NOVA University of Lisbon

Faculty of Science and Technology

Notice (extract) no. 12944/2024/2 published in Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 121, 25/06/2024

Deadline: 16/07/2024

Opening of an international open competition for the recruitment of 1 Assistant Researcher

for a scientific research career on a private law basis

Professor José Júlio Alves Alferes, Director of the Faculty of Science and Technology of NOVA University of Lisbon, under the powers delegated by Order no. 181/2023, of 4 January, makes it known that, by order of 23/05/2024 of the Rector of NOVA University of Lisbon, Prof. João Sàágua is open, for a period of 15 working days from the day immediately following the publication of this Notice (extract) in the Official Gazette, an international documentary competition, with internal reference “Inv.Aux.6-DCEA”, for the recruitment of one Assistant Researcher, in the scientific area of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, with emphasis on Energy & Climate, under the terms of an open-ended individual employment contract, in accordance with Law no. 7/2009, of 12 February, which approves the Labour Code, with its successive amendments, and under the terms of Regulation no. 393/2018, of 28 June.

This competition is open under the Stimulus Call for Institutional Scientific Employment-Associated Laboratory – under the reference CEECINSTLA/00041/2022, within the scope of the Associated Laboratory CHANGE - Institute for Global Change and Sustainability (LA/P/0121/2020), and the Centre for Research in Environment and Sustainability (CENSE) of FCT NOVA, both funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology I.P., to support the development of R&D activities, signed between FCT, I.P. and UNL, under the terms of the Scientific Employment Regulation (REC), Regulation no. 607-A/2017, of 22 November, as amended, and other applicable national and Community legislation.

In compliance with paragraph h) of article 9 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, NOVA University of Lisbon, as an employer, actively promotes a policy of equal opportunities between men and women in access to employment and professional progression, scrupulously providing in order to avoid any and all forms of discrimination. In this sense, terms such as "candidate", "selected", "recruited", "hired", "author", "researcher", among others that refer to the people applying for the competition, are not used in this Notice to refer to their gender.

I - Workplace:

The place of work will be at facilities of the Faculty of Science and Technology of NOVA University of Lisbon, located on the Caparica Campus, in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, research Centre for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE).

The employee will make all the journeys, in Portugal or abroad, inherent to their duties or necessary to carry out their activity.

II – Main functions and activities:

1. The Assistant Researcher will be responsible for the design, development and execution of scientific research work that is aligned with the CHANGE strategy, particularly in the thematic line 4 (Promote a Circular Economy and the Carbon Neutrality), and CENSE, particularly in the area of Energy and Climate. The work to be developed must be focused on at least two of the following topics: a) energy poverty; b) sustainable urban management (adaptation and mitigation to climate change); c) renewable energy; d) public policies for climate change mitigation and adaptation and the promotion of carbon neutrality.

2. The position to be filled within the scope of this international call is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, directly or indirectly with all SDGs, with particular focus on SDG 3, SDG 7, SDG 9, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13 e SDG 17.

III - Remuneration position and exclusivity:

1. The Assistant Researcher will receive a gross monthly salary of 3.446,76€, which is based on the 1st salary position in the category of Assistant Researcher under the terms of annexes I and II of Regulation no. 393/2018, of 28 June, with the Public Administration salary updates applied.
2. The Assistant Researcher will be recruited on a full-time basis, which implies renouncing the exercise of any remunerated function or activity, whether public or private, including the exercise of a liberal profession, and the rules set out in article 52 will apply on a full-time basis under private law.

IV – Contracting modality

The recruitment of the Assistant Researcher in the form of an individual open-ended contract will take place under the terms of the Regulation on the careers, recruitment and employment contracts of researchers under an employment contract at NOVA University of Lisbon - Regulation no. 393/2018, of 28 June.

Everything not included in this notice will be referred to Regulation no. 393/2018, of 28 June.

V - Applicant admission requirements

1.  Under the terms of the Statute of the Scientific Research Career, approved by Decree-Law no. 124/99, of 20 April (ECIC), as amended, it is a general requirement to hold a doctoral degree and have a relevant scientific curriculum in the area of the competition.

