Applications for PhD Research Studentships, within the PhD in Gender Studies

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences (CIEG/ISCSP-ULisboa) opens a call for granting 1 (one) Research Studentship, hereinafter referred to as PhD Research Studentship, in the area of Gender Studies, under the FCT Regulation for Studentships and Fellowships (RBI) and the Research Fellowship Holder Statute (EBI).

The grant will be financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the terms of the Collaboration Protocol for Funding of the Pluriannual Research Grant Plan for PhD Students, signed between the FCT and the R&D Unit CIEG, Nº 4304.

1. SUBMISSION OF APPLICATION

The call is open between March 27, 2023 and 17.00h (Lisbon time) April 17, 2023.

Applications and supporting documents for the application foreseen in this call must be submitted by e-mail sent to recrutamento@iscsp.ulisboa.pt.

Each candidate may submit only one application, under penalty of cancellation of all applications submitted.

False statements or plagiarism from any of the candidates will be grounds for cancellation of the application without prejudice to the adoption of other sanctionary measures.

2. TYPE AND DURATION OF THE STUDENTSHIPS

The PhD Research Studentships are intended to finance research activities carried out by the doctoral candidate that will lead to the attainment of the academic degree of doctor in Portuguese Universities.

The research activities leading to the attainment of the academic degree of doctor will take place at CIEG/ISCSP-ULisboa, which will be the candidates’ host institution, notwithstanding that the research work may be carried out in collaboration with more than one institution.

The research activities leading to the attainment of the academic degree of doctor of the selected applicants must be framed within the activity plan and strategy of CIEG/ISCSP-ULisboa, and must be carried out within the following Doctoral Program:

• PhD in Gender Studies, Consortium between the Institute of Social and Political Sciences (ISCSP-ULisboa), the NOVA School of Law and the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities.

The work program may be entirely or partially carried out at a national institution (national grant or mixed grant, respectively).

The duration of the fellowships is, as a rule, annual, renewable up to a maximum of four years (48 months), and no fellowship may be granted for a period of less than 3 consecutive months. In the case of mixed grants, the period of the work plan taking place in a foreign institution may not exceed 24 months.

3. RECIPIENTS

The PhD Research Studentships are intended for candidates already enrolled or that comply with the requirements to enroll in the PhD in Gender Studies and who intend to develop research activities, leading to the award of a PhD academic degree, at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (CIEG/ISCSP-ULisboa), or at other associated host institutions.

4. ADMISSIBILITY

4.1 Candidate Admissibility Requirements

The following may apply to this competition:

• National citizens or citizens of other member states of the European Union;
• Third-party states citizens;
• Stateless persons;
• Citizens benefiting from political refugee status.

To apply for these PhD Research Studentships, it is necessary:

• To hold a bachelor's or master's degree in the scientific areas of Social Sciences, Humanities, Life Sciences, Technological Sciences or any other scientific or artistic area;
• To be a citizen permanently and usually living in Portugal, at the beginning of the work plan’s period abroad, in case the work plan includes a period in foreign institutions (mixed grants); this requirement is applicable to both national and foreign citizens;
• Not have benefited from a PhD or PhD in Enterprise grant directly funded by FCT, regardless of its duration.
• Not to hold a doctoral degree.

4.2 Admissibility Requirements of the Application

The following documents must be attached to the application, under penalty of non-admission to the competition:

• Work plan to be developed, according to the norms available here:

http://cieg.iscsp.ulisboa.pt/images/PDF/Normas_BI_DEG_FCT_2023.pdf;

• Elements of the identity card/citizen card/passport;
• Curriculum vitae of the candidate, including linguistic competences in English (according the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages);
• Certificates of the academic degrees held, specifying the final grade and, if possible, the grades obtained in all courses taken, or, alternatively, a declaration of honor from the candidate that he/she has completed a bachelor's or master's degree by the application deadline;
• Record of recognition of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions and record of the conversion of the respective final classification into the Portuguese classification scale, or alternatively, declaration of honour from the candidate that he/she has obtained the recognition of the foreign degree equivalent to a bachelor or master by the application deadline;
• Motivation Letter (maximum 600 words);
• Letters of Recommendation (minimum 2), clearly identifying this call;
• Write the application and all documents associated with it, including the letters of motivation and recommendation, either in Portuguese or English.

