Vacancy ID :
039064
Closing Date :
13-Jan :00
* Vacancy ID: Post-Doctoral Researcher - Research Engineer - Agentic AI for Chemical Monitoring
* Contract: 18 Months
* Salary: €46,305 – Point 1 of IUA Postdoctoral Researcher (PD1) salary scale.
This role is for a Post-Doctoral Researcher who will be the core implementer for a project focused on designing, evaluating, and delivering a proof-of-concept human-in-the-loop explainable agentic artificial intelligence (AI) system to monitor unwanted chemicals, specifically targeting substances under the EU's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) framework and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) Regulations (including Fluorinated Gases (F-gases)). This is a trans-disciplinary role, bridging environmental chemistry, software engineering, and chemical regulation. The candidate will lead the prototyping of an expert-vetted chemical knowledge graph and integrate it with a software agent capable of controlled and logged tool calls for
Regulation (EU) 2016/679 General Data Protection Law (GDPR)-compliant data acquisition. The role involves continuous development, experimental validation, and significant engagement with stakeholders.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
The primary responsibility is to carry out research and development tasks, focusing on building and validating the agentic AI system.
* Knowledge Graph Construction: Construct and populate a chemical knowledge graph and regulatory heuristics to serve as the contextual backbone of the system.
* Explainable AI Development: Apply chemistry expertise to identify the likelihood of unwanted chemicals in products while implementing human-in-the-loop explainable AI (xAI) solutions.
* Data Acquisition System Design: Design, develop, and integrate GDPR-compliant data acquisition software systems to gather product data from authorised sources, ensuring alignment with Terms of Service (ToS) and copyright regulations.
* Software Agent Development: Develop and evaluate a software agent with tool calling and knowledge graph querying capabilities.
* Feasibility Studies & Validation: Conduct feasibility studies to assess the system's accuracy, identifying limitations, and proposing technical solutions for reliability improvement. Data Management: Manage data curation, ensuring data cleaning, structuring, anonymisation, and documentation according to FAIR principles and the project data management plan.
* Communication: Present findings clearly to trans-disciplinary stakeholders.
Additional Responsibilities
* Stakeholder Engagement: Organise stakeholder engagement activities.
* Reporting and Administration: Contribute to all project-related reporting, participate in technical reviews, and assist with proposal costing and financial administration.
* Dissemination: Communicate with stakeholders and the public, and disseminate research outputs via high-quality conferences and journal publications.
* Professional Development: Engage in appropriate training and professional development.
* General Duties: Undertake additional project-related duties as reasonably required.
Please see attached for full job description.