The STRICT SociaLab, Department of Theoretical and Applied Science, University of Insubria (Italy) announces the availability of a Marie-Curie Ph.D. Fellowship Position for Early-stage researchers in the field of CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY (code: RAIS-INSUB-ESR4).

The position is for three (3) years, starting as early as possible but at the latest December 2019. The positions are funded by the European Commission under the Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) program RAIS, which focuses on the design of decentralized, scalable and secure collective awareness platforms for real-time data analytics and machine learning, which preserve end-user privacy and information ownership. The RAIS consortium aspires to establish a fertile multidisciplinary research and innovation community with strong entrepreneurial culture that will advance wearable sport-sensing and quantified-self devices and accompanying middleware.

The main objective of the RAIS Initial Training Network is to provide world class training for a next generation of researchers, data scientists, and Web engineers, emphasizing on a strong combination of advanced understanding in both theoretical and experimental approaches, methodologies and tools that are required to develop Decentralized Platforms for Real-Time Data Analytics.

For more information please contact prof. Elena Ferrari (elena dot ferrari at uninsubria dot it)

Successful candidates are expected to join the Ph.D. program of the University of Insubria, to conduct original research in collaboration with the principal investigators of RAIS, and to contribute actively to the activities planned of the project (scientific publications, taking courses, secondments, participation to meetings and events, preparation of educational material, coordination of work, etc.).

We seek candidates with experience and research interests in one or more of the following topics:  privacy, trust,  machine learning, distributed data management.

Preference will be given to highly motivated candidates with strong programming and analytical skills, excellent knowledge of English (for non-native speakers required to take TOFEL or equivalent test), and a proven commitment to their studies. Eligible applicants are required to have completed a higher education degree (M.Sc.) of computer science or related areas from an internationally recognized university. Excellent grades from courses in security, distributed systems, machine learning, operating systems, networking, programming languages, computer architectures, and theory of computing are expected. The applicants must have less than 4 years of full-time research experience after obtaining their degree. At the time of recruitment by the University of Insubria, the early-stage researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Italy for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date.

Students in their final year of Master education may also apply and if qualified, receive a conditional offer. If the applicant has not completed her studies, she should include a written statement from the degree administration office (or equivalent department), confirming that she is enrolled on the final year of her education and stating the expected completion date. If the applicant receives a conditional offer, the candidate should present the degree certificate before enrolment.

Marie Curie fellows enjoy good salaries and working conditions, career development opportunities and work-life balance. We especially encourage women researchers to apply for the aforementioned positions. The monthly salary of a PhD student under Marie Curie RAIS ITN scheme at the University of Insubria is expected to be is approx 3500 EUR per month before the tax. Marie Curie fellows will also get coverage of expenses related to the participation in research and training activities (contribution to research-related costs, meetings, conference attendance, training actions, etc.).

Applications: to communicate your expression of interest, please fill in the application form and send the signed pdf together with your curriculum vitae, a brief research statement, two (2) references, transcript of the grades (original and in English) by email to "openings (at) RAIS-itn.eu".  Please put in the subject line the code of the position: RAIS-INSUB-ESR4.   In addition, please fill in the online application form. While expressions of interest are accepted on a continuous basis, applications received by March 01, 2019 will be considered in the first evaluation cycle. The decisions are expected to be reached by the end of April 2019.

The RAIS ITN will start in January 2019 and will finish in December 2022. The following institutions participate in the RAIS ITN: Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (Assoc. prof. S. Girdzijauskas); Univ. of Cyprus (Assoc. prof. G.Pallis, prof. M. Dikaiakos); Univ. of Insubria, Italy (prof. E. Ferrari); FORTH, Greece (prof. E. Markatos); Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (prof. A.Vakali); RaceFox (Prof. C. Norström); and a number of associated research and industrial partners (Cambridge University, UK, MIT, USA, Open Data Institute, USA, EIT Digital, Recorded Future, Sweden).