Job Description

#

Doctoral Fellows (GREET Doctoral Network)

location_on
Merchiston
Doctoral Fellows (GREET Doctoral Network)


The job requirements are detailed below. Where applicable the skills, qualifications and memberships required for this job have also been included.


Job details

Salary

41,064 - 47,389 per annum (depending on experience)

Contractual hours

35

Basis

Full Time

Region

School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment

Package

Excellent Benefits Package

Job category/type

Research

Date posted

13/10/2025

Job reference

0000022246

Job description

Edinburgh Napier University (ENU)

is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK with over 25,000 students from 109 countries. An innovative, learner centric university with a modern and fresh outlook, ENU is ambitious, inclusive in its ethos and applied in its approach.

Research at our School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment (SCEBE) is recognised as world leading or internationally excellent in UK's REF. The latest UK national research assessment (REF 2021) places our computer science as third best in terms of research power in Scotland.

Currently, we are accepting applications for 3

Doctoral Fellows

as part of the GREET (Generative Explainee-aware Explainability and Transparency in Proactive Cyber-Physical Eco- Environments) Doctoral Network, funded by Horizon Europe's MSCA Programme. The candidate will work as part of the Research Group of Intelligence-Driven Software Engineering within the school.

The Roles:

The GREET Doctoral Network is offering an exciting opportunity for an early-career researcher to contribute to shaping a new generation of Cyber Physical Systems, which will support generative cognition, explainee-aware explainability, and transparent proactivity in the highly secured CPS eco-environments.

Focused on the novel generative AI-driven CPS, GREET aims to deliver key insights into the science and models of the proposed CPS, set up its scientific foundation, and equip the DN's recruited Doctoral Candidates with skills to drive the next innovative steps in this key area.

As a Doctoral Fellow, you will have the opportunity to first study and create the model-driven and semantics-based explainability repositories for CPS. Further to this, you will be in an excellent position to use your findings to extract and define knowledge and patterns for typical explainability for proactivity and eco-cognition.

Working with other doctoral fellows, you will also be tasked with supporting development of the generative AI algorithms for proactivity and eco-cognition and the creation and operation of the virtual explainability twins.

As part of the programme, you will be employed as a full-time Research Fellow by Edinburgh Napier University and meanwhile registered for a PhD degree. Your salary and PhD tuition fees will be paid/exempted by the project.

We have 3 posts available:

Post 1

- You will create the eco-cognition model and the eco-cognition generator based on LLM and Multimodal Models for real-time and multimodal cognition capture. Pattern recognition algorithms will be designed to understand the eco-cognition. Generative AI, model-driven architecture and feature model will be used. You will also have the opportunity to study and develop the typical cognition patterns for CPS agents based on cognition theory, and study and develop typical multimodal interaction design methods for eco-cognition in Cyber Physical Systems.

Essential Requirements:

Experience of fundamental software design and development Competent in human computer interaction and digital media Knowledge of generative AI or cognition models

Post 2

- You will study and create a new architecture that engages the new abstraction concept of Generative Learning Cognitive Service in the autonomous continuum of development-evolution of CPS. The architecture will seamlessly integrate generative eco-cognition, proactivity learning, generative explainability and proactive adaptation, and make the CPS architecture microservice-oriented. You will also have the opportunity to develop the framework and integration mechanism for the GREET CPS, including the repository of all the enabling components, and apply the GREET framework to support developing the use case systems.

Essential Requirements:

Experience of fundamental software design and development Competent in design and development of software applications Knowledge of generative AI and explainable AI

Post 3

- You will first study and create the model-driven and semantics-based explainability repositories for CPS. You will then extract and define knowledge and patterns for typical explainability for proactivity and eco-cognition. Working with other doctoral fellows, you will support development of the generative AI algorithms for proactivity and eco-cognition and the creation and operation of the virtual explainability twins.

Essential Requirements:

Experience of fundamental software design and development Competent in the use and development of semantic models and design patterns Knowledge of explainable AI and digital twins

Please let us know which post or posts you are applying for in your application supporting statement.

Further requirements:

Must not have a doctoral degree on the date of recruitment

Enrolment on ENU doctoral programme during the project

Must not have resided or carried out work/studies in the UK for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before starting work

Academic qualifications:

A first degree (at least a 2:1) ideally in Computer Science with a good fundamental knowledge of either Software Engineering, Explainable AI, Semantic Models or Cyber Physical Systems.


English language requirement:

IELTS score must be at least 6.5 (with not less than 6.0 in each of the four components). Other, equivalent qualifications will be accepted.


Essential attributes:

Good written and oral communication skills Strong motivation, with evidence of independent research skills relevant to the project Good time management


For a full role description and comprehensive list of duties,

Benefits we offer:

We offer support and recognition wherever due, as well as fantastic benefits such as

pension with employer contributions of 17.6% - 26%, a minimum of 46 days holiday and annual pay reviews

.

There are professional development opportunities, discounted access to onsite sports facilities and a wide range of other staff discounts. For more information about our wide range of benefits,

Additional information:

Salary:

41,064 - 47,389 per annum (depending on experience)

Closing date:

9th November 2025

Interviews:

Week commencing 24th November 2025

The University holds Disability Confident, Carer Positive and Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champion status.

We are a flexible Employer.

Doctoral Fellows (GREET Doctoral Network)