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ORGANISATION/COMPANYAix-Marseille Université
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RESEARCH FIELDLanguage sciencesPsychological sciences › Cognitive science
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RESEARCHER PROFILEFirst Stage Researcher (R1)
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APPLICATION DEADLINE15/04/2020 17:00 - Europe/Brussels
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LOCATIONMultiple locations, see work locations below.
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TYPE OF CONTRACTTemporary
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JOB STATUSFull-time
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HOURS PER WEEK35-40
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EU RESEARCH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMMEH2020 / Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
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MARIE CURIE GRANT AGREEMENT NUMBER859588
OFFER DESCRIPTION
COBRA is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network that aims to train the next generation of researchers to accurately characterize and model the linguistic, cognitive and brain mechanisms deployed by human speakers in conversational interactions with human interlocutors as well as artificial dialog systems. It relies on a cross-sectoral international network of 11 world-level academic research centers and 4 nonacademic partners with 3 fast-developing SMEs and 1 world-level company. The partners' unique combined expertise and high complementarity will allow COBRA to offer 15 ESRs an excellent training programme as well as strong exposure to the non-academic sector in the emerging field of conversational brains. Training will cover scientific and technical skills, from the joint monitoring of brain and physiological activities in two or more people talking to each other to making multi-language databases, resources and findings available in open access, as well as transferable skills. The ESRs will conduct experimental and corpus studies on the alignment and prediction processes that make conversation between people both easy and fluent, across a large variety of communicational settings and in different languages, to better understand how these processes contribute to setting up brain-to-brain coupling relationships. Collaborative work with non-academic partners will foster the development of more effective and socially acceptable text-to-speech synthesizers, artificial dialogue systems, and social humanoid robots with high-level conversational skills. The project will open new career perspectives for ESRs with interdisciplinary training in language sciences, neuroscience and dialog systems on a very fast-growing digital market. COBRA’s training programme will also have major societal implications as it will concern aspects of the European citizens’ everyday life, from spoken interactions with machines to conversing in a non-native language.
For information about the different positions and for APPLYING, please consult the link provided for each of the projects:
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ESR1: Categorization of speech sounds as a collective decision process (Prof Noël NGUYEN, Aix-Marseille University, France)
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ESR2 : Brain markers of between-speaker convergence in conversational speech (Prof Alessandro D'AUSILIO, Italian Institute of Technology/IIT, Italy)
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ESR3: Phd on neural alignment between speakers in conversational interactions: Does prediction drive neural alignment in conversation? (Prof Noël NGUYEN, Aix-Marseille University, France)
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ESR4 : Brain indexes of semantic and pragmatic prediction (Prof Friedemann PULVERMÜLLER, Freie Universität Berlin/FUB, Germany)
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ESR5 : Communicative alignment at the physiological level (Prof Christine MOOSHAMMER and Prof Susanne FUCHS, Humboldt University/HU and Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft/ZAS, Germany)
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ESR6 : Lexical alignment in human-machine spoken interaction (Prof Martin PICKERING, University of Edinburgh/UEDIN, UK)
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ESR7 : Contribution of discourse markers to alignment in conversation (Prof Liesbeth DEGAND, Université Catholique de Louvain/UCL, Belgium)
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ESR8 : Discourse units and discourse alignment (Prof Liesbeth DEGAND, Université Catholique de Louvain/UCL, Belgium)
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ESR9 : Acoustic-phonetic alignment in synthetic speech (Prof Simon KING, University of Edinburgh/UEDIN, UK)
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ESR10 : Phonetic alignment in a non-native language (Prof Alessandro D'AUSILIO, Italian Institute of Technology/IIT, Italy)
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ESR11 : Conversation coordination and mind-reading (Prof Stefan BENUS, Institute of Informatics Slovak Academy of Sciences/IISAS, Slovakia)
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ESR12 : The influence of alignment (Prof Stefan BENUS, Institute of Informatics Slovak Academy of Sciences/IISAS, Slovakia)
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ESR13 : Parametric dialogue synthesis: from separate speakers to conversational interaction (Dr Esther Judd, ReadSpeaker, Sweden OR The Netherlands)
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ESR14 : Gender and vocal alignment in speakers and robots (Prof Gabriel Skantze, Furhat Robotics, Sweden)
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ESR15 : Endowing robots with high-level conversational skills (Prof Gabriel Skantze, Furhat Robotics, Sweden)
More Information
Benefits
The ESRs will be contractually employed for 36 months by the main institution, and will be covered under the social security scheme of the
enrolling country. She/he will monthly receive a Living Allowance, a Mobility Allowance and a Family Allowance (if applicable) compliant with
the applicable EC Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-ITN general conditions.
Eligibility criteria
- be an early stage researcher within the first four years of your research career;
- have not yet been awarded a doctoral degree (PhD);
- have not lived or carried out your main activity (work/study) in your host country for more than 12 months during the past three years.
Selection process
Applications must contain the following:
- An up-to-date CV, without gaps, in order for the selection committee to easily check the mobility and experience requirements. CVs that either do not clearly show the applicant’s past experience, or have gaps, will be considered ineligible;
- A letter exposing her/his motivation for a COBRA PhD fellowship, and her preference for two of the fifteen PhD projects proposed in COBRA;
- At least 1 reference letter (in English) from one former supervisor and/or professor;
- The scan of the degree (usually the master’s degree) which would formally entitles her/him to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained, or in the country in which the researcher will be recruited. If the degree has not been obtained yet, the applicant will have to provide a declaration of her/his university stating that the degree will be obtained before the expected starting date;
- Transcripts of records (document indicating the applicant’s ranking and marks within her/his master’s degree as well as the courses/modules she/he has followed).
Offer Requirements
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REQUIRED EDUCATION LEVELLanguage sciences: Master Degree or equivalentPsychological sciences: Master Degree or equivalent
EURAXESS offer ID: 489175
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