A tender is hereby opened for the award of 1 Research Grant (RG) under AURORA - Bringing Deep-Sea Biodiversity Data to Light, of CESAM – Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, under the following conditions: 

1. Scientific Area: Data Science or Computer Engineering or related fields

2. Financing Source: European Union      

3. Admission Requirements: Master's in Data Science, Computer Engineering, or related fields (enrolled in courses that do not confer an academic degree integrated in the educational project of the University of Aveiro).

(View Courses at: Courses - University of Aveiro (ua.pt) and Training at UA - Universidade de Aveiro)

The candidate must have demonstrated experience and/or training in developing applications for data ingestion, reformatting, processing, and/or metadata documentation. Preference will be given to candidates proficient in the R or Python programming languages, users of centralised code repositories (e.g., GitHub), and platforms like Hugging Face, as well as those familiar with international standards for biodiversity data management and the FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The domain of the English language is also required.

The proof of enrolment must be made available until the contract is awarded, and the candidate may attach a declaration of honor to confirm that they meet the requirements for enrolment in an integrated master's degree, master's or doctoral program or in a course that does not confer an academic degree.

If the qualification has been conferred by a foreign higher education institution it must be recognized by a Portuguese higher education institution, under the terms of the provisions of article 25 of Decree-Law no. 66/2018, of August 16th, which approves the legal regime of recognition of academic degrees and diplomas of Higher Education, attributed by foreign higher education institutions, and of paragraph e) of no. 2 of article 4 of Decree-Law no. 60/2018, of August 3rd, and any formalities established therein must be fulfilled by the date of the hiring act.

4. Eligibility: Applicants are eligible if they comply with paragraph a) of no.1 of article 2, of the Research Fellow Statute in the wording given by Decree-Law no. 123/2019, of August 28th, and also the provisions of article 9 of the Scientific Research Grant Regulations of the University of Aveiro. 

5. Work plan: The candidate will be directly involved in developing a digital platform/application (Shiny app) for the ingestion, processing, and reformatting of biodiversity and environmental data. This data, collected from diverse and non-standardised sources, will be standardised according to the Darwin Core standard and will utilise controlled vocabulary. The digital platform should also offer functionalities that facilitate metadata documentation, adhering to the FAIR principles.

6. Applicable legislation and regulations: Research Fellow Statute, as amended by Decree-Law No. 123/2019, of August 28th; Scientific Research Grant Regulation of the University of Aveiro, Regulation No. 292/2020, published in Diário da República No. 61, Series II, of March 26th; Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of August 16th (Legal regime of recognition of academic degrees and diplomas of higher education awarded by foreign higher education institutions).

7. Workplace: The work will be carried out at the Department of Biology of the University of Aveiro, under the scientific supervision of Doctor Fábio Emanuel Lopes de Matos and co-supervision of Doctor Ana Margarida Medrôa de Matos Hilário and Doctor Heliana Lilita Gonçalves Teixeira.

8. Duration of the grant(s): The grant duration will be 6 months, starting in September of 2025, and may be renewed up to the maximum limit of approved funding. Under no circumstances shall it exceed the limits defined in nos. 5 and 6 of article 9, of Regulation no. 292/2020, of February 28th, published in Diário da República, no. 61, Series II, of March 26th (Scientific Research Grant Regulation of the University of Aveiro). 

9. Amount of monthly maintenance allowance: The amount of the grant corresponds to 1309,64€, according to the table of values of monthly maintenance allowances, set out in Appendix III of the Scientific Research Grant Regulation of the University of Aveiro, subject to any updates that may occur and are applicable. The fellow may also be reimbursed for the amount corresponding to the Voluntary Social Security, in case of adherence to this plan

10. Selection methods: The selection methods to be used will be the following: 1) curriculum vitae assessment, 2) document(s) demonstrating the competencies required of the candidate in this call for applications (for example, a thesis, software/applications, scientific article, poster, or oral communication at an international scientific conference), and 3) online interview for the top 3 ranked candidates, with the respective value of 50%, 30%, and 20%.

11. Composition of the Selection Jury: 

Chair of the Selection Jury: Fábio Emanuel Lopes de Matos (Assistant Researcher equivalent)

Permanent Member 1: Heliana Lilita Gonçalves Teixeira (Assistant Researcher equivalent)

Permanent Member 2: Ana Margarida Medrôa de Matos Hilário (Assistant Researcher)

Alternate Member 1: Ana Luísa Felgueiras de Brito Machado (Doctorate Researcher)

Alternate Member 2: Neus Campanyà-Llovet (Junior Researcher)

12. Deadline for applications and how to submit applications: The call is open from 15 to 28 July, and only applications submitted within the deadline will be admitted. 

Applications must be formalised by sending a letter of application accompanied by the following documents: Curriculum Vitae, certificate of qualifications, relevant scientific document(s) proving the technical experience required in the call, a declaration of honour, and other relevant supporting documents. They shall also indicate the e-mail address to which, by such indication, they accept to be notified for all purposes within this procedure. 

Applications should be sent by e-mail to fmatos@ua.pt

13. Form of publication/notification of results: The results of the evaluation shall be made public no later than 60 working days after the closing date for submission of applications and shall be notified to the applicants. The candidates are informed, in a prior hearing, under the terms established in the Code of Administrative Procedure, of the probable meaning of the final decision, and may, within 10 working days of this notification, express their opinion on this decision. The final results may be appealed to the Rector, who must be notified within 10 working days of the respective notification.

14. Tender duration: The final ranking list of candidates will be valid until October 31, 2025, to constitute a reserve list for selection.

The models of the grant contract and of the final report to be prepared by the grant holder and the supervisor are available at Research fellows - sgrh - Universidade de Aveiro (ua.pt).