PhD Fellowship in Natural Language Processing at University of Copenhagen

About the opportunity

The AI Section at the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, invites applicants for a three-year PhD fellowship in computational modelling and evaluation of cultural interpretation with language models. This position is part of the research project “CuRe: Cultural Reasoning for Responsible Language Model Development,” funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark. The candidate will work closely with researchers in natural language processing and literary studies to construct datasets, analyse language model behavior, develop methods for grounding interpretations, and evaluate these methods using literary texts. The fellowship includes a planned research stay at McGill University. The expected start date is February 1st, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Salary and benefits

• Monthly salary starting at 31,800 DKK (approx. 4,200 EUR as of August 2026-level), with possible supplements based on qualifications.
• Employer pension contribution of 18.07%.
• Access to modern GPU computing resources, shared data and annotation infrastructure, and relevant text corpora.
• Participation in a dynamic, international research environment within the CoAStaL research group and the AI Section.
• Planned international research stay at McGill University.

Who can apply?

• Must hold a master's degree or equivalent qualification relevant to the PhD project, equivalent to a Danish master's degree (180 ECTS BSc + 120 ECTS MSc).
• Strong programming skills, preferably in Python, and experience with machine learning or natural language processing tools.
• Knowledge of modern NLP and language models and an ability to design, implement, and evaluate computational experiments.
• Ability to work independently, formulate research questions, and collaborate across computer science and the humanities.
• Excellent written and spoken English proficiency.

Required documents

• Motivated letter of application (maximum one page) explaining motivation, relevant qualifications, and research interests.
• Curriculum vitae including education, research or work experience, and language skills.
• Original diplomas for bachelor's and master's degrees and transcripts of records in the original language, with an authorised English translation if issued in another language.
• Publication list, if applicable.
• Reference letters, if available.

When to apply

• Application deadline is November 8th, 2026, at 23:59 CET.
• Expected start date is February 1st, 2027, or as soon as possible thereafter.
• Interviews with selected candidates are expected to be held in week 49.

How to apply

• Prepare all required application documents in English.
• Submit the application electronically by clicking the official apply link on the job portal before the deadline.

Additional information

• The position is offered as a three-year full-time study within the framework of the regular PhD programme (5+3 scheme).
• Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark in the last 10 years.