Our offer

Ghent University is an international top 100 university in Belgium situated in the historical city of Ghent. With 41,000 students and 9,000 staff, the university is one of the largest universities in the wide region. Ghent University’s mission is to combine high-quality education with internationally leading research and a pluralistic social responsibility. You will join the AIRO group, a group of 25 PhD students exploring the edges of AI and robotics, supervised by Tony Belpaeme, Francis wyffels and Joni Dambre.

The AIRO group (Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, airo.ugent.be) of IDLab-imec (idlab.technology) at Ghent University offers a four-year PhD scholarship to support our research on social robotics.

Job description

Social robots interact with people in a natural manner by, for example, using speech, gestures, facial expressions and language. By using natural communication, these robots are easier to interact with and have many applications in entertainment, services, education, collaborative robotics and therapy [1]. You will join the project team to work on the technical aspects of social robots, including LLM, VLM and embodied AI, with specific applications to collaborative interaction with people.

You will be supervised by Prof. Tony Belpaeme and will be part of a vibrant and interdisciplinary research team, focusing on human-robot interaction, unconventional robotics, cognitive systems and machine learning. You will have access to the full facilities of IDLab, including high-performance computing/GPU clusters and the robot labs.

Additional reading

[1] https://www.human-robot-interaction.org/

Profile of the candidate

  • You hold a Master’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, (technical) cognitive science, Human-Computer Interaction or areas relevant to the research topic (for example, computational linguistics with a keen interest in robotics and AI).
  • Good programming skills are essential (Python, C++ or other) as you will be programming robots and state-of-the-art AI systems. We also require good analytical skills, as we expect you to be both a scientist and an engineer.
  • Good to excellent English language skills (spoken as well as written).
  • As the PhD position is highly interdisciplinary, an interest in cognitive science, psychology or other themes related to social robotics and AI is commendable.

Further details

The position start date can be negotiated, but is tentatively set for 1/10/2025 and runs until 30/9/2029 (you will start with a one-year scholarship which can be extended to 4 years).

You will be affiliated with the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (AIRO) group of the IDLab. While the research will be based in Ghent (Belgium), occasional travel to international partners or conferences will be required.

You will be enrolled in the doctoral training programme offered by the Doctoral School of Engineering.

Ghent University and AIRO lab encourage equal opportunities. We will consider applications based only on your potential as an early career researcher and your fit to the research programme.

How to apply

For informal queries, do not hesitate to contact Tony Belpaeme (tony.belpaeme@ugent.be).

Your application should include

  • A letter motivating your application. Why do you wish to pursue a PhD in this area? How does your expertise match the research? What is your -if any- prior experience?
  • A full curriculum vitae, please include links to any theses or publications (if any). If appropriate, copies of relevant degrees or grades.
  • The names and contact details of at least 2 referees. Recommendation letters can be included with your application, but are not needed at the time of application. Applicants should send their application to tony.belpaeme@ugent.be with the subject “PhD application social robotics and AI 2025”. Applications will be considered on an ongoing basis; the application deadline is 31 August 2025. Selected candidates will be invited for an interview, which can be online if necessary.