About FARI

FARI is an independent, not-for-profit Artificial Intelligence initiative led by two universities in Brussels: the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). This initiative will aim at helping citizens, politicians and companies as well as not-for-profit organizations to address local, every day or long-term challenges in the Brussels-Capital Region, FARI is an independent, not-for-profit Artificial Intelligence initiative led by two universities in Brussels: the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). This initiative will aim at helping citizens, politicians and companies as well as not-for-profit organizations to address local, every day or long-term challenges in the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium and Europe. It brings world-leading and future researchers to the service of the city. It reinforces a virtuous circle: the city encounters problems that FARI can help address with projects that in their turn could lead to major scientific advances, especially in the field of AI (Explainable and Trustworthy), Data (Open) and Robotics (human-centric).

About the role

The research group Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS) is inviting applications for a 2-year postdoctoral researcher. As such you will:

• conduct legal research on the development, provision and deployment of AI systems in close collaboration with developers and researchers of AI systems
• the research will be conducted in the context of the FARI initiative, where ten research groups of VUB and ULB collaborate to advance AI for the Common Good;
• have an excellent track record in the relevant legal domains, notably EU data protection law, EU fundamental rights and the legislative proposals of the EU digital strategy
• work as a liaison person between LSTS and the other FARI research groups, and between LSTS and FARI management
• have a key role as coordinator of FARI research within LSTS;
• contribute to obtaining external research funding for FARI collaborations, for instance by filtering of relevant calls and keeping an archive with relevant LSTS expertise, prior funding, key partners and funding agencies.

We seek candidates with the ability to work together with AI developers and computer scientists, developing a grounded ‘legal protection by design’ approach, rooted in in-depth knowledge of the relevant legal domains, notably that of fundamental rights, the case law of European Court of Human Rights and the EU Court of Justice, and a proper understanding of ‘by design approaches’ to legal protection.

As FARI aims to have local impact, conducting AI research that has a positive impact in local communities, fluency in French and/or Dutch will be a major advantage.

Requirements

• a PhD in law with a focus on AI and law, and a keen interest in the protection of EU fundamental rights;
• affinity with strategic litigation and/or by design approaches;
• experience as to the coordination of fundamental and/or applied research projects;
• strong skills as to coordination, communication and collaboration;
• ambition and ability to help develop an LSTS-FARI research agenda, which assumes fluency in French and/or Dutch or the willingness to invest in learning at least one of them;
• acuity as to supporting both junior and senior researchers with research-related management tasks

Start date

December 2022 or January 2023

The appointment is for 1 year, and can be extended for another year.

Deadline of application

1 November 2022

In case of questions, please connect with mireille.hildebrandt@vub.be.

*Please include your LinkedIn profile in your cover letter