Regarding the above admissibility requirements, the following should be noted:

• In the case of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, and in order to ensure the application of the principle of equal treatment for applicants holding foreign and national academic degrees, it is mandatory to recognize those degrees and convert the respective final classification into the Portuguese classification scale.

The recognition of foreign degrees and diplomas as well as the conversion of the final classification into the Portuguese classification scale may be requested at any public higher education institution, or at the Directorate General of Higher Education (DGES, only in the case of automatic recognition). Regarding this matter, we suggest that you consult the DGES portal at the following address: http://www.dges.gov.pt.

• Applicants will only be admitted if they have completed the cycle of studies leading to a bachelor or master degree by the application deadline. If they do not yet have a degree certificate, a declaration of honor from the candidates that they have completed the necessary qualifications for the competition by the application deadline will be accepted. Granting the PhD studentship will depend on the presentation of proof of the academic qualifications required at the contracting stage.

5. WORK PLANS AND SCIENTIFIC ORIENTATION OF THE STUDENTSHIPS

Applicants must develop their work plan leading to the award of a PhD academic degree in Gender Studies, according to the work plan approved by Dispatch n. º 5023/2018, published on D. R, 2^nd series, n. º 97, of 21 April 2018.

The supervisor of the PhD studentship will be the supervisor of the PhD thesis, who must be an Integrated Researcher at CIEG/ISCSP-ULisboa. If the student is at the curricular part of the program and doesn’t yet have a defined supervision, the supervisor will be CIEG’s Director.

6. EVALUATION CRITERIA AND BONUSES

6.1 Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation takes into account the Merit of the Applicant, the Merit of the Work Plan and an Individual Interview.

All admitted applications must be graded from 0 to 20 in each of the following evaluation criteria:

• Criterion A – Merit of the Applicant, with a weight of 30%:
  • Sub-criterion A1 – Academic career, with a weight of 40% or 20%, according to the profile:
    • Profile A (with bachelor’s and master degree): evaluated according the bachelor’s degree (20%), master (20%), with a weight of 40%;
    • Profile B (with bachelor’s degree): evaluated according the bachelor’s degree, with a weight of 20%;
  • Sub-criterion A2 – Curriculum vitae, with a weight of 40% or 60% according to the profile:
    • Profile A – 40%
    • Profile B – 60%
  • Sub-criterion A3 – Motivation Letter, with a weight of 15%;
  • Sub-criterion A4 – Recommendation Letters, with a weight of 5%;
• Criterion B – Merit of the Work Plan, with a weight of 40%:
  • Sub-criterion B1 – Scientific quality and methodological coherence, with a weigh of 50%;
  • Sub-criterion B2 – Suitability to the priorities of CIEG’s strategic plan, with a weigh of 50%;
• Criterion C – Individual Interview, with a weight of 30%:
  • Sub-criterion C1 – Suitability of the applicant profile to the research activity, with a weigh of 50%;
  • Sub-criterion C2 – Defense of the work plan and clarification of the contribute to the area of Gender Studies, with a weigh of 50%.

Regarding sub-criterion A1 (Profile A), if the candidate has an integrated master’s degree, the final classification will weight 40%, if applicable.

For the purposes of the grant decision, applicants will be ranked according to the weighted average of the classification obtained in each of the 3 criteria, translated by the following formula:

Final Classification =(30% ×A+ 40% ×B+30% ×C

For tie-breaking purposes, candidates will be ranked on the basis of the marks awarded for each of the evaluation criteria in the following order of precedence: criterion B, criterion A, criterion C.

In case of qualitative classification, it will be followed the scale of the “Regulamento de Estudos de Pós-Graduação da Universidade de Lisboa” [Sufficient (10 -13), Good (14 -15), Very Good (16 -17) and Excellent (18-20)], together with the “Regulamento de Creditação de Experiências Profissionais e Formações Académicas do ISCSP”, point 4), article 12º: “Nos casos em que a classificação é apresentada em escala qualitativa, utiliza-se a regra do valor mais elevado correspondente a essa escala” (“In cases where the classification is presented on a qualitative scale, it must be used the rule of the highest value corresponding to that scale”).

