Public Notice - International Selection Procedure - PhD Scientific Researcher Recruitment

Ref: FCiências.ID/2020/DL57/ IA/10 (# 3275)

FCiências.ID - Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, through its Chairman of the Board of Directors, hereby announces the opening of an international call for the recruitment of a scientific researcher with a PhD degree, in the framework of the project UIDP/04434/2020, funded by FCT- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the form of an indefinite duration fixed-term employment contract on an exclusive regime, according to the Portuguese Labour Code and Decree-Law No. 57/2016, of August 29th, as amended by Law No. 57/2017, of July 19th.

I - Admission Requirements
Portuguese nationals, foreign and stateless persons may submit applications to this selection procedure, provided they hold a doctoral degree¹ in Astronomy and Astrophysics or similar areas, have specialised skills and/or expertise in the field of cosmology, and fully comply with the following requirements:

   a) The PhD must have been granted at least three years ago;
   b) Demonstrated scientific and/or professional experience in observational cosmology, in particular, in the area of weak lensing;
   c) Demonstrated expertise in developing pipelines for space missions including survey planning;
   d) Strong involvement with the Euclid mission.

¹ Please note that Degrees obtained in foreign countries need a Portuguese Recognition issued by a Portuguese high degree Institution, according to the Decree-Law nr. 66/2018, of august 16th and the Ministerial Order nr. 33/2019, of January 25th. The presentation of such Recognition is mandatory for contract signature. More information can be obtained in: https://www.dges.gov.pt/en/pagina/degree-and-diploma-recognition.

II. Applicable Law
   1. Decree-Law No. 57/2016, of August 29th (RCD), in the wording conferred on it by Law No. 57/2017, of July 19th (RCD);
   2. Portuguese Labour Code, as approved by Law No. 7/2009, of February 12th, in its current version (CT);
   3. Regulatory Decree No. 11-A/2017, of December 29th;
   4. Administrative Procedure Code, as published in Decree-Law No. 4/2015, of January 7th, in its current version (CPA).

III. Work Plan
The objectives of the work plan are:

   a) Production of Euclid survey schedules;
   b) Evaluation of the impact of various biases in the Euclid weak lensing data;
   c) Find ways to take effects into account in the forthcoming Euclid data;
   d) Build a pipeline to measure the high order statistics in the data;
   e) Perform forecast and build a pipeline to place constraints on cosmological parameters given Euclid data.

IV. Composition of the Jury
In accordance to article 13 of the RCD, the members of the jury are:

   • President – Nelson Nunes
   • 1st Member of the jury – Francisco Lobo
   • 2nd Member of the jury – Jarle Brinchmann
   • 1st Alternate Member of the jury – José Pedro Mimoso
   • 2nd Alternate Member of the jury – Pedro Avelino

V. Place of work
Work will be developed at the facilities of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, in Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Campo Grande or Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa, Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal.

VI. Contract Duration
The full-time indefinite duration fixed-term employment contract is expected to start on the 1st of September, and will last until the Work Plan referred to in section III is completed. It will have an expected duration of 24 months, will not exceed the limits set in the RCD.

VII. Monthly Allowance
The gross monthly salary is stipulated in clause 1 a) of article 15 of the RCD, corresponding to level 33 of the Single Remuneratory Table, as approved by Government Order No. 1553-C/2008, of December 31st, updated by the decree-law nr. 10-B/2020, of March 20th, being 2,134,73 Euros, plus holiday and Christmas allowances, as well as food allowance in the amount and conditions set out for workers with a legal employment relationship under the Labour Code.

VIII. Evaluation of applications
1. Failure to comply with the Admission Requirements implies the non-admission of candidates in absolute merit.

2. According to article 5 of the RCD, the selection of the candidates approved in absolute merit will rely on the evaluation of their scientific and curricular achievements in the last five years, taking into consideration the quality and relevance of the scientific production, and the professional activity indicated as more relevant by the candidate, for the project.

