Intern in Computational Social Sciences (R0)

Job Reference

301_26_DIR_CSSH_R0

Position

Intern in Computational Social Sciences (R0)

Closing Date

Saturday, 18 July, 2026

Reference: 301_26_DIR_CSSH_R0

Job title: Intern in Computational Social Sciences (R0)

About BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

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We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.

We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.

If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.

Context And Mission

The Computational Social Science and Humanities program envisions preparing the social sciences and humanities for the era of data, artificial intelligence (AI), and Exascale supercomputing. Our mission is to foster collaboration between social scientists and computer scientists, making high-performance computing (HPC) accessible to all researchers in the field. Through innovative approaches, we aim to apply social science and humanities research to contribute valuable insights for informed policy making. In our pursuit, we focus on a wide range of key societal research areas such as Equity and Welfare, Education, Social Services and Labor Market, Public Opinion and Political Communication in (Social) Media, Social-Ecology, Science and Technology Studies, Archived History, Archeology and Cultural Heritage. Employing a mixed of advanced AI/ML models, including Large Language Models (LLMs), Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), and Social Network Analysis (SNA), we use high-performance computational methods to a wide range of large datasets, such as official statistics, surveys, social media, web-tracking data, news, laws, bibliometric data, historical archives, current data archives, archaeology data, citizen volunteered data, and public administration and industry data.

We are seeking an Intern to join the Computational Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH) laboratory. The candidate will work within the Public Opinion and Political Communication research line on a project investigating community structure and engagement patterns in a large-scale online news forum.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This project investigates how users engage with editorial topics in online news by using the DerStandard dataset (Fraxanet et al., 2025), a decade-long, large-scale collection of user forum interactions (comments and votes) linked to editorial topic labels of the news articles. The goal is to construct embeddings of editorial topics based on shared user participation, following approaches previously applied to online communities (Waller et al., 2021). By representing topics in a latent space where proximity reflects overlapping audiences, the project aims to detect relationships between issues that emerge from user behavior rather than editorial categorization alone.

Key Duties

Process the DerStandard dataset to extract user interactions (comments and votes) linked to editorial topic labels.

Construct embeddings of editorial topics based on shared user participation patterns, following established computational methods.

Analyse resulting outputs through time considering events (e.g., elections, pandemic) as external shocks.

Develop an interactive dashboard to visualize the topic embeddings.

Document and organise all scripts and data into a reproducible, shareable research workflow.

Requirements

Education

Master’s student in Computer Science, Statistics, Computational Social Science, or a related field with strong quantitative and programming skills.

Completed bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Statistics, or a related quantitative field.

Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

Experience with large-scale data processing and analysis.

Programming proficiency in Python (strongly required).

Familiarity with network analysis, embeddings, or unsupervised learning methods.

Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

Interest in computational social science, online behavior, or media studies.

Experience with natural language processing or community detection methods is a plus.

Competences

Strong Python programming skills, particularly for data analysis and machine learning workflows.

Ability to work independently and manage a research-oriented project.

Good written communication skills for documenting methods and results.

Conditions

The position will be located at BSC within the Directors Department

We offer a full-time contract (35h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures

Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration

Holidays: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement

Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona

Starting date: September 2026

Applications procedure and process

All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:

A full CV in English including contact details

A cover/motivation letter with a statement of interest in English, clearly specifying for which specific area and topics the applicant wishes to be considered. Additionally, two references for further contacts must be included. Applications without this document will not be considered.

Development of the recruitment process

The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:

Curriculum Analysis: Evaluation of previous experience and/or scientific history, degree, training, and other professional information relevant to the position. - 40 points

Interview phase: The highest-rated candidates at the curriculum level will be invited to the interview phase, conducted by the corresponding department and Human Resources. In this phase, technical competencies, knowledge, skills, and professional experience related to the position, as well as the required personal competencies, will be evaluated. - 60 points. A minimum of 30 points out of 60 must be obtained to be eligible for the position.

The recruitment panel will be composed of at least three people, ensuring at least 25% representation of women.

In accordance with OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for each vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will begin the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. At a minimum, a personality questionnaire as well as a technical exercise will be conducted during the process.

The panel will make a final decision, and all individuals who participated in the interview phase will receive feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.

At BSC, we seek continuous improvement in our recruitment processes. For any suggestions or comments/complaints about our recruitment processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.

For more information, please follow this link.

Deadline

The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.

OTM-R principles for selection processes

BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.

For more information follow this link