Postdoc Position: Explainable AI for Cultural Heritage

1. Introduction

Do you want to explore how Explainable AI can support cultural heritage institutes and ensure that AI innovations can make a meaningful societal impact? If so, we invite you to apply for this Postdoctoral Researcher position.

2. Job description

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will conduct research focused on questions that are related to the mission of the National Library of the Netherlands. You will also contribute to the supervision of a PhD candidate working on XAI and metadata creation, including both image and text analysis. You will organise benchmarks that assess AI technologies, particularly in the domain of newspapers, both current and historic. Further, you will contribute to joint initiatives with other project partners, which aim to improve the explainability of AI approaches and connect the development of AI technology to the needs of the cultural heritage sector and society as a whole. 

The postdoc project is part of the larger HAICu project, a Netherlands-wide initiative on AI and cultural heritage. In the HAICu project, AI researchers, Digital Humanities researchers, heritage professionals, journalists and engaged citizens collaborate to realise scientific breakthroughs in accessibility and contextualisation of massive multimodal digital heritage collections. The challenges of these collections offer a unique opportunity to take AI to the next level. Future AI technologies should be applicable outside laboratories and be able to learn from sparse examples, at the same time learning continuously from users. The technology of HAICu pays attention to present-day societal demands with respect to responsible and explainable approaches to multimodal narratives based on the Netherlands’ rich cultural heritage collections.

The postdoctoral project will focus on developing Explainable AI (XAI) technologies tailored to the CH domain, and in particular on the collections at the National Library. The XAI techniques will not only enhance understanding of AI-driven decisions but also support informed decision-making by explicitly expressing the limitations and uncertainties inherent in automated analysis. Ultimately, this work will contribute to more responsible and context-aware applications of AI in preserving and interpreting cultural heritage.

3. Profile

• You hold A PhD degree in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science or Information Science, Language and Speech Technology or a closely related field.
• You have extensive experience solving problems with AI, including explainable AI.
• You have a background in working with cultural heritage collections, including books, newspapers, films and other historical documents.
• You have established a professional network, including cultural heritage institutions.
• You have a proven ability to conduct independent academic research.
• You have demonstrated experience in organising academic or professional events, such as benchmarks. 
• You have experience in supervising PhD candidates.
• You have solid programming and software engineering skills.
• You have an excellent command of written and spoken English.
• You have a healthy dose of creativity and are able to operate well in interdisciplinary teams. 

4. We are

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will be affiliated with the Data Science Group of the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) at Radboud University's Faculty of Science at Radboud University. The Data Science Group comprises around 50 researchers with expertise in machine learning, information retrieval and other specialisations that are important in working with data. The group is involved in a large number of projects, from medical to industrial, including projects that are developing new techniques in machine learning and work with large language models. You will collaborate closely with researchers at the Centre for Language Studies at the Faculty of Arts, who have expertise in the area of cultural heritage data and language technology. 

5. We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract of 1 year.
• Your salary within salary scale 10 depends on your previous education and number of years of (relevant) work experience. The amounts in the scale are based on a 38-hour working week.
• You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8,3% end-of-year bonus. 
• There may be an opportunity for Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. 
• 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 Martha Larson. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application. We look forward to receiving your application.

The first interviews will take place on 21 or 22 January. You will preferably start your employment on 1 March 2026.

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