CT-PRR-10-2022-DQ-PBA-Tender procedure for international selection for hiring of a Junior Investigator (Recovery and Resilience Plan-PRR)

Public Notice - Junior Researcher.

Notice no. 4140/2023 published in Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 40, 24/02/2023

Deadline: 17/03/2023

Under the terms of paragraph b) of Article 21 of the Statutes of the New University of Lisbon, Normative Dispatch no. 3/2020, of February 6th, the Director of the NOVA School of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon, Professor José Júlio Alves Alferes, makes known that by dispatch of 13/02/2023,  the Dean of the New University of Lisbon, Prof. Doutor João Sàágua, an international call for applications is open for a period of 15 working days from the day following the publication of this Notice in the Diário da República, with internal reference CT-PRR-10-2022-DQ-PBA, for the recruitment of 1 Junior Researcher under a unfixed-term contract for the maximum period of execution of the project "Pacto da Bioeconomia Azul (PBA) Ref.ª C644915664 -00000026" within the scope of the Financing Contract-Program for the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), under No. 1 of Order No. 11888-B/2021, of 30 November, signed between the New University of Lisbon and the Directorate-General for Higher Education, in terms of Decree-Law no. 57/2016, of 29 August, amended by Law no. 57/2017, of 19 July, in the scientific area of Engineering.

In compliance with paragraph h) of Article 9 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the New University of Lisbon, as an employer, actively promotes a policy of equal opportunities between men and women in access to employment and professional advancement, taking scrupulous care to avoid any form of discrimination.

I - Workplace

Nova School of Science and Technology, in Caparica Campus, Chemistry Department.

II - Activities and function

The PhD Researcher will work within the scope of Project Pacto da Bioeconomia Azul — PBA, Ref. C644915664 -00000026. The work plan involves:

Operation and optimization of pilot-scale bioreactors for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA);

Optimization of the waste/subproduct recovery process;

Selection of PHA accumulating microbial cultures;

Elaboration of reports and milestones, meeting the established deadlines;

Scientific dissemination activities

III - Remuneration positioning:

The definition of the position is based on the remuneration levels of the categories in Annex I of the Statute of the Career of Scientific Research, approved by Decree-Law No. 124/99, of April 20^th, as amended, and Regulatory Decree No. 11-A/2017, of 29 December, corresponding to the 1st salary position, salary level 33, which corresponds to the value of 2.206.94 €.

IV - Modality and duration

1. The opening of the present tender procedure is intended for the selection of a PhD position for carrying out scientific research activities under an unfixed-term employment contract. The basis of the hiring is the execution of a service that is precisely defined and non-lasting, being obligatorily financed, whatever its origin.
2. the unfixed-term employment contract has the duration of the project task (36 months) or while the funding lasts but cannot exceed the maximum limit of 72 months

V - Candidates Admission Criteria

1. Under the terms of article 12.º Decree-Law no. 57/2016, of 29 August, the candidate should:

Hold a PhD degree in the scientific area or similar areas of the call

To have a relevant scientific curriculum in the area of the call.

Experience in operating pilot-scale bioreactors with microbial cultures for production of PHA.

Practical experience in waste/subproduct recovery processes.

Hands-on experience in selecting PHA accumulating microbial cultures.

VI - Application Instruction

1. The application must be completed by filling in the respective application form, which is available at https://www.fct.unl.pt/faculdade/concursos/investigadores.
2. The application process must be instructed with the documentation in Portuguese or English.
3. The application should be submitted by e-mail, containing the following documents:

1. Curriculum vitae of the candidate, which must include:

i) “Researcher ID”, “Scopus Author ID” and “Google Scholar ID” identifications

ii) Research and development activities and other activities relevant for the present tender procedure, in concordance with the terms of the call

1. Certificate attesting to a PhD degree in Chemical and biochemical Engineering or similar areas related to the procedure
2. Published works, mentioned in the curriculum vitae, namely the most representative ones, as regards their contribution to development and evolution of valorization processes of residues/by-products, namely accumulating microbial cultures of PHA;
3. Declaration, under oath, that if the jury chooses to request the documentation indicated in the previous items or any other scientific documentation cited in the candidate's curriculum vitae, it will be delivered within 10 working days;
4. Other documents that the candidates may find relevant for the analysis of their application.

4 - If a member of the jury is not fluent in Portuguese, the documents for the candidates' prior hearing and complaints are necessarily presented in English that will be assessed by the jury.

