Funded PhD Position in Computational Pathology and Medical Artificial Intelligence – Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm, Sweden, is offering a doctoral student position focused on computational pathology and medical artificial intelligence. The project combines biomedical research, digital pathology, machine learning, medical image analysis, and cancer diagnostics.

The opportunity is well suited to candidates with backgrounds in computer science, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics, medical imaging, computational biology, statistics, or related fields. Applicants should be interested in developing and applying artificial-intelligence methods to clinically relevant pathology data and should be comfortable working at the interface of computational research and medicine.

Position Details

• Position: Doctoral student position in computational pathology and medical artificial intelligence

• University: Karolinska Institutet

• Department: Biomedical Sciences / relevant KI research environment

• Location: Stockholm, Sweden

• Research areas: Computational pathology, medical AI, cancer diagnostics, digital pathology, machine learning, biomedical image analysis

• Contract: Full-time doctoral student position

• Doctoral duration: Four years of doctoral studies, subject to KI doctoral-education requirements

• Funding: Financially supported doctoral position; KI doctoral students are supported through employment at KI or another employer

• Tuition: No tuition fee for doctoral education at KI

• Application deadline: 31 August 2026, according to the aggregated vacancy listing; verify the live KI announcement before applying

Research Focus

Computational pathology uses digital images of tissue samples together with computational methods to identify patterns that may be difficult to detect consistently through manual examination alone. When combined with artificial intelligence, the field can support cancer diagnosis, prognosis, treatment selection, biomarker discovery, and quantitative understanding of tissue architecture.

The PhD project is expected to involve the development or application of machine-learning methods for biomedical image analysis and pathology research. Depending on the official project description, possible areas of work may include:

• Automated analysis of digitized histopathology slides.

• Deep-learning models for tissue and cellular classification.

• Quantitative characterization of tumour morphology.

• Detection of clinically relevant biomarkers.

• Multimodal integration of pathology images with clinical, molecular, or genomic data.

• Model validation across patient cohorts, scanners, or institutions.

• Explainable and reproducible medical-AI workflows.

• Evaluation of model performance, robustness, fairness, and clinical utility.

The exact disease area, datasets, imaging modalities, and modelling approach should be confirmed in the official KI vacancy announcement.

Eligibility and Skills

Applicants should normally hold, or be close to completing, a master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline. Suitable academic backgrounds may include:

• Biomedical engineering.

• Computer science or artificial intelligence.

• Bioinformatics or computational biology.

• Medical imaging or image analysis.

• Biostatistics or applied mathematics.

• Medicine, biomedical sciences, or molecular biology with strong computational experience.

• Electrical engineering or another quantitative engineering discipline.

Relevant technical preparation may include:

• Deep learning using PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar frameworks.

• Computer vision and image-processing methods.

• Digital pathology or microscopy-image analysis.

• Programming in Python, MATLAB, R, or related languages.

• Statistical modelling and experimental design.

• Data management and reproducible computational workflows.

• Experience working with clinical or biomedical datasets.

Applicants should also demonstrate the ability to communicate across computational and biomedical disciplines. Experience with pathology, cancer biology, medical imaging, or clinical translation would be valuable, but the precise requirements depend on the research group.

Funding and Benefits

Karolinska Institutet states that all doctoral students are financially supported during their studies, either through employment at KI or through employment elsewhere. Doctoral education at KI has no tuition fee, regardless of the student’s country of origin.

The advertised opening is a doctoral student position rather than a self-funded study place. Applicants should confirm the exact salary, employment percentage, contract duration, benefits, and starting date in the official vacancy announcement. Swedish doctoral employment conditions may include salary progression, paid leave, pension, social-security coverage, and access to university health and research facilities, but the precise package depends on the contract.

The doctoral education normally corresponds to four years of full-time study. KI offers doctoral courses and thematic programmes related to the student’s research project, along with supervision and research training.

Why Apply?

This PhD is particularly relevant for candidates who want to develop clinically meaningful AI methods rather than work exclusively on generic computer-vision benchmarks. It may provide exposure to:

• Digital pathology and computational microscopy.

• Cancer diagnostics and precision medicine.

• Multimodal biomedical data integration.

• Deep learning and explainable AI.

• Clinical collaboration and translational research.

• Quantitative tissue characterization.

• Reproducible and clinically robust machine-learning pipelines.

For researchers with expertise in ultrasound elastography, medical imaging, PINNs, or computational biomechanics, the project may offer a useful pathway into medical AI. Transferable strengths could include inverse-problem formulation, image reconstruction, quantitative imaging, physics-informed modelling, uncertainty quantification, and validation against biological or clinical measurements.

Karolinska Institutet Doctoral Environment

Karolinska Institutet is a research-focused medical university with doctoral education spanning biomedical, clinical, public-health, and translational research. Doctoral education positions are advertised continuously through the KI doctoral-education and vacancy pages.

Doctoral students select one or more thematic programmes connected to their research project. The doctoral environment may include:

• Individual supervision and research planning.

• Doctoral courses and seminars.

• Research-group meetings and journal clubs.

• Ethical, statistical, and methodological training.

• Scientific conferences and collaboration.

• Thesis planning and progress reviews.

• Opportunities to work with clinical and translational research teams.

How to Apply

Applicants should apply through the official Karolinska Institutet vacancy page. Search for the exact title “Doctoral student position in computational pathology and medical artificial intelligence.”

A typical application package may include:

• Academic CV.

• Motivation letter.

• Degree certificates and transcripts.

• Description of previous research experience.

• Programming or machine-learning portfolio, where appropriate.

• Publication list or thesis summary, if available.

• Contact information for academic referees.

The motivation letter should explain why computational pathology and medical AI are scientifically important to the applicant. Candidates should connect their previous work to the position through concrete examples such as medical-image analysis, deep-learning model development, quantitative imaging, clinical data analysis, or reproducible software.

Applicants should avoid presenting themselves only as generic AI researchers. A strong application should also demonstrate interest in biomedical validity, clinical relevance, data quality, interpretability, and responsible deployment.

Application Link

Apply through the official Karolinska Institutet vacancy portal:

Karolinska Institutet – Available positions for doctoral education

The main KI vacancies page is also available here:

Karolinska Institutet – Vacancies

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