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PhD Candidate in Human-AI Teaming for Maritime Operations

Project 2111 · NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology · Department of Design; Shore Control Lab

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Save this opportunity and prepare around its actual requirements. Confirm deadlines and eligibility at the original source.

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Country or region
Norway
Application deadline
2026-11-16 (confirm the exact time with the source)
Funding
Three-year full-time employment (code 1017); normally NOK 580,000 gross/year by qualifications/seniority, less 2% pension. Conditional on external funding; Design PhD admission within 3 months; daily on-site presence.

The research opportunity

PhD Candidate in Human-AI Teaming for Maritime Operations

Project and doctoral work

NTNU’s Department of Design is recruiting a full-time PhD candidate in Trondheim, affiliated with the Shore Control Lab and connected to the Norwegian Maritime AI Centre (MAI). The project asks how onboard and remote maritime operators can understand AI recommendations, judge when to rely on, question or override them, and use interaction design to support operational decisions.

The work follows an iterative concept–prototype–evaluation cycle: human-centred design and interactive prototyping, followed by interviews, observations, usability tests, experiments or simulation-based studies. Qualitative and quantitative evidence will assess human performance, situation awareness, workload, trust and safety-related outcomes; increased trust alone does not establish improved safety. MAI covers navigation, logistics, maintenance, training and energy management, but the candidate is not thereby assigned every topic or guaranteed a vessel, dataset or professional-operator sample.

Institution, appointment and eligibility

This is a three-year, full-time temporary employment, code 1017, based in Trondheim with daily physical presence required. Applicants need a relevant Master’s degree or equivalent in industrial design, design, HCI, human factors, interaction design, cognitive psychology or another related field, a strong academic record and research motivation, and documented written and spoken English. The vacancy sets no numerical IELTS score.

Formal admission to NTNU’s PhD in Design normally requires at least five years of higher education including a Master’s, with a weighted average equivalent to B or higher across the final two Master’s years. The candidate must gain admission within three months of the employment contract start date, not merely apply within that period. Confirm degree equivalence, exceptions and the admission timetable with the faculty. No start date is specified in the saved vacancy.

Application and appointment conditions

The vacancy lists 16 November 2026 as the application deadline but gives no closing time or time zone; current acceptance status has not been verified. Submit electronically through the official recruitment channel in Norwegian, another Scandinavian language or English. The application includes Bachelor’s and Master’s diplomas/transcripts, a CV, a Master’s thesis (a draft is allowed if recently submitted, but completion must be documented before employment), a project outline of up to 1,500 words/four pages describing research questions, theory, methods and progress, a 400-word/one-page motivation letter, and contact details for three referees. Add a contribution statement if work in joint outputs is hard to identify. Applicants with education from abroad must document the scope and quality of their full higher education; include any diploma supplement issued by the institution and an HK-dir assessment if already held. Only information received by the deadline is assessed; do not assume late additions will count. Apply through the original NTNU/Jobbnorge vacancy.

Appointment is conditional on external funding and continuous participation in an organised doctoral programme. An adverse export-control assessment can prevent employment; residence permission is a separate process. A public applicant list may disclose name, age, job title and municipality; exemptions require reasons and may be refused. Academic contact: Ole Andreas Alsos (oleanda@ntnu.no, +47 91544825). Recruitment contact: Natalia Swahn (natalia.swahn@ntnu.no). Alsos is the named academic contact, not a confirmed main supervisor; the full supervisory team remains unspecified.

Pay and open questions

The three-year position normally pays NOK 580,000 gross per year, depending on qualifications and seniority, with a 2% statutory pension contribution deducted; this is not take-home pay. Listed benefits include unquantified project working capital, career guidance, a new-employee mentor programme, SPK pension terms and free basic A2 Norwegian instruction; confirm contract-specific terms. The first points to verify are whether the external funding is secured, the appointed supervisors, the first case/participant and data access, the closing time and start date, and the applicant’s Design admission and export-control arrangements. Duties may change after appointment.

Further information

The brief focuses on the project and application requirements; Trondheim rent, NTNU housing and household-budget details remain in the report. Saved reference links: Statistics Norway rental survey, NTNU researcher housing and SIFO 2026 reference budget.

Research and application brief

Report generated: . This date does not confirm that recruitment remains open.

Information updated: . Recheck the original notice before applying.

