RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP_SF_01_Informatics

Outline

The Universidade Lusófona, instituted by COFAC - Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural. CRL, hereby announces a call for 1 research scholarship, under the scope of the research unit HEI-Lab.

What is funded

1 research scholarship

Duration

10 months

Eligibility

Research Grant - is intended for registered candidates and or candidates who meet the necessary conditions to enroll in a cycle of studies leading to an academic degree or in a course not conferring an academic degree.

Eligibility of Applicants: The following may apply to the present competition: National citizens or citizens from other member-states of the European Union; Citizens from third countries; Stateless persons; Citizens benefiting from political refugee status.

Candidate Admissibility Requirements:
● Bachelor's degree in the field of study in Computer Science/Video Games;
● Enrolled in a Master's degree in the field of Computer Science/ Video Games;
● Proficiency in Unity and C#;
● Residing in Portugal permanently and habitually, a requirement applicable to both national and foreign citizens;
● Proficient command of Portuguese and English.

Admissibility requirements for the application
It is essential, under penalty of non-admission to the Competition, to attach the following documents to the application:
● Curriculum vitae of the candidate, indicating the email address, and, if available, portfolio of developed video games;
● Certificates of academic qualifications held, specifying, compulsorily, the final classification and, if possible, the classifications obtained in all subjects taken. Alternatively, declaration of honour from the candidate that he/she has completed the degrees required in the announcement by the application deadline;
● Letter of Motivation;
● Letters of Recommendation (maximum two) that refer to the context of the candidate's academic and/or professional relationship with those recommending him/her, indicating the reference to this competition; 
● Any other documents that the candidates understand to be relevant for the assessment of their merit (e.g., portfolio of projects); 
● Recognition of Foreign Degrees and Diplomas - In the case of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, and in order to guarantee the application of the principle of equal treatment for candidates 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 academic degrees and diplomas as well as the conversion of the final classification into the Portuguese classification scale may be requested in any public higher education institution, or in the Directorate General of Higher Education (DGES, only in the case of automatic recognition). Regarding this matter, we suggest consulting the DGES portal through the following address: http://www.dges.gov.pt. 
The documents proving the possession of academic degrees and diplomas, or the respective recognition when they have been awarded by foreign higher education institutions, may be dispensed with during the application stage, being replaced by a declaration of honour from the applicant (link), and this condition will only be verified during the contractualization phase of the grant. This declaration must certify facts that occurred prior to the application. 

5. Applicable legislation and regulations: 
Research Grant Holder Statute (EBI), approved by Law no. 40/2004 of 18 August, in its current wording published by Decree-Law no. 123/2019 of 28 August Research Grant Regulations, no. 950/2019 of 16-12-2019, of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. - in force.

6. Contracting entity: 
COFAC- Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural Crl

7. Unidade de acolhimento dos trabalhos de investigação e Orientação científica: 
The work will be developed at HEI-Lab, under the scientific guidance of Pedro Gamito.

8. Duration of the fellowship(s): 
The duration of the fellowship 10  months. 

8.1 Amount of monthly maintenance allowance: The amount 930,98 euros corresponds to the amounts established for Master's research grants, as per the FCT, I.P. grant amounts table (Table of monthly maintenance allowances of the FCT I.P. Research Grants Regulations). 
8.2 Other benefits: Reimbursement of Voluntary Social Insurance, corresponding to the 1st Category of the contribution base (for grants lasting 6 months or more) and Personal Accident Insurance. 
8.3 Exclusive regime: The performance of functions as a grant holder will be carried out on an exclusive basis, in accordance with article 5 of the Research Grant Holder Statute and applicable research grant regulations.

9.  Application deadline and form of presentation of applications: The competition is open from 7th to 30th january, 2023. Applications and supporting documents for the application set out in this announcement must be submitted by email to ana.mourato@ulusofona.pt, with the subject of the email being "RF_SeedFunding_01_Informatics". Each candidate may submit only one application, under penalty of cancellation of all applications submitted. The provision of false statements or plagiarism by the candidates will be grounds for cancellation of the application without prejudice to the adoption of other sanctionary measures.

10. Evaluation and selection criteria and procedures:
Applications deemed admissible will be scored on a scale of 0 to 100 on each of the following assessment criteria: 
● Criterion A - Graduation final grade, with a weight of 50%.
● Criterion B - Integrated evaluation of the applicant's curricular and/or professional and artistic trajectory, with the weight of 30%.
● Criterion D - Motivation letter with the weight of 20%.

