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Find Your Place

The platform is built. The team is forming. Explore the modules where a PhD candidate or postdoctoral researcher could join the work — operational ones already running, others in active development, and a third group still waiting for someone to lead them.

This is not a job ad. It is an invitation to co-develop a research direction. You bring an idea, an expertise, a method, a question — we match it against the modules below and design a PhD project or a postdoctoral collaboration around the fit.

Some modules are operational and waiting for someone to push them further. Others are in active development and need additional hands. A third group exists only on paper, as planned research directions where you could be the first to define and build. Pick a slot, propose a project, and we draft the funding application together.

Most positions are not pre-funded. We gather expertise first, then write proposals to win the funding — together. Remote-first to begin with; relocation to Timișoara becomes an option when a funded position is secured. Co-supervision and cotutelle arrangements with international PIs are welcome.

Our research ecosystem map

Click any module to see what it does, where it stands, and how you could contribute. Modules are grouped by development status — visually distinct so you can tell at a glance whether you would be joining ongoing work, helping mature something new, or defining a direction from scratch.

Operational — already running
In active development
Planned — waiting for someone
AI screeningarticle fast-track check-INliterature ingestion check-OUTmap validation cheCkOVERversioned pipeline Taxonomic SanitizerWoRMS alignment SEBAI-readable bundles Public APIsmachine-readable Services builderprompt composer check-Engineoverlap analysis Species Profilesinteractive profiles Distribution Maptiered access Editorial flowcommunity correction Token economytiered access · L0/L1/L2 IUCN workflowsautomated assessments checkLINEAGEphylogeography checkMORPHvision-based taxonomy checkTHREATSconservation diagnostics chECkOLOGYecology engine Multi-taxonbeyond crayfish

How a collaboration could look

There is no single template. The shape depends on your career stage, your home institution, and the funding routes we can realistically reach. A few patterns recur.

1
Remote-first start
We begin remotely while a project takes shape. Weekly or bi-weekly contact, shared workspace, joint drafting of a proposal. No commitment to relocate until funding is in place.
2
Joint proposal writing
National (UEFISCDI), European (Horizon Europe, ERC, MSCA), or international funding lines — selected together based on your profile, the module you join, and the timing of open calls.
3
Cotutelle & co-supervision
For PhD candidates with an existing or planned host institution abroad, a cotutelle arrangement registers the thesis at both schools. UVT has standard agreements ready to negotiate.
4
Module-based work packages
A thesis or postdoctoral project organised around one module is often the cleanest fit: clear scope, demonstrable outputs, room for two or three papers, possible integration with adjacent modules.
5
You as a bridge
Particularly for cotutelle candidates: your project becomes the link between your home PI's lab, the WoC® infrastructure, and the broader contributor community. Two-way traffic, two-way credit.
6
Physical mobility, eventually
Relocation to Timișoara becomes feasible once a funded position is in place. The University of the West offers a small but international working environment, with English as the day-to-day research language.

The team you would be joining

Two PhD researchers currently anchor the WoC® ecosystem from different angles. Their work helps explain how a thesis can be shaped around the platform.

Antonio Vasile Laza (PhD since 2025) develops the methodological interface between fieldwork and biodiversity informatics — workflows for data collection, management, and integration at the conservation/data-driven research boundary. His work touches the ingestion and editorial layers directly.

Olga Nikolayevna Petko (PhD since 2024) runs the global meta-analysis of crayfish distribution, with international field experience from Paraguay to Japan and a dual master's from Göttingen and Lincoln (NZ). Her thesis is built on the geospatial-traits layer of the cheCkOVER pipeline.

You can read more on the Students page. A new project would not duplicate theirs — it would adjoin them, take up a different module, or open a planned direction not yet covered.

WoC®ommunity
The long-term goal is not a database, an AI substrate, or a delivery service for artefacts. It is an active expert ecosystem — contributors, editors, developers, students, postdocs, and researchers — turning biodiversity data into validated, reusable, AI-ready scientific knowledge. Every module on the map exists because someone has worked on it. Every planned module waits for someone willing to lead. The infrastructure is the means; the community is the point.

If a module clicked something for you — or if you have an idea that doesn't fit any of the boxes above and you think it should — write me. The first conversation is exploratory, no commitment.

Contact me PhD Guide