2.  National, foreign and stateless candidates who hold a doctoral degree in the area of Environmental Sciences and Engineering or related areas, duly registered and/or recognised in Portugal [mandatory requirement], and who meet the following minimum admissibility requirements may apply to this competition:

a) A minimum of 5 years of proven post-doctoral research or professional experience in at least one of the following areas:

i) energy poverty;

ii) sustainable urban management (adaptation and mitigation to climate change);

iii) renewable energy;

iv) public policies climate change mitigation and adaptation and the promotion carbon neutrality;

b) Proven experience in coordinating international and/or national research projects;

c) Proven experience in the coordination and management of research groups;

d) Proven experience in developing research to support the implementation of public policies in at least one of the areas identified in a);

e) Proven ability to attract financing in R&D or extension projects;

f) Authorship and/or co-authorship in the last ten years of at least 10 scientific articles, related with the area of this recruitment procedure, being 1st author in at least 5 of these articles;

g) h-index (Scopus) higher than 12.

Other requirements: include a good command of the English language, motivation for research assessed by the motivation letter, good work capacity and a spirit of initiative

VI – Application instructions

1. The application must be instructed by filling in the respective application form, which is available at https://www.fct.unl.pt/en/faculdade/concursos/investigadores.
2. The application process must be accompanied by documentation in English.
3. The application should be submitted by email, containing the following documents:

1. Certificate proving the Doctor's degree in the disciplinary area to which the competition relates;
2. The candidate's curriculum vitae, which must include:

i) The identifications "Researcher ID", "Scopus Author ID" and "Google Scholar ID";

ii) Research and development activities and all other activities considered relevant to this tender procedure, in accordance with the terms of this notice.

c) Scientific and technological development plan – the candidate must present, in a concise way (max. 2 pages), a scientific and technological development plan framed in the subject area of the competition, in accordance with the activities and functions to be performed and articulated with the results of their scientific activity and previous professional experience, as well as their academic and professional training;

d) Motivation letter;

e) Published works mentioned in the Curriculum Vitae, indicating the five most representative with regard to their contribution to the development and evolution of the disciplinary area in which the competition is opened;

f) Declaration, under oath, that if the jury chooses to request the documentation indicated in the previous paragraphs or any other scientific documentation mentioned in the candidate's Curriculum Vitae, it will be delivered within 10 (ten) working days;

g) Other documents that candidates deem relevant for the analysis of their application;

VII – Presentation of the application

1. The documents supporting the application must be submitted by the 15th working day, counting from the day following the publication of this Notice (extract) in the Diário da República.
2. Candidates will submit their application documents, in a single PDF file, by email to the following address: concursos.investigadores@fct.unl.pt.

VIII - Grounds for exclusion

The following are grounds for exclusion from the competition

1.  Failure to fulfil the requirements set out in point V;

2.  Incorrect formalisation of the application;

3.  Failure to submit the required documents, or submitting them illegibly, incorrectly or invalidly.

4.  Under penalty of exclusion, applications must be accompanied by all the documents mentioned above in point VI.

IX - Evaluation parameters

1. In this call the candidates' ability and performance will be evaluated in the various parameters under the terms of article 16 of ECIC.
2. The curricular evaluation of the various candidates in each of the parameters described below shall take into consideration the scientific area in which the call is open.
3. The parameters to be taken into consideration in the curricular evaluation of the candidates, in each of the sections, are as follows:

a) Quality of Scientific and Technical Work (QSTW);

b) Professional Experience and Training (PET);

c) Contributions in Scientific Supervision Activities (CSA);

d) Participation in Management Bodies (PMB);

e) Provision of Services to the Community (PSC);

f) Scientific and Technological Development Plan (STDP).

X - Interview

1. The Jury will deliberate at the first meeting on the need to carry out an interview with all the candidates.
2. The interview, which does not constitute a selection method and is not graded, aims to obtain clarification or explanation of elements contained in the candidates' Curriculum vitae.

XI - Classification by absolute merit of candidates

1. In accordance with paragraph 1 of article 27 of the Statute of the Scientific Research Career, approved by Decree-Law no. 124/99, of 20 April (ECIC), the jury will deliberate on the admissibility on absolute merit of the candidates, expressed by the formulas Rejected or Approved.
2. The candidate who succeeds in obtaining a favorable vote of more than half of the members of the jury is considered approved on absolute merit.