Show report contents

PhD Candidate in Human-AI Teaming for Maritime Operations

Research Question and Appointment Fit

This NTNU position investigates how onboard and remote maritime operators can understand, question and override AI recommendations. Its centre of gravity is interactive design and human-factors evidence: making prototypes, testing them with people and assessing operational consequences. It is particularly relevant to research backgrounds in design, HCI, human factors or cognitive psychology that can combine prototyping with empirical analysis. The strength is an established maritime interaction-design laboratory connected to an active industrial research centre. The main unresolved issues are the appointed supervisory team, the actual case and participant access, and the vacancy's external-funding condition.

The advertised three-year employment normally pays NOK 580,000 gross annually, depending on qualifications and seniority, with a 2% statutory pension contribution. Applications close 16 November 2026; closing time, time zone and start date were not stated, and current acceptance status has not been verified. Daily physical availability in Trondheim and admission to NTNU's Design doctorate within three months of starting employment are conditions. Export-control assessment can prevent appointment; neither unconditional eligibility for Chinese applicants nor a blanket nationality exclusion is established by this vacancy. The first useful action is to ask the academic contact to confirm funding, supervision and a realistic first study before developing the four-page outline.

Research Problem and Doctoral Work

What Is Unsolved and Why It Matters

AI can recommend a manoeuvre without giving an operator enough information to decide whether the recommendation deserves reliance. A clear explanation can also raise confidence without improving correctness. In time-pressured maritime work, interface design must therefore be evaluated against human performance and safety-related outcomes, alongside situation awareness, workload and trust. The vacancy explicitly addresses human–AI teaming in safety-critical work, operational transparency/explainability and interaction design for AI-enabled maritime systems.

The research object is the interaction between people and AI-supported operations, encompassing both onboard and remote operators. A software demonstration alone would leave the central question unanswered: whether a person can use the information to make a better operational decision. Conversely, an attractive screen without a defensible user study would provide limited doctoral evidence. Shore Control Lab gives relevant institutional context for this combination of design and operational evaluation.

Work, Methods, and Potential Outputs

The advertised work includes planning concept–prototype–evaluation cycles, producing tangible interactive designs, and revising them after user feedback. Empirical methods expressly include interviews, observations, usability testing, experiments and simulation-based evaluation, using qualitative and quantitative evidence. The candidate must publish in relevant venues, contribute to cross-disciplinary MAI activities and work with partners and real operational cases. Duties may change after employment; the administrative reporting line is the Head of Department.

Possible research questions, proposed here rather than fixed in the advertisement, include how to display uncertainty without excessive workload; when a concise explanation improves appropriate reliance; and which interaction supports timely questioning or override. A focused comparison could measure decision quality, intervention behaviour and workload rather than treating higher self-reported trust as the objective. These are directions to discuss with supervisors, not promised experiments or access to operational vessels. Concrete scenarios, baselines, recruitment arrangements, ethics/privacy approvals and permitted data must be agreed before an evaluation plan is feasible.

School, Programme and Field Context

NTNU is the employing university and the institution offering the PhD in Design. The host is its Department of Design within the Faculty of Architecture and Design. The department spans industrial design in Trondheim and graphic/web-related activity in Gjøvik, with interaction design across both. This vacancy is specifically Trondheim-based. Its relevant subject signal is the combination of interaction-design research, human-factors studies and maritime applications; no independently verified Design/HCI subject-ranking position was established. Department.

The institutional QS World University Rankings 2027 position is 264 overall; the same profile lists 267 for 2026. These are university-wide indicators, not a ranking of this lab or proof of supervision quality. QS profile.

The programme is three years full-time, 180 ECTS, and combines coursework with a thesis. Its broader fields include product, interaction, graphic/information and sustainable design, design theory and health-related design. The advertised maritime work belongs naturally to the interaction-design strand. MAI collaborators provide research connections; there is no evidence that they award this candidate a joint or double degree. Programme.

Coursework is 30–45 ECTS, including PD8300 Topics in Design Research and at least 20 ECTS of scheduled PhD subjects; up to 10 ECTS may be individual reading or master's-level courses. The supervisor and doctoral committee agree and approve the plan. Information-search/publication courses cannot fill the minimum 30 ECTS. A monograph or coherent collection of works leads to assessment and public defence; coursework must be approved before thesis submission. Structure.

