Call for Expressions of Interest under the CMU Portugal Visiting Students Program (project refª CMU-P Gestão 2024)

Call for  Expressions of Interest under the

CMU Portugal Visiting Students Program (project refª CMU-P Gestão 2024)

The Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program (CMU Portugal) through Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID) – as host institution “Entidade de Enquadramento” - and with the support of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) is announcing a Call for Expressions of Interest under the Visiting Students Program, for visits to Carnegie Mellon University in 2024. This Program is one of the key educational initiatives of the CMU Portugal partnership, under which successful applicants pursuing a master’s degree and affiliated with a Portuguese Higher Education Institution, or who have finished their master’s degree in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the past five years, can spend two (2) to three (3) months working in ICT research while immersed in the Carnegie Mellon’s culture, and being mentored by CMU leading faculty and researchers.

CMU Portugal will support up to ten (10) beneficiaries through the project CMU-P Gestão 2024 under FCT regulations “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia”, pending funding available by FCT/MCTES through national funds and under the following conditions:

Duration

2 to 3months depending on the proposed work plan that must end before December 31^st 2024. 

Legislation

The current call is open under FCT regulations “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” (Regulamento nº913/2021 - Diário da República n.º 201/2021, Série II de 2021-10-15, páginas 84 - 92).

Internship components

The monthly amount of the internship is €2.000,00. Apart from the monthly amount of the internship the beneficiaries will also have covered, up to €800,00, their health insurance while at CMU, and will also receive a one-time travel fee of €1.000,00. The beneficiaries’ rights and duties are fully described in articles 15 and 18 of FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations.

Objectives / summary

Under the Visiting Students Program, beneficiaries can spend from two to three months working in research at Carnegie Mellon, being mentored by leading faculty and researchers, while immersed in the University’s culture. This unique opportunity provided by CMU Portugal is designed to encourage and prepare talented master students or master alumni to pursue careers in research under the scope of the research areas of the Program. Through the Visiting Students Program beneficiaries will have the status of visiting students at CMU. More information is available on the CMU Portugal Website.

Scientific supervision

The activities developed under the Visiting Students Program will be supervised by the CMU Portugal Program Directors Inês Lynce, full professor of IST and researcher at INESC-ID Lisboa, and Nuno Nunes, full professor at IST and invited researcher at INESC-ID Lisboa. The beneficiaries will hold a courtesy appointment at INESC-ID while the visit is ongoing. The beneficiaries will be also integrated into a Department and/or Research Center at CMU and will have a CMU Faculty host. The supervisors and host institution rights and duties are described in articles 16, 17, 19 and 20 of FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations.

Required education Level and research experience

Only Portuguese citizens or foreign citizens with permanent residence in Portugal are eligible to participate in the Visiting Students Program. The candidates should be enrolled in a Master’s Program in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) or equivalent in Portugal at the time of the application and during their research period at CMU, or have been awarded a Master degree in ICT in the last 5 years and have permanent residence in Portugal during their research period at CMU. If the candidate has a valid work contract with a company or institution which is expected to coincide with the internship under the Visiting Students Program, then it should request to that entity a declaration in which the company or institution acknowledges the candidate´s application to the Program. The Program requires full-time participation. Preference is given to candidates with a Licenciatura or bachelors degree grade of 14 or higher (or equivalent), and professional and/or academic work aligned with the CMU Portugal main research areas.

Evaluation criteria

The evaluation and selection of the candidates will take place in accordance with articles 11 and 12 of FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations. The applications will be assessed by the CMU Portugal Program Directors on a scale of 0-5 considering the “Quality and depth of the academic work” (30%) namely the academic degree(s) held by the candidate.; the “Scientific robustness of the work plan proposed” (30%), which should be aligned with the promotion of activities of knowledge and technology transfer within the framework of the FCT regulations under which the call is open; the “Professional experience of the candidate” (10%), namely work experience  in academia, industry or other type of organization; its “Alignment with the main research areas of the CMU Portugal Program” (15%); and the “Relevance of the  work developed by the host at CMU in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program” (15%).

Candidates who are currently master's students or have completed a Master's degree in ICT within the last 2 years will receive a bonification of 0,50.

Applications with a final classification of ≤ 3,00 will not be selected for admission.  The selection process is expected to take one month after the application deadline, and all the applicants will receive feedback by email.

In accordance with FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations (article 11, paragraph 9), there will be no hearing of interested parties’ period. From the final decision, a complaint can be filed within 15 working days, or, alternatively, an appeal may be filed within 30 working days, both counted from the respective notification. Candidates who choose to submit a complaint must address their pronunciation to the FCT Board of Directors with delegated competence. Candidates who choose to submit an appeal must address the same to the FCT Board of Directors.

The jury, that will convene in May,is composed by the following members:

Results

The final evaluation results will be publicized through an ordered list in the CMU Portugal Program website page “Admissions and scholarships”, and the candidates will be notified of the jury´s decision by email.

Contract

A contract between INESC-ID and the beneficiaries will be celebrated according to the FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations, article 13, 3.

Internship report and sanctions

Until 60 work days after the successful completion of the research period at CMU, beneficiaries will have to present to CMU Portugal an internship report which details the activities that were developed under the Visiting Students Program, together with assessments from the internship supervisors and host institution in Portugal (in accordance with articles 18 to 20 of FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations). In case the beneficiaries do not fulfill any of the regulations requirements, sanctions may take place according to article 22 of FCT´s “Subsídio a Atividades de Transferência de Conhecimento e Tecnologia” regulations.