Candidate admissibility requirements:

1. Mandatory requirements:

The following are eligible to apply for this competition: 

• Holding a Bachelor in Education;
• Being proficient in both English and Portuguese;
• Have completed curricular units related to research methodology in Education.

Admissibility requirements:

It is essential, under penalty of not being admitted to the competition, to attach the following documents to the application:

• The candidate's curriculum vitae;
• Motivation letter;
• Certificates of the academic degrees obtained or, if applicable, the candidate's declaration of honor that he/she has completed the degrees required in the notice by the application deadline (not applicable to research initiation grants);
• For degrees obtained abroad, the record of recognition of the academic degrees and record of the conversion of the respective final classification to the Portuguese classification scale must be presented, or, alternatively, the candidate's declaration of honor (not applicable to research initiation grants);

Amount of the research grant: The value stipend (Monthly Maintenance Allowance) is 1040,98 per month, in accordance with the stipends values published by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT I.P.) in the country (Annex I – Monthly Stipends Values for the maintenance allowances of the FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships) and Annex II of the Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, nº 81 dispatch 4998/2025 of 28/04/2025, according to the applicable regulation.

Payment is made on the 23st of each month, through bank transfer to the Bank Identification Number of the fellow identified in the contratualization process.

Other benefits: Reimbursement of Voluntary Social Security (Social Security contributions), corresponding to the 1st level of discounts (for research grants with a total duration 6 months or higher) and personal accident insurance.

Applicants’ eligibility: Applicants must comply with the eligibility conditions laid down in article 9 of the Research Grants Regulation of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2019).

Selection panel: 

The first effective member will substitute the President of the selection panel in case of impediment, being nominate the first substitute member in the place of the first effective member.

a) President of the Jury: Maria Assunção Flores Fernandes, Associate Professor with Qualification at the Institute of Education of the University of Minho. 

b) Effective member: Diana Alexandra Ribeiro Pereira, Junior Research, Research Centre on Child Studies of the University of Minho. 

c) Effective member: Eva Maria Lopes Fernandes, Entry-level Doctoral Researcher, Research Centre on Child Studies of the University of Minho. 

d) Substitute member: Maria Cristina Cristo Parente, Assistant Professor, Institute of Education of the University of Minho. 

e) Substitute member: Orlanda Tavares, Assistant Researcher, Research Centre on Child Studies of the University of Minho.

Criteria and procedures for applications assessment and selection: The applications assessment will focus on the candidate's Merit, following evaluation criteria, valued on a scale of 1 to 5 values (or another scale)[1]

1. Applicant Merit - AM (60%):

A.1: Academic path (considering the classifications of academic degrees), with a weighting of 40%;

A.2: Personal curriculum (considering professional and scientific background), with a weighting of 40%;

A.3: Motivation letter, with a weighting of 20%.

The final classification of the Applicant’s Merit will be achieved through the following formula:

AM=(A1×0,4) + (A2×0,4) + (A3×0,2)

Applicants in the three first positions with a minimum of 4,0 points will be interviewed (the interview will be conducted in English) according to the following criteria: 

B. Interview – INT (40%):

B.1:  interpersonal competencies (40%);

B.2: knowledge in the field in of the application (20%);

B.3: motivation (20%);

B.4: linguistic competencies (20%).

The academic degrees and diplomas documents, or their respective recognition when awarded by foreign higher education institutions are not mandatory in the application phase, being replaced by a declaration of honour of the candidate with the contents of academic results. The documents of academic qualification or respective recognition will be required in the contracting phase and must attest facts that occurred on a date prior to the application. In situations of divergence between the information contained in the declaration and the documentation submitted for contracting the grant, only the information contained in the latter will be consider. If the documents proving the ownership of the academic degree and diploma, or the respective recognition under the terms of Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of August 16, do not correspond to the classifications awarded in the evaluation of the academic path, which can change the candidate's ranking, the fellowship won’t be contracted.

Notes: Applicants with degrees obtained abroad must present proof of recognition of qualifications in Portugal and conversion of the final classification obtained in them to the Portuguese classification scale or declaration under the terms indicated in the previous point. Candidates who do not comply with one of these provisions, the selection panel will assign “0” in the grade of the graduation and/or master course. Candidates will be evaluated on the remaining parameters.

Disclosure of results: The evaluation results project, based in the selection panel minutes, will be send to the applicants by email, in accordance with article 12 of the FCT's RBI (FCT funding) | article 13 of UMinho's RBIC (other funding subject to UMinho regulations). 

