PhD position in cognitive computational neuroscience

The Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), Denmark, invite applications for a PhD position in cognitive computational neuroscience to be filled by 1st of October 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.
Information about the project can be found at

Job content

The PhD student will be part of a project entitled A Neuronal Mechanism for Auditory Imagination funded by the Lundbeck Foundation and headed by Principal Investigator (PI) David R. Quiroga-Martinez . The project aims to uncover the neural basis of auditory imagination, its variation in the general population, and its dysfunction in schizophrenia. The project combines a variety of methods including scalp EEG recordings, intracranial EEG measurements in humans including single-neuron activity, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and cognitive modeling. For more details, please contact David R. Quiroga-Martinez. ( Se e-mailadresse på jobportal.ku.dk ).

Candidates with an interest and background in cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, or similar are encouraged to apply. Strong motivation, independence, as well as critical and creative thinking are essential qualities for the position. Experience with the design and implementation of experiments, signal processing, data analysis, programming, and cognitive modeling will be positively valued. The successful candidate will lead the design and execution of experiments aimed at understanding the neuronal dynamics of auditory imagination using EEG and cognitive modeling. As part of the bigger project, the PhD student will have the opportunity to work with intracranial EEG data (including human single-neuron recordings), TMS, and neuropsychiatric patients, in close collaboration with cognitive psychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, and other cognitive scientists. It is expected that the successful candidate will partake in the activities of the research group on a daily basis. The PhD student will be physically located at the Cognition and Neuropsychology research cluster , at the Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen.

Information
Potential applicants are encouraged to contact PI David R. Quiroga-Martinez ( Se e-mailadresse på jobportal.ku.dk ) for more information about the project.

Introduction
PhD studies consist of research programmes that qualify students for independent and wide-ranging research, development and teaching at international level. The main emphasis is on PhD students organising and conducting their own research project (under supervision). The programme culminates in the submission of a PhD thesis, which the student must defend in public. The programme is prescribed to 180 ECTS points, corresponding to three years of full-time study.

A PhD opens up a range of career opportunities in academia and elsewhere. As well as writing a thesis, PhD students work in active research environments in Denmark and abroad. They contribute to the academic environment, take research training courses and convey the results of their research in teaching, at academic conferences and to the general public.

Qualification requirements
Applicants must have a two-year Master’s degree (120 ECTS) or equivalent and, as a minimum, have submitted a Master’s thesis for which they have received pre-approval at the time of application.
The qualifications of applicants with non-Danish Master’s degrees will be assessed to ascertain whether they correspond to the Danish level. For further information, please refer to the website of the Ministry of Education and Research: .
Applicants must possess skills in written and spoken academic English at a high level. If deemed necessary, the department may request that applicants document their English skills.

Application
All applications must be submitted online, in PDF or Microsoft Word format, via the link “Apply for the position” at the bottom of the page.

The application must include:

1. Project description
Applications must include a brief PhD project description covering the problem formulation, overall objectives, methodology, and expected results (max. 1 page/2400 characters, incl. spaces, excl. bibliography). This description should address issues in the cognitive neuroscience of (auditory) imagination and / or inner cognition and should be clearly situated within the larger project mentioned above.

Example of articles from our group can be found here:

• Quiroga-Martinez, D.R. et al. (2025) “Brain dynamics of mental manipulation.” bioRxiv, p. 2025.10.20.683458. .
• Quiroga-Martinez, D.R. et al. (2024) “Decoding reveals the neural representation of perceived and imagined musical sounds,” PLOS Biology , 22(10), p. e3002858. .
• Hoy, C.W. et al. (2023) “Asymmetric coding of reward prediction errors in human insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex,” Nature Communications , 14(1), p. 8520. Available at: .

Guidelines and good advice on project descriptions are available here .

Please do not upload or submit recommendations, publications, theses, etc.

2. Personal statement (max. one page)
In their personal statements, applicants are encouraged to:

• Outline how the PhD project relates to other research activities at the department
• Describe as clearly as possible their competencies, motivations, and personal qualifications relevant to the PhD programme.

3. CV
Applications must be accompanied by a CV (max.one page) and a list of publications, if relevant.

4. Documentation (diplomas and transcripts)
Applicants must upload the following:

• A copy of their Master’s degree diploma or similar (if this is not available by the application deadline, applicants must document pre-approval of their Master’s thesis).
• A copy of their Master’s degree transcript
• A copy of their Bachelor’s degree diploma
• A copy of their Bachelor’s degree transcript.

Applicants with a degree from a university where the working language is not English or one of the Scandinavian languages must be prepared to submit a translation of their Master’s diploma and/or diploma transcripts approved by the Danish embassy or consulate in the country where the original document was issued, in order to proceed with the hiring process if successful. These documents must be translated into English, Danish, Norwegian or Swedish. An official description of the grading scale (and a diploma supplement where relevant) must also be attached.
Chinese applicants must attach a China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Evaluation Committee (CADGEEC) certificate. Read more about CADGEEC here .

Assessment criteria
The following criteria are applied when assessing PhD applications:

• The quality and originality of the PhD project
• Research qualifications, as reflected in the attached CV and project description
• Competencies and knowledge of relevant fields of academic research
• Level (grades obtained) of Bachelor and Master’s studies.

Please note that only one scholarship is awarded at this call and competition is intense.

Salary and Terms of Employment
Terms of appointment and salary will be in accordance with an agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). The salary range starts at approximately DKK 31,600 (EUR 4,200) + an 18.07 % pension contribution.
We seek to reflect the breadth and diversity of society and encourage applications irrespective of personal background.

The recruitment process
After the deadline for applications, the Head of Department considers advice from the Appointment Committee and then selects applicants for assessment. All applicants will be notified whether or not they have been shortlisted. After this, the Head of Department sets up an expert Assessment Committee to assess the shortlisted applications. The selected applicants will be informed who is serving on the committee. Individual applicants will be offered the opportunity to comment on the committee’s assessment of their application before the appointment is announced.

Enrolment
It is a prerequisite for employment that successful applicants enrol at the PhD School of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.
For further information about the structure of the PhD programme, please refer to: .
For further information about the guidelines for PhD studies at UCPH, please refer to:

International Applicant?
The University of Copenhagen offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including support before and during your relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about our services at: For international researchers at the University of Copenhagen .

An Equal Opportunity Workplace
The University of Copenhagen is committed in its pursuit of academic excellence to equality of opportunity and to creating an inclusive working environment and therefore encourages all qualified candidates to apply, regardless of personal background, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity etc. To learn more about our diverse workplace and our participation in the HRS4R HR Excellence in Research, please visit HR Excellence in Research .

The deadline for applications is 1st of July 2026, at 23:59 CEST

We encourage you to first consult our website, where most questions concerning the recruitment process as well as the academic content and structure of the PhD programme are answered:

If you do not find the information you are looking for, you are welcome to contact HR South at Se e-mailadresse på jobportal.ku.dk . Please remember to state the ID number 2112461/26-2H #2
If you have any questions about the academic content of the PhD programme, please e-mail the PhD coordinator at the Department of Psychology, Xuan Li, Se e-mailadresse på jobportal.ku.dk .

Any applications or additional material submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
However, changes may be made to the submitted application right up until the deadline.