For the purposes of the decision on the award of scholarships, candidates will be ranked according to the weighted average of the classification obtained in each of the four criteria, translated by the following formula:

Classification Merit = (30% × A) + (30%× B) + (20% × C) + (20% × D)

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 A, criterion B, criterion C, and criterion D.
The Jury may decide to invite the three candidates with the best scores to an interview, in which case the following evaluation sub-criteria shall apply
a. Interpersonal Skills (20%)
b. Demonstrated knowledge in research in the area of the competition (50%)
c. Motivation (10%)
d. Language Skills (20%)
The classification of the Interview will be obtained by applying the following formula:

Interview = a + b + c + d

In case the interview is held, the final classification of Merit and Interview will be obtained by applying the following formula:
Final Classification = (Merit*0,7) + (Interview*0,3)
If the interview does not take place, the final classification will correspond to 100% of the evaluation obtained in the Candidate's Merit.
The jury may not award the scholarship if the quality of the candidates is inferior to the desired quality.
The candidate will be required to participate in R&D activities taking place at UI&D HEI-Lab.

11. Composition of the Selection Committee
President
Pedro Gamito, Director of the HEI-Lab
Effective Members    
Filipe Luz, Vice-director of HEI-Lab
Micaela Fonseca, Vice-director of HEI-Lab
Should the President of the Jury be unable to attend, he will be replaced by the first effective member, and the alternate member will be appointed to replace the effective member.
Substitute member:
Jorge Oliveira, Deputy Director of the HEI-Lab

12. Dissemination of results: 
The final results of the evaluation will be advertised through a list ordered by the grade obtained, posted in a visible and public place of the host Unit and also by email to all candidates. The notification will be sent to the email address used/indicated by the candidates when submitting the application. The selected candidate must express in writing his/her intention to accept the scholarship. In case of non-acceptance, the scholarship will be awarded to the candidate in order of final ranking.

13. Complaint and appeal procedures: 
If the result is unfavourable to the award of the requested scholarship, the candidates have a period of 10 working days to give their opinion, if they wish, in a prior hearing to the interested parties, under the terms of articles 121 and 122 of the Administrative Procedure Code (DL nº 4/2015 of 7 January). A complaint may be lodged against the final decision, within 15 working days, addressed to the President of the Jury. 

14. Requirements and mandatory documents for the granting of a scholarship:
The research grant contracts are concluded directly with COFAC. The following documents will have to be mandatorily remitted, at the time of the eventual granting of the scholarship, for the purpose of its contractualisation: 
● Copy of civil, tax and, where applicable, social security identification document(s); 
● Copy of the qualification certificates of the academic degrees held; 
● Presentation of the record of recognition of foreign academic degrees and conversion of the respective final classifications to the Portuguese classification scale, if applicable; Work plan; 
Document proving the enrolment and/or registration in a course; 

The award of the grant is also dependent on: the fulfilment of the requirements set out in this Announcement and the result of the scientific evaluation. Failure to submit any of the documents required to complete the contractualisation process of the grant, within 3 months from the date of communication of the decision of conditional award of the grant, will imply the forfeiture of that award and the closure of the process.

15. Funding:
Payment of the scholarships will begin after the candidates return the duly signed scholarship contract to this entity, which must occur within a maximum of 15 working days from the date of receipt. 

16. Components of the scholarship
The grant holder shall receive a monthly maintenance allowance in accordance with the table in Annex I of the RBI. The grant may also include other components, under the terms set out in Article 18 of the RBI and at the values stipulated in its Appendix II. All grant recipients shall be covered by personal accident insurance for research activities. All grant holders who are not covered by any social protection scheme may ensure the exercise of their right to social security by joining the voluntary social security scheme, under the terms of the Social Security Contributions Code.

17. Payment of Grant Components
All payments due to the grant holder shall be made by bank transfer to the account specified by the grant holder. 

18. Terms and Conditions for Renewal of Scholarship
If there is a possibility of renewal of the grant, this always depends on a request submitted by the grant holder within 60 working days prior to the renewal date, accompanied by the following documents: opinions issued by the supervisor and host institution on the monitoring of the grant holder's work and the evaluation of his activities; an updated document proving the compliance with the regime of exclusive dedication; a document proving the renewal of the enrolment in the study cycle leading to a master's degree.

19. Policy of Non-Discrimination and Equal Access
The Lusófona University and the HEI-Lab promote a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, whereby no candidate may be privileged, benefited, prejudiced or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty due to, namely, ascendance, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, family situation, economic situation, education, origin or social condition, genetic patrimony, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological convictions and trade union membership.