CALL TO RECRUIT 1 (ONE) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, DISCIPLINARY SUB-AREA OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY UNDER FCT TENURE - 1ST EDITION (No. 02/C06-i06/2024)

By determination of the Rector of ISPA – Instituto Universitário (hereinafter, ISPA), an international call to recruit 1 (one) Full-Time Assistant Professor of in the disciplinary area of ​​Psychology, subarea of Clinical Psychology, with special focus on the study of components related to Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, is now open.

The position is co-funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, I.P./MECI) and falls under FCT Tenure funding program rules, namely the results of ISPA’s application to FCT Tenure - 1st Edition (No. 02/C06-i06/2024) for permanent faculty positions in the field of Psychology, subarea of ​​Clinical Psychology (2023.14590.TENURE.006).

The call is in accordance with the provisions of the University Teaching Career Statute (ECDU) and aims to hire a tenure-track PhD-level Assistant Professor with outstanding research skills and high growth potential.

The successful applicant will be offered a permanent contract as a Professor at ISPA, in accordance with the Portuguese Labor Code, Law No. 7/2009 of February 12, as amended, the ECDU, and other applicable legislation and regulatory standards.

1. Call and Position Details

1.1 Scientific Field. The call is open in the field of Psychology, subarea of ​​ Clinical Psychology.

1.2 Place of employment. The place of employment is located at ISPA, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34, 1149-041 Lisbon, Portugal, and possibly other locations deemed necessary for the performance of scientific and educational activities.

1.3 Salary. The gross monthly base salary is in accordance with Index 195 (Level 1) for Full-Time Assistant Professors, in accordance with the ECDU Salary Table for University Professors.

1.4 Employment Regime. The contract is for a tenure position.

1.5 Position Description. The Assistant Professor, in the area of ​​Psychology, disciplinary sub-area Clinical Psychology, will be responsible for carrying out, on a regular basis, teaching, research, development and extension activities, management and all other scientific and technical activities within the scope of the strategic objectives of Ispa and the WJRC Research Unit, which the selected candidate will join, namely:

a) Provide the teaching service assigned to them, monitor and guide students in their activities and supervise final master's projects, master's dissertations and doctoral theses.

b) Design, develop and implement independent research activities focused on affective and behavioural mechanisms related to child and adolescent psychopathology.

c) In this context, efforts should be made to disseminate research results, including publications in international peer-reviewed journals and prepare and submit applications for competitive funding.

d) Develop collaborative work with academic and non-academic institutions, aiming at future partnerships and involvement with the community and participate in university extension tasks, scientific dissemination and economic and social valorisation of knowledge.

e) Participate in university management tasks, especially in tasks distributed by the competent management bodies and which fall within the scope of the university professor's activity.

2. Admission Requirements

2.1 Eligible candidates include national, foreign, and stateless individuals, in accordance in accordance with the provisions of article 21 of the FCT Scientific Employment Regulation, Regulation no. 607-A/2017, published in the Official Gazette, 2nd series, no. 225, of 22 November 2017, as amended on 12 October 2023.

2.2 Eligible candidates must not hold permanent or tenured university teaching or scientific research positions under ECDU or equivalent Statutes at a national research or higher education institution.

3. Mandatory qualifications and skills:

   - Degree in Psychology or Psychological Sciences and Master's degree in Psychology

   - Doctorate degree in the area of ​​the competition: Psychology

   - Evidence of specialization in the area of ​​the competition, Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis on the study of components related to Child and Adolescent Psychopathology and skills in research methodologies;

   - Curriculum vitae characterized by publications in the area of ​​specialization, at national and international level (e.g., in peer-reviewed journals, books, book chapters, etc.) compatible with the year of completion of the doctorate;

   - Have proven teaching experience in more than one cycle of studies and supervision of master's and/or doctoral students, in the area of ​​the competition;

   - Proficiency in English, spoken and written.

