WASP Industrial Postdoc Positions 2024

Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) is Sweden’s largest individual research program ever, a major national initiative for strategically motivated basic research, education and faculty recruitment. The program addresses research on artificial intelligence and autonomous systems acting in collaboration with humans, adapting to the environment through sensors, information and knowledge, and forming intelligent systems- of-systems. The vision of WASP is excellent research and competence in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and software for the benefit of Swedish industry.

An industrial postdoc is a person with a PhD who conduct industrially motivated research in the context of a collaboration between a company and a university research group. The industrial postdoc is 100% employed by the company. The industrial postdoc instrument is primarily aimed at recently graduated PhDs who are considering a career as an industry researcher or at PhDs who are already employed at a company and engaged in research tasks.

Open Industrial Postdoc Positions

We are now offering up to 5 industrial postdoc positions within AI, Autonomous systems and Software at the 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. It is required that the industrial partner has research activities situated in Sweden.

The duration of an industrial postdoc project is two years. In the selection priority is given to mobility. Applicants for which the hosting university research group is different from the research group where they conducted PhD studies or, if applicable, their university Postdoc are preferred. The application should be submitted by the hosting company jointly with a university partner. The industrial postdoc candidate should be identified, and all three parties should sign the application. There should be one designated supervisor at the company and one at the university.

The projects are expected to address fundamental research problems with industrial relevance within any of WASP’s research areas. The industrial postdoc should share time between the company and the university but be fully engaged in research activities at both sites. The aim is a balanced 50-50 split between the company and the university unless the project can motivate another division of time. However, at least At least 50% of the time should be spent at university and at least 20% of the time should be spent at the company. The total grant over two years is 2.2 Mkr, where 300 000 kr is dedicated to the university host for operational costs and 1.9 Mkr is dedicated to the company for partial funding of salary and other related costs. For SMEs an additional amount is granted and the total grant over two years is 2.7 Mkr, where 300 000 kr is dedicated to the university host for operation costs and 2.4 Mkr is dedicated to the SME for partial funding of salary and other related costs.

For work permit and residence reasons it may be necessary for applicant to submit the application prior to obtaining the PhD. In such cases, a statement from the PhD advisor regarding planned date for defense should be provided.

The evaluation criteria for the call includes:

• The academic qualifications of the industrial postdoc candidate*
• The industrial relevance and impact of the project
• The scientific quality of the project
• Potential to collaborate with other WASP initiatives such as WARA
• The industrial relevance of the project
• The scientific level of the project
• The industrial and academic qualifications of the industrial and the academic supervisors as well as their potential to support the candidate and the project
• Mobility, i.e., to what extent the candidate has changed research group between the most recent university appointment and the planned industrial postdoc

*The industrial postdoc candidate must have a PhD degree before starting the industrial postdoc position.

Application process

The application should be written using a provided application template and submitted jointly by the industry and university partners. The form together with requested CVs as stated in the form, should be submitted to WASP application portal no later than 2024-10-01 at 14:00.

Once you have logged in, you will be asked to select the track relevant for your submission. Select WASP Industrial Postdoc 2024.

Please note, all parts of the application must be submitted as a single pdf file.

Application template WASP Industrial Postdoc

Information and guidance

There was an information webinar about the call on May 27.

Rules for WASP Industrial Postdoctoral positions:

The following applies to the industrial postdoctoral project:

• An industrial postdoctoral project must comprise of at least 80% of a full-time position
• At least 50% of a full-time position must be performed at the university
•  The research must be at a scientific level that it can be published in a scientific journal or at a scientific conference. This holds for the entire industrial postdoc project, i.e. also the part that is performed at the company. In this context, a patent application does not count as a scientific publication. However, it is permitted to delay publication to first patent the results.

The following applies to the company:

• The company must be of such a size that there is a suitable environment for the industrial postdoc, i.e. should have at least two-three full-time employees.
• There must be at least one academically competent supervisor/mentor at the company working with research or research-related areas.

The following applies to the industrial supervisor/mentor:

• The industrial supervisor/mentor should have the required academic competence.
• The industrial supervisor/mentor cannot be the same person as the academic supervisor/mentor.
• The industrial supervisor/mentor should not have been the postdoc candidate’s supervisor during his/her PhD studies.

The following applies for the academic supervisor/mentor:
• The academic supervisor/mentor can be involved in the company, but not as the CEO of the company.
• The academic supervisor/mentor can be a partner in the company, but not the main owner.

The following applies for the industrial postdoctoral fellow:

• The industrial postdoctoral fellow can be involved in the company, but not as the CEO of the company.
• The industrial postdoctoral fellow can be a partner in the company, but not the main owner.

For further information please contact:

Timetable