Notice for International Call to hire a Ph.D. Graduate Researcher UI/297/2020 – “#NOVAID219”

By decision of the Board of Directors, NOVA.id.FCT - Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento da FCT (“NOVA.id.FCT”) opens an international call to hire a Ph.D. Graduate Researcher, with the internal reference “#NOVAID219”, under a unfixed term employment contract to conduct research activities in the field of Mathematics, within the scope of the research unit “Center for Mathematics and Applications” (CMA) (UI/297/2020), financed by “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.”/MCTES (FCT, I.P.) (ref. UIDB/00297/2020 and UIDP/00297/2020) through national funds (PIDDAC) (OE). This international call for hiring a Ph.D. Graduate Researcher is under the funding of UIDB/00297/2020 which can be changed to UIDP/00297/2020.

1. Type of contract and applicable legislation

The hiring of a Ph.D. Graduate Researcher shall be made by means of an Unfixed Term Employment Contract entered into in accordance with the Portuguese Labour Code approved by the Law no. 7/2009 of February 12th, as amended. The contract should have an expected duration of 12 months, with possible extension, and should not be extended further than the funding duration above mentioned. The contract should begin in February 2024.

The present hiring procedure is further governed inter alia by Decree-law no. 57/2016 of August 29th, as amended by the Law no. 57/2017 of July 19th and Regulatory decree no. 11-A/2017 of December 29th.

2. Main attributions, activities, and exclusivity

The Ph.D. Graduate Researcher will develop research activities, student’s supervision and management included in the activities of the research unit. The Ph.D. Graduate Researcher shall fully devote the whole of his/her professional activity to NOVA.id.FCT, on an exclusive basis.

3. Place of work

The work is to be carried out at the facilities of the Center for Mathematics and Applications (CMA), hosted by the Department of Mathematics, located in NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon (NOVA FCT) and the researcher shall travel, in Portugal or abroad, as required by his/her attributions or as necessary for his/her activity.

4. Monthly remuneration

The Ph.D. Graduate Researcher shall earn a monthly remuneration in the gross amount of €2.228,11 by reference to the 1st grade of the salary scale, pursuant to number 2 of Article 15 of Decree-Law no. 57/2016 of August 29th, as amended by Law no. 57/2017 of July 19th, and Regulatory Decree no. 11-A/2017 of December 29th.

5. Admission Requirements

Applicants to this call may be national, foreign or stateless candidates holding a Ph.D. degree in the field of Operations Research or related areas within the scope of the research carried out at CMA.

The registration and/or recognition in Portugal of the doctoral degree will be verified at the time of signing the contract, under the provisions of article 25 of Decree-Law no. 66/2018, of August 16th.

Candidates should present a work plan in Continuous or Combinatorial Optimization topics developed at CMA. Refer to CMA's webpage for further information: https://novamath.fct.unl.pt. Preferably, candidates should have experience in developing and analyzing algorithms, implementing them in scientific programming languages (Matlab, C, R, Python, Julia, etc.), on the use of CPLEX or Gurobi, and conducting experiments using computers. Candidates must be proactive and dynamic people in their academic and scientific career, demonstrating autonomy and critical thinking in carrying out their research.

6.Evaluation of the Applications and Composition of the Jury

Applications shall be subject to evaluation by a jury that shall follow the procedure established in articles 13 and 14 (by virtue of article 19) of Decree-Law no. 57/2016 of August 29th, as amended by Law no. 57/2017 of July 19th.

Pursuant to Article 13 of Decree-Law no. 57/2016 the jury is composed of the following members:

- Chairperson: Carmo Brás, CMA e DM-NOVA FCT.

- Member: Ana Luísa Custódio, CMA e DM-NOVA FCT.

- Member: Isabel Correia, CMA e DM-NOVA FCT.

- Member: Marcos Raydan, CMA e NOVA FCT.

7. Selection criteria

The selection of the Ph.D. Graduate Researcher will be carried out through the evaluation of the scientific and curricular achievements as established by DecreeLaw no. 57/2016 of August 29th, as amended by Law no. 57/2017 of July 19th and the selection criteria and their respective weighting shall be as follows:

a) CV;

b) Motivation letter and recommendation letter;

c) Work plan in the topic of Continuous Optimization or Combinatorial Optimization;

d) Adequacy of the work plan to CMA’s research topics;

e) Interview (will be conducted by videoconference).

In accordance with item d) of selection criteria, preference will be given to candidates that carry out research work in one of CMA's research themes of Operations Research.

Each of the items (a) to (e) is rated with a score from 0 to 100. All applications will be evaluated on a scale of 0 to 100 points, using a weighted average, with the following weighting of the items: (a) 30%; (b) 10%; (c) 15%; (d) 35%; (e) 10%. Only the three candidates with the higher scores obtained with items (a) to (d) and with a minimum of 70 points will have an interview. Candidates who obtain less than 80 points will not be hired.

8. Final Decision

The final deliberation of the jury shall be homologated by the ultimate governing body of NOVA.id.FCT that is also responsible for the decision of hiring.

The list of admitted and excluded candidates and the final list of classification will be published on the website of NOVA.id.FCT (www.novaidfct.pt) and sent by electronic mail with receipt of delivery to all candidates.

9. Submission of Applications

A tender is open from the 26th of December of 2023 to the 26th of January of 2024.

Documentation to be provided when applying: Applications must be formalized, obligatorily, by sending the following documents written in Portuguese or English and, preferably, in PDF files:

a) CV with reference number for “ORCID”, “MathSciNet author profile”, “WoS ResearcherID at Publons” and “Scopus Author ID”;

b) Motivation letter, including a synopsis of the scientific career;

c) Work plan (maximum of 5 pages);

d) Copy of doctoral certificate;

e) Copies of at most 3 publications representative of the experience of the targeted research area;

f) A reference letter directly sent by the writer to novamath.secretariado@fct.unl.pt, with the subject “Recommendation letter for «CANDIDATE NAME» – Operations Research;

g) Declaration on honor (according to the draft available here for download).

Form of submission of applications: Applications should be sent by email to novamath.secretariado@fct.unl.pt with subject: Junior Researcher application – Operations Research.

10. Non-discrimination and equal access policy

NOVA.id.FCT actively promotes a non-discrimination and equal access policy, reason for which no candidate can be benefited, prejudiced or deprived of any duty, namely age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, religion or political beliefs.