PhD opening at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (E13, 100%)
Intelligent Language Systems Lab at FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg is seeking applications for fully funded PhD position. The key research areas include reasoning, interpretability, neuro-symbolic methods, memory and multilinguality. The position offers a degree of research freedom, however the overall goal is to advance LLM/VLMs for the long-tail of the distribution, i.e., unseen tasks, domains or languages by developing novel ML/NLP/RL methods.
About the Lab
The lab is led by Gözde Gül Sahin. We regularly publish at top-tier *CL venues. Our lab has been partially funded by Wikimedia Research Fund, Google (Gemini) Academic Program and Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye via International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers program. Website: https://gglab-ku.github.io/
About FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
FAU offers broad opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration across Informatik and beyond. There is strong potential for joint research with other computer science chairs, for example in areas intersecting with speech processing, as well as, security, and reliable systems. Natural connections also exist with the Humanities, particularly linguistics and digitally supported humanities research, as well as with application-oriented fields such as medicine. The chair is embedded in the vibrant Erlangen–Nuremberg research ecosystem, with close proximity to major industrial and applied research actors such as Siemens, adidas, and Fraunhofer IIS, providing an excellent environment for collaborative, impact-oriented PhD and postdoctoral research.
Computational Resources
FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg HPC Center offers access to powerful, well-maintained GPU clusters (https://doc.nhr.fau.de/clusters/overview/).
Your Profile
- Master of Science in computer science, computational linguistics or a related field before the PhD starting date
- Bachelor in Computer Science or a related field
- Strong background in Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning
- Excellent programming skills
- Proficiency in English
- Ability to work independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team
- Positive attitude, enjoyment of research, and finding new solutions!
Application
Apply from the portal and please email a copy with the following as a single pdf file to goezde.sahin [at] fau.de
- Cover letter, including your motivation for application (max. one page)
- A research statement outlining your research interests within the scope of the advertised position. It should propose a concrete research agenda you plan to develop during your PhD (up to two pages including references).
- Curriculum vitae (including your publication list (if available))
- Bachelors and Masters diplomas
- Transcripts
- Name and contact details of 2 referees
Applications until 13.07.2026 will be given full consideration, however the position will remain open until filled. Hence, feel free to inquire even if the deadline has passed. The preferred starting date is 01.09.2026 (or soon after)
Salary
This is a fully funded E13 position (100%). An approximate salary can be calculated using the following tool: https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-2025.
