Professor Javier Valls Prieto, from the Department of Criminal law Department/ Andalusian Institute of Criminology at the University of Granada, welcomes postdoctoral candidates interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-PF) in 2026 at this University. Please note that applicants must comply with the Mobility Rule (for more information about the 2026 call, please consult this link).
Brief description of the institution:
The University of Granada (UGR), founded in 1531, is one of the largest and most important universities in Spain. With more than 57,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and almost 7,000 members of staff, the UGR offers 97 undergraduate degrees, 157 master’s degrees (7 of which are double degrees) and 28 doctoral programmes via its 124 departments and nearly 50 centers. Accordingly, the UGR offers one of the most extensive and diverse ranges of higher education programmes in Spain.
The UGR has been awarded with the "Human Resources Excellence in Research (HRS4R)", which reflects the institution’s commitment to continuously improve its human resource policies in line with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers. The UGR is also internationally renowned for its excellence in diverse research fields and ranked among the top Spanish universities in a variety of ranking criteria, such as national R&D projects, fellowships awarded, publications, and international funding.
The UGR is one of the few Spanish Universities listed in the Shanghai Top 500 ranking - Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU). The 2025 edition of the ARWU places the UGR in 301-400th position in the world and as the 3-8 highest ranked University in Spain, reaffirming its position as an institution at the forefront of national and international research. From the perspective of specialist areas in the ARWU rankings, the UGR is outstanding in Mathematics, Artificial Intelligence and Dentistry & Oral Sciences (ranked between 51th-75th position), Computer Science & Engineering, Education and Hospitality & Tourism Management (between 76-100th position), and in the areas of Food Science & Technology and Business Administration (between 101-150th position). A little lower in the ranking, the UGR also stands out in the areas of Earth Sciences, Law, Management, Nursing, Psychology and Statistics, in which the UGR is positioned in the 151-200th position.
Additionally, the UGR counts with 4 researchers at the top of the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) list, most of them related to the Computer Science and Mathematics scientific areas. It is also well recognised for its presence in the top 200 Universities in Europe at 83th place.
Internationally, the University of Granada is firmly committed to its participation in the calls of the Framework Programme of the European Union. For the duration of the prevoius Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, the UGR obtained a total of 124 projects with a total funding of more than €30 million. For the current Framework Programme, Horizon Europe, the UGR has obtained 136 projects, so far, with a total funding of more than €38 million.
Brief description of the Centre/Research Group:
Criminal Law Department of the UGR is one of the top criminal law departments in Spain. It has a long tradition in research. In the last 10 years has participated in plenty of national and regional research projects and in 7 European projects from the ERC.
The Andalusian institute of criminology is a scientific, technical and specialization research centre with five sections in different Andalusian Universities. Its primary activity is the organization, programming and developing of research and teaching of criminology, penal, penitentiary and political-criminal disciplines. It has collaborated in five European project related to the use of AI against terrorism and organized crime and border security.
Project description:
The researcher will be able to join three main lines of research: Artificial Intelligence governance systems, human rights impact assessment of AI systems and the use of intelligent systems in crime and security issues.
Governance focuses on two main aspects, the ethical principles and the regulatory framework of artificial intelligence.
Human rights assessment focuses on the impact of AI implementation in real uses cases.
The use by law enforcement focuses on cybercrime, use of crime prevention with predictive systems and the use of the technology by society
Research Area:
- Social Sciences and Humanities (SOC)
For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Javier Valls Prieto (jvalls@ugr.es):
- CV
- Letter of recommendation (optional)
