Overview We are offering an exciting

PhD position at the University of Barcelona within the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Lab (BCN-AIM, www.bcn-aim.org), directed by Prof. Karim Lekadir and hosted within the

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

The successful candidate will contribute to cutting‑edge research on trustworthy artificial intelligence for youth mental health as part of the Horizon Europe YOUTHreach project.

What We Offer A PhD position in beautiful Barcelona and its Mediterranean climate.

Research experience within the University of Barcelona, one of the leading universities in Spain and Europe.

Cutting‑edge research in trustworthy AI for healthcare and mental health within one of the most dynamic AI research groups in Europe, directed by Prof. Karim Lekadir.

An international research environment within a multicultural team representing diverse scientific and cultural backgrounds.

Opportunities to collaborate with leading European researchers, clinicians, psychologists, social scientists, and youth organisations through the YOUTHreach consortium.

Training and mentoring in artificial intelligence, trustworthy AI, digital health, and scientific research.

Opportunities to attend and present research at international conferences, project meetings, and scientific workshops.

Support for career development, including scientific publishing, networking, and future academic opportunities.

Versátil working arrangements, including the possibility of partial remote work.

Responsibilities

Design and implement machine learning and AI models for the early identification and prediction of mental health risks in young people.

Develop multimodal AI methods integrating clinical, behavioural, environmental,



psychosocial, and other relevant data sources.

Investigate trustworthy AI methodologies, including fairness, explainability, uncertainty estimation, robustness, and generalisability.

Evaluate model performance across diverse populations and settings to ensure equitable and reliable outcomes.

Develop interpretable AI approaches to support understanding and responsible use of predictive models in mental health.

Contribute to the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks for AI systems throughout their lifecycle.

Collaborate with clinicians, psychologists, social scientists, youth representatives, and other stakeholders through co‑creation activities.

Contribute to scientific publications, conference presentations, project deliverables, and dissemination activities.

Participate actively in the scientific life of the BCN‑AIM Lab and the YOUTHreach consortium. The research project:

You will join our exposome team, as part of ongoing projects, particularly YouthREACH and others such as Youth‑GEMs, STAGE, HappyMums funded by the European Commission and focusing on prenatal, child, and adolescent mental health. In these projects, we are developing new trustworthy AI solutions for a personalised medicine approach to tailor the care models in the field of mental health diseases. The project will build on a unique set of big data repositories to develop AI‑based predictive models of mental illness trajectories and proof‑of‑concept tools on actionable targets.

Should you join our team, you will collaborate with several technical and clinical partners within and outside Europe (e.g. in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Estonia, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Australia).

📌 Predoctoral position (Madrid)
🏢 Bioinformatics Barcelona
📍 Madrid