CS PhD Roundup — July 6, 2026

Active openings at a glance

New or newly qualified openings

University of Amsterdam: PhD in mechanism-informed world models

• Position: The University of Amsterdam is recruiting a four-year PhD candidate in mechanism-informed world models and agents in the Faculty of Science's Informatics Institute, with the position posted June 30, 2026 and a deadline of August 20, 2026. 4
• Research match: The project asks how world models can identify latent actions, causal mechanisms, and temporal structure rather than only predict the next frame; the listed application areas include robotic learning and manipulation, embodied agents, and biomedical dynamics. 4
• Advisor and lab signal: Stratis Gavves has recent top-venue coverage in DBLP, including CVPR 2025, ICLR 2025, ICML 2025, and ICCV 2025 records. 14
• Logistics: The role starts with an initial 18-month contract that can be extended after evaluation, and the listed salary range is EUR 3,059 per month in year one to EUR 3,881 per month in year four, plus 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end allowance. 4
• Application route: Apply through the UvA vacancy page. 4
• Lab and culture notes: The listing ties the lab to VISLab, QUVA 2.0 with Qualcomm, POP-AART with Elekta and the Netherlands Cancer Institute, AIRIS, and the ELLIS network; applicants looking for industry or clinical collaboration should read the project fit closely. 4

University of Amsterdam: postdoc in physics-informed world models

• Position: The University of Amsterdam is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher in physics-informed world models and agents, posted July 4, 2026 with the same August 20, 2026 deadline. 5
• Research match: The postdoc focuses on physically grounded world models that remain reliable under partial observation, speed up complex regimes, and transfer knowledge across embodiments, scenes, and scientific domains. 5
• Advisor and lab signal: This role shares the Gavves lab signal above, with recent DBLP records across CVPR, ICLR, ICML, and ICCV. 14
• Logistics: The contract is listed as 21 months with a two-month probation period and possible extension, and the salary range is EUR 3,546 to EUR 5,538 per month on scale 10, plus 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end allowance. 5
• Application route: Apply through the UvA postdoc vacancy page. 5
• Lab and culture notes: The responsibilities include leading publications at CVPR, ICLR, ICML, NeurIPS, and ECCV, co-supervising PhD and MSc students, and helping with proposals and collaborations with industry and clinical partners. 5

Inria Paris: PhD on metalinguistic abilities of LLMs

• Position: Inria Paris is recruiting a three-year PhD candidate in the ALMANaCH project team on the metalinguistic abilities of large language models; the deadline is July 30, 2026 and the expected start date is October 1, 2026. 3
• Research match: The project studies whether LLMs can treat language itself as an object of analysis, with axes on measuring metalinguistic knowledge, learning from grammars and dictionaries in context, and training or fine-tuning metalinguistic reasoning. 3
• Advisor and lab signal: Benoit Sagot has a recent ICLR 2024 record in DBLP, and Rachel Bawden has recent ACL 2025 and EMNLP 2025 records. 15 16
• Logistics: The listing gives a gross salary of EUR 2,300 per month and identifies the role as part of the PR[AI]RIE-PSAI 2026 PhD call. 3
• Application route: Apply through Inria offer 2026-10228. 3
• Lab and culture notes: The listing is a focused language-and-cognition project in an NLP group; it does not publish separate mentorship or lab-culture notes beyond the project and team context. 3

Integreat Norway: 8 PhD fellowships in knowledge-driven ML

• Position: Integreat, the Norwegian Centre for Knowledge-driven Machine Learning, is recruiting eight PhD fellows across the University of Oslo and UiT The Arctic University of Norway, with an August 9, 2026 deadline and an online information session on July 22, 2026 from 19:00 to 20:00 CEST. 6
• Research match: The project index spans Bayesian inference and foundation models, logic and learning, LLM data attribution, VLM bias, machine reasoning, multi-agent knowledge bases, probabilistic representation learning, and structured VLMs. 7
• Advisor and lab signal: Project 7 is supervised by Michael Kampffmeyer and centers on probabilistic representation learning; his DBLP record includes CVPR 2025, ICLR 2025, ICML 2025, and NeurIPS 2022 entries. 17 18 Project 8 is supervised by Adin Ramirez Rivera and centers on structured VLMs for panoptic scene graphs; his DBLP record includes NeurIPS 2025, ICML 2025, and ICML 2024 entries. 19 20
• Logistics: The fellowships are fully funded PhD positions, most projects are three years with some four-year teaching-included variants, and the working language is English. 6
• Application route: Use the MathHire listing and Integreat's project index to map project choice before applying. 6 7
• Lab and culture notes: The call explicitly frames the environment as interdisciplinary and collaborative, and four of the eight fellowships are co-funded with TRUST. 6

