DC3: IDENTIFYING THE STANCE OF ARGUMENTATIVE OPINIONS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE

Reference number.
HYBRIDS- DC3 PhD research topic.
Identifying the stance of argumentative opinions in political discourse Host institution.
Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy PhD Enrolment.
Universidad da Coruña (UDC), Spain Main Supervisor.
Dr.
Sara Tonelli, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Co-supervisor.
Dr.
Patricia Martín, Universidad de A Coruña (UDC).
Inter-sectoral Supervisors.
Mr.
Guglielmo Celata, Fondazione OPENPOLIS.
Ms.
Vindhya Singh and Ms.
Stephanie Öttl, Industrieanlagen- Betriebsgesellschaft (IABG) Objectives.
To automatically identify whether a given opinion supports an idea or contradicts it; To design a method to detect pro and con arguments given a controversial idea related to political issues in Europa, by combining machine learning and ontological information linked to argumentation information; To apply the method for the detection of political stance in social media.
Expected outcomes.
Development of a tool to extract arguments (excerpts that hold argumentative opinions).
Development of a classifier to identify the stance of the given arguments/opinions.
A large dataset of pro and con arguments for different controversial political issues in Europe.
Use cases on immigration and Euroscepticism Planned secondments.
Eligibility Criteria.
Mobility.
At the time of recruitment, the researcher must not have resided or carried out his/her main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Italy for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the recruitment date.
Time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention or compulsory national service are not taken into account.
The candidate must be at the date of recruitment a doctoral candidate (i.
.
not already in possession of doctoral degree).
Researchers who have successfully defended their doctoral thesis but who have not yet formally been awarded the doctoral degree will not be considered eligible.
The candidate must agree to work exclusively for the action.
Specific requirements.
Degree.
All applicants should have a first-class honour degree or equivalent, or a MSc degree, in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, Data Science or a related discipline Programming skills.
Good command of Python Language.
Excellent command of English, together with good academic writing and presentation skills.
Desirable skills.
Good knowledge of NLP-related tools and libraries.
Experience with transformer-based models and LLMs Estimated starting date.
1st July Contract.
Full-time contract Duration.
36 months, including 4 secondments of 2/3 months each, at other consortium members’ premises (see Secondment section) Salary.
Gross salary of €/month (14 payments per year) if the researcher has no family or €/month (14 payments per year) if the researcher is married (or a relationship with equivalent status to a marriage recognised by the legislation of the country where this relationship was formalised) or has dependent children for the purposes of the MSCA(For more information, click here).
Salary includes medical care coverage and work accident insurance through the Italian Health Care System, providing access to the Italian public health care system for candidates, as well as pension and unemployment benefits.
Application Documents.
Europass CV (template available in the following link), including the names and contact details of two academic references, in English, highlighting the merits that are established as evaluation criteria; Scans of Bachelor’s and Master’s transcripts, with certified translation in English (if the degree qualification is not in English); If you have not yet completed your master’s, you must submit a provisional academic transcript.
A motivation letter in English, highlighting the consistency between your profile and the chosen DC position/s for which you are applying and describing why you wish to be aHYBRIDS Doctoral Candidate to carry out a PhD; (max.
700 words) Scanned copy of your ID card, resident’s card or passport currently in force; Proof of excellent command of English (e.
., IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge or equivalent).
This is not required in case you are a native English speaker (i.
., English is your mother tongue).
In addition, you can add any other documents which you find relevant for the applications such as Master thesis, publications or project reports.
Evaluation criteria.
Academic background (up to 40 points) Knowledge and specific achievements (up to 35 points) Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview in which the selection committee will assess the applicant’s communication skills, initiative, and motivation to pursue a PhD.
(up to 25 points) Deadline.
April , at 23h59 CET (UCT + )