EPFL AI Center Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, Switzerland

Summary

The EPFL AI Center Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme, supported in part through funding from the Swiss AI Initiative, offers outstanding, highly motivated early-career researchers the opportunity to conduct independent, cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Fellows are granted substantial academic freedom to develop their own research agendas while bridging multiple disciplines and working closely with at least two EPFL research laboratories.

Designation

• Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow / EPFL AI Center Fellow
• Employment Type: Full-time (Fixed-term fellowship)

Overview Table

Research Area

The programme spans foundational and applied Artificial Intelligence, including but not limited to:

• Machine Learning Fundamentals: Statistical learning, optimization theory, deep learning architectures, reinforcement learning.
• Trustworthy & Ethical AI: Explainability, algorithmic fairness, privacy-preserving AI, safety and alignment of large language models (LLMs).
• Generative AI & Multimodal Systems: Large language models, vision-language integration, audio and speech synthesis.
• AI for Science & Engineering: AI for healthcare and computational biology, materials discovery, physics-informed neural networks.
• Perception & Embodied AI: Computer vision, autonomous systems, robotics, sensor networks, and environmental monitoring.

Location

• Campus: EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Route Cantonale, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

Eligibility & Qualifications

• Educational Background: Hold a PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Electrical Engineering, Computational Biology, Physics, or a closely related quantitative field.
• Career Stage: Candidates must have obtained their doctoral degree within the past 2 years prior to the application deadline, or be in the final year of their PhD studies (with defense scheduled before the fellowship begins).
• Co-Hosting Requirement: Applicants must secure the written support/endorsement of at least two EPFL professors/principal investigators affiliated with the EPFL AI Center representing distinct laboratories.
• Excellence Track Record: Strong publication record in top-tier conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, ACL, etc.) or high-impact journals.
• International Candidates: Open to candidates worldwide with no nationality or citizenship restrictions.

Job Description & Responsibilities

• Independent Research: Formulate and lead an ambitious, high-impact research project at the intersection of disciplines represented by the co-hosting laboratories.
• Cross-Lab Collaboration: Foster synergy between host groups, leveraging shared computational infrastructure (e.g., Swiss AI Initiative / CSCS supercomputing clusters).
• Community Engagement: Actively participate in and contribute to EPFL AI Center activities, including seminars, workshops, the Applied Machine Learning Days (AMLD), and hackathons.
• Dissemination: Publish research findings in premier academic venues and present results at international conferences.

How to Apply

1. Identify Hosts: Browse faculty and laboratories affiliated with the EPFL AI Center and contact two potential faculty co-hosts to discuss your research proposal and secure their endorsement.
2. Prepare the Application Dossier:
   • Curriculum Vitae (CV): Including a full list of publications.
   • Research Proposal: Description of the proposed interdisciplinary research project (including methodology, milestones, and synergy between the host labs).
   • Host Endorsement Letters: Confirmation of co-hosting and resource commitment from the two EPFL professors.
   • Reference Letters: Contact details of 2–3 academic references.
   • PhD Diploma or Proof of Anticipated Graduation Date.
3. Submit Online: Complete and submit your dossier via the EPFL Research Funding Application Portal.

Last Date for Apply

• Application Deadline: November 3rd, 2025 / 17:00 CET

Link