VII - Presentation of the application

1.  The application documents must be submitted by the 15th working day counted from the day following the publication of this Notice in the Diário da República
2. Candidates must submit their application documents, in a single file in PDF format, by e-mail to the following address: div.rh.recruta.ndoc@fct.unl.pt, indicating in the subject the reference CT-PRR-10-2022-DQ-PBA.

VIII - Interview

1. The Jury will deliberate at its first meeting on the need to hold an interview with the candidates;
2. The interview if held, has a maximum weight of 10% of the total evaluation;
3. The interview aims at obtaining clarifications or clarifying the elements contained in the candidates Curriculum vitae, in case of need.

IX- Evaluation Criteria

1. The present procedure is designed to evaluate the candidate’s capacity and performance in the different parameters under the terms of no. 1 of article 5 of DL no. 57/2016.;
2. The curricular evaluation of the various candidates in each of the areas described below must take into consideration the scientific area in which the call is open;
3. The criteria to be considered in the curricular evaluation of the candidates, in each of the each of the aspects, are those listed below:

a) Quality of scientific work (QTCT);

b) Scientific, technological production (PCT);

c) Applied, or practice-based, research activities (AIAB);

d) Extension and knowledge dissemination activities (AEDC);

e) Science, technology and innovation program management activities (AGCTI);

X - Grounds for exclusion

The following are grounds for exclusion from admission to the call:

a) Incorrectly formalizing the application;

b) Failure to submit the documents required in point VI number 3 paragraph a) to (d), or submitting them in an illegible or invalid format.

XI - Classification of candidates

1. The jury will deliberate on the admissibility of the candidates, by justified roll call vote, expressed by the formulas Rejected or Approved;
2. Each member of the jury presents a justified proposal of rejected or approved for each of the candidates;
3. The candidate who obtains the favorable vote of more than half of jury members is considered approved.

XII - Sorting and voting methodology

1. Once the approved candidates have been definitively identified in absolute merit, the jury proceed to their classification in relative merit.
2. Each member of the jury will perform a curricular evaluation of the candidates by presenting a written statement, which will later be included in the minute, in which it proposes the ranking of the candidates duly based on the evaluation criteria indicated in this notice, scoring each candidate against each criterion on a numerical scale from 0 to 100 points.
3. The evaluation criteria indicated should be weighted as follows:

Quality of scientific and technical work (QTCT): 50%

Scientific and technological production (PCT): 20%

Applied or practice-based research activities (AIAB): 10%

Extension and knowledge dissemination activities (AEDC): 10%

Science, technology and innovation program management activities (AGCTI): 10%

1. The ordering of the Approved candidates is done by vote of the members of the jury, respecting the ranking presented in the statement referred to in the previous number, under 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, he is ordained in this position;

c) If the situation referred to in the previous paragraph is not verified, a new vote is held, only among the candidates who obtained votes for 1st place, after withdrawing the lesser candidate voted for that seat in the previous voting;

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 to determine the candidate for withdraw from the next vote; in this vote, each member will vote, from among the candidates equally of votes, for the candidate occupying the lowest position in the ranking in his opinion;

e) If there is a tie, the tiebreaker is done through the tiebreaker vote or vote of

quality of the president of the jury.

f) Voting shall be repeated until it is determined, by the process described above, which candidate is to be ranked first. If only two candidates remain and each of them obtains half of the votes, the tie shall be broken through the quality vote of the President of the jury;

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

XIII - Notifications and Hearing of Interested Parties

1. A prior hearing shall be held, under the terms of the Administrative Procedure Code, for those candidates who have been rejected, and of candidates who have been placed on the ranking list of the candidates who cannot be filled for the position in the competition. All candidates shall be notified of the ratification of the jury's final decision;
2. Notifications shall be made by email;
3. The tender dossier may be consulted by the candidates, in the Human Resources Division of FCT NOVA, under the terms indicated in the above-mentioned notification.

XIV - Jury Composition

President:

Doctor Maria D’Ascensão Carvalho Fernandes Miranda Reis, Full Professor of NOVA School of Sciences and Technology of the NOVA University Lisbon.

Efective Members:

Doctor Maria Filomena Andrade de Freitas, Assistant Professor of NOVA School of Sciences and Technology of the NOVA University Lisbon;

Doctor Joana Costa Fradinho, Researcher of NOVA School of Sciences and Technology of the NOVA University Lisbon;

Substitute members:

Doctor Cristiana Andreia Vieira Torres, Researcher of NOVA School of Sciences and Technology of the NOVA University Lisbon;

Doctor Nídia Lourenço, Researcher of NOVA School of Sciences and Technology of the NOVA University Lisbon;

XV - 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.

NOVA School of Sciences and Technology , Prof. Doctor José Alferes, Dean