PhD position: Machine learning and passive acoustic monitoring of birds and bats in Swedish forests
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (in Umeå) is hiring a PhD student within the Wallenberg Initiative in Forest Research (WIFORCE).
The project focuses on the use of passive acoustic monitoring of birds and bats in Swedish forests, applying (and potentially further developing) deep learning models to identify species, develop hierarchical statistical models that incorporate model predictions from AI models, and creating an open-source automated data flow of acoustic data from sensor to biodiversity metrics. There are data from several projects looking at bird and bat responses to forest restoration and forest structure to play with, as well as the possibility to collect more data. We have funding for two research visits to data scientists we are working with. There will be much room for the PhD student to develop their own parts of the project and decide which researchers to visit/collaborate with.
Deadline: February 10, 2026.