This is NTNU
NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.
At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.
You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.
About the position
NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim. This position will be in Gjøvik, Norway.
At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 43,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.
You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.
Video: https://youtu.be/Xt-yHCN5QS0
Are you interested in pursuing a doctoral degree in an international research environment? This position offers the opportunity to join the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network CAPTURE, collaborate with academic, healthcare, and industry partners across Europe, and develop expertise within a multidisciplinary research project on wireless endoscopy.
As part of the CAPTURE network, the PhD Candidate will participate in workshops, conferences, transferable skills training, and research secondments with partner organisations. The position provides opportunities for both academic and professional development within an international setting.
The successful candidate will be offered a fixed-term, full-time position as a PhD Candidate for a period of 36 months and will be enrolled in a PhD programme leading to the award of a doctoral degree. The expected start date is 1 August 2027.
Your immediate leader will be the unit leader of Colourlab.
About the project
The CAPTURE project is an EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network dedicated to advancing wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) through developments in computer vision and artificial intelligence. The project aims to improve image-based diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment by developing methods that reduce clinicians’ workload, enhance imaging quality, and support more accurate and timely diagnoses.
CAPTURE combines research with a strong focus on doctoral training, preparing a new generation of researchers to work at the interface of technology and medicine. The consortium brings together expertise from academia, industry, and hospitals, ensuring that the research is both scientifically rigorous and clinically relevant.
The project focuses on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), reflecting its growing prevalence in Europe. As many of the methods developed have broader applicability, the project will also consider other gastrointestinal diseases. These goals will be achieved through the recruitment and training of 15 doctoral candidates in an international and intersectoral environment, providing interdisciplinary expertise across the technical, clinical, and applied aspects of WCE.
Duties of the position
Automated approaches for pathology detection using WCE are generally based on recent AI models. These models often result in black-box decisions. For a clinician to use these systems, the basis for diagnostic decision should be clearly explained.
The PhD candidate will help develop explainable AI (XAI) methods for automated diagnostic decision systems to enhance the explainability and actionability of their predictions for doctors. The candidate will also evaluate the generated explanations with medical doctors to assess their relevance, usefulness, and importance in clinical settings.
Key responsibilities
- Complete the doctoral education until obtaining a doctorate
- Carry out research of good quality within the framework described above
- Academic publications and popular science dissemination
- Participate in the Colourlab research group
- Participate in the network’s joint research and training activities, both online and in person across the CAPTURE partner institutions and contribute to CAPTURE project deliverables in accordance with the Description of Action and the project's governance procedures.
- Participate in international activities such as conferences and/or research stays at foreign educational institutions. Particularly, secondments of a few months’ duration are foreseen to Robert Gordon University, UK and Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.
- Close collaboration with hospitals for assessing methods developed in PhD project
Be prepared for changes to your work duties after employment.
Required selection criteria
- You must have experience with computer vision and machine learning.
- You must have excellent programming skills in Python with exposure to popular deep learning libraries like PyTorch or Tensorflow.
- At the date of recruitment, you must NOT have been awarded a doctoral degree. Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but have not yet formally been awarded the degree are also not eligible.
- You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's Doctoral Programme in computer science, see Section 6-1 of the PhD regulations for more information.
- You must have a relevant master's degree in computer science, electrical engineering or equivalent. Your degree must include a major independent project (minimum 30 ECTS) equivalent to a master’s thesis.
- Master students can apply, but the master's degree must be obtained and documented before starting the position.
- You must have a strong and relevant academic background from your previous studies and have an average grade from your master’s degree study, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared to NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic foundation. If you have a weaker academic background, you may be considered if you can document that you are exceptionally suited for a PhD education, for example through relevant work experience and/or peer-reviewed academic works.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
- You must comply with the MSCA mobility rule: you must not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before recruitment (short stays such as holidays are not taken into account).
The appointment is to be made in accordance with NTNUs guidelines for recruitment positions for general criteria for the position.
Preferred selection criteria
Preference may be given to candidates with:
- Experience with computer vision, medical image processing, self-supervised learning or learning in low-data regimes.
- Experience with statistical signal processing and pattern recognition will be counted positive.
- Experience with pretrained representation models, transfer learning and xAI.
- Knowledge of robustness analysis in computer vision applications.
- Knowledge of explainable AI, uncertainty estimation, calibration, out-of-distribution detection, adversarial robustness, or causal analysis.
- Experience with causal inference, counterfactual explanations, or uncertainty quantification in deep learning
- Evidence of scientific writing, publications, a strong master's thesis, research software, or relevant open-source contributions.
- Excellent analytical and communication skills.
- Ability to work in an international and interdisciplinary environment.
Personal characteristics
To complete a doctoral degree (PhD), it is important that you are able to:
- Show strong motivation for research and a willingness to engage deeply with challenging scientific questions.
- Work in a structured way, set goals and make plans to achieve them.
- Present and discuss your research with other professionals.
- Get involved and contribute constructively with feedback.
- Work constructively under pressure or in the face of adversity.
- Show curiosity and a strong motivation for the subject.
- Analyze data, assess different perspectives and draw well-founded conclusions.
- Be flexible and open to adjusting the plan for the project as needed.
- Communicate, present, and collaborate effectively, including explaining technical ideas clearly and presenting research results to interdisciplinary audiences and project partners.
Emphasis will be placed on personal qualities.