XII- Ordering and voting methodology

1. Once the candidates who have passed in absolute merit have been identified, the jury will proceed to rank them in relative merit.
2. Each member of the jury shall perform a curricular evaluation of the candidates by presenting a written opinion, to be later included in the minutes, in which they propose the ordering of the candidates based on the evaluation criteria indicated in this notice, scoring each candidate for each criterion on a numerical scale from 0 to 100 points.
3. The evaluation criteria indicated shall be weighted as follows:

1. Quality of Scientific and Technical work (QSTW): 40%

The relevance of the results obtained by the candidate will be taken into account, with emphasis on scientific production and demonstrated ability to obtain national and international funding;

1. Professional Experience and Training (PET): 25%

The candidate's previous experience and potential to carry out the research tasks envisaged in the competition will be taken into account;

1. Contributions to Scientific Orientation Activities (CSOA): 5%

The supervision of master's and doctoral students in the scientific area of the call for applications will be considered;

1. Participation in Management Bodies (PMB): 5%

National and international experience in project and research group management and participation in other university management bodies will be taken into account;

1. Provision of Services to the Community (PSC): 10%

Experience with projects in collaboration with industry, public organisations and other interested parties will be considered;

1. Scientific and technological development plan (STDP): 15%

Focusing on the quality of the scientific and technological development plan proposed for the next five years.

1. The ordering of the Approved candidates is done by voting of the members of the jury, respecting the ordering presented in the opinion referred to in the previous number, in the following terms:

a) The first vote is intended to determine the candidate to be placed in first place;

b) In the voting referred to in the previous paragraph, if a candidate obtains more than half of the votes to be placed in first place, he will be ranked in this position;

c) If the situation referred to in the previous paragraph does not occur, a new vote is held, only among the candidates who obtained votes for 1st place, after removing the candidate least voted for that place in the previous vote;

d) If there is more than one candidate to be withdrawn, due to an equal number of votes, with a minimum of one vote each, a vote is held only on these candidates to determine the candidate to be withdrawn from the next vote; in this voting, each member will vote, among the candidates with equal votes, for the candidate who occupies the lowest position in the ordering contained in his/her opinion;

e) If there is a tie, the tiebreaker is done through the tiebreaker vote or casting vote of the president of the jury, under the terms of paragraph 3 of article 19 of the ECIC.

f) Voting is repeated until it is determined, by the procedure described above, which candidate to rank first. If there are only two candidates left and each one of them gets half of the votes, the tiebreaker is done through the casting vote of the president of the jury;

g) Once the candidate for first place is chosen, he is removed from the voting and the whole process is repeated for second place and so on until an ordered list of all candidates is obtained.

XIII – Notifications and Hearing of Interested Parties

1. There is a prior hearing, under the terms of the Code of Administrative Procedure, of candidates who have been rejected, and of candidates ordered in place of the ordering list of candidates that cannot be provided in the job position in the competition. All candidates are notified of the homologation of the jury's final deliberation.
2. Notifications are made by email.
3. The tender process can be consulted by the candidates, at the Human Resources Division of FCT NOVA, under the terms indicated in the aforementioned notification.
4. The pronunciation documents, in the context of the prior hearing of candidates and complaints that must be considered by the jury, must be presented in english.

XIV – Jury composition

1.  Under the terms of Regulation no. 393/2018, of 28 June, the assessment of applications will be carried out by a jury and will follow the procedure set out in articles 16, 18, 19, 20, paragraphs 1 and 2, 21 to 23, 24, 26 and 27 of the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC).

2.  Under the terms of Article 19 of the Scientific Research Career Statute, the jury must be composed of a minimum of five and a maximum of nine members:

3.  It must include Researchers or Professors not belonging to the Institution for which the competition is open or national or foreign specialists, in a number not less than half minus one of the members of the jury.

4.  The members of the competition jury are:

President:

Doctor José Júlio Alves Alferes, Full Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology of NOVA University of Lisbon, by delegation of competences.

Vowels:

Doctor Paola Valbonesi, Full Professor, Department of Economics and Management, University of Padua, Italy;

Doctor Maria Luísa de Carvalho de Albuquerque Schmidt, Coordinating Researcher, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa;~

Doctor Paula Varandas Ferreira, Associate Professor, Escola de Engenharia da Universidade do Minho;

Doctor Rui Jorge Fernandes Ferreira dos Santos, Full Professor, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;

Doctor Maria Júlia Fonseca Seixas, Full Professor, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;

XV - Non-discrimination and equal access policy

FCT NOVA actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, whereby no candidate may be favoured, disadvantaged or deprived of any duty on the grounds of ancestry, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, religion or political convictions.

XVI - Data Protection

In accordance with the RGPD – General Data Protection Regulation, the data collected will be processed exclusively for the processing of the application.

And for the record this Notice is published.