CISPA: caveated PhD and postdoc lead in efficient deep learning

• Position: A public PhDScanner lead lists PhD and postdoc positions in efficient deep learning in Rebekka Burkholz's CISPA group, but the public listing does not disclose a deadline, application route, or full requirement set. 8
• Research match: The lead points to efficient deep learning, including sparse training, model compression, pruning, and deep-learning theory. 8
• Advisor and lab signal: Rebekka Burkholz's DBLP record includes recent ICLR 2025, ICML 2025, and NeurIPS 2025 entries. 21
• Logistics: Deadline, start date, salary, and required materials are not disclosed in the public listing. 8
• Application route: Treat this as a verification target before applying; the public listing does not provide a direct application link or contact. 8
• Lab and culture notes: No lab-culture or mentorship details are available in the public listing. 8

University of Twente: PhD in compositionality for computer vision

• Position: The University of Twente is recruiting a four-year PhD student in the Data Management and Biometrics group on compositionality for computer vision; the AcademicPositions page says applications should be sent before July 21, 2026, while the listing metadata presents July 20 as the application deadline, so applicants should use the posting's application page as the controlling deadline. 9
• Research match: The project focuses on compositional learning for computer vision. 9
• Advisor and lab signal: Nicola Strisciuglio clears the minimum venue filter through a CVPR 2023 publication in DBLP, but the same record does not show NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, or ACL entries. 22
• Logistics: The application page asks for a CV of up to two A4 pages, a one-page cover letter, and contact details for two academic references if applicable. 9
• Application route: Apply via the AcademicPositions page, which forwards applicants to the employer's process. 9
• Lab and culture notes: The listing gives a direct research-topic fit and application package, but it does not include separate lab-culture or mentorship statements. 9

Continuing openings still worth triaging

Inria Paris WILLOW: PhD in structured ego-world models

• Position: Inria Paris is still listing a three-year PhD position in the WILLOW team under Cordelia Schmid, with a July 17, 2026 deadline and September 1, 2026 start date. 1
• Research match: The project covers 3D/4D geometric modeling, factorized ego-world models, and cross-embodiment adaptation for dexterous robot learning. 1
• Advisor and lab signal: The role remains in this roundup as a qualified carry-forward listing; the Inria page still shows active status and the July 17 deadline. 1
• Logistics: The listing states that ZRR clearance is required and asks for a master's degree, programming ability, and fluent English. 1
• Application route: Apply through Inria offer 2026-10180. 1
• Lab and culture notes: No separate lab-culture notes are published in the public listing. 1

ETH Zurich: postdoc in multimodal reasoning models for oncology

• Position: ETH Zurich's Medical AI Lab is still recruiting a postdoctoral researcher in multimodal reasoning models for oncology, with applications planned through July 19, 2026 and an option for ETH to extend the window. 2
• Research match: The work combines language, vision, biomedical knowledge, and clinical context, with emphasis on tool-augmented inference, multi-agent or compound workflows, process supervision, and reinforcement-learning-based post-training. 2
• Advisor and lab signal: The position is a carry-forward qualified listing under Michael Moor's Medical AI Lab; the ETH page still shows active status and the July 19 collection window. 2
• Logistics: The listing asks for a PhD in computer science, machine learning, medical AI, biomedical informatics, computational biology, or a related field, plus Python and modern ML-framework experience. 2
• Application route: Apply through the ETH jobs portal. 2
• Lab and culture notes: The posting references collaboration with Kaiko.ai and clinical partners, plus access to the Alps cluster through the SwissAI project. 2

