Three fully funded PhD positions in Competition Law and AI

Competition agencies now enforce the law with AI. The legal framework has not caught up. Join ATLANTIS, a five-year ERC project at VU Amsterdam, as one of three fully funded PhD candidates to build it.

Your function

Every EU competition agency, and most agencies worldwide, now relies on AI and other computational tools to enforce competition law. The legal framework has not kept pace. ATLANTIS, a five-year project funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant, builds that framework.

I am Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor of Law at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and I am hiring three PhD candidates to join the ATLANTIS team. Two positions are legal-track. One is a cross-project computational position. The positions begin on 1 December 2026, last four years, and are based at the VU Amsterdam Faculty of Law. All three candidates will obtain a doctorate.

The three PhD positions

Together, we will build the legal regime for computational antitrust.

The team has one legal-track PhD candidate dedicated to Project A, one legal-track PhD candidate dedicated to Project B, and one computational-track PhD candidate working across both projects. The computational-track candidate will provide the empirical and technical scaffolding needed by the two legal-track candidates. The legal-track candidates will provide the competition law expertise that keeps the technical work tied to live antitrust problems. A postdoctoral researcher with expertise in institutional economics will join the team about a year after the PhDs start.

Project A: making computational antitrust accurate (one PhD position)

This legal-track PhD will work on the legal framework for data access by competition agencies. The core question is whether Regulation 1/2003 and Directive (EU) 2019/1 need to be updated so that the European Commission and national competition agencies can collect the data their computational tools require while preserving fundamental rights. The project will address data protection, business secrecy, the right to remain silent, and proportionality.

Project B: making computational antitrust fair (one PhD position)

This legal-track PhD will work on the legal regime governing the use of AI by competition agencies. The core question is how to mitigate bias and ensure procedural fairness when agencies rely on AI tools. The project will address transparency, explainability, AI-generated evidence, and standards of proof.

Cross-project computational position (one PhD position)

This PhD will work across Projects A and B and provide the technical backbone of the team. On Project A, the focus will be on data: documenting what data agencies collect, through which channels, in which formats, and where computational bottlenecks arise. On Project B, the focus will be on AI methods: auditing bias in publicly documented agency AI systems and prototyping explainability techniques on representative cases. Although more computational in nature, this position will lead to publications in law venues.

What you will be doing

ATLANTIS will be run as a tight team, not as three PhDs working in parallel silos. We will work together daily, with several days a week on campus expected. Drafts circulate inside the team before they go to the international advisory board. Papers are co-authored. You will publish from year one.

Your time will be divided between writing peer-reviewed articles, conducting empirical work with competition agencies, co-organizing ATLANTIS events, and presenting your work to the international advisory board and conferences. Each PhD co-authors several articles over four years. At the end of the project, the team co-edits a volume that consolidates the research. You will end up with publications, one or more book chapters, policy briefs, and a body of empirical work you helped build.

You will have direct access to the network of the Stanford Computational Antitrust project, which gathers over 80 antitrust agencies and 50 academics worldwide. This includes interviews, data-sharing arrangements, introductions, and the option of visiting agencies that have committed to the project. The agencies involved span multiple jurisdictions including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, the UK, and the United States.

You will spend research stays at the institutions of the co-supervisors and the international advisory board. These include leading scholars from Oxford, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and other top institutions.

You will help organize three annual workshops and an international conference at the end of the project. You will shape the programs, invite speakers, and present your own work.

You will also teach a small share of your time, capped at 20% over four years under the CAO of Dutch universities. Teaching is supervised and matched to your interests. It will focus on competition law or law & tech issues.

Your profile

We are hiring for two profiles. In your cover letter, state which one you are applying for. Legal-track applicants may indicate a preference between Project A and Project B, but this is optional. If your background fits both profiles, meaning legal and more computational, you are welcome to apply to both.