We offer
- An exciting job with an important mission in society
- Developing tasks in a strong and international professional environment
- Career guidance and follow-up during the PhD period
- Open and inclusive working environment with committed colleagues
- Favorable terms as a member of the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund (SPK)
- Free Norwegian language training at a basic level (A2)
- As an employee in Norway, the successful candidate will normally be a member of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme, which provides access to public healthcare and social security benefits in accordance with applicable legislation and regulations.
As a PhD Candidate at NTNU, you will have access to employee benefits.
Diversity
Diversity is a strength, and at NTNU we aim to be an employer that reflects the diversity in society and that makes use of the potential of the population's collective skills. Our vision is Knowledge for a better world and our values are creative, critical, constructive and respectful. We believe that an organization that is equal, diverse and gender-balanced is essential for us to achieve our goals.
We strive to attract employees with different skills, life experiences and perspectives to contribute to even better problem solving of our societal mission in research and education.
If you think this position is relevant and interesting, we encourage you to apply, regardless of gender, functional ability and cultural background, or whether you have been out of work for a period of time.
Salary and conditions
In the position of PhD Candidate, code 1017, your gross salary will normally be NOK 580 000,- per annum depending on qualifications and seniority. This will cover the MSCA Living Allowance and Mobility Allowance. In addition, a family allowance may be provided in accordance with MSCA regulations.
A 2% statutory contribution to the State Pension Fund is deducted from the salary.
The employment period is 3 years.
For employment as a PhD Candidate, it is a prerequisite that you gain admission to the PhD programme in Computer Science within three months of your employment contract start date, and that you participate in an organized doctoral programme throughout the period of employment.
The position is conditional on external funding.
As an employee at NTNU, it is important that you keep yourself up to date with academic and organizational changes and adapt to them.
For the necessary professional and social interaction, it is a prerequisite that you are physically present and available to the institution on a daily basis.
The successful applicant must devote full working time to the project and the doctoral training programme.
The appointment is carried out in accordance with the principles of the State Employees Act, and Export control (legislation that regulates the export of knowledge, technology and services). Candidates who, after assessment of the application and attachments, are considered to be in conflict with the criteria in the latter act, will not be able to be employed.
About the application
The attachments (including a description of your scientific work) must accompany the application as these documents form the basis of the application assessment. The documents must be in Norwegian/a Scandinavian language or English.
Please note: the application will only be assessed on the basis of the information we have received by the application deadline. Therefore, make sure that your application clearly shows how your skills and experience meet the criteria described above. The application and all attachments must be sent electronically via Jobbnorge.no. If you are invited to an interview, you must bring certified copies of certificates and diplomas upon request. Incomplete applications will not be prioritised.
The application must include:
- Transcripts and diplomas for Bachelor's and Master's degrees
- CV
- Copy of master’s thesis. If you have recently submitted your master’s thesis, you can attach a draft of the thesis. Documentation of a completed master’s degree must be presented before taking up the position.
- Project outline containing proposals for an overall description of research questions, theoretical perspectives, methodological design for the project and progress plan (maximum 1500 words/4 pages).
- Short letter of motivation (400 words/1 page).
- Possibly publications etc. other relevant research work.
- Possibly certificates.
- Names and contact information of at least two relevant referees.
If all, or parts, of your education has been taken abroad, we also ask you to attach documentation of the scope and quality of your entire education, both Bachelor's and Master's education, in addition to other higher education. If your institution uses “diploma supplement” (normal for most European institutions), you must attach this. A description of the documentation required can also be found here. If you already have a statement from Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir), please attach this as well.
Joint work will be considered. If it is difficult to identify your contribution to joint work, you must attach a brief description of your participation.
When assessing the best qualified, we emphasize necessary qualifications such as education, experience and personal suitability. Motivation for the position, ambitions, and potential for research will also count when assessing the candidates.
NTNU recognizes a wide range of academic contributions and has committed itself to The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and CoARA (responsible assessment of research and recognition of a greater breadth of academic contributions in accordance with NTNU's social mission).
Evaluation process
Applications will be assessed by an expert committee based on the qualifications and documentation submitted by the applicants. The evaluation will consider academic achievements, the quality and relevance of the applicant's educational background, research potential, and suitability for the position. Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview. The final appointment will be made in accordance with the applicable regulations for employment at the university.
General information
A public list of applicants with name, age, job title and municipality of residence is prepared after the application deadline. If you wish to be exempt from entry on the public applicant list, this must be justified. Assessment will be made in accordance with current legislation. You will be notified if the exemption is not granted.
If you think this position looks interesting and in line with your qualifications, you are welcome to apply.
If you have any questions about the position, please contact Prof. Kiran Raja, Ph: +47 611 35 374, email: kiran.raja@ntnu.no
If you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact HR at the department: hr@idi.ntnu.no
Application deadline: 19.11.2026
For practical information about working at NTNU, please visit this webpage.
Gjøvik, a charming town by the shores of Lake Mjøsa, is known for its beautiful nature and rich cultural offerings. The town boasts a vibrant community with excellent schools, modern healthcare services, and a variety of recreational activities. With its strategic location, just a short drive from Oslo, Gjøvik combines the best of urban life and natural experiences. Here, you'll find a dynamic business environment and exciting career opportunities in a setting that values work-life balance.
NTNU - knowledge for a better world
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) creates knowledge for a better world and solutions that can change everyday life.
Department of Computer Science
We are the leading academic IT environment in Norway, and offer a wide range of theoretical and applied IT programmes of study at all levels. Our subject areas include hardware, algorithms, visual computing, AI, databases, software engineering, information systems, learning technology, HCI, CSCW, IT operations and applied data processing. The Department has groups in both Trondheim and Gjøvik. The Department of Computer Science is one of seven departments in the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering.