Doctoral researcher in clinical data science & machine learning University of Luxembourg in Luxembourg

The University of Luxembourg, a modern and international research university, offers a PhD position in clinical data science and machine learning at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB). The LCSB is renowned for its interdisciplinary research in systems biology and biomedicine, with a particular focus on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The successful candidate will join the Clinical and Translational Informatics group, led by Dr. Venkata Satagopam, which bridges translational medicine and bioinformatics through innovative data integration, visualisation, and advanced analytics.

This doctoral project centers on developing and applying AI-based methods, including machine learning, deep learning, and language technologies, for the integration and analysis of clinical data. The research aims to enable secure, interoperable, and scalable AI-driven use of clinical data for complex diseases, contributing to improved diagnostics and healthcare solutions. Key responsibilities include designing and implementing NLP pipelines for clinical text processing, semantic annotation, and representation learning; developing embedding-based representations of clinical variables and documents; building retrieval-augmented generation pipelines; and structuring and harmonising clinical data using models and ontologies such as OMOP CDM, SNOMED CT, and FHIR.

The candidate will contribute to interoperable and FAIR-compliant data infrastructures, explore federated learning and privacy-preserving AI approaches, and collaborate closely with data providers, clinicians, and technical teams. The role also involves supporting documentation, reproducibility, and dissemination of research outputs, as well as participating in international research collaborations and EU-funded initiatives.

Applicants should have a master's degree in computer science, computational biology, bioinformatics, data science, or related fields, with strong programming skills in Python and experience with machine learning and NLP frameworks. Familiarity with data management, SQL, and basic database concepts is required. Desirable skills include experience with LLMs, NLP, embeddings, generative AI, RAG architectures, deep learning, multimodal data integration, federated learning, privacy-preserving analytics, clinical data models, ETL tools, workflow engines, big data frameworks, containerisation, HPC/GPU computing, version control, and reproducible research practices. Prior involvement in collaborative or EU-funded research projects is an asset. Applicants must demonstrate at least B2-level proficiency in the language of their thesis.

The University of Luxembourg offers a dynamic and inclusive environment, high-quality equipment, and close ties to industry and European institutions. The PhD contract is for 36 months, full-time, with a yearly gross salary of EUR 41976. Applications should be submitted online through the HR system, including a CV, cover letter, and transcript. Early applications are encouraged, and all qualified individuals are welcome to apply.