Neural approaches to artificial intelligence are extraordinarily effective, with a proliferation of large models trained on correspondingly massive datasets. However, these models still fail on some tasks that humans, and symbolic approaches, can easily solve -- particularly involving abstract and flexible reasoning. There is therefore a need to integrate symbolic and neural approaches, firstly to potentially improve the performance of large neural models, and secondly to analyse and explain the representations that these systems are using.

As a PhD candidate, you will conduct independent research in Neurosymbolic AI. This continues to be a growing field, and there is substantial room to contribute. We are interested in developing techniques that can improve on current AI performance, model human cognition, and in using neurosymbolic methods to analyse system internals.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and creative individual who is interested in the following:

• Developing novel methods to model human cognition and/or improve AI performance;
• Building frameworks for assessing human and AI abstract and flexible reasoning abilities;
• Connecting neurosymbolic architectures to the internals of modern AI systems;
• Publishing and presenting your findings at international conferences and journals such as ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, TACL, TMLR etc;
• Completing and defending a PhD thesis during the official appointment of four years;
• Participating in and contributing to the organisation of research activities at the ILLC.

The exact topics and the work plan of the PhD will be defined together with the selected candidate. 

You are expected to take an active role in departmental activities, ranging from attending research seminars to board memberships. The ability and willingness to take on some (light) organisational tasks is welcome.

You should have:

• An MSc in a relevant discipline. This could be Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Mathematics, but also Cognitive Science or Psychology;
• The technical skills and scientific interest to conduct fundamental research in AI;
• An excellent academic track record;
• The ability to work with a high degree of independence and eagerness to contribute your own ideas;
• Good writing and presentation skills with full proficiency in spoken and written English.

Please note that if you do not meet all these requirements, we are still interested to hear from you. In particular, members of underrepresented communities in computer science are encouraged to apply.

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of 4 years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of 4 years). The preferred starting date is 1 September 2026. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. You will also be expected to assist in teaching undergraduates and master students.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between € 3,059 to € 3,881. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8,3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile
PhD Candidate is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants.
The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

Curious about our extensive secondary benefits package? You can read more about it here.