Legal-track profile (two PhD positions, one on Project A and one on Project B)

A master’s degree in law with excellent marks, and demonstrated expertise in competition law that is as broad and as deep as possible. This is the central requirement: we are looking for candidates whose academic record, and potentially prior work, show both strong grades and a serious, proven command of competition law. The project also requires solid command of the legal materials. For Project A, that means Regulation 1/2003, Directive (EU) 2019/1, the GDPR, and the case law of the Court of Justice on requests for information, dawn raids, and the rights of the defense. For Project B, that means the AI Act, the case law on the duty to give reasons, and the literature on procedural fairness in administrative enforcement. Comfort with reading empirical work and with the basics of how computational tools are used by agencies is welcome but will be taught.

Computational-track profile (cross-project PhD position)

You should preferably have a master’s degree in computer science, data science, computational science, AI, or a closely related field, with excellent marks. You should have documented experience with machine learning, bias and fairness in AI systems, or explainable AI, shown through code, a thesis, a publication, or an industry project. You should be comfortable with empirical data work and with technical writing for non-technical audiences. You do not need a law degree to apply for this position, but you must be willing to engage with legal materials and to write for a legal audience. Candidates with a degree in law can also apply to this position, but they must be able to show credentials or strong knowledge in computational thinking and/or computer science.

What do we offer?

At Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, you contribute to high-quality research and education for a better world. In return for your commitment, we offer you:

• a full-time PhD position for a duration of four years. The first year will be probationary; upon a positive evaluation, the contract will be extended for the remaining three years.
• a start date of 1 December 2026.
• a position based within the Faculty of Law, department Transnational Legal Studies.
• a holiday leave entitlement of 232 hours per year for full-time employment. If you choose to work 40 hours per week, you will receive an additional 96 holiday hours annually, pro rata for part-time employment.
• 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• a solid pension scheme (ABP).
• contribution to commuting expenses, including public transport or bicycle reimbursement, and a working-from-home allowance.
• paid parental leave.
• access to VU sports facilities at a modest fee.
• an optional model for designing a personalised benefits package (keuzemodel).

About the project and employer

The project

ATLANTIS stands for “computAtionaL ANTItruSt”. Computational antitrust is the meeting of antitrust law and computational methods, including AI, data mining, and network analysis. All 27 EU national competition agencies, DG Competition at the European Commission, and most agencies worldwide now rely on these tools across the enforcement cycle, from detecting infringements to monitoring remedies. The legal framework has not kept pace. Agencies struggle to collect data without infringing the rights of defense. They use AI systems whose biases remain largely unexamined. Their institutional arrangements are not empirically documented.

ATLANTIS addresses these problems through three projects on accuracy (Project A), fairness (Project B), and sustainability (Project C for a postdoc position that will be advertised in one year). The goal is to produce a legal framework that allows agencies to use computational tools without sacrificing fundamental rights.

Candidates will be co-supervised by leading scholars from Oxford, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and other top institutions. The names of the co-supervisors will not be disclosed before the interviews. Several of these scholars will also sit on the project’s international advisory board.

ATLANTIS works as one team, not as five people sharing a corridor. We hold weekly meetings and share regular walks. We also have weekly lunches and run our own communication channel. ATLANTIS will be hosted within the Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute (ALTI), the Faculty’s hub for research at the intersection of law and technology. ALTI adds a collegial environment and an active seminar culture. The atmosphere is friendly. The expectations are serious.

The positions come with a personal travel budget. Conferences, fieldwork at competition agencies, and research stays at the advisory board institutions are funded from the ERC grant. Training in computational methods and in institutional economics is built into the project and delivered at VU Amsterdam.

Faculty of Law

At the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s Faculty of Law, you will work in an active and inspiring academic environment. Together with your colleagues, you will contribute to the excellence of teaching and research in a pleasant and collegial working environment.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is the host institution for this project and offers a values-driven academic environment focused on research and education with social impact.