Recruitment and formal doctoral admission are separate. The actual Design admission page requires at least five years of higher education including a master's, and a weighted average equivalent to B or higher over the last two master's years. A different disciplinary background may be assessed together with the project. Funding and a prepared main supervisor are needed. Its 5–10-page formal project description is for doctoral admission; it does not replace the job's shorter application outline. Admission.

The faculty guidelines linked there, adopted in 2023, normally specify a 120-ECTS master's with a thesis of at least 30 ECTS, and allow documented-suitability exceptions to weaker grades. Their Norwegian grading interpretation cannot be converted into an invented Chinese percentage/GPA threshold. Confirm current applicability and individual equivalence with the faculty. The vacancy itself gives no numeric English-test score. Faculty guidelines.

The saved central regulations, effective 3 February 2026, retain ordinary admission in section 6-1: normally a Master with a thesis of at least 30 ECTS, weighted B over the final two Master years or equivalent, with documented-suitability exceptions. Section 6-2 requires applying within three months of starting doctoral work; the vacancy specifically requires already gaining Design admission within three months of the employment contract. These are different actions: retain the vacancy employment condition and confirm its processing timetable. The separate integrated route in section 23-2 is not a general exemption for this ordinary Design post. Current central admission rules.

Supervisor and Lab Assessment

Academic Contact and Research Directions

Professor Ole Andreas Alsos is the advertised academic contact, oleanda@ntnu.no, +47 91544825. His current staff header identifies him as Professor in Interaction Design and Head of Shore Control Lab. His background links computer science/HCI with industry usability work; maritime projects include remote workstations, human control and teaming. This supports research relevance, but the advertisement does not appoint him as the main supervisor or name the full team. The profile's older CV entry still uses Associate Professor; the current header and vacancy use Professor. Staff profile.

NTNU generally expects at least two supervisors, with at least one normally the main supervisor employed at NTNU. Roles should be agreed early. Obtain the proposed names, meeting rhythm and responsibility for empirical methods and maritime cases rather than inferring these from a contact address or paper byline. Supervision guidance.

Recent Important Publications

Three distinct original studies from 2024–2025 were identified through Alsos's institutional publication list and primary records. They represent two human-subject simulator studies and one engineering field demonstration; they are not three independent human-factors replications. No review or duplicate repository copy is used to meet that count. The complete ordered bibliography and date distinctions appear below.

P1: supervisory control. A randomized simulator study with 32 participants examined skillset, monitoring time, vessel count, available time and decision support in handover/takeover situations. Performance deteriorated with three vessels, less time and unavailable decision support; neither navigators nor gamers generally dominated. Its value here is an experimentally testable interface/evaluation framework, not a universally safe staffing ratio. Alsos is second author; Veitch is corresponding author. Reading: institutional metadata and complete abstract directly, plus selected indexed original text; not the full PDF. Paper.

P2: conversational maritime interfaces. A functional CUI prototype was compared with a human ship officer in a simulator. Users trusted the prototype less; inaccurate contextual answers, voice characteristics and perceived inability to collaborate were identified limitations. This makes calibrated reliance and valid system context more useful design targets than fluency alone. It is a bounded prototype result, not a verdict on every modern language model. Alsos is third and corresponding author in the published byline. Reading: complete repository abstract/metadata and selected indexed original passages/first-page details; not the full PDF. Paper.

P3: AI Captain. A proof-of-concept system combines a conversational high-level LLM planner with low-level control, showing mission execution and replanning on a real autonomous surface vehicle. It provides a possible system setting for studying operator interaction; feasibility is not operational safety certification or a controlled human-performance result. Alsos is fourth author; corresponding/CRediT roles were not verified. Reading: complete publisher abstract/highlights via its indexed primary text and directly opened institutional metadata. The repository Abstract panel was empty and the publisher page remained challenged; no direct full-article or PDF reading is claimed. Paper.

Lab, Resources, and Collaboration Environment

Shore Control Lab documents safety, usability and situation-awareness research with remote maritime interfaces and simulation. This is a stronger indication of methodological fit than the generic label “AI”. Historical simulators and student projects do not establish a reserved apparatus, ready dataset or guaranteed professional-operator sample for this doctorate.

The MAI centre connects research, innovation and education across maritime value chains. Its 2026/2027 student-project page, listed as of 7 September 2026, gives concrete cases with industry/public stakeholders including Kongsberg, DNV, VARD, Equinor and the Coastal Administration. That establishes an active ecosystem, not assignment to every partner. The centre's network of more than 25 fellows is not 25 positions in this advertisement.

