ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE OPENING OF AN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO HIRE ONE POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER UNDER DECREE-LAW Nº 57/2016, ALTERED BY LAW Nº 57/2017Ref: IA2020-03-CTTI
Centro de Investigação em Astronomia/Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (CAUP), by decision of the Board of Directors, opens an international call to hire a postdoctoral researcher, as part of the activities held at
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA), in the area of Astronomy/Astrophysics - field of
Exoplanets, under an unfixed-term contract (contrato de trabalho a termo incerto).
The position is offered in the context of the project UIDP/04434/2020 funded by Portuguese funds through
FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
The researcher is expected to give support to the participation of the team in the exploitation of data from the CHEOPS mission and the ESPRESSO and NIRPS spectrographs. In particular, the researcher is expected to contribute to the study and characterization of transiting exoplanets through the following tasks:
- use CHEOPS data, for the first two years of the GTO, for the detailed characterization of transiting planets, including measurements of planet density and the detection of rings, moon, and effects of tidal deformation;
- support the activities related with the follow-up of transiting planets using radial velocities with ESPRESSO (for the duration of the GTO);
- participate in the definition of the sample to be studied by the NIRPS project;
- a small percentage of the time can also be allocated to the institute’s CHEOPS outreach activities.
The team has already most of the tools for these analysis in place, but it is expected that the researcher participates on their optimization and in the development of new tools.
The employment contract is scheduled to start in July 2020 and will last until the execution of the task described above, which has a predictable duration of 24 months, with a maximum duration of 6 years, including an initial trial period of 30 days.
1. Applicable legislation: - Decree-Law nº 57/2016, of 29th August, altered by Law nº 57/2017, of 19th July, which approved the doctorate hiring regime destined to stimulate scientific and technological employment for all knowledge areas (RJEC);
- Portuguese Labor Code (Código do trabalho), approved by the Law n.º 7/2009, of 12th February, in its current version;
- Regulatory Decree nº 11-A/2017, of 29th December.
2. Members of the Jury: According to article nº 13 from RJEC, the jury is composed by:
-
Nuno Santos (president)
-
Jarle Brinchmann -
João Faria -
Sérgio Sousa (alternate)
3. Work place: The work place shall be at CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto.
4. Monthly remuneration: Gross monthly remuneration is 2.134,73 EUR, corresponding to level 33 of the Single Salary Table (Tabela Remuneratória Única), approved by Portaria nº 1553-C/2008, of 31st December, category of Junior Investigator.
5. Profile of candidate: Any national, foreign and stateless candidate who holds a doctoral degree in Astronomy/Astrophysics or related scientific area and a scientific and professional curriculum whose profile is suited for the activity to be performed can submit his/her application.
In the event that the doctorate degree was awarded by a foreign higher education institution, that degree must comply with the provisions of Decree-Law nº 66/2018, of 16th August (approves the legal regime for the recognition of foreign higher academic degrees), and all formalities established therein must be complied with up to the date of hiring.
6. The call admission requirements are: - General: PhD degree (national or foreign) in Astronomy/Astrophysics or related scientific area;
- Specific: demonstrated expertise in exoplanet research and characterization using radial velocity and transit measurements in line with the strategy of the research line “
Towards the detection and characterization of other Earths” of IA.
7. Following article nº 5 of RJEC, selection is to be made based on candidate scientific and curricular career evaluation.
8. The scientific and curricular career evaluation focuses on relevance, quality and being up-to-date in the area of the call:
a) on the scientific and technological production in the last five years, deemed most relevant by the candidate;
b) on the research activities, applied or based on practical work, developed in the last five years, deemed most impactful by the candidate;
c) of activities of dissemination of knowledge developed in the last five years, namely under the scope of the promotion of culture and scientific practices, deemed most relevant by the candidate.
9. The five-year period mentioned above can be extended by the jury, if requested by the candidate, whenever the suspension of scientific activities is justified on socially protected grounds like parental leave, long-term serious illness, and other legal situations of unavailability to work.
10. Application formalization: The call is open from
29 of May to 30 of June 2020. Candidates shall submit their application through the
form available below, including all supporting documentation according to sections 6 and 8 of the announcement, namely:
a) motivational letter explaining how the candidate’s research experience matches the project funding this postdoctoral position (maximum of 2 pages);
b) certificate or PhD diploma copy;
c) Curriculum Vitae, detailed and structured according to section 8 of this announcement (maximum of 4 pages);
d) other documentation relevant for the evaluation of qualifications in a related scientific area;
e) brief description of the most relevant scientific activities of the last 5 years (1 page maximum), according to article 5, nº 2, of RJEC and section 8 of this announcement;
f) name and contact details (position, email, address) of two referees, available to provide information about the candidate (these will be contacted at the jury's discretion).
11. All candidates who formalize their applications in an improper way or fail to prove that they satisfy the requirements imposed by this call are excluded from admission. In case of doubt, the jury is entitled to request any candidate to present further documentation supporting their statements.
12. False statements provided by the candidates shall be punished by law.
13. Evaluation criteria: The admitted applications will be evaluated based taking into account its quality, state-of-the-art, relevance of the candidate's scientific background (scientific production and research experience), their academic background, and how well all this fits the area of research of this call, namely:
-
(10%) motivation letter;
-
(40%) CV (up to 4 pages) and list of scientific publications (with mention to the 5 papers the candidate judges more relevant, for which a short description the role of the candidate is added). The CV should include: degrees; indicators of scientific maturity and scientific independence relevant to the scientific strategy of IA; outreach;
-
(50%) relevance and success of previous research experience in the field, with emphasis on the quality and international impact and recognition of the work produced.
14. Candidate final classification system shall be given based on a scale 0-100.
15. After application of the selection criteria, the jury shall prepare a sorted list of admitted candidates and their respective classification. Only candidates scoring above 70% will be considered for the position. All candidates below this cut-off will be automatically excluded from the list of approved candidates.
16. The final decision of the jury shall be validated by the Board of Directors of CAUP, who is also in charge of deciding about the hiring.
17. Results: Both admitted and excluded candidates list and final classification list shall be posted at CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, and the candidates will be notified by email with delivery receipt.
18. Preliminary hearing and final decision deadline: After publication of the results, all candidates have 10 working days to respond. The final decisions of the jury will be pronounced within a period of 90 days, from the deadline of application.
19. This call is exclusively destined to fill this specific vacancy and can be terminated at any time until approval of the final list of ordered candidates and expires with the respective occupation of that vacancy.
20. Non-discrimination and equal access policy: CAUP actively promotes a non-discrimination and equal access policy, thus no candidate may be privileged, benefited, impaired or deprived of any right, or exempted of any duty based on their ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, family and economic conditions, social origins or condition, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, religion, political or ideological convictions and union membership.
21. Following Decree-Law nº 29/2001, of 3rd February, disabled candidates in a situation of equal classification shall be preferred and this supersedes any legal preference. Candidates must declare, on their honour, their respective disability degree, type of disability and communication/expression means to be used during selection period on their application form, under the regulations above.
Publication date: 28/05/2020The period for application submission has ended for this opportunity.