3. The final classification of candidates is given on a scale of 0 to 100%.

4. Evaluation of the relative merit of candidates, will rely on the following criteria:

   a) Motivation letter - 10%;
   b) CV (up to 4 pages) and list of scientific publications (with mention to the 5 articles the candidate judges the most relevant, for which a short description of the role of the candidate must be included). The CV should include academic degrees, indicators of scientific maturity and scientific independence relevant to IA’s scientific strategy, outreach involvement – 30%;
   c) Relevance and success of previous research experience in the field, with emphasis on the quality and international impact and recognition of the work produced – 50%;
   d) Interview, if deemed necessary by the jury - 10%.

5. The jury may decide to interview the three best ranked [in criteria a) to d) of paragraph 4)] candidates, for clarifications and improved explanations of curricular elements.

6. The jury shall deliberate by means of a roll-call vote based on the evaluation criteria.

7. Minutes of the jury meetings are drawn up, summarizing all relevant elements considered by jury members, as well as their individual votes and justifications.


8. After completion of the evaluation process, the jury will draw up a ranking of successful candidates with their classifications.

9. Hiring will be decided by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FCiências.ID, based on the final jury recommendation.

10. The evaluation results will be published on the website of the FCiências.ID ("Concursos" tab). The candidates will be individually notified of the evaluation results by e-mail sent to the address indicated in the "Personal Data" section of the submitted form.

11. With the notification referred to in paragraph 10, the hearing phase of interested parties referred to in Article 121 et seq. of the CPA will begin, and last for ten working days.

12. The possible pronouncement of the candidate in a prior hearing must be addressed to the President of the jury and submitted in writing to fciencias.id@fciencias-id.pt. The President of the jury will convene a jury’s meeting to produce the final decision, within thirty working days.

13. Within five working days of the final jury decision, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FCiências.ID will approve it and the candidates will be notified.

14. The communication between FCiências.ID and the candidates will be electronic and will comply with the following rules:

   a) At the time of electronic submission of any document - namely in the case of paragraph no 11 - the candidates must generate proof of "sent message".
   b) FCiências.ID will send an email message acknowledging documents received to the email address used by the candidates, within two working days.
   c) In case of absence of a confirmation receipt by FCiências.ID – showing the possibility of technical problems that should neither be the responsibility of the candidate nor FCiências.ID - the candidates should contact FCiências.ID, with the proof referred to in point (a), to ensure delivery and proper receipt of the documents concerned.

IX. Compliance with public policies
   1. FCiências.ID actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, so that no candidate can be privileged, benefited, disadvantaged or deprived of any right or exempt from any duty due to, inter alia, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, economic situation, education, social origin or condition, genetic heritage, reduced working capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs and trade union membership.

   2. Under the terms of D.L. No. 29/2001, of February 3, a disabled candidate has a preference in equal classification, which prevails over any other legal preference. Candidates must declare their respective degree of disability, the type of disability and the means of communication / expression to be used in the selection process, under the terms of the above-mentioned diploma.

X. Submission of Applications
1. The present call will be open from 22nd June to 03rd July 2020.

2. The application and all the required documents may be submitted in Portuguese or English.

3. Applications will be submitted online, through the electronic platform of FCiências.ID (http://concursos.fciencias-id.pt).

4. On the electronic platform, applicants will complete a mandatory section on Personal Data [name, address, date of birth, contact email, nationality and scientific identifiers] and upload files with the documents listed below:

   i. Detailed curriculum vitae - mandatory;
   ii. A motivation letter clearly demonstrating that the candidate has an adequate profile for the position and fully complies with the Admission Requirements - mandatory;
   iii. Up to five publications relevant for the objectives of the Work Plan - mandatory;
   iv. Digital copies of documents proving formal academic degrees (PhD) and/or other scientific and professional qualifications - original documents must be provided in case of actual recruitment- mandatory;
   v. Other documents that candidates consider relevant for the assessment of their scientific merit, or to declare the personal situation in the cases covered in section IX-2 of this Notice – optional;
   vi. Contact of two reference people.

5. By decision of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of FCiências.ID, candidates who do not submit the documents identified in paragraph 4 will not be admitted to the call. In case of doubts, the Chairman may also invite candidates to substantiate specific data or statements with official supporting documents, before accepting the candidates’ submission.

This Public Note was approved by the jury on 19th June 2020.