MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship 2026: Next-Generation of Multi-Agentic AI

Role Overview:

The i2CAT Foundation in Barcelona is seeking high-potential postdoctoral candidates to co-develop competitive proposals for the 2026 MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships. As a premier European hub for applied research, our center focuses on generating social and economic impact in the sectors of Telecommunications (6G), Cybersecurity, Connected Mobility, and GovTech. Scientific Director Dr. Xavier Costa and Dr. Josep Escrig will serve as the supervisors for this fellowship  to oversee the researcher's scientific progress and professional integration.  Fellows will gain access to state-of-the-art facilities, including Europe’s first 6G space laboratory, and receive dedicated proposal-writing support from our European Project Officers.

The following research pillars represent the directions we consider most promising for the evolution of autonomous digital workers. These are intended as a strategic starting point; candidates are not required to address all of them and are highly encouraged to propose variations or entirely new research directions that align with their specific expertise and vision for the future of Agentic AI.

Research Pillar I:Multi-Agentic AI through Continual Learning and LLM Adaptation

This pillar investigates how LLM-powered and new generations of agents can move beyond "frozen" pre-trained weights to become truly adaptive lifelong learners. You will explore Just-In-Time Reinforcement Learning (JitRL), a breakthrough approach that modulates a model's frozen prior toward an optimal posterior without expensive gradient updates or catastrophic forgetting . By leveraging non-parametric memory and adjusting action logits through the , agents can learn from live environmental feedback in real-time . Research will utilize state-of-the-art benchmarks like MEAL (Multi-agent Environments for Adaptive Learning) to ensure these adaptive agents maintain stable cooperation even as their surroundings and roles evolve .

Research Pillar II: Quantum Multi-Agentic AI and Entanglement-Based Coordination

Scaling multi-agent swarms currently faces a "communication wall" where message overhead grows quadratically with each new agent . This research line aims to shatter that wall by using Quantum Entanglement as a shared substrate for coordination, effectively bypassing the need for explicit message-passing . Through Entangled Quantum Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (eQMARL), you will design agents whose cognitive states are physically correlated, allowing for instantaneous state alignment upon quantum measurement . This framework enables constructive interference of compatible plans while incompatible ones are canceled out, allowing massive drone swarms or 6G network slices to synchronize with zero latency .

Pillar III: Social Multi-Agentic AI and Cross-Stakeholder Trust

This pillar explores the social intelligence required for Multi-Agentic AI systems where independent agents, belonging to different companies or stakeholders, must collaborate despite having different interests. You will investigate mechanisms for Indirect Reciprocity and Reputation Systems, allowing "digital strangers" to build trust and find human-like "win-win" collaborations in decentralized environments. By integrating mathematical Game Theory and negotiation mechanisms, you will develop protocols that lead agents toward a stable Nash Equilibrium, ensuring fair and efficient outcomes in complex environments such as GovTech participation platforms or multi-provider 6G network slices.

By joining us, you can expect:

• We practice a 4-1 hybrid model (4 days remotely, 1 day at the office) to balance face-to-face collaboration with deep-focus remote work. We embrace a hybrid model, but we truly encourage our team to soak up the in-office experience. There’s a unique energy and collaboration in our new space that you simply can't replicate through a screen.
• Enjoy core hours flexibility: as long as you’re online for our team syncs between 10:00 and 15:00, you can design the rest of your day to fit your rhythm. 
• Early-Finish Fridays: We believe in a long weekend. Every Friday throughout the year is an intensive 6.5-hour workday, so you can kick off your personal time by mid-afternoon.
• Intensive summer schedule: To help you enjoy the sun and balance family life during school holidays, we switch to a 7-hour workday from June 22nd to September 4th.
• You get 27 paid vacation days per year, well above the legal minimum, giving you over five full weeks to recharge whenever you need them. You are asked to enjoy at least 12 vacation days during summer.
• We will work so that you have a career plan to promote your growth and development.

Application Details and Deadlines

i2CAT provides a premier environment for researchers holding a PhD with up to 8 years of experience who meet the MSCA mobility rules.

• Supervisors: Dr. Josep Escrig and Dr. Xavier Costa ** 
• Mobility Rule: Candidates must not have resided or carried out their main activity in Spain for more than 12 months in the 36 months (1 year of the last 3 years) immediately before the call deadline.
• Key Dates: Call opens April 9, 2026; Deadline September 9, 2026.
• Contact: Interested candidates are invited to contact josep.escrig@i2cat.net and talent@i2cat.net with a CV and a brief research interest statement to begin co-developing a competitive proposal.