D Fellow in Natural Language Processing. The start date is expected to be 1 September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Project Description
The overall goal of the project is to advance the theory and application of language models that can process any written language by rendering text as images. This visual representation of text allows a model to learn cross-lingually based on the visual similarities between written languages. The project includes creating and implementing tokenization-free multilingual language models, collecting and curating visually diverse language data, and training both small-scale and large-scale language models. In particular, the selected Ph.D Fellow will be expected to focus on the development of hybrid models that can jointly process tokenizer-based and tokenizer-free representations.

The position is funded by a Carlsberg Foundation Semper Ardens: Accelerate Grant held by the principal investigator, Desmond Elliott. The project team includes the principal investigator, and three Ph.D Fellows, as well as external collaborators.

Our Research
The Natural Language Processing Section provides a strong, international, and diverse environment for research within core as well as emerging topics in natural language processing, natural language understanding, computational linguistics and multimodal language processing. It is housed within the main Science Campus, which is located in central Copenhagen. Further information on the Department is available at https://di.ku.dk/english/.

Principal supervisor is Associate Professor Desmond Elliott, Department of Computer Science, de@di.ku.dk, Direct phone: +45 93 50 91 75.

The PhD programme

Qualifications needed for the regular programme
To be eligible for the regular PhD programme, you must have completed a degree programme, equivalent to a Danish master’s degree (180 ECTS/3 FTE BSc + 120 ECTS/2 FTE MSc) related to the subject area of the project. For information of eligibility of completed programmes, see General assessments for specific countries and Assessment database.

Terms of employment in the regular programme
Employment as PhD fellow is full time and for maximum 3 years.

Employment is conditional upon your successful enrolment as a PhD student at the PhD School at the Faculty of SCIENCE, University of Copenhagen. This requires submission and acceptance of an application for the specific project formulated by the applicant.

The terms of employment and salary are in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State (AC). The position is covered by the Protocol on Job Structure.

Responsibilities and tasks in the PhD programme

• Carry through an independent research project under supervision
• Complete PhD courses corresponding to approx. 30 ECTS / ½ FTE
• Participate in active research environments, including a stay at another research institution, preferably abroad
• Teaching and knowledge dissemination activities
• Write scientific papers aimed at high-impact journals
• Write and defend a PhD thesis on the basis of your project

We are looking for the following qualifications:

• Professional qualifications relevant to the PhD project
• Relevant publications
• Relevant work experience
• Other relevant professional activities
• Curious mind-set with a strong interest in language and machine learning
• Good language skills

Application and Assessment Procedure
Your application including all attachments must be in English and submitted electronically by clicking APPLY NOW below.

Please include: 

1. Cover letter, including your motivation for application (max. one page)
2. Research statement that explains your research focus within the scope of the specified position. The research statement should demonstrate your independent thinking by outlining a concrete research direction in tokenization-free language processing that you want to explore during your Ph.D studies (max. two pages).
3. Curriculum vitae including information about your education, experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position
4. Original diplomas for Bachelor of Science or Master of Science and transcript of records in the original language, including an authorized English translation if issued in another language than English or Danish. If not completed, a certified/signed copy of a recent transcript of records or a written statement from the institution or supervisor is accepted.
5. Publication list (where available)
6. Name and contact details of referees, or actual reference letters (if available)

The deadline for applications is 8 March 2026, 23:59 GMT +1.

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the Interview Committee.

Interviews with selected candidates are expected to be held in Weeks 16 and 17.

Questions
For specific information about the PhD fellowship, please contact de@di.ku.dk.

General information about PhD study at the Faculty of SCIENCE is available at the PhD School’s website: https://www.science.ku.dk/phd/.