Suzan Verberne

Leiden University’s Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) is inviting applications for a PhD position in Emotionally and Socially Aware Natural Language Processing. This opportunity is part of the Human-AI cluster, an interdisciplinary environment where artificial intelligence and machine learning intersect with philosophy, cognitive science, and the creative arts. The PhD will be supervised by Assistant Professor Flor Miriam Plaza del Arco, Professor Suzan Verberne, and Professor Joost Broekens. The research will focus on developing AI models that not only optimize for accuracy but also recognize and respond to emotions responsibly and adapt to social context. The project aims to address challenges such as social bias, toxic content generation, and inadequate emotional responsiveness in current AI systems. The ultimate goal is to design AI systems that foster inclusivity, fairness, and emotional intelligence in human-AI interactions, with applications in mental well-being, education, and other socially sensitive domains. Candidates should have a strong background in computer science, artificial intelligence, or related fields, with experience in natural language processing, machine learning, or human-AI interaction being highly desirable. An interest in interdisciplinary research, especially in cognitive science, philosophy, or the creative arts, is encouraged. Proficiency in English is required. The position is based at Leiden University in the Netherlands, offering the chance to work in a vibrant academic setting. While specific funding details are not provided, PhD positions at Dutch universities are typically fully funded, including salary and benefits. The application deadline is November 17, 2025. For more information and to apply, please visit the official job ad linked below.

Leiden University’s Faculty of Science and the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) invite applications for a fully funded PhD position focused on Emotionally and Socially Aware Natural Language Processing. The project addresses the limitations of current NLP systems and large language models (LLMs) in handling human emotions and social contexts, aiming to develop frameworks and models that are not only accurate but also emotionally responsive, culturally sensitive, and safe. The research will involve creating datasets and benchmarks that capture emotional cues, conversational norms, and cultural variation beyond English, running user studies to understand human perceptions and collaboration with conversational AI, and designing methods and metrics to evaluate bias, fairness, inclusivity, safety, and emotional responsiveness. Applications include conversational agents, mental well-being, and education, with a strong emphasis on emotion safety. The successful candidate will design interventions to reduce bias and improve fairness and safety in human-AI interaction. The project combines computational modeling (NLP, machine learning, deep learning) with human-centered research (user studies, experimental design, qualitative analysis). Candidates should have a strong technical background and a curiosity about the emotional and social impact of language technologies. The PhD student will be embedded in the Human AI cluster at LIACS, supervised by Dr. Flor Miriam Plaza del Arco, Prof. Suzan Verberne, and Prof. Joost Broekens. The position offers a four-year contract, starting with a one-year term and extension upon positive evaluation. Salary ranges from €3,059 to €3,881 gross per month, with additional holiday and end-of-year bonuses, training, career development, sabbatical leave, and potential tax breaks for international candidates. The university values diversity and inclusion, and all PhD students are part of the Leiden University Graduate School of Science, which offers a range of training courses. Applicants must hold a relevant MSc degree, have strong programming and deep learning skills, and demonstrate interest in interdisciplinary research. Applications must be submitted online by 17 November 2025, including a CV, motivation letter, grade list, MSc degree, thesis draft, references, and code repository link. For more information about the Human AI cluster and LIACS, visit the provided links.

Leiden University invites applications for a fully funded PhD position in Formal Methods in Natural Language Processing. This opportunity focuses on leveraging formal methods to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs). While LLMs have achieved remarkable success in various NLP tasks, they often require significant data and computational resources and may lack generalization in tasks where humans excel. The PhD project aims to address these challenges by exploring how formal methods can contribute to developing more efficient and transparent models for Natural Language Understanding. The research topics are flexible and will be tailored to the candidate’s interests and the expertise of the supervisors, Dr. Gijs Wijnholds and Prof. Dr. Suzan Verberne. Potential areas include logical methods for task-relevant constraints in LLM finetuning, neural-symbolic integration for NLP tasks, probing LLMs’ generalization capacity, evaluating models in ambiguous contexts, and multilingual inference in vision-language models. The candidate is expected to develop their own research line and submit a brief research proposal as part of the application. The position is based at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS), a leading institute within the Faculty of Science at Leiden University. LIACS offers a vibrant, international research environment with strong connections to artificial intelligence, computer science, and interdisciplinary fields. The Faculty of Science is renowned for its diverse research activities and commitment to personal and academic development, located in the heart of Leiden’s Bio Science Park. Applicants should have a master’s degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, logic, or a related field, with substantial knowledge of NLP and deep learning architectures. Strong analytical, research, writing, presentation, and programming skills (Python) are essential. The position offers a full-time contract initially for one year, extendable for three more years upon positive evaluation. The salary ranges from €3,059 to €3,881 gross per month, with additional benefits including holiday and end-of-year bonuses, pension scheme, reimbursement of commuting costs, flexible working hours, options for sabbatical or paid parental leave, hybrid working, home-working allowance, and a university-provided laptop. Diversity and inclusion are core values at Leiden University, fostering an inclusive community for all students and staff. The application deadline is June 26, 2026. For enquiries, contact Dr. Gijs Wijnholds at [email protected]. Applications must be submitted online and include a motivation letter, CV with publications, a short research proposal, grade lists, examples of scientific writing, code samples (if applicable), and contact details for at least two academic references. For more information about the Faculty of Science and LIACS, visit www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/science and www.cs.leiden.edu . The direct application link is here .