If case of unfavourable results, the candidates have a period of 10 working days to comment, if desired, in a prior hearing to interested parties, pursuant to articles 121 and 122 of the Code of Administrative Procedure (DL nº 4 / 2015 of January 7th).

Complaint and appeal procedures: The results of the evaluation will be published through an ordered list (alphabetically, by final grade obtained), posted in a visible and public place of the host unit, as well as by email to all applicants, enclosing for that purpose, the minutes of the jury deliberations.

The selected candidate must inform its willingness to accept the grant, in writing. In case of rejection, the fellowship will be awarded to the next candidate in the ordered list of applicants.

The final decision can be contested within 15 working days, by sending to the President of the jury the corresponding claim. Interested parties may also submit an optional hierarchical appeal, addressed to the Pro-Rector with delegated competences in this area.

Constitution of a selection reserve list: The applicants ranked in the next positions on the ordered list will be included in a selection reserve list, which can be used until 31/12/2025.

Application deadline and submission: The call for applications is open from 4th August till 18th August 2025 or for a period of 10 working days from the date of publication on the Euraxess portal.

Applications must be formalized by sending an application letter with the following documents: curriculum vitae; qualifications certificate or declaration of the applicant; motivation letter; statement proving that meets the conditions for the grant typology, according to the application requirements; other documents important to the evaluation process).

Applications must be sent by email to (ciec@ie.uminho.pt and aflores@ie.uminho.pt ), indicating the reference of the call for applications in Subject. Applications submitted by other means will not be accepted.

Fellowship contractualization: The fellowship will be attributed by signing a fellowship contract between the University of Minho and the fellow, accordingly with the contract minute (annex II of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, n.º 81 dispatch 4998/2025 of 28/04/2025, as indicated in 2.4 of the FCT document: “Rules for Granting and Management of Grants within the scope of R&D projects, including infrastructure projects, the multi-annual financing program for R&D units and other FCT financing instruments (Version 2021)”.

The contract may only be concluded after all the documentation required is collected, which must take place within a maximum period of 6 months [including evidences of the academic degrees or diplomas and enrolment in degree courses or non-conferring courses, depending on the type of scholarship].

Once all the documentation has been received, the contracting entity has a period of 60 working days to conclude the scholarship contract (in the case of scholarship contracts under UMinho's RBIC, the deadline is 15 working days, under the terms of nº2 of Article 15º). Once received, the fellow must return the contract duly signed within 15 working days.

The activities under the fellowship contract can only began after proper authorization by the contracting entity. 

Term and cancellation of fellowship contracts: Without prejudice to the other causes provided the fellowship regulations (FCT and UMinho) and in the Statute of the Research Fellow, the fellowship ends with the completion of the work plan, as well as with the expiration date for which it was granted or renewed.

At the end of the fellowship, the grantee is obliged to present a Final Report of the work carried out, in accordance with the objectives and evaluation criteria defined with the scientific advisor, within 30 days after the end of the scholarship.

The final report must be prepared in accordance with Annex I of the Scientific Research Fellowships Regulation of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, nº 81 dispatch 4998/2025 of 28/04/2025.
 

[1] If a second evaluation method is fixed – Interview, it may not have a weighting higher than 40%, according to n.º 1 of article 12.º of UMinho regulation;

The jury shall define whether all candidates are interviewed or identify the criterion to be applied to a set of candidates to be interview and its valuation (for instance, selection of candidates ranked between the 1s and 4th position in the evaluation list of APCC).

Exclusivity regime: The grantee will perform the activities under exclusivity, as foreseen in article 5º of the Research Fellow Statutes and applicable regulations. 

Workplan and objectives to be achieved: 

- to collaborate in data collection;

- to collaborate in the processing and analysis of qualitative data;

- to collaborate in the organization of events within the scope of the project; 

- to collaborate in the literature review; 

- to collaborate in the project's activities under the terms defined by the scientific manager.

Applicable legislation and regulations: Research Fellowship Holder Statutes, approved by Law nº 40/2004 of August 18, in its current version published by Decree-Law nº 123/2019 of august 28; Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, nº 81 dispatch 4998/2025 of 28/04/2025, and Regulation of Research Studentships and Fellowships (RBI) of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. - in force.

Host/Contracting institution and scientific supervision: The workplan will be carried out at the Research Centre on Child Studies, University of Minho, under the scientific supervision of the Doctor Maria Assunção Flores.

Fellowship duration: The grant will take place for a period of 11 months, with a provisional starting date on the 15th September 2025. The fellowship grant may be renewed up to the legal limit set by law.