Postdoctoral Fellowship: Postdoctoral Researcher in Computational Social Science

About the Project

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) – one of Northern Europe’s largest hubs for ecological research – invites applications for a postdoctoral position in computational social science. The successful candidate will join a new research programme, Articulating Complexity, led by Docent Guillaume Chapron and funded by VR, Mistra, and FORMAS.

The project develops large-scale simulations of societal processes (e.g. environmental negotiations, policy-making, hybrid-threat scenarios) where every actor is an autonomous AI agent powered by Large Language Models. These agents mimic real stakeholders—from government ministers to interest groups—and interact through natural language in complex strategic settings. Running thousands of iterations maps the distribution of possible outcomes. The methodology sits at the intersection of AI, ecology, political science, and complex systems, with the goal of changing how policies are stress-tested and how governments prepare for crises.

Responsibilities

As the postdoctoral researcher, you ensure that simulation outputs are grounded in real human behaviour, political dynamics, and institutional logic. Your main tasks include:

• Agent persona construction: define identity prompts, ideology vectors, personality traits, decision-mode weights (rational/emotional/social), and affect parameters for each agent. Extract positions, rhetorical styles, strategic preferences, and psychological profiles from real-world sources.
• Analysis and validation of simulation outputs: analyse the distribution of outcomes from Monte Carlo runs (1,000+ iterations per scenario)—which policies emerge, where societal resilience breaks down, and what chains of events lead to systemic failure. Design behavioural signature validation to compare simulated agent sentiment, linguistic register, and action distributions against empirical baselines.
• Publication and dissemination: co-author scientific publications at the intersection of computational social science, ecology, security studies, and AI. Work closely with the PI (Guillaume Chapron) and a concurrently recruited research engineer in AI; together you form the core team.

Qualifications

Required

• A PhD (completed by the start date) in computational social science, political science, psychology, behavioural economics, evolutionary anthropology, or a related field with strong quantitative skills.
• Ability to reflect on strategic behaviour, political dynamics, or social processes in a structured, analytical way—through formal models, experiments, or quantitative analysis.
• Willingness to work critically with AI and LLMs: interpreting outputs, designing, testing, and refining prompts.
• Strong writing skills: clarity, precision, and the ability to communicate across disciplinary boundaries.

Desirable

• Experience with agent-based modelling, game theory, simulation, or experimental social-science methods.
• Experience with LLMs for simulating human behaviour (e.g. “silicon samples” or next-generation social simulations).
• Understanding of institutional design, legislative procedures, or multi-level governance (national, EU, international)—to correctly enforce procedural constraints in simulations.
• Reading proficiency in Swedish (advantageous for analysing Swedish political documents and media).

Assessment Criteria

Applications will be evaluated on:

• Intellectual depth and originality: demonstrated ability to produce novel ideas, not incremental extensions. Your thesis, publications, or research statement should show independent thinking and a drive to tackle hard, underexplored scientific problems.
• Interdisciplinary range: candidates whose work connects political behaviour, psychology, strategic interaction, and computational methods—even unconventionally—are preferred over narrow specialists with longer publication lists.
• Fit with the project’s ambition: the project aims to pioneer a new field. We seek someone who finds that proposition thrilling rather than risky. Your application should explain why this project specifically, not just why a postdoc. The area is new, so you must be able to work in relative isolation.
• Cross-discipline disposition: daily work involves questions from computer science, AI, ecology, political science, and geopolitics. Ability to communicate across disciplinary silos—and strong interpersonal skills—are essential.

Location

The position is based at Grimsö Research Station or in Uppsala, with the possibility to be partly based at another Swedish academic institution with core expertise in computational social science.

How to Apply

Submit your application including a CV, cover letter, research statement, and contact details for two references. For further information, contact Guillaume Chapron ([email protected]).

Original vacancy