Description
MSCA-PF: Joint application at the University of Granada. Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications.
Professor Iván López Espejo, from the Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications 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
The Group SigMAT (Signal Processing, Multimedia Transmission and Speech/Audio Technologies) is a Research Group of the Junta de Andalucía, code TIC-234. This Research Group was created in 2012 and it is composed of Faculty and Researchers from the Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications of the University of Granada. The main objectives of the Group SigMAT can be summarized in the following lines:
- To research, innovate and develop speech technologies, e.g., speech recognition, speech coding and synthesis, and speaker recognition.
- Research and innovation in robust and secure multimedia communications techniques (voice, image and video), e.g., enhancement, robust transmission, biometrics, and anti-spoofing.
- Research in other fields of application of signal processing, such as ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation and proteomics.
- Development of applications related to speech technology.
- Consultancy on speech technologies.
Project description
Understanding lyrics is a key component of music enjoyment; however, listeners with hearing loss often struggle to perceive them clearly and effortlessly. Building on recent advances in speech intelligibility prediction, the development of lyric intelligibility prediction methods—still a largely unexplored area—has the potential to enable a new generation of lyric enhancement technologies. Such progress could significantly improve music accessibility for individuals with hearing loss, while also contributing to broader well-being.
Recently, our research group participated in the Cadenza Challenge 2026, held by IEEE ICASSP 2026, which focused on lyric intelligibility prediction. Our proposed system, LIWhiz, achieved first place in the non-intrusive category, demonstrating highly accurate intelligibility prediction for popular Western music.
Motivated by this success, as well as the societal relevance of this underexplored problem, the proposed Project aims to advance the state-of-the-art in lyric intelligibility prediction for both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners using machine learning approaches. Specifically, we seek to develop robust and reliable predictive metrics that can support the design of next-generation lyric enhancement technologies, ultimately improving music accessibility and listening experience.
Research Area
- Information Science and Engineering (ENG)
For a correct evaluation of your candidature, please send the documents below to Professor Iván López Espejo (iloes@ugr.es):
- CV
- Letter of recommendation (optional)
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