Important notice for applicants with diplomas issued by foreign higher education institutions:

• Applicants with diplomas issued by foreign higher education institutions may apply and will be evaluated with the same criteria as applicants with diplomas issued by Portuguese institutions, provided that they present, in the application, proof of the recognition of the academic degrees and the conversion of the final classification to the Portuguese grading scale under the terms of the applicable legislation.
• Applicants with foreign degrees who do not submit proof of the conversion of the final average grade to the Portuguese grading scale will be evaluated with the minimum grade of 10 points in the respective degree of sub-criterion A1.
• In any case, scholarship contracts with applicants with degrees issued by foreign institutions will only be awarded upon presentation of proof of degree recognition and conversion of the final classification, as indicated above.

Applicants whose application is scored with a final grade lower than 14 points are not eligible for studentship granting.

6.2 Bonuses

Applicants that state a degree of disability, duly proven, equal to or above 90% shall have a bonus of 20% on criterion A – Merit of the Applicant. Applicants that state a degree of disability equal to or above 60% and under 90%, shall have a bonus of 10% in this criterion.

7. EVALUATION

The evaluation panel of the candidates is composed of the following elements:

• Anália Torres, Full Professor at ISCSP-ULisboa (panel coordinator);
• Paula Campos Pinto, Associated Professor at ISCSP-ULisboa (Vowel);
• Maria João Cunha, Associated Professor do ISCSP-ULisboa (Vowel);
• Fátima Assunção, Assistant Professor at ISCSP-ULisboa (Alternate Vowel);
• Cláudia Casimiro, Assistant Professor at ISCSP-ULisboa (Alternate Vowel).

The above mentioned panel will evaluate the applications according to the criteria presented in this call, weighting the evaluation elements.

All panel members, including the coordinator, are committed to a set of responsibilities essential to the evaluation process, such as the duties of impartiality, declaration of any potential conflict of interest, and confidentiality. At all times during the evaluation process, confidentiality is fully protected and ensured in order to guarantee the independence of all opinions produced.

For each application, the panel will produce a final evaluation sheet where the arguments that led to the scores assigned to each of the evaluation criteria and sub-criteria are presented in a clear, coherent, and consistent manner.

Minutes of the evaluation panel meetings shall be produced under the responsibility of all its members.

The minutes and their annexes must obligatorily include the following information:

• Name and affiliation of all members of the evaluation panel;
• Identification of all excluded applications and respective justification;
• Methodology adopted by the panel for cases considered particular;
• Final evaluation sheets for each candidate;
• Provisional ranking and seriation list of candidates, in descending order of final ranking, of all applications evaluated by the panel;
• CDI statements from all panel members;
• Possible delegations of vote and competencies due to justified absence.

8. DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS

The results of the evaluation are communicated via e-mail to the e-mail address used by the candidate to submit the application.

9. DEADLINES AND PROCEDURES FOR PRIOR HEARING, CLAIM, AND APPEAL

After notification of the provisional list of evaluation results, the candidates have a period of 10 working days to, if they wish, make their comments during a prior hearing of interested parties, under the terms of articles 121 and following of the Administrative Procedure Code.

The final decision will be issued after the analysis of the statements presented during the prior hearing of interested parties. A complaint may be lodged against the final decision within 15 working days, or alternatively an appeal may be lodged within 30 working days, both counting from the respective notification. Candidates who choose to file a complaint must address their appeal to the member of the FCT Board of Directors with delegated authority. Candidates who choose to file an appeal must address their appeal to the FCT Board of Directors.

10. REQUIREMENTS FOR STUDENTSHIP GRANTING

Research grant contracts are entered into directly with FCT.

The following documents must be submitted, when the grant is awarded, for contracting purposes.

