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OFFER DEADLINE : 30/09/2022 23:59:00 – Europe/Brussels ORGANISATION/COMPANY : NVISION / Rovira i Virgili University (URV)
EU RESEARCH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME: HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01-01 DEPARTMENT : Digital Health Unit (NVISION) / Computer science and mathematics department (URV)
LOCATION : Flexible: Barcelona or Tarragona
Prof. Josep Domingo-Ferrer (URV, Tarragona) and Dr. Zouhair Haddi (NVISON, Barcelona),are interested in receiving Expressions of Interest of potential candidates for the Marie Sklodowska – Curie Doctorate Network (MSCA-DN-2021) call.
The title of the proposed project: Privacy preserving Federated Learning pipeline for a multi-institutional collaboration..
The overarching goal of this PhD project is to develop ML/DL models for medical image analysis based on a FL approach by unlocking the main barriers of multi-institutional collaborations: (a) non-independent and identically distributed local data sampling; (b) differences in image acquisition protocols and labeling methodologies across institutions; and (c) privacy and security concerns and test of the obtained ML/DL models for radiological and pathological image analysis for breast cancer relapse prediction.
For the proposed project, we are looking for a doctorate candidate who will have the following responsibilities:- Carry out fundamental and applied research on Federated Learning.
- Develop advanced ML/DL models for breast cancer relapse prediction.
- Ensure secure and efficient data handling.
- Keep close collaboration with the team members and clinical partners.
- Publish and present scientific outcomes at international conferences and high-impact journals.
We are looking for talented and innovative self-motivated young scientists, strongly committed to high quality frontier and multi-disciplinary research and able to add new insights to the existing NVISION and URV core expertise.
NVISION is a company that brings R&D around IoT to the market providing innovative real-time monitoring and management solutions and being involved in state-of-the-art national and international collaborative R&D projects in areas such as Health, Energy and Computing. NVISION actively fosters an environment to facilitate and strengthen gender equality, diversity and inclusion in selecting, hiring, remunerating and promoting its employees. The company also balances on-site and remote work according to personal and professional requirements.
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) is a public university headquartered in Tarragona, a UNESCO World Heritage coastal city 90 km. southwest of Barcelona. URV is well placed in the main university rankings. Within it, the CRISES research group, led by Professor Josep Domingo-Ferrer, is a world reference in privacy technologies. The UNESCO Chair in Data Privacy and, more recently, CYBERCAT (Cybersecurity Research Center of Catalonia), with over 100 researchers from 6 universities, have also originated in the CRISES group. The group offers an international, welcoming and inspiring research environment. More information on the group at https://crises-deim.urv.cat and on Prof. Domingo-Ferrer at https://crises-deim.urv.cat/jdomingo.
NVISION as Hosting Institution located at the centre of Barcelona and URV as the academic supervisor of the candidate, located at Tarragona, have all the technical and scientific facilities for carry out this project. That is, the candidate will have the opportunity to be located mostly in Barcelona or in Tarragona, with some visits to the other place for the sake of the project, and may also consider some telework load. Both cities are pleasant Mediterranean coastal venues, with Tarragona offering quite affordable housing and living options.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
At the attempted deadline for the submission of the proposals (30/09/2022):
- Early Stage Researcher:
- M.Sc. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or equivalent with interest in Medical Imaging.
- Excellent programming skills in Python and PyTorch including fundamental software engineering principles and machine learning design patterns.
- Basic knowledge in federated learning.
- Highly motivated and a team player with excellent communication and presentation skills, including experience in communicating across discipline boundaries.
- Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams.
- Nationality: Any.
- Mobility: The researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Spain for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the deadline for submission of proposals (a relaxed rule for Career restarting and Reintegration).
- Must be fluent in English (both written and spoken).
SELECTION PROCESS
Researchers willing to apply should check that they fulfil the eligibility criteria and then send an expression of interest, consisting of:
- Scanned copy of identity card, resident's card or passport currently in force.
- Curriculum Vitae (Any research career gaps and/or unconventional paths should be clearly explained so that this can be fairly assessed by the evaluators; if you are a forcibly displaced researcher, please explain your situation in the CV; if you have been residing in Country in the last 3 years please provide the exact duration and motives of your stay and be prepared to provide the documentation proving it during the redress phase if required by the Project Manager). We strongly recommend you to use the Europass CV template.
- Scanned copy of the certificate of the official academic qualification or proof of payment of the fees for the issuance of the certificate that allows the holder to access the doctoral studies. Students who hold Master degrees should present the scanned copies of their master's degrees. Students who are registered in an official university master's course that allows them to access the doctoral programme during the 2021/2022 academic year must present a scanned copy of their master's course registration form.
- Scanned copy of academic transcript of the qualification equivalent to a bachelor's degree.
- Scanned copy of academic transcript of the master's degree. Candidates who have not completed their Master's degrees must send their provisional academic transcript*.
- Two signed and scanned reference letters. We will not contact the referees on your behalf.
- A motivation letter, explaining his expertise and how the candidate is suited for the position she/he applies for.
- Expressions of interest must be submitted to your account through https://bosomshield.eu/.
- Researchers willing must apply to maximum two positions of the aforementioned 10 positions.
- DCs will be pre-selected on the basis of internal evaluation.
- Candidates will be informed of the results of the pre-selection two weeks after the deadline.
- Interview between the highest ranked candidates of the pre-selection will be organed by the supervisors to select the final candidate.