University of Southern Denmark: postdoc in neuromorphic reinforcement learning

• Position: The University of Southern Denmark is still recruiting a two-year postdoc in Melih Kandemir's ADIN Lab, and the deadline has moved from July 31 to August 31, 2026. 10
• Research match: The work combines deep reinforcement learning, probabilistic modeling, and spiking neural networks for adaptive control in non-stationary environments, with applications to adaptive robotics and embodied AI. 10
• Advisor and lab signal: The listing itself sets a high publication bar, asking for at least two first-author papers at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, or AISTATS. 10
• Logistics: The earliest start date is October 1, 2026, and the contract duration is two years. 10
• Application route: Apply through the SDU recruitment portal. 10
• Lab and culture notes: The listing does not publish separate lab-culture notes beyond research scope, requirements, and project framing. 10

EPFL AIMM Lab: 2 postdocs in biological foundation models

• Position: EPFL's AIMM Lab under Charlotte Bunne is still recruiting two 100% postdocs in biological foundation models, with rolling review and a preferred fall 2026 start. 11
• Research match: The roles cover foundation-model architectures, large-scale pretraining, multimodal biological representation learning, agentic reasoning systems, and drug-discovery translation. 11
• Advisor and lab signal: The EPFL career posting confirms the active role and lab identity; no separate DBLP record is included here for Bunne. 11
• Logistics: The posting asks for a CV, a one-page research-interest statement, and contact details for two references. 11
• Application route: Apply through the EPFL careers posting. 11
• Lab and culture notes: The posting mentions CSCS and Swiss AI Initiative compute resources, as well as pharmaceutical industry partners. 11

ISTA Lampert group: postdoc in machine learning

• Position: Christoph Lampert's ISTA group is still listing a postdoc in machine learning on a rolling basis, with the page last updated in June 2026. 12
• Research match: The page lists trustworthy ML, privacy, fairness, robustness, federated learning, LLM safety, transfer learning, continual learning, meta learning, and the interface between symbolic AI and statistical ML. 12
• Advisor and lab signal: The role asks for a strong research record documented by first-tier conference publications at NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR, or journals such as JMLR, TPAMI, and ML. 12
• Logistics: Contracts are listed as one to two years, renewable, and 100% research with no teaching or administrative obligations. 12 The separate ISTA-Fellow postdoctoral program has a September 8, 2026 deadline and a minimum annual salary of EUR 73,500. 23
• Application route: Send a single PDF with CV, research statement, publication list, transcripts, and three referee contacts to chl@ist.ac.at, as stated on the group page. 12
• Lab and culture notes: The posting explicitly states advanced computing resources, equipment, and conference travel funding. 12

ISTA Locatello group: PhD and postdoc positions in causal learning

• Position: Francesco Locatello's ISTA group still lists multiple PhD student and postdoc positions on a rolling basis. 13
• Research match: The group works on causal representation learning, causal discovery, dynamical systems, visual reasoning, and AI for science. 13
• Advisor and lab signal: The DBLP record lists 196 Locatello publications and recent coverage across NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, and CVPR from 2022 to 2025. 24
• Logistics: The group page does not list a fixed deadline or separate requirement checklist for each track. 13
• Application route: PhD applicants should use ISTA's PhD application route, while postdoc applicants should contact Francesco Locatello at Francesco.Locatello@ista.ac.at. 13
• Lab and culture notes: The current group page lists a roughly 12-person team, including postdocs and PhD-level researchers, which is useful for applicants comparing group size. 13

Closed or no longer active

• University of Bonn / MEO Lab: The MEO Lab job page now says there are currently no open positions, and Marc Russwurm is on parental leave through September 2026; the previously tracked Bonn PhD opening should be removed from active triage. 25
• University of Copenhagen / CopeNLU: The CopeNLU PhD and postdoc round tied to Isabelle Augenstein and Pepa Atanasova closed on May 31, 2026, and the University of Copenhagen employment portal no longer lists the earlier job number. 26 27