3. Application Procedure

3.1 Applications should be addressed to the Rector of ISPA, contain the candidate’s full name, and be submitted by email to candidaturas.investigadores@ispa.pt, with the reference of the call (Docente/03/CT/2025) in the subject line. 

3.2 Documentation. Applications must include supporting documentation, in PDF format, confirming the candidate’s eligibility and relevant track-record, namely:

1. Detailed Curriculum Vitae (in Portuguese or English) that should:
2. Include a 50–100-word preamble summarizing the candidate's employment history, identifying the respective research and/or higher education institution, period of employment, position held, type of contract, and disciplinary field;
3. Contain a 50-150-word substantiated synopsis demonstrating the candidate’s specialization in the disciplinary field(s) of the call;
4. Be structured according to the evaluation criteria outlined under Relative Merit (see 4. below) – failure do so will deem the application ineligible;

5. Identify 3-6 articles (in Portuguese or English) that best represent the candidate’s most significant contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the disciplinary field(s) of the call and provide a 15-25-word justification per article.

    

   1. Career Development Plan (max. 800 words) for the duration of the position (3 years), specifying:

a) research lines in the disciplinary field(s) of the call;

b) principal issues where the candidate intends to focus their future research, duly contextualized in the current state of the art;

c) short and systematic description of the research strategies that the candidate intends to adopt to develop their research and resolve or contribute to the resolution of the issues stated;

4. Well-founded reasoning for their choices and how they fit with ISPA’s mission and, in particular, WJCR’s objectives.

2. Supporting documents relating to the candidate’s education:

a) Copies of diplomas for undergraduate, master's, doctorate degrees, in Portuguese, English or Latin. If the original is issued in a different language, a certified translation should be provided;

b) For degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, the diploma(s) must be accompanied by the respective recognition or proof of application for such recognition by the call’s submission deadline, pursuant in accordance with Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of August 16.

3.2.4     Separate PDF copies of (one per document), or hyperlink to:

a) 3-6 published works (see 3.2.1. above)

b) other publications or other elements that the candidate deems relevant

5. Motivation Letter (max. 1 page, in Portuguese or English) explaining how the candidate’s scientific activities, namely the most relevant of the past 5 years, and their skills align with ISPA’s and WJCR’ strategic objectives;

3.3 — Exclusion criteria. An application will be deemed ineligible if:

a) it does not meet the requirements outlined herein; 

b) the supporting documentation is submitted after the call’s deadline;

c) it does not meet the language requirements outlined herein nor does it provide a well-founded justification for failing to meet such requirements.

3.4. – Additional documentation. The Selection Committee may ask the candidate to submit additional documentation in support of their statements, when it deems appropriate.

3.5 – False statements. False statements by any candidate shall be punished in accordance with the law.

3.6 – Call deadline. Applications must be submitted by 11:00 pm (Lisbon time) from February 20th to March 21st 2025.

4. Evaluation Criteria on Relative Merit 

1. Relative merit evaluation criteria includes: Curricular evaluation (80%) + Interview (20%).
   1. All applications that meet admission requirements are subject to curricular evaluation
      1. The 3 (three) candidates with the highest score in the curriculum evaluation will be called for an interview.

2. Curricular evaluation (CA) will be based on the following percentages and parameters:

    

   1. Scientific Performance (50%) in the disciplinary field of the call (i.e., Psychology, subarea of Clinical Psychology) with the following parameters: 
      1. Scientific production (40%): Quality and quantity of scientific outputs in the disciplinary field of the call, namely, editorial activity, books, book chapters, publications in peer-reviewed journals, and conference proceedings, poster and workshop presentations, technical reports, technological prototypes. Renowned public indexes (e.g., SCImago/Scopus and ISI Web of Science) will be weighed along with a qualitative evaluation of the publications highlighted by the candidate.
         1. Coordination of and participation in scientific projects (10%): Experience in the coordination and/or participation in scientific or technological development projects in the disciplinary field of the call. The quality and quantity of scientific projects subject to competitive public funding, through national or international agencies, will be taken into consideration. Projects leading to technological developments in the disciplinary field of ​​the call through contracting by external entities are also relevant. Quality assessment will consider the awarded amount, type and competitiveness of the call/tender.
      2. Pedagogic capacity (30%) with the following parameters:
         1. Teaching experience (20%): Teaching experience in the disciplinary field of ​​the call and related areas (e.g., research methods) will be assessed based on, namely number and diversity of curricular units (UC) taught, role and responsibility in each UC, development and supervision of curricular projects, available pedagogic assessment mechanisms and other relevant indicators, such as awards or other distinctions.
         2. Supervision and mentoring experience (10%): Evaluation of the candidate's experience as supervisor of master's and/or doctoral students.