1. Copy of the civil, fiscal and, when applicable, social security identification document(s);
2. Copy of the qualification certificates of the academic degrees held;
3. Presentation of the record of recognition of the foreign academic degrees and conversion of the respective final classifications to the Portuguese classification scale, if applicable;
4. Work plan;
5. Proof of enrolment and registration in the PhD in Gender Studies;
6. Statement from the supervisor(s), declaring their acceptance to coordinate and supervise the work plan, in accordance with article 5-A of the Research Grant Holder Statute;
7. Document proving acceptance of the applicant by the institution where the work plan will be developed, guaranteeing the necessary conditions for its good development, as well as the fulfillment of the duties established in article 13 of the Research Grant Holder Statute;
8. Updated document proving the exclusivity dedication regime;

The award of the grant is also subject to:

• of the fulfillment of the requirements foreseen in this Notice of Call;
• the results of scientific evaluation;
• the absence of unjustified non-compliance of the fellowship holder during previous directly or indirectly FCT funded fellowships;
• FCT budget availability.

Failure to submit any of the documents needed to complete the grant contracting process within 6 months of the date of communication of the decision to award the grant conditionally will result in the expiration of the grant and the termination of the process.

11. FUNDING

Scholarship payment will start after the signed contract is returned to FCT, which should happen within 15 working days after its delivery.

The grants awarded under this call will be financed by FCT with funds from the State Budget and, when eligible, with funds from the European Social Fund, to be made available under the PORTUGAL2020 program, namely through the Regional Operational Program of the North (NORTE 2020), the Regional Operational Program of the Center (Centro 2020) and the Regional Operational Program of the Alentejo (Alentejo 2020), according to the regulations established for this purpose.

12. STUDENTSHIP ALLOWANCE

A monthly maintenance allowance is granted to the fellows in accordance with the table in Annex I of the RBI.

The studentship may also include additional allowances, according to RBI’s Article no. 18 and the values indicated in its Annex II.

All studentship holders have a personal accident insurance related to the research activities, which FCT will support.

All studentship holders who are not beneficiaries of any social protection regime have the right to register for social security through the voluntary social insurance regime, under the terms of the Contributory Scheme of the Social Security System. FCT will ensure the charges resulting from contributions under the terms and the limits provided in Article no. 10 of the EBI.

13. PAYMENTS OF STUDENTSHIP ALLOWANCE

Payments due to the studentship holder will be made by bank transfer to the account he/she identifies. The payment of the monthly maintenance allowance will be made on the first working day of each month.

Payments of the registration, enrollment and tuition components shall be made by FCT directly to the national institution where the grant recipient is enrolled or enrolled in the doctoral program.

14. TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR RENEWAL OF STUDENTSHIP

The renewal of the studentship is always subject to a request submitted by the grant holder within 60 working days prior to the renewal date, accompanied by the following documents:

a) opinions issued by the supervisor/s and the host entity/s on the monitoring of the grant holder's work and the evaluation of his/her activities;

b) updated document proving compliance with the regime of exclusive dedication;

c) document proving renewal of enrollment in the study cycle leading to a doctoral degree.

15. INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY OF THE GRANTED FUNDING

In all R&D activities directly or indirectly funded by the grant, namely in all communications, publications and scientific creations, as well as theses, carried out with the support provided by the grant, mention should be made of financial support from the FCT and the European Social Fund, namely through the Regional Operational Program of the North (NORTE 2020), the Regional Operational Program of the Center (Centro 2020) and the Regional Operational Program of the Alentejo (Alentejo 2020). To this end, the insignia of the FCT, the MCTES, the ESF and the EU shall be inscribed on the documents referring to these actions, in accordance with the graphic standards of each operational program.

Dissemination of results of research funded under the RBI shall comply with the rules for open access of data, publications and other research results in force at the FCT.

In all grants, and particularly in the case of actions supported by EU funding, namely from the ESF, monitoring and control actions may be carried out by national and EU bodies, in accordance with the applicable legislation in this area. The grant recipients are required to cooperate and provide the requested information, which includes surveys and evaluation studies in this area, even if the grant has already ended.

16. POLICY OF NON-DISCRIMINATION AND EQUAL ACCESS

FCT promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, whereby no applicant shall be privileged, benefited, prejudiced, or deprived of any right or exempt from any duty on the basis of ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, family situation, economic situation, 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 convictions, or union membership.

17. APPLICABLE LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS

The Call is governed by this Opening Notice, by the FCT Research Grant Regulations, approved by Regulation No. 950/2019, published in the II Series of the DR of 16 December 2019, by the Research Grant Holder Statute approved by Law No. 40/2004, of 18 August, as amended, and by all other applicable national and EU legislation.