Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences
Organisation/Company: Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences
Department: Institute for Energy Technology
Research Field: Engineering » Knowledge engineering, Computer science » Modelling tools
Researcher Profile: First Stage Researcher (R1)
Positions: PhD Positions
Country: Switzerland
Application Deadline: 30 Apr 2025 - 00:00 (Europe/Zurich)
Type of Contract: Temporary
Job Status: Full-time
Hours Per Week: 42.5
Offer Starting Date: 1 May 2025
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?: Horizon Europe - MSCA Marie Curie Grant Agreement Number 101168673
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?: No
Offer Description
The TWEED project
TWEED is looking for 12 talented and motivated Doctoral Candidates (DCs) with the skills, knowledge and enthusiasm to work as part of a network to advance the field of digitalisation within the wind energy sector. The “Training Wind Energy Experts on Digitalisation (TWEED)” Doctoral Network (DN) aims to train the next generation of excellent researchers equipped with a full set of technical and complementary skills to develop high-impact careers in wind energy digitalisation. Co-funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe Marie Sklodowska Curie Doctoral Networks Programme, the TWEED network offers 12 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) positions to provide high-level training in the new emerging research field of Wind Energy Data Science and Digitalisation.
An outstanding research-for-innovation programme, and a unique training programme that combines hands-on research training, interactive schools and hackathons, innovation management and placements with industry partner organisations has been designed for the DCs who will participate in the network. Alongside the exciting research topics related to wind energy data science, the research programme also includes state-of-the-art technology to develop a new Wind Energy Data Science Hub that will facilitate a virtual research environment to foster collaboration, data sharing and testing of innovative solutions to significantly increase the value of wind energy.
The network will provide an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral context to foster creativity in tackling wind energy data science and digitalisation challenges by developing solutions for commercial exploitation. DCs will be trained in business innovation to extend their focus beyond the academic context, to be able to identify added-value products or services with the guidance from established researchers and entrepreneurs. As a result, a research-for-innovation mindset will be developed to provide enhanced career prospects for the fellows, equipping them with a complete set of thematic, technological and innovation skills.
DCs are expected to:
1. conduct high quality, original academic research in the fields of Wind Energy, Digitalisation, Data Science and Computer Science,
2. participate in the network’s planned training-dissemination activities and mobility plan,
3. collaborate with fellow researchers, with the goal of advancing and promoting the network's objectives.
The most talented and motivated candidates will be selected to participate in the network's interdisciplinary collaborative research training. The assessment shall be carried out by the TWEED recruitment team.
This DC Project
The goal of this DC project, titled “Novel methods for a knowledge graph generation approach within TWEED’s Virtual Wind Farm Hub”, is to investigate, design and implement a knowledge graph generation approach for the Virtual Wind Farm Hub within the TWEED project. The Virtual Wind Farm Hub will be an open platform to facilitate the exchange of datasets, research results and applications and allow domain experts and data scientists to prototype new services. The goal will be reached by first identifying and characterising the knowledge and data resources needed by the other researchers, which will allow identification, assessment and evaluation of existing semantic artefacts that could be useful for the needs of the other researchers in the project. The available data sets will be prepared according to the FAIR Data Maturity Model, and the most important improvements to the existing semantic artefacts will be identified. Based on these results, the relevant semantic artefacts will be further developed in alignment with standardisation communities including IEA Wind Task 43, TIM Wind, TechnoPortal, the Research Data Alliance and the WindEurope Digitalisation Taskforce. A model for autonomous ontology evolution will also be designed based on published methodologies. Parallel to this, a new knowledge graph generation approach will be designed, based on a review of previous approaches, including ontology-based data integration, knowledge graph generation methods, ontology-based data access (OBDA), data-science knowledge graph approaches and data-to-text generation systems utilising transformers for generating corrective maintenance strategies for faults using wind turbine operational data. These methods will be integrated into the Hub. Finally, a global ecosystem of wind energy experts and researchers will be created within the WeDoWind ecosystem to incentivise and motivate data and knowledge sharing within the Hub.
Further information
* This position involves the following secondments:
o ETH Zurich, Prof. Eleni Chatzi (June 2025 to August 2025)
o RTDT Laboratories AG, Dr. Imad Abdallah (December 2026 to February 2027)
* Internal code of the position: DC11
* Host Institution: Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST), matriculated at ETH Zurich
* Personal Supervisory Team: Due to its status as a Swiss University of Applied Sciences, OST cannot matriculate or award PhD degrees. The PhD student will therefore be matriculated at ETH Zurich under Prof. Eleni Chatzi (Chair of Structural Mechanics and Monitoring), who will co-supervise the thesis. The main supervisor is Dr. Sarah Barber at OST (Institute of Energy Technology), and a further co-superviser is Prof. Mitra Purandare at OST (Institute for Software).
* Completed Master’s degree (at the date of appointment) in a technical subject such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or computer science, or equivalent.
* Students currently in the final year of a Master’s degree are encouraged to apply but should note that if selected, they will be expected to start their PhD in the first quarter of 2025.
* Experience of and understanding of basic knowledge engineering concepts, including knowledge graphs, semantic web, ontologies and semantic artefacts.
