PhD fellowship
Objectives:
The goal of ESR13’s project is to produce a naturally sounding synthesis voice with appropriately rendered turn-takes, filled pauses, and backchannels in a conversational, expressive speaking style. ESR13 will collect acoustic data from human-human dialogues, extract cues relevant to turn-taking, and train an adaptive model to go from standard news-reading style TTS to conversational dialogue TTS. The ultime objective will be to develop a working platform for synthesizing dialogues (using parametric synthesis technology) that can serve as a testing ground for evaluating hypotheses and models of interaction within COBRA.
Expected results:
- Fully operational high quality synthesis platform for scripted dialogues;
- Understanding of signal parameters in terms of dialogue rather than individual participants.
Based in Huis ter Heide, the Netherlands
Full-time three-year contract, starting September 2020
PhD enrolment at: University of Helsinki, Finland
Main supervisors’ institutions: ReadSpeaker, Huis ter Heide, the Netherlands, and the University of Helsinki, Finland
Main supervisors: Dr Esther Klabbers and Prof Juraj Šimko
Secondments:
- University of Helsinki: to analyse prosodic cues and learn the continuous wavelet transform methodology for analysis and representation of prosody (5,5 months);
- IISAS, Bratislava: training on turn-taking behaviour (5 months).
Co-supervisor’s institution:
- IISAS, Bratislava, Slovakia
Benefits
The ESR will be contractually employed for 36 months by the main institution, and will be covered under the social security scheme of the enrolling country. She/he will monthly receive a Living Allowance, a Mobility Allowance and a Family Allowance (if applicable) compliant with the applicable EC Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-ITN general conditions.
Note that the Mobility Allowance is intended to cover the costs associated with the fact that the ESR has moved to another country in order to take her/his position, and is for her/his private use only.
The net salary for ESR13 will be about €2.300-2.700 according to her/his situation.
In addition, funds administered by the host institution will be available to cover the ESR’s participation in the project. This includes:
. Visa and residency card (if needed)
. Registration fees requested by the university in which the ESR will enroll as a PhD student
. Consumable and supplies costs involved in the ESR’s research
. Travel and accommodation expenses associated with the ESR’s stays in places of secondment
. Travel and accommodation expenses associated with the ESR’s participation in the seven COBRA training events
. Registration, travel and accommodation expenses associated with the ESR’s participation in conferences
. Publication fees
Eligibility criteria:
Experience eligibility requirement: Eligible applicants must be in the first 4 years of their research careers (full-time equivalent research experience) at the signature of the contract (measured from the time the Master’s degree has been obtained).
Eligible applicants must not hold a Doctoral Degree yet.
Mobility eligibility requirement
The fellow must not have resided in the main institution’s country for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the recruitment date, and not have carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in that country.
Selection process
February 2020: Opening of the call
Applications must contain the following:
- An up-to-date CV, without gaps, in order for the selection committee to easily check the mobility and experience requirements. CVs that either do not clearly show the applicant’s past experience, or have gaps, will be considered ineligible;
- A letter exposing her/his motivation for a COBRA PhD fellowship, and her preference for two of the fifteen PhD projects proposed in COBRA;
- At least 1 reference letter (in English) from one former supervisor and/or professor;
- The scan of the degree (usually the master’s degree) which would formally entitles her/him to embark on a doctorate, either in the country in which the degree was obtained, or in the country in which the researcher will be recruited. If the degree has not been obtained yet, the applicant will have to provide a declaration of her/his university stating that the degree will be obtained before the expected starting date;
- Transcripts of records (document indicating the applicant’s ranking and/or marks within her/his master’s degree as well as the courses/modules she/he has followed).
The complete application should be provided in the form of one single pdf file, named as follows: lastname-firstname.pdf.
The extended deadline for the submission of applications is 15 April 2020, 5 pm GMT.
Admission timeline
- April 2020: Selection & ranking of pre-selected candidates
- May 2020: Pre-selected candidates’ interviews
- June 2020: Notification of the selected candidates
- September-October 2020: Beginning of contracts
Additional comments
REQUIRED EDUCATION LEVEL: Master’s degree or equivalent
REQUIRED LANGUAGE: ENGLISH (Good or higher level)
Specific Requirements:
Applications must be in English and will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- Educational record;
- Scientific quality of the applicant’s CV;
- Expected impact and benefit to the fellow and to the project;
- Previous experiences in the area of the COBRA research programme.
COBRA supports equal opportunity and encourages female researchers to apply for positions.
In the event that the ESR recruited has a disability such that her/his participation in the project is not possible without extra financial support, the host institution will apply for a dedicated Special Needs Lump Sum allowance (SNLS) to the European Commission.