Hanneke van Laarhoven

Tilburg University is recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher in AI for Understanding Visual Narratives within the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Center of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence. The postdoctoral researcher will contribute to the project Advancing Research in Palliative Care: Employing Rich Pictures , a collaboration between Tilburg University, Amsterdam UMC, and Amsta Nursing Home. The project explores how Rich Pictures can help reveal patients’ existential concerns in the palliative phase of life and support communication around experiences that are often difficult to express directly. The main scientific challenge is that analysis of Rich Pictures is highly labor-intensive: drawings vary widely in style, contain many elements and relationships, and often rely on implicit symbolic meaning. The postdoc will help develop AI methods that can accelerate analysis and interpretation so that Rich Pictures can become a scalable research instrument for clinical practice and large-scale studies. Key responsibilities include developing and refining AI tools for Rich Picture analysis, improving a user-friendly interface for researchers and healthcare professionals, working closely with humanities scholars and clinicians, and disseminating results through journal publications and conference presentations. The role sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data science, humanities research, and healthcare innovation . It is especially relevant for candidates interested in computational methods for visual interpretation, research software development, and interdisciplinary collaboration in palliative care. Institution: Tilburg University, Netherlands Deadline: 2026-12-01 Application: Via the AcademicTransfer portal.