PhD – Characterization of abiotic stress of trees using AI methods on acoustic signals – Ireland

“IoRT Data management and analysis for Sustainable Agriculture” is a project funded under the action HORIZON Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Joint Doctoral Network.

Abiotic stresses (e.g. frost, drought, wind) cause significant damage to natural and cultivated plants, which is expected to increase in the future with increasing climate variability (extreme climatic events). The detection of acoustic emissions is a promising way to measure continuously and non-invasively the damage affecting plants.

This PhD  will focus on two complementary parts: (i) analysis of acoustic signals to extract relevant information from it (signal quality), (ii) comparison of classified acoustic measurements with ecophysiological reference measurements in cultivated sites with different stress modalities (e.g. agroecological orchards and vineyards along natural gradients).

Work Plan:

1. Conduct a literature review in data collection techniques used to collect the data for this project and ML techniques for multimodal datasets [Month 1 – 6].
2. Attend training on database of acoustic signals, applied stress and physiological indices collected in different woody species under drought and frost stress. [Month 3 – 6].
3. Explore the diversity of signals and perform complementary experiments to finalize the training dataset [Month 6 – 12].
4. Develop a data analysis process based on machine learning for multimodal datasets and evaluate its performance and robustness of it results [12 – 24].
5. Develop and implement an intelligent acoustic system and validate its results in the field (real-world data). [Month 24 – 33]

Requirements:

• You hold or are about to obtain a Master’s degree in a relevant field; The master degree must be granted by a university recognized by the International Association of Universities.
• You are motivated to pursue a double degree doctoral degree through an individual research project.
• You demonstrate a strong academic track record.
• You have a solid scientific background, possibly with prior relevant research experience.
• You have a sufficient command of the English language, given the international context.
• You are open to international mobility
• You are enthusiastic about sharing your research findings through impactful posters, compelling presentations, and high-quality publications in international journals and conferences.

Benefits

• Salary Gross Amount:Living Allowance  EUR 5470

  Mobility Allowance EUR 710

  Family Allowance EUR 660

• International PhD training excellence (here)
• Renowned supervisors & top-tier labs
• Interdisciplinary & multi sectoral research
• Competitive MSCA salary & allowances
• Global academic & industrial network
• Non-academic secondments

Organisation/Company: University College Dublin.

Field of research: Computer science » Informatics.

Research profile: Early-stage researcher (R1).

Country: Ireland.

Application deadline: 15 Apr 2026 – 00:00 (Europe/Paris).

More information: Euraxess.