PhD Position: Multimodal Signalling and Processing in Face-to-face Communication at the Donders Centre for Cognition

1. Introduction

How do we communicate our intentions to one another in conversational face-to-face interaction? What role do visual bodily signals play in this process, and how do they interact with linguistic and prosodic structures? The Donders Centre for Cognition (PI group of Dr. J. Holler) is looking for a PhD candidate on a new collaborative project that seeks answers to these exciting questions.

2. Job description

You will work on a collaborative project using corpus analyses to investigate how participants in conversational interaction make their intentions clear through visual signals (using the face, head, gaze and/or hands) in conjunction with linguistic structures and prosody. The project also investigates how the contribution of visual signals, words and prosody are processed during comprehension (using experimental behavioural and EEG paradigms, including interactive settings). You will be involved in both the corpus and the experimental work.

You will be based in Nijmegen, where you will join the Communication in Social Interaction group headed by Dr Judith Holler (www.cosilab.nl), but you will form part of a larger team involving members with different expertise, partly located at different universities (Dr Kendrick, York University (UK); Prof. Grice, Cologne University (Germany); Prof. Swerts/Dr Peeters, Tilburg University (NL); Dr Linda Drijvers, Radboud University). You will be expected to travel to these locations for workshops, research visits and training. 

In addition to writing your thesis, you will disseminate the project findings through scientific journal articles, presentations at conferences, group and project meetings, as well as through public engagement events and writing for non-academic audiences. You will spend about 10% of your time (0.1 FTE) assisting with teaching at our department.

3. Profile

• You should have a Master's degree in a relevant discipline, such as linguistics, psycholinguistics or cognitive science.
• You have a keen interest in, and knowledge of, multimodal language, including visual and linguistic conversational behaviour, and/or prosody, ideally in connection with intention/social action communication. Direct research experience in these domains is an advantage, as is a combination of those skills and experiences.
• You have experimental experience and excellent statistical skills.
• You have strong communication skills in English.
• You enjoy communicating and collaborating in a team.
• You are able to work under guidance but also independently when needed.
• You have excellent time management and organisational skills.
• Proficiency in Dutch is a clear advantage.

4. We are

The Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour is a world-class interfaculty research centre that houses more than 700 researchers devoted to understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of the human mind. Research at the Donders Institute is focused around four themes: 1. Language and communication, 2. Perception, action and control, 3. Plasticity and memory, 4. Neural computation and neurotechnology. Excellent, state-of-the-art research facilities are available for the broad range of neuroscience research that is being conducted at the Donders Institute. The Donders Institute has been assessed by an international evaluation committee as ‘excellent’ and recognised as a ‘very stimulating environment for top researchers, as well as for young talent’. The Donders Institute fosters a collaborative, multidisciplinary and supportive research environment with a diverse international staff. English is the lingua franca at the Institute.

5. We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract (1.0 FTE) of 1,5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract).     
• You will receive a starting salary of €2,872 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,670 in the fourth year (salary scale P).
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus. 
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Support Service. The Dual Career Programme assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. Our Family Support Service helps you and your partner feel welcome and at home by providing customised assistance in navigating local facilities, schools, and amenities. Also take a look at our support for international staff page to discover all our services for international employees.
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20. 

6. Practical information and applying

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Dr Judith Holler. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application.

The first interviews will take place on Monday 27 January. You will preferably start your employment on 1 September 2025.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.