Call for WASP Academic Doctoral Student Projects

Application deadline: January 31, 2025, 14:00

Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) is Sweden’s largest individual research program, and provides a platform for academic research and education, fostering interaction with Sweden’s leading companies. The program addresses research in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software as enabling technologies for development of systems acting in collaboration with humans, adapting to their environment through sensors, information and knowledge, and forming intelligent systems of systems. WASP strengthens, expands, and renews the national competence through new strategic recruitments, a challenging research program, a national graduate school, and collaboration with industry. The program is conducted in close cooperation between leading Swedish universities with an aim to promote the competence of Sweden as a nation within the area of AI, autonomous systems and software.

Who can apply

WASP is now offering funding for up to 15 academic doctoral student projects. The call is open for WASPs five partner universities Chalmers, KTH, Linköping University, Lund University and Umeå University as well as at the Affiliated Groups of Excellence at Örebro University, Uppsala University and Luleå University of Technology.

Proposals in all areas of WASP are welcome. The proposals are for single PhD students. Each researcher may participate in at most one proposal as main supervisor and one proposal as co- supervisor. The proposals are evaluated individually.

Main applicants, i.e. main supervisors, who were approved funding from WASP in the “Call for WASP Academic Doctoral Student Positions” or the “Call for Doctoral Student Positions connected to WASP Research Arenas” in 2023 or 2024 are not eligible to apply in this call, neither as a main applicant nor as a co-applicant.

WASP has an ambition to have a wide coverage of PhD student projects established as well as emerging areas within the WASP domain, and with supervisors at different stages of academic seniority. Improving gender balance is also a pronounced goal for WASP. In view of this we encourage junior researchers and researchers of underrepresented genders to submit proposals in response to this call.

The WASP Graduate School

The WASP Graduate School provides the skills needed to analyze, develop, and contribute to the interdisciplinary area of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and software. Through an ambitious program with research visits, partner universities, and visiting lecturers, the graduate school actively supports forming a strong multi-disciplinary and international professional network between PhD-students, researchers, and industry. The graduate school adds value on top of the existing PhD programs at the partner universities, providing unique opportunities for students who are dedicated to achieving international research excellence with industrial relevance. Further information about WASP Graduate School is found here.

Commitment from PhD student

• The PhD student is committed to take part in the WASP courses (a mix of mandatory and elective courses corresponding to 27hp or more) and activities.
• To be part of WASP includes traveling to on-site courses at other universities as well as to different events and study trips organized by WASP.
• A commitment to participate and contribute to the WASP research arenas is seen as very positive.

Evaluation Process

In the evaluation process project proposals are evaluated, and a decision is made about which of the project proposals that may proceed and identify PhD student candidates. Approved projects will have the opportunity to recruit an additional PhD student of underrepresented gender to the project. The process for how the recruitment of an additional PhD student should be done will be communicated in conjunction with the decision. Identifying PhD candidates should be done before a specified deadline.  If a project has not found acceptable candidates by the deadline, then the project will be canceled.

The evaluation criteria that will be used for evaluating the project proposals are:

• Scientific quality of the proposal
• Novelty and Originality
• Scientific merits of the applicants
• Relevance to WASP

Important aspects that will be considered are:

• Diversity of the applicants, for example age and gender
• Overall quality of the proposal

Structure of the call

The call is divided into three separate tracks:

1. AI (MLX and Mathematical Foundation for AI)
2. AS (autonomous systems)
3. SW (software)

Cyber Security can be included in all tracks.

It is important that you choose the relevant track for your application in the EasyChair application system. If it is appropriate, WASP can move an application to a different track than indicated.

The proposal should be structured as follows:

The proposal must be composed in Times New Roman font, 11 pt, single-spaced text, margin 2,5 cm.

• Project Summary (max ½ page)
• Project Description (max 4 pages excluding references).
  • State the main track
  • Motivation, Significance and Scientific Challenges
    • Include a clear description of the visions and goals, the distinguishing features and foci.
  • State of the Art
  • Scientific Approach
    • Describe the research contribution.
  • Methodology
  • Preliminary and Previous Results
    • Include results from previous WASP projects if applicable.
• Maximum one additional page containing:
  • Relevance to WASP
• CV of the main supervisor and co-supervisor, max 2 pages each:
  • Name, title and affiliation
  • PhD year
  • List of ongoing projects
  • List of current PhD students and postdocs
  • List of 10 publications including:
    • 5 most important publications (from the last 15 years)
    • 5 recent for the project relevant publications (from the last 5 years)
  • Link to Google Scholar profile
• Confirmation that you have not been approved funding as main applicant in the “Call for WASP Academic Doctoral Student Positions” or the “Call for Doctoral Student Positions connected to WASP Research Arenas” in 2023 or 2024.

Submission

The proposal should be submitted as a single PDF file to EasyChair no later than January 31st, 14:00.

Timeline