FGIV - Project Officer - AI2HEALTH

Offer Description

WEARE

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) provides independent, evidence‑based knowledge and science, supporting EU policies to positively impact society.

The current vacancy is at the JRC Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) located in the Directorate for Innovation in Science and Policymaking. The mission of the Directorate is to support the scientific and organisational development of the JRC to better support EU policymaking and democracy through scientific knowledge, foresight, evaluation and engagement with citizens. The CAS incubates novel ideas within the JRC through various programmes.

Within healthcare, the emerging convergence of health data and agentic AI creates complex "socio‑technical" systems embedded in wider societal use contexts, meaning numerous technical hurdles need to be overcome when designing such complex systems. In particular, these possibilities and potential opportunities need to be considered against any potential ethical considerations, including, for instance, on transparency, accountability or dignity, with partial ramifications for the patient‑physician relationship, the primacy of patients or considerations around future healthcare models. For this reason, the deployment of said agents must be examined carefully in order to be fully understood by public services prior to their uptake by healthcare systems for routine use in healthcare workflows.

Against this background, the CAS, through its Advanced & Interdisciplinary Research Programme (AIR), is launching a three‑year project aimed at (1) establishing an integrated technical and ethical‑societal framework that supports both design and assessment of agentic AI systems for personalised healthcare and (2) providing policy recommendations, e.g., in the context of the Commission’s Apply AI sectorial flagship on healthcare concerning complex AI‑based socio‑technical systems for routine use in healthcare. The project is covering both technical as well as societal‑ethical dimensions, with the latter informing design choices and the former informing on ethical challenges upfront.

In addition, the project is intended to help equip the JRC and ultimately the Commission with a detailed understanding of salient scientific, ethical and societal aspects from both a EU policy as well as a larger societal perspective. This should allow the JRC to offer an integrated strategic perspective to support long‑term policy formulation and to contribute to AI governance framework in healthcare.

The project foresees two research positions. The position covered by this vacancy focuses on the ethical, societal‑legal and governance dimensions of AI in healthcare and does not involve operational system development.

The project will be supported by an Advisory Board chaired by a representative from the JRC CAS Unit and comprising selected external experts as well as colleagues from the Technologies for Health and Digital Health Units, whose mission is to protect health and promote wellbeing by ensuring that EU policies and regulations make the best use of scientific knowledge and evidence.

The job holder will be offered the opportunity to work:

• in a dynamic , multidisciplinary environment , with important societal impact in Europe and beyond;


• with a research team on a cutting‑edge topic at the intersection between science, technology, policy and society;


• a family‑friendly working environment , with online collaboration and occasional travel for conferences/workshops and cooperative work with colleagues in Brussels or other JRC sites (especially Ispra).

The job holder will mainly have the following tasks:

• Design and implement the societal and ethical research components of an interdisciplinary project examining AI agents that integrate health data and cognitive human–machine interfaces;


• Design expert and stakeholder workshops and targeted surveys on societal and ethical dimensions of agentic AI in healthcare, including impacts on dignity of patients and healthcare professionals, distributed responsibilities, accountability and liability, bias and equity, behavioural biases (computational bias and computational complacency), workplace aspects (potential deskilling of healthcare professionals, augmentation of human skills, complementation of human skills, reskilling of healthcare professionals) as well as relevant use contexts and use environments;


• Evaluate and summarise evidence of the pertinent societal, ethical challenges of such agentic AI’s use in healthcare;


• Inform the technical component of the project of ethical and societal dimensions that may need to be taken into account for design and development of agentic AI to avoid downstream pitfalls; identify emerging governance issues as well as legal and ethical challenges around the integration of complex socio‑technical systems into healthcare with due consideration of views on the future of healthcare, equality, societal acceptance, governance and robust evidence on costs and real‑world added value to patients, including alignment with EU values, fundamental rights and health system resilience;


• In addition, the job holder will be involved in the following:


• Writing, publishing and presenting scientific reports, articles and conference papers and contributing to briefings and other outreach material;


• Maintaining contacts with partners, stakeholders and institutions and coordinating or participating in networks of excellence, integrated projects and knowledge‑sharing activities, including presentations of the project;


• Ensuring regular and timely reporting to the head of the JRC Centre for Advanced Studies, the leader of the AIR programme and points of contact in the collaboration units;


• Helping facilitate cooperation with leading European and international experts in the field;


• Developing key scientific findings and recommendations for policymakers.

WE LOOK FOR

• We are looking for a researcher with a strong interest in the ethical, societal and legal/governance dimensions of AI’s increasing permeation of healthcare, motivated to embark on interdisciplinary work at the intersection of humanities and technology;


• The candidate should be highly motivated to support EU digital policies and have the following experience/skills (essential):


• A doctoral degree (PhD) in a field relevant to the position, or alternatively a university degree and at least five years of research experience in a field relevant to the position;


• A research track record on AI, digital health or data‑driven technologies, supported by high‑quality scientific publications;


• A very good (C1) written and spoken command of English.


• Any of the following skills and experience would be desirable:


• Multidisciplinary experience, combining proven know‑how in several domains including, but not limited to, technology, ethics and technology, socio‑economics, governance and policymaking;


• Knowledge of EU policies and regulatory frameworks related to AI and data;


• Interest and skills in developing new ideas and designing research projects, in particular in multi‑disciplinary fields;


• Experience in writing and communicating to scientific, policy, and business audiences, as well as to the general public;


• Experience working in and contributing to multi‑ and trans‑disciplinary research teams.

BENEFITS

• Work in a diverse, multidisciplinary research environment with an impact on EU policy and society;


• Collaborate with international experts in AI and healthcare ethics;


• Engage in funding‑free research and contribute to policy‑making;


• Access to the JRC’s research infrastructure and educational network;


• Potential for personal and professional development through conferences and joint training programmes.