The Research Council's centre call explicitly supports maritime AI innovation and value creation. Its centre-scale funding/duration does not remove this vacancy's individual external-funding condition.

Career and Field Implications

Plausible career directions include maritime UX/HCI research, human-factors evaluation, interaction design for decision support and safety/assurance research. These are reasoned skill-to-function links, not verified placement rates, future salaries, permanent jobs or immigration outcomes.

Funding, Application, and Living Cost

Employment and International Conditions

This is full-time, temporary three-year doctoral employment, code 1017. Normal advertised annual pay is NOK 580,000 gross, subject to qualifications/seniority, and 2% is deducted as a statutory pension contribution. This is not take-home pay. The advertisement lists project working capital without an amount, career guidance, mentoring, SPK terms, employee benefits and free basic A2 Norwegian training. The benefits paragraph retains an editorial instruction, so offer-specific details merit confirmation. No tuition invoice, research-cost schedule or personal top-up obligation was stated; these should be clarified rather than inventing a tuition scholarship package.

Appointment is explicitly conditional on external funding. Daily physical presence/availability is required, with Design admission within three months of contract start and organised doctoral participation throughout. No fourth year or permanent-job continuation is promised. The vacancy requires export-control assessment of knowledge, technology and services; people assessed as conflicting cannot be employed. It does not state the NATO-clearance condition found in some other maritime vacancies. Individual nationality/background/access assessment and immigration approval remain separate questions. NTNU staff immigration guidance.

Application Package

Submit the application and attachments electronically through the official recruitment application route, in English, Norwegian or another Scandinavian language, by 16 November 2026. Assessment uses information received by the deadline; do not assume late documents will count. Confirm the closing time/time zone. The package comprises:

  • Bachelor's/master's diplomas and transcripts, CV and a copy of the master's thesis. A recently submitted thesis may be supplied in draft; completed master's-degree documentation must be presented before taking up employment.
  • A project outline of at most 1,500 words / four pages, covering overall research questions, theoretical perspectives, method design and progress plan.
  • A 400-word / one-page motivation letter, possible publications/research work and certificates, and names/contact details of three relevant referees.
  • For education wholly/partly abroad, documentation of the scope and quality of the entire higher education, including bachelor's/master's and other studies. Attach a diploma supplement where issued; attach an HK-dir statement if already held, rather than treating a new assessment as an advertised universal prerequisite.
  • A contribution statement where personal work in joint outputs is hard to identify; certified diploma/certificate copies may be requested at interview. Education, experience, personal suitability, research potential, ambitions and motivation all enter selection. The vacancy invokes DORA/CoARA rather than a publication-count threshold. A public applicant list can disclose name, age, job title and municipality; exemption requires reasons and may be refused with notification. Recruitment questions go to Natalia Swahn, natalia.swahn@ntnu.no.

Trondheim Budget and Practical Costs

The official 2025 rental survey, published 22 December 2025, reports NOK 11,850/month for a two-room dwelling in Trondheim. This is a historical city-level average, not a shared-bedroom quote, a 2027 price or an available apartment. Household size, location and utilities matter; the next survey release is scheduled for 21 December 2026.

NTNU researcher housing is unsubsidised and not cheaper simply because the university arranges it. Department verification and processing of up to four weeks apply; temporary stays are generally 1–12 months with one month's notice. The linked housing booklet illustrates differing electricity arrangements, without a verified personal rent quotation. Obtain the actual lease, deposit and utility terms.

Use SIFO's 2026 reference basket for household consumption categories, then add actual housing, electricity, travel/relocation and individual health costs. It excludes rent/electricity and most health expenses and uses Oslo examples for some transport/childcare items; it is neither a Trondheim quotation nor a statistical average. The evidence does not establish a reliable future total budget or residual savings. Researcher support can assist with moving arrangements; tax/ID guidance explains administrative prerequisites, while welfare guidance makes coverage dependent on membership. Confirm personal payroll and coverage instead of projecting net pay from gross salary.

