One Research Initiation Fellowship (BII) for a Bachelor’s Student in the field of Extragalactic Astrophysics and Machine Learning

Ref: IA2026-05-BII

The Centro de Investigação em Astronomia/Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP) opens a call for one Research Initiation Fellowship in the field of Astronomy/Astrophysics – Extragalactic Astrophysics and Machine Learning at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA).

The Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) is the most prominent Research Unit in the field of Astronomy/Astrophysics in Portugal, integrating researchers from the universities of Porto, Lisbon and Coimbra, and is responsible for a major fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the field of Space Sciences. Research and science communication at IA include topics and instrumentation at the forefront of research in Astronomy/Astrophysics and Space Sciences.

The position is offered in the context of the project ''PLATES – Powering the search of LAEs with transformers for large-scale extragalactic surveys'', funded by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (reference  2024.05289.RESTART), under the following conditions:

1.- Scientific area: Astronomy and Astrophysics.

2.- Requirements for admission: The applicants must:

a)    Not exceed with this contract, including the possible renovations, an accumulated period of one year in this type of fellowship, continuously or with interruptions.
b)    Not have previously benefited from any other research fellowship (of a different type) funded directly or indirectly by FCT, given under the terms of the Estatuto de Bolseiro de Investigação e Regulamento de Bolsas de Investigação.

Only applications from candidates having an adequate background in Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, or other relevant domains will be considered.

3.- Additional skills and qualifications: Applicants must be enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree programme and have successfully completed the first year of studies. Applicants should also have basic programming knowledge, preferably in Python. Any experience with machine learning, as well as familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git) and Linux-based environments (e.g., WSL) will be considered an asset. 

4.- Contracting requirements: Presentation of the following documents at the time of signing the fellowship agreement:

-    Declaration of honour that the applicant does not exceed with this contract, including the possible renovations, an accumulated period of one year in this type of fellowship, continuously or with interruptions, and has not held any other fellowship (of a different type) directly or indirectly funded by FCT, attributed under the terms of the Estatuto do Bolseiro de Investigação e Regulamento de Bolsas de Investigação.
-    Proof of enrollment in a bachelor’s degree or an integrated master's degree in a Portuguese University.

5.- Work plan: The successful applicant will support the ongoing development of machine learning pipelines within the PLATES project. After familiarizing themselves with the existing multi-survey photometric dataset and associated metadata, the fellow will, under supervision:

-    Assist in data cleaning, standardisation, and quality control procedures.
-    Contribute to the implementation and testing of preprocessing routines.
-    Support the execution and benchmarking of baseline machine learning models.
-    Generate validation metrics and visualisation outputs.
-    Contribute to documentation, code organization, and reproducibility.

The fellow will work under close supervision and receive scientific guidance proportional to their academic level, within an active research environment.

6.- Legislation framework: The fellowship contract will comply with:

a)    Law n.º 123/2019, of 28th August 2019 - ''Estatuto do Bolseiro de Investigação'' (Research Grant Holder Statute) in force [https://dre.pt/dre/legislacao-consolidada/lei/2004-58216179].
b)    Regulation n.º 950/2019, of 16th December 2019 - ''Regulamento de Bolsas e Investigação da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia'' (Regulation of Fellowship of Research) in force [https://files.dre.pt/2s/2019/12/241000000/0009100105.pdf]".
c)    CAUP's Fellowship Regulation" (available at www.astro.up.pt/documentos/CAUP-RegulamentoBolsas.pdf).

The fellow's functions are carried out under a scheme of exclusive dedication, in accordance with the terms established in Article 5 of the Research Grant Holder Statute (Estatuto do Bolseiro de Investigação).

7.- Monthly allowance: According to the FCT table values [https://www.fct.pt/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Tabela_valores_SMM_2025.pdf], the monthly allowance will be € 651,12 (tax-free) and will be paid monthly by bank transfer.

The fellow will have personal accident insurance. They can also exercise the right to social security by joining the voluntary social insurance scheme, if not covered by any other social protection scheme, under the terms of the Código dos Regimes Contributivos do Sistema Previdencial de Segurança Social, as stipulated in article 10 of the Research Grant Holder Statute (Estatuto do Bolseiro de Investigação).

Additional funds for travel (conferences and/or work visits) will also be available. Fees for the BSc program or the Integrated MSc program will not be covered.

8.- Place of work: The work will be carried out at CAUP (in the Porto node of the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço), Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762, under the scientific supervision of Ana Paulino-Afonso.

9.- Fellowship duration: The fellowship should start on April 1st, 2026, and has a duration of 9 months.

10.- Application: The application, to be submitted through the web form indicated below, should include the following information:

a)    Cover letter with a brief description of the candidate's experience and motivation.
b)    Detailed Curriculum Vitae describing the academic path and any relevant academic or extracurricular activities related to the project’s scientific objectives (up to 4 pages with at least 10pt font size).
c)    List of completed curricular units with the respective grades.

11.- Deadline: This call for applications will remain open from the 20th of February until the 5th of March 2026.

12.- Selection criteria and evaluation: The evaluation of the applications will be performed based on:

a)    (30%) Cover letter with a brief description of the candidate's experience and motivation.
b)    (55%) CV, considering the degree and previous academic training, including grades of completed curricular units and the relevance of that training to the topic of the call.
c)    (15%) Relevance of previous extracurricular or academic activities in the context of the project’s scientific objectives.

An ordered list of candidates will be defined by the Selection Committee based on the submitted documents and the criteria mentioned above.

13.- Selection Committee:

- Ana Paulino-Afonso (Chair)
- Pedro Cunha
- João Calhau
- Mário João Monteiro
- Andrew J. Humphrey (alternate member)

14.- Awarding of the contract: Following the evaluation process, the fellowship will be offered according to the ordered list proposed by the selection committee. The position will be granted only if suitable candidates are identified. Only candidates with a minimum grade of 70% will be accepted. All the candidates will be notified by e-mail, sent by the call holder, with the final classifications and the selection meeting minutes and/or evaluation grids enclosed.

15.- Time limits for the appeal procedure: Candidates have 10 working days, after the date of announcement of the results, to pronounce on the decision through e-mail to jobs@iastro.pt and to the Chair of the Selection Committee [paulinoafonso@astro.up.pt]. Appeals against the final decision may be submitted to the Executive Board of CAUP (direcao@lists.astro.up.pt) within 15 working days after the notification date.

16.- Non-discrimination and equal access: CAUP promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, thus no applicant may be privileged, benefited, undermined or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty, namely, due to ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, civil status, family situation, economic situation, origin or social condition, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic disease, nationality, ethnicity or race, country or territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs, or trade union affiliation.

Publication date: 16 February 2026

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