We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate within the framework of the research project "Information acquisition from textual data for early insect vector surveillance inplant health”. The central aim of the thesis project is to develop ontology-based NLP methods to acquire updated and relevant knowledge on epidemic diseases for improved risk management linked to insect vectors. The quality and relevance of the extracted information will be both derived from the collected documents and from the formal representation of the knowledge base. For plant health, the biological interaction between insect vectors, pathogens, and host plants is the primary focus.
The studentship will be affiliated with the laboratory MaIAGE [2] at the INRAE research center in Jouy-en-Josas University of Paris-Saclay (Computer Science GS), with PHIM [3] at the INRAE research center in Montpellier, and Wimmics group, I3S and Inria [4].
## Profile
A successful candidate will have an MSc or equivalent in Artificial Intelligence. Knowledge of natural language processing and Knowledge representation methods will be an advantage. Master studies in a related area, e.g., biology or bio-informatics will be an advantage.
- High level of academic English or French, both written and spoken;
- Good programming skills in Python or Java (and preferably experience with deep learning tools)
- Capacity to work as part of a team in a multidisciplinary framework.
- Experiences of applied research to Life Science is an asset.
We offer a motivating research environment with many opportunities for in-house, national and international collaborations and access to computing resources and state-of-the-art research equipment.
Location: The student will share his/her time between MaIAGE (Jouy-en-Josas) and Wimmics (Sophia Antipolis) over long periods (1 to 2 years) and will make regular visits to PHIM (Montpellier).
Salary: 2300 gross salary per month including social security package (healthcare, pensions, unemployment benefits).
## Application
Applications will be assessed as they are received and decisions taken on a rolling basis. The application should comprise:
- a CV (max 5 pages) with transcripts (Master), diplomas, internships
- a cover letter
- the names and contact of two referees for reference letters<
[1] https://maiage.inrae.fr/fr/bibliome
[2] https://umr-phim.cirad.fr/en/recherche/comprendre-les-epidemies-dans-les-champs-prism/equipe-forisk
[3] https://team.inria.fr/wimmics/