4.2.3     Career development plan (20%): The career development plan will be assessed for clarity, ethics and feasibility, and in particular its alignment with ISPA’s mission and WJCR’s objectives especially regarding the study of affective components of learning. Additionally, the clear systematization of the proposed research strategies will be taken in account.

4.3. Curriculum evaluation process. The Selection Committee will evaluate eligible applications on a scale of 0-100, according to the criteria defined under 4.2 for curricular evaluation (AC).

4.3.1. The classification that each member of the Selection Committee awards individual candidates in each of the parameters corresponds to the weighted arithmetic mean of the classifications awarded under each criterion.

4.3.2. The formula for calculating the AC punctuation on a scale of 0 – 100 is the following:

AC = Scientific Performance 50% + Pedagogic Capacity 30% + Career Development Plan 20%

4.4. The interview will be assessed based on the following percentages and parameters regarding the candidate’s:

4.4.1. Scientific knowledge;

4.4.2. Motivation;

4.4.3. Ability to demonstrate their suitability for the position.

4.4.4. The interview evaluation is expressed on a scale of 0 – 100.

4.5 Final classification (FC). The final classification of candidates admitted to the interview corresponds to the weighted average of the selection and evaluation criteria, as follows:

F = AC (80%) + Interview (20%)

4.5.1 In the event of a tie, the Chair of the Selection Committee has the casting vote.

4.6 The call shall becancelled should the Selection Committee establish that no candidate meets the level established in the call (i.e., where curricular evaluations all fall below 50 points).

5. Selection process

5.1 — Preparatory Meeting. During the first meeting, the Selection Committee makes decisions regarding:

1. Application eligibility, based on documentation presented;
2. Absolute merit requirements;
3. c) Ineligible candidates or eligible candidates who do not meet the minimum requirements of absolute merit shall be excluded from consideration.

5.2. Ineligible candidates and candidates admitted on absolute merit will be notified through Public Notice (i.e., Edital).

5.3. — Curricular Evaluation Meeting. Selection Committee members provide their independent evaluations, and the final evaluation and subsequent candidate ranking is carried out.

5.3.1. Ranking and voting process 

5.3.1.1 — Selection Committee members present and discuss their individual evaluations, with room to introduce changes should any member wish to do so. After reaching consensus, each member will present their proposed candidate ranking duly based on relative merit criteria, in a written document to be attached to the minutes of the meeting.

5.3.1.2 — Voting begins to determine which candidate should be ranked first. If a candidate gets more than half of the votes, they are ranked in first place. If no candidate gets more than half the votes, candidates with zero votes and the candidate with the fewest votes in the first round who received at least one vote are all removed. If more than one least voted candidate with at least one vote in the first round exists, a vote is held only on those tied for last to decide which one to eliminate. For this vote, the members vote for the candidate placed lowest in their ranking and the candidate with the most votes is eliminated. If they still reach a tie between two or more candidates, the Chair of the Selection Committee shall decide which among these to eliminate. After this elimination, the first vote resumes for the remaining candidates. The process is repeated until one candidate obtains more than half the votes, placing them in first place.

5.3.1.3 — Once the candidate ranking first is removed from the vote, the process as described in 5.3.1.2 above is repeated for the second place and so on, until a ranked list for the admitted candidates is reached.

