Postdoctoral Researcher in Generative AI Agents, Clinical NLP, and Medical AI Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal

Champalimaud Foundation is recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher – Generative AI Agents (SCOPE Lab) in Lisbon, Portugal, within the Champalimaud Centre for The Unknown.

This is a research-intensive postdoctoral opening in Computer Science, Medical AI, clinical NLP, large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, and agentic AI systems. The selected researcher will lead technical work on the ResPECT project, a Horizon Europe-funded pan-European initiative focused on trustworthy generative AI for oncology and mental health care.

The role includes designing and developing a multilingual generative AI agent, adapting and fine-tuning open-source European LLMs, building hybrid RAG pipelines, implementing explainability and safety mechanisms, supporting federated learning across European clinical sites, and contributing to publications, conference presentations, and EU reporting. The post also involves co-supervising junior researchers and PhD students.

Research environment: SCOPE Lab within the Breast Cancer Research Programme, led by Professor Maria João Cardoso, with scientific/technical support from Dr. João Santinha and Dr. Luís Elvas. The project is embedded in a large international consortium and offers access to high-performance computing infrastructure and clinical datasets.

Eligibility highlights: PhD in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, NLP, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field; strong publication record; Python and modern ML stack experience; multilingual NLP and healthcare AI experience; familiarity with medical AI evaluation and EU regulatory frameworks. English is the working language; Portuguese is optional.

Funding and duration: Full-time position with competitive remuneration. Initial duration is 24 months, automatically extendable by 12 months subject to performance, for a possible total of 48 months.

Application: Candidates should apply via the official Champalimaud Foundation offer page and follow the stated procedure. Third-party agency applications may not be received.