SOUNDS

The Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS) is looking to fill a W3 Professorship position (m/f/x) in Compuational Social Science.

This professorial appointment is open regarding the candidate's specific research focus within the field ofcomputational social science. The successful candidate will define their own research agenda, provided thatit demonstrates excellence in computational social science, addresses current societal questions, makes useof novel digital data sources and establishes clear links with computer science.

SOUNDS is a research project at Saarland University funded through the Saarland state government’s Transformation Fund. It investigates societally relevant questions through novel digital data sources, digital behavioural traces, social media data and Al-based methods. This professorship provides the computational social science core of the SOUNDS project. It will combine social-science theory with network analysis, automated text analysis, the study of large-scale digital behavioural data, mobile sensing and Al-based modelling, addressing questions such as collective opinion formation, social cohesion and polarisation, or the role of digital platforms in public communication, and contributing to joint questions, methods and publications with the social sciences and computer science. The successful candidate will be expected to develop and lead externally funded research, including principal investigator roles in coordinated funding initiatives such as Collaborative Research Centres. Teaching duties will include computational and methodological courses, for example on the analysis of digital behavioural data, automated text analysis and network analysis. These courses will contribute to degree programmes in the social sciences, computer science, data science and psychology. The role also includes the supervision of student theses and the mentoring of early-career researchers.

We are looking for a researcher with excellent international standing in computational social science and a strong record of working with novel digital data sources applied to societally relevant questions. Your expertise should include computational methods such as network analysis, automated text analysis, the analysis of large-scale digital behavioural data and Al-based modelling. You should be open to a formal affiliation with the Department of Computer Science. You will have an established international researchnetwork, an excellent record of high-impact publication and of third-party funding, including grants secured and applications submitted. You should also be prepared to take on principal investigator roles in coordinated funding initiatives such as Collaborative Research Centres. A willingness to teach in English is expected, as is the willingness to teach in German in the medium term.

Application deadline: October 15th, 2026

Full call for applications: https://www.uni-saarland.de/fileadmin/upload/verwaltung/stellen/Wissenschaftler/W2906_W3_SOUNDS_CompSocScien_EN.pdf