Ethics of AI Foundational Models

Background

HARNESS is an international, interdisciplinary and cross academic-industry training network hosted across Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Italy and Belgium (MSCA Doctoral Network) formed to train a new generation of 13 Doctoral Candidates (DCs) as PhD graduates in the disciplines of law, ethics or computer science with the common goal of researching methods and tools to make Integrated Assessments of risks and impacts for current Data intensive and AI technologies.

HARNESS Doctoral Candidates will receive training to enable them to integrate and apply arguments, analyses and tools from across the fields of artificial intelligence, law and ethics, so that they can excel in research and data science careers within digital services industry and public policy sectors.

The DCs will receive a strongly multidisciplinary training programme, bringing together world-class researcher in Artificial Intelligence, Law and Ethics to offer an excellent structured research programme operating at the critical boundaries between these three fields. The research supervision and training for DCs is delivered by a network composed of the following world-class research groups and industry practitioners:

• the Ontology Engineering Group at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Madrid, Spain)
• the School of Law and the Knowledge and Data Engineering Group at Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland)
• the Institute of Ethics at Dublin City University (Dublin, Ireland)
• the Dept of Philosophy and the 4TU Centre for Ethics and Technology in University of Twente (Enschede, Netherlands)
• the Law, Science, Technology & Society at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium)
• the Rathenau Instituut of Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam, Netherlands) in technology social impact analysis and policy debate
• the Legaltech Center at Mykolo Romerio Universitetas (Vilnius, Lithuania)
• the Department of Legal Studies at Università di Bologna (Bolonia, Italiy)
• the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC) at Gent Universiteit (Ghent, Belgium)
• A further set of industry partners will offer DCs a rich range of relevant industry experience through training secondments.

Role

We invite you to apply for a PhD position supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network ‘HARNESS - Harnessing AI and Data-Intensive Technologies’, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme. For more information see here .

As a student, you would be enrolled in the Institute of Ethics in the School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music at Dublin City University (Ireland), with a 3 Year Fixed Term Contract with Dublin City University. You will be working on the PhD Topic: Ethics of AI Foundational Models (DC6) under the supervision of Prof. Bert Gordijn and Prof. Elena Montiel (UPM).

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the position include, but are not restricted to, the following:
• Investigate the ethics of AI foundational models and LLMs.
• Conduct a systematic literature review to identify the ethical issues in relation to language models as well as the ethical approaches used to analyse these issues in the literature thus far. This literature review will be carried out in accordance with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analyses) method.
• Develop a thorough analysis of a selection of ethical issues to fill some of the gaps identified in the systematic literature review. For this analysis, the DC will identify and deploy an appropriate ethical theory.
• Develop a set of ethics recommendations to accommodate responsible development and ethical application of language models going forward.
• Expected Results: The DC will deliver (i) a systematic literature review of the ethics of language models, (ii) an analysis of selected ethical issues pertaining to language models as well as (iii) a set of recommendations for responsible development and ethical application.
• Planned secondment(s): UPM (6M part time in Madrid (Montiel) to deepen into the technical details and to analyse real language models), EXS (6M part time in Madrid (García) making a review of technologies and products using language models).

Minimum Criteria

• Bachelor’s degree (BA or B) and Master’s degree (MA or MS), one of which should be in philosophy;
• interest in interdisciplinary work at the intersection of philosophy/ethics, law, data science and AI;
• must not have a doctoral degree (PhD) at the date of their recruitment; In addition, HARNESS PhD students must demonstrate:
• ability to collaborate with international research teams in the English language.
• enthusiasm for working on multidisciplinary research problems, including research collaboration and publication across disciplinary boundaries.

Eligibility Criteria

All researchers recruited must be Doctoral Candidates.

• must not have a doctoral degree at the date of their recruitment
• should be enrolled in a doctoral programme during the project
• must enroll in at the Dublin City University doctoral programme before October 1st 2025;
• should comply with the mobility rules: in general, they 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 36 months immediately before their recruitment date.

Compulsory national service, short stays such as holidays, and time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention are not taken into account.

Dublin City University

Dublin City University (DCU) is a leading innovative European University, proud to be one of the world’s leading Young Universities. DCU is known as Ireland’s University of Impact, with a mission to ‘transform lives and societies’ and focuses on addressing global challenges in collaboration with key national and international partners and stakeholders.

DCU has over 20,000 students in five faculties spread across three academic campuses in the Glasnevin-Drumcondra area of North Dublin. Thanks to its innovative approach to teaching and learning, the University offers a ‘transformative student experience’ that helps to develop highly sought-after graduates. DCU is currently No. 1 in Ireland for Graduate Employment Rate, and for graduate income (CSO).

DCU is a research-intensive University and is home to a number of SFI-funded Research Centres. The University participates in a range of European and international research partnerships. DCU is also the leading Irish university in the area of technology transfer as reflected by licensing of intellectual property.

As a ‘People First’ institution, DCU is committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - a University that helps staff and students to thrive. The University is a leader in terms of its work to increase access to education, and is placed in the world’s Top 10 for reducing inequalities in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings.

Essential Training

The postholder will be required to undertake the following essential compliance training:

● Orientation
● Health & Safety
● Data Protection (GDPR)
● Cyber Security Awareness
● AI Literacy

Other training may need to be undertaken when required.

Salary Scale - €43,653 - €48,997

Closing date: Wednesday, 16th July 2025

For more information on DCU and benefits, please visit Why work at DCU?
Informal Enquiries in relation to this role should be directed to:
Professor Bert Gordijn, Director, DCU Institute of Ethics, Dublin City University.
Email: bert.gordijn@dcu.ie

Please do not send applications to this email address, instead apply as described below.

Application Procedure:

Please submit your application through the online system here.
In order to be considered for the role to which you are applying for, you must upload:

1. A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest, qualifications, experience, and motivations to apply for this position;

2. A Curriculum Vitae, including a list of all courses attended and grades obtained, and, if applicable, a list of publications and references;

3. A writing sample (for instance, Master’s thesis chapter);

4. Contact information for two academic references;

5. [for non-native English speakers] An IELTS-test, Internet TOEFL test (TOEFL-iBT), or a Cambridge CAE-C (CPE);

6. Fill out and include the HARNESS eligibility criteria form available here.

7. Completed application form (blank forms can be downloaded from the bottom of the Vacancy).

Please note, if all items are not uploaded, the application will be deemed incomplete, and will not be processed.