About us:

The Institute for Digital Cultural Heritage Studies (IDCHS) is a unique research and teaching unit within the European higher education landscape, dedicated to advancing transformative research on the ancient world through technology and digital engagement. Its mission is to address 21st-century societal challenges while expanding the frontiers of digital scholarship in Heritage Science and Archaeology.

We invite applications for a Ph.D. student to join our team and work on EXCALIBUR, a Horizon Europe-funded project focused on applying advanced AI technologies in the cultural heritage (CH) domain. EXCALIBUR utilizes the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH) infrastructure to develop innovative tools and methods for creating digital twins (DTs) of cultural heritage objects from burial excavations and related documentation. These DTs enhance the study, conservation, and restoration of cultural heritage context held in European collections or museums. By bridging gaps in research, practice, and stakeholder engagement, EXCALIBUR transforms how bioarchaeological findings are studied and shared, connecting them with artefacts, sites, and burial traditions to deepen understanding of past populations and support the ECCCH’s vision.

We are looking for you:

Ph.D. Student in Linked Open Data and AI for Archaeological Knowledge Representation (m/f/x)

in Munich

Your tasks and responsibilities:

The Ph.D. student will support our team’s core contributions to the EXCALIBUR project while also participating in interdisciplinary research at the IDCHS.

The Ph.D. student will contribute to the development of ontologies, knowledge graphs, and AI-driven enrichment tools. A key goal of this research is to explore how large language models (LLMs) can assist in the automatic generation and semantic annotation of cultural heritage data, bridging the gap between raw digital data and meaningful, machine-interpretable cultural narratives.

Key Responsibilities

• Model and represent archaeological knowledge, especially related to burials and ritual practices, using Linked Open Data principles, semantic ontologies, and knowledge graphs.
• Develop or refine domain ontologies using existing standards (e.g., CIDOC CRM, CRMarchaeo).
• Collaborate on the creation and population of knowledge graphs describing funerary material, associated objects, and contextual metadata.
• Design semi-automated or fully automated workflows that use LLMs and AI techniques to support metadata generation, enrichment, and cross-modal linking.
• Work closely with Co-Investigator Nicola Lercari, two postdoctoral researchers at the LMU IDCHS, and the wider EXCALIBUR consortium, comprising fourteen partners across six EU countries.
• Present research at conferences and contribute to academic publications.
• No teaching obligations are expected for the first two years; teaching may be arranged in the third year, depending on interest and institutional needs.

Your qualifications:

• Master’s degree (completed by October 1st) in Computer Science, Digital Humanities, Digital Heritage, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field.
• Excellent written and spoken English communication skills.
• Demonstrated interest in the semantic web, knowledge representation, and digital cultural heritage.
• Proficiency in programming, with a preference for Python.
• Experience with RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and ontology development tools.
• Familiarity with cultural heritage digitization workflows and multimodal datasets.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with digital archaeology or material culture modelling.
• Familiarity with LOD vocabularies and standards like CIDOC-CRM, EDM, or others relevant to cultural heritage.
• Interest in artificial intelligence, with a focus on the application of large language models (LLMs) in cultural heritage research.

Benefits:

• The opportunity to write your Ph.D. at the LMU IDCHS, a dynamic, internationally connected team working at the forefront of Heritage Science and technology.
• Work in close collaboration with the EXCALIBUR project partners, including renowned research centers, universities, and cultural institutions in Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy.
• The position and salary are based on a TV-L E13 position at 65% for a period of three years
• Training and development opportunities
• Our institute is located in the heart of the lively and globally diverse city of Munich with excellent public transportation connections.
• Flexible working hours
• Support in relocating to Munich through the LMU Gateway office.

LMU Munich is an equal opportunity employer committed to excellence through diversity, and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

People with disabilities who are equally as qualified as other applicants will receive preferential treatment.

Contact:

Please submit your application comprising the documents listed below as a single PDF (up to 15 MB) via e-mail only to jobs-research@dkes.fak12.lmu.de, by 27 July 2025. For questions regarding the position, you may contact Prof. Nicola Lercari at n.lercari@lmu.de.

Completed applications will include:

1. Cover letter
2. Curriculum vitae
3. Research statement, or Ph.D. thesis exposé (max. three pages) describing your motivation and proposed direction for your Ph.D. project
4. Names and contact information for three academic references
5. Proof of academic degrees (e.g., diplomas, unofficial transcripts, etc.)
6. One writing sample or other relevant documents (e.g., M.A or M.Sc. thesis excerpt, published articles, or conference proceedings)

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