* Interest in and ability to work on interdisciplinary projects with a range of different people from outside your domain, especially at the interface between computer science and engineering.
* Excellent writing and communication skills in English.
* Basic communication skills in German, or willingness to learn.
* Ability to work in a team and independently.
* Willingness to follow the mobility plan of the programme (conduct secondments in the country of the host institute).
* Fulfill the requirements for admission to the PhD program at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at ETH Zurich.
* Optional: Experience with tools such as Spring, Node.js, Angular, React, Mongo DB, Elasticsearch or TensorFlow.
* Optional: Experience in wind energy.
Languages: ENGLISH Level: Excellent
Languages: GERMAN Level: Basic
Additional Information
You will work under a 36-month employment contract with the competitive conditions and salary adapted to the living costs in each host country, set by the MSCA Doctoral Networks (DN). The MSCA DN programme offers a highly competitive and attractive salary and working conditions. The successful candidates will receive a salary in accordance with the MSCA regulations for DCs, according to the national rules of the country with full social security benefits.
The successful candidate will receive a financial package plus an additional mobility and family allowance according to the rules for Doctoral Candidates (DCs) in an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks:
* Living Allowance of €4,372/month to be paid in the currency of the country of the Host Organisation.
* Mobility allowance of €600/month to be paid to all DCs recruited.
* Family allowance of €660/month to be paid depending on DCs family status.
The gross salary including the family allowance is therefore €5,632 per month. The net salary will be calculated by deducting the applicable employer taxes and social security contribution for each country, which total approximately 25%-30%, depending on the nationality, work permit and family status of the candidate.
In support of families with young children, flexible working hours will be offered to the DC whenever it is feasible within the requirements of the project.
Following the EU’s commitment to DEI, the TWEED network and OST encourages and promotes the participation of under-represented groups such as women in technical careers, people from diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds, people with disabilities, those who identify as neurodivergent and LGBTQA+. The OST community aims to exercise a policy of equal opportunities at all times. Additional information can be found in the Information Note for Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellows in Doctoral Networks.
Eligibility criteria
All applicants must, at the date of the recruitment, comply with the following eligibility criteria:
* Candidate status: At the time of recruitment, applicants must not hold a doctoral degree or equivalent.
* Mobility Rule: Applicants can be of any nationality. However, applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of the recruiting organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately before the appointment. This excludes short stays such as holidays or compulsory national service.
Candidates are required to document in their applications their compliance with the eligibility criteria. To prove their eligibility, candidates can use supporting documents such as studies, residence or work certificates.
Selection process
The selection process complies with the guidelines set forth in the European Charter for Researchers, including the Code of Conduct for Recruitment of Researchers. Candidates will be requested to provide their consent for their application documents to be shared among the members of the recruitment team for review (including other institutions than the institution to which they originally addressed their application). Additionally, they will be requested to consent (or decline) to having their application forwarded to another host institution within the network, should their profile be better suited for a different position. Personal documents and information of the candidate will be treated confidentially.
Eligibility check:
* The Recruitment Team of TWEED will gather the information from all candidates and will check that they comply with the eligibility criteria and that the applications are complete, in English, and submitted before the deadline.
* The initial check of the eligibility criteria will have to be formally approved by the host institution at the time of recruitment of the appointed candidates.
* Ineligible candidates will be notified via email.
Assessment
A Selection Committee will be set up at the host institution, led by the Main Supervisor. The Selection Committee will assess all candidates according to their academic profile, personal motivation, relevant background, professional experience, scientific knowledge, transversal skills, soft skills and English proficiency. The Selection Committee will short-list at least the best 3 candidates.
Interview
The Selection Committee will interview the short-listed candidates and will produce a ranked list of candidates that qualify for the position.
Decision
According to the procedure established in TWEED, the Selection Committee will submit its list of preferences to the Supervisory Board (the project's governing body). The SB will prepare the final ranking of candidates for each position.
Communications
Candidates will be informed of the status of their application during the selection process.
Additional comments
About OST
OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, is the university of applied sciences for the six cantons of Eastern Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. We are an innovative and dynamic university with forward-thinking concepts and innovations, providing a major economic and social contribution to the development of Eastern Switzerland. With around 3,800 students spread across six Schools, 1,500 professionals pursuing executive education, and over 1,000 current research projects, we are Eastern Switzerland's regional educational hub. The Wind Energy Innovation Division at the Institute for Energy Technology is an internationally renowned research group specialising in wind energy digitalisation and flow in mountainous terrain. We are the first university of applied sciences in Switzerland to establish a specialised research programme in the field of wind energy - and we are addressing diverse exciting and challenging topics for the digital, renewable future.
Situated in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, ETH Zurich is pioneering solutions to the global challenges of today and tomorrow. It has more than 20,000 students from over 120 different countries. ETH Zurich teaches fundamental knowledge and skills at the highest international level to ensure its students are equipped to deal with current and future challenges.
Number of offers available: 1
Company/Institute: Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences
Country: Switzerland
City: Rapperswil
Postal Code: 8640
Street: Oberseestrasse 10
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