Applicant Fit and Preparation

Required Background and Skills

The job requires a relevant master's or equivalent in industrial design, design, HCI, human factors, interaction design, cognitive psychology or another relevant field, a strong academic record, doctoral motivation and documented written/spoken English. Formal Design admission requirements above also apply. Neither a numerical IELTS requirement nor an automatic Chinese-degree equivalence was established. Individual assessment, any grade exception and acceptable English proof need faculty confirmation.

The research demands independent and structured work, planning, discussion of findings, constructive feedback, resilience, curiosity, data interpretation and willingness to revise a plan. A purely software-development portfolio without human-study reasoning would leave an important evidence gap; a purely visual portfolio without functional prototyping/analysis would do likewise. These are implications of the advertised work, not extra admissions rules.

Preferred Experience and Suggested Preparation

Official preferences are rapid prototyping from user feedback; explanations/visualisation of complex data, models or uncertainty; safety-critical decision-support evaluation; maritime or other safety-critical domain familiarity; and strong English presentation. They are not a requirement to have already mastered every maritime tool.

Analyst-suggested preparation is a concise case showing problem discovery, alternative concepts, a working interaction and a justified evaluation. State personal contributions in team projects. In the outline, separate measured performance from perceived trust, name realistic participants/baselines, explain qualitative/quantitative integration and show a feasible progression from initial inquiry to prototypes and studies. Do not promise professional-operator access or a specific vessel before the team confirms it.

Next Actions and Questions to Verify

Before Applying

Ask Alsos whether external funding for this exact position is secured, who is proposed as main/co-supervisor and what initial case/participant access exists. Ask the faculty about foreign-degree/B equivalence, documented-suitability exceptions and accepted English evidence; ask HR for deadline time, start-date expectations and the individual export-control review route. Then prepare the recruitment-length outline, not the longer formal-admission proposal.

At Interview

Clarify which onboard/remote task, baseline and human-performance question could realistically anchor the first study; who supplies operational expertise; simulator/prototype access; participant recruitment, ethics/privacy and partner publication restrictions; and how design contributions and empirical evidence will be evaluated. Discuss supervision cadence and what happens if a partner case becomes unavailable.

Before Accepting an Offer

Obtain the written funding/contract conditions, final salary and benefits, named supervision, Design admission timetable, individual permit/export-control outcome and concrete housing/deposit costs. Confirm research/travel funds and any fees or expenses falling to the candidate. A three-year salary and centre partnership do not themselves settle these offer-stage questions.

Evidence and Sources

The saved project and research material is dated through 22 October 2026. The vacancy records a deadline date but does not state the closing time or time zone. Current acceptance status and individual admission arrangements have not been verified. The university links provide programme and laboratory context; paper interpretations retain the abstract, selected-text and metadata limits stated above. Original papers, author order preserved

  1. Erik Veitch; Ole Andreas Alsos; Tingting Cheng; Kristin Senderud; Ingrid Bouwer Utne. Human factor influences on supervisory control of remotely operated and autonomous vessels. Ocean Engineering 299 (2024), article 117257; no separate issue number/page range verified. DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.117257. Online 5 March 2024; issue 1 May 2024. Institutional record expands Erik's name and spells the fourth author's given name Kristine; the published byline uses Kristin. CRediT roles were not verified.
  2. Philip Hodne; Oskar K. Skåden; Ole Andreas Alsos; Andreas Madsen; Thomas Porathe. Conversational user interfaces for maritime autonomous surface ships. Ocean Engineering 310, Part 1 (2024), article 118641; article number rather than conventional page range. DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.118641. Online 7 July 2024; issue 15 October 2024. Institutional record expands Oskar/Andreas names; the bibliography retains the printed byline. Other CRediT roles were not directly verified from a complete primary text.
  3. Kim Alexander Christensen; Alexey Gusev; Andreas Gudahl Tufte; Ole Andreas Alsos; Martin Steinert. AI Captain: Conversational mission planning and execution system for autonomous surface vehicles. Ocean Engineering 338 (2025), article 121988; no separate issue number/page range verified. DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2025.121988. Publisher issue 1 November 2025; publisher online date unverified. The directly read institutional record displays 22 June 2025, preserved as its record date rather than silently equated to issue or confirmed online date.

Complete grouped source list

School and Programme

Team and Research

Funding, Costs and Evaluation

Sources

The listing may come from a university or recruitment platform. Check the notice and official sources in the report for current application requirements. View the recruitment source

Explore opportunities with related research or the same country, prioritising similar funding where relevant. Recheck each notice before applying.

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