[jobs] MSCA 2026 Postdoc Fellowships in Open-Ended Embodied AI @ CYENS (Cyprus)
Vassilis Vassiliades
(Apologies for cross-posting)
The Cognitive Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) team at the CYENS Centre of Excellence (Cyprus) is inviting expressions of interest for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) 2026.
We are recruiting ambitious candidates to co-develop competitive proposals on Open-Ended & Continual Learning, World Models, and Robot Learning.
Please find the full call for expressions of interest below.
Best regards,
Vassilis Vassiliades
[MSCA 2026 | Cyprus] Postdoctoral Fellowships: Open-Ended Interactive & Embodied Intelligence
Join the CAIR Team at CYENS to build generalist agents that discover, reason, and act in interactive environments.
The Opportunity
The Cognitive Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) research team at CYENS Centre of Excellence (Nicosia, Cyprus) invites expressions of interest for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF) 2026.
We are recruiting ambitious candidates to co-develop competitive proposals on interactive and embodied AI. Our research vision moves beyond static datasets toward generalist agents that leverage open-ended learning, world models, and multi-agent dynamics to discover and adapt through interaction. Projects may be evaluated in interactive environments (simulation, games, and multi-agent worlds) and extended to real-world validation on robotic platforms.
Timeline
- Call opens: 9 April 2026
- Deadline: 9 September 2026
About the Host and Supervisor
The CAIR team at CYENS is led by Dr. Vassilis Vassiliades and studies learning systems that autonomously acquire, adapt, and reuse skills over time. The supervisor’s prior research spans Quality-Diversity algorithms, reinforcement learning, continual learning, and data-efficient robot learning, with an interest in predictive models for planning and decision-making.
These foundations motivate the team’s current direction toward open-ended embodied intelligence. The MSCA project is intended as a collaborative effort in which the postdoctoral researcher plays a central role in shaping the scientific direction and establishing a new research line within the team.
Why Apply With CYENS?
- The "Widening" Multiplier: As a Cyprus-based host (a Widening country), eligible proposals may also be considered for ERA Fellowships if not funded under the main MSCA call, providing an additional funding pathway without requiring a new application.
- Pure Research Focus: This is a dedicated research role with no teaching obligations, designed to support high-impact publications in venues such as NeurIPS, ICRA, CoRL, RSS, ICML, and ICLR.
- Agile Infrastructure: We prioritize compute-efficient and simulation-first approaches, offering dedicated HPC resources (A6000 48GB / A5000 24GB nodes) suitable for large-scale simulation and fine-tuning foundation models, with reliable access and minimal contention.
- International Secondments: We actively facilitate optional research visits (3–6 months) to our network of international academic partners to strengthen training, networking, and the project's scientific impact.
Research Tracks
We encourage proposals that bridge these areas (e.g., world models for robust transfer and planning, or auto-curricula that drive the discovery of reusable skills). Tracks 1–2 can be pursued fully in interactive simulation environments, while Track 3 focuses on robotics and cross-platform transfer.
1) Open-Ended & Continual Learning
Moving beyond static datasets through self-generated experience and lifelong interaction.
- Auto-Curricula: co-evolution of agents and environments (e.g., POET, UED) to generate "regret-maximizing" training distributions.
- Discovery Algorithms: Quality Diversity (e.g., MAP-Elites), intrinsically motivated goal exploration, and unsupervised skill discovery.
- Continual & Meta-Learning: solving the stability-plasticity dilemma and utilizing learning-to-learn strategies for fast adaptation to novel tasks without catastrophic forgetting.
- Predictive Knowledge: learning large collections of self-generated predictions (e.g., General Value Functions) to continually expand the agent’s knowledge without relying on external rewards.
2) World Models & Abstraction
Structuring learned knowledge into abstractions that support planning and reasoning in embodied or interactive environments.
- Multi-Level Representations: hierarchical world models planning over skills/options rather than atomic actions.
- Learning Abstractions: discovering compact state and skill representations that enable long-horizon planning.
- Multi-Agent Models: learning predictive models of other agents and joint dynamics for coordination and planning.
- System-2 Reasoning: utilizing learned world models for test-time search (e.g., MCTS) and counterfactual reasoning.
3) Robot Learning & Transfer
Scaling robot learning via simulation-first development, portable data, and cross-platform transfer (including sim-to-real when relevant).
- Foundation Model Adaptation: efficient fine-tuning/distillation of Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models for robotic control.
- Heterogeneous Coordination: decentralized policies for diverse robot teams (e.g., Quadruped + Mobile Manipulator collaboration).
- Data-Driven Manipulation: leveraging vision-based hand tracking, VR/AR interfaces, and handheld grippers for portable data collection, alongside low-cost arms for accessible teleoperation and imitation-learning pipelines.
- Robust Transfer: uncertainty-aware control and distributional RL for safe generalization across domains (simulation and real-world).
Resources & Hardware
We support simulation-first research with pathways to real-world validation when relevant:
- Compute: Dedicated CYENS AI Cluster (HPC) with A6000 48GB / A5000 24GB nodes for large-scale simulation (Isaac Lab / MuJoCo) and deep learning.
- Robotics Platforms: Unitree A1 (quadruped), Turtlebot 4 (mobile base), SO-101 low-cost manipulation arms for teleoperation and imitation-learning experiments; support for portable demonstration collection (UMI-style).
- Industrial Exposure: Availability of commercial 6-DoF collaborative arms through CYENS facilities and partner arrangements.
Eligibility Check
- PhD Rule: You must hold a PhD by 9 September 2026 (with max 8 years post-PhD research experience).
- Mobility Rule: You must not have lived or worked in Cyprus for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to the deadline.
- Resubmission Rule: If you applied for an MSCA-PF in the previous call (2025) with CYENS as your host and your proposal scored below 70%, you are not eligible to apply with us this year. (Applying with a different host previously does not affect your eligibility).
How to Apply
Email v.vass...@cyens.org.cy with the subject: “MSCA-PF-2026 Candidate”
Please include:
- CV: Including a full list of publications.
- Research Statement (Max 1 Page): A concrete project sketch outlining the problem, method, and evaluation plan. Please note: Generic applications without a specific research idea aligned with these tracks will not be considered.
- Representative Work: PDFs or links to 2–3 of your best papers.
- Eligibility Note: Brief confirmation of your PhD date and months spent in Cyprus in the last 36 months, and confirmation that you do not fall under the MSCA 70% resubmission restriction with CYENS.
Deadline for Expressions of Interest: 15 May 2026 (Rolling review).
Shortlisted candidates will be contacted within 7–10 days of submission. We expect to work closely with a small number of shortlisted candidates (typically 2–3) to co-develop full MSCA proposals.