Pre-doctoral fellowship linked to the project “Leveraging VIsual Foundation Models for Enhancement and Editing (ViFEE)”

CALL FPI94-CVC 

The CVC offers one pre-doctoral fellowship linked to the project “Leveraging VIsual Foundation Models for Enhancement and Editing (ViFEE)” with reference PID2024-157936NB-I00 funded by MICIU/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by FEDER, UE. 

This call is funded by the AEI and the ESF+ and the definitive award of predoctoral contracts for the training of doctors, following the indications of article 12 of the call “Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2024.  

• Duration of the fellowship: 4 years 
• Expected start date: Between 1 December 2025 to 1 May 2026. 
• Selected fellows will receive a gross annual salary of €24,348.77, as established in the official terms of the public call. 

This amount includes the employee’s income tax (IRPF) and social security contributions, but excludes the employer’s contribution to social security.

In Spain, the net salary is obtained by deducting from the gross amount the corresponding income tax (IRPF) and employee social security contributions, both of which may vary annually depending on government regulations, income level, personal circumstances, and region. The resulting amount after these deductions constitutes the net salary received by the fellow.

To cover both the employee’s gross salary and the employer’s social security contributions, the host institution will receive an annual grant of €31,000, as specified in the official call.

The indicated gross salary may be updated annually in accordance with the provisions of the Collective agreement (“Estatuto del Personal Investigador Predoctoral en Formación”, Royal Decree 103/2019), and the host institution will apply any such updates as established by that regulation.

There is also an additional compensation for the end of the contract. Finally, there is a fund of 7.000 euros to pay PhD enrolment fees and for doing research stays during the fellowship.

• Specific requirements: 
  • MSc degree in: computer vision, artificial intelligence, computer science, computer engineering or related subject. 
  • We will positively consider previous background in computer vision, deep learning and/or color image processing, as well as previous experience in research activities. 
  • Applicants are expected to be fluent in both oral and written communication in English.  
  • They should work well in a team while demonstrating initiative and autonomy. 

• To apply, please submit the following documents as a single PDF file through the online form, clearly indicating the job reference (CALL FPI94-CVC):
  • Cover letter stating accomplishments you would like to highlight 
  • Complete CV 
  • Academic transcript for the bachelor’s and master’s degrees (they should include the grade obtained in each subject).  

• Deadline: 30 November 2025.  
• On 19 December 2025 we will post in our website the resolution of this fellowship.  

Please read the complete call to know all the details of the fellowship and the evaluation process.  

Job Description
Job title	PhD fellow position linked to the project “Leveraging VIsual Foundation Models for Enhancement and Editing (ViFEE)” with reference PID2024-157936NB-I00
Dedication	Full time, 4-year grant (annual evaluation)
Supervisors	Javier Vázquez Corral and Maria Vanrell Martorell
Background	The selected candidate will work in the Computer Vision Centre (CVC), Barcelona, a research institute comprising more than 130 researchers and support staff, dedicated to computer vision research and knowledge transfer, with an excellent research production. With a strong international projection and links to the industry, the Computer Vision Centre offers an exciting environment for scientific career development. The Computer Vision Centre has a plan for expansion of its permanent research staff base and has received the “HR Excellence in Research” award as a provider and supporter of a stimulating and favourable working environment.  The successful candidate will be joining the Color Group, a vibrant group of researchers at the CVC with more than two decades of experience in research. The Color Group conducts research in different aspects of computational color, aiming to deploy models that improve the way we capture, modify and display images.
Summary of the project	Modern artificial intelligence, based on training deep neural models has introduced a new methodology, that accelerates the development of novel architectures by leveraging models pre-trained on large, generic image and text datasets. These models, known as Visual Foundation Models (VFMs), encode a kind of universal "visual brains" capable of performing complex visual tasks.  The emerging challenge is to harness the power of VFMs by adapting them to perform more specialized tasks with higher accuracy, meeting specific constraints relevant to the problem at hand. For instance, current AI-based generation of realistic images does not always guarantee physical coherent lighting. In this project, we address tasks such as creating enhanced image versions that mimic professional edits, accurately removing undesired effects like rain or haze, removing or recoloring objects in a scene, and coherently relighting entire scenes.
Description of the job	The candidate will develop a doctoral thesis on a topic related to the project, with the aim of leveraging state-of-the-art visual foundation models for color image restoration, enhancement and/or editing. It is expected that the candidate will also collaborate in tasks related to the development of the research project and will present and publish the research results in top international conferences and journals.
Specific requirements	MSc degree in: computer vision, artificial intelligence, computer science, computer engineering or related subject. We will positively consider previous background in computer vision, deep learning and/or color image processing, as well as previous experience in research activities. Applicants are expected to be fluent in both oral and written communication in English.  They should work well in a team while demonstrating initiative and autonomy.
Selection Committee	Javier Vázquez Corral Maria Vanrell Martorell