5.3.1.4 — Selection Committee members are not allowed to abstain from voting.

5.4. Excluded candidates and candidates admitted to the interview will be notified through Public Notice (i.e., Edital).

5.5. – Interview with the 3 (three) top candidates according to Curricular Evaluation results

5.5.1. Interviews will be conducted in person. Under special circumstances, at the request of the candidate, and with the unanimous approval of the Selection Committee members interviews may be conducted via teleconference.

5.5.1 — The Selection Committee Chair is responsible for conducting the interview. Any members of the Selection Committee can ask the candidates questions and evaluate each candidate independently.

5.5.3 - Each interview shall last up to 30 minutes with the possibility of 30-minute extension to be granted at the discretion of the Chair.

5.5.4. The interview shall be held in Portuguese unless the candidate or a member of the Selection Committee do not speak Portuguese, in which case the Chair may decide to conduct the interview in English.

5.5.5. Failure to attend the interview at the duly scheduled time and place (in person or by teleconference) shall result in exclusion from consideration.

5.6. — Selection Committee meeting for final evaluation and ranking of the candidates.

5.7. The final list ranking the candidates is published through Public Notice (i.e., Edital).

6. Process completion 

6.1 — Candidates are notified of the results throughout the evaluation process according to the process established under item 5 of this Call.

6.2.- After being notified of the final results, candidates have 10 (ten) working days to appeal the decision (i.e., audiência prévia), in accordance with articles 121 et seq. of the Code of Administrative Procedure. The final decision will be made after analyzing the pronunciations appealing the decision. The Selection Committee’s final decision will be made within 90 days of the call’s filing deadline.

6.3 - After the period for audiência prévia according to item 6.2 above, the Selection Committee will submit the decision for approval by the Rector;

6.4- The selected candidate has 10 (ten) working days to accept the proposed position, in writing, after which, if no well-founded reason is provided within said period, the candidate will be considered as having renounced the offer or withdrawn from consideration. In the event of renunciation or withdrawal by the selected candidate, the Selection Committee reserves the right to notify and grant said position to the candidate subsequently ranked, if applicable, and in accordance with the final ranking list.

7. Selection Committee Members

The Selection Committee is chaired, by delegation of the Rector of ISPA, by Doctor Maria Manuela Pedro Veríssimo, Full Professor and Vice-Rector of ISPA — University Institute, and is composed of the following five members:

Doctor Isabel Leal, Full Professor at Ispa – University Institute

Doctor Maria Gouveia Pereira, Associate Professor at Ispa – University Institute

Doctor Pedro Dias, Associate Professor at the University of the Azores,

Doctor Maria Filomena Gaspar, Associate Professor with Tenure at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra

Doctor Luisa Barros, Full Professor at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Lisbon

8. Publication of the call for applications

This notice is published on the following platforms:

1. EURAXESS in Portuguese and English;
2. Ispa website
3. Ispa social networks

9. Non-Discrimination and Equal Access Policy

Ispa reaffirms its commitment to actively promoting a policy of equal access and non-discrimination in all its selection processes. In this sense, no candidate may be privileged, benefited, harmed or deprived of any right, nor exempted from any duty, based on factors such as ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family situation, economic situation, level of education. , origin or social condition, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs and trade union membership.

As part of its role as an employer, Ispa ensures equal opportunities between men and women in access to employment and professional progression. All procedures are conducted in such a way as to ensure that there is no form of discrimination. 

Under Decree-Law No. 29/2001, of February 3, candidates with disabilities have preference in the event of equal classification, with this prevailing over any other legal preference. For the purposes of applying this right, candidates must declare on the application form, under oath, the respective degree of disability, the type of disability and the means of communication/expression to be used during the selection process, as established in the aforementioned diploma.

Ispa reiterates its commitment to valuing diversity and building an inclusive work environment, ensuring a fair, transparent and equitable recruitment process for all candidates.

February 17th, 2025, Rector of ISPA – Instituto Universitário, Isabel Leal.