ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE OPENING OF AN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO HIRE ONE POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER UNDER DECREE-LAW Nº 57/2016, ALTERED BY LAW Nº 57/2017

Ref: IA2018-08-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 "Exploring exoPlanets wIth CHEOPS", funded by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI), and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the framework of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028953.

The researcher is expected to give support to the participation of the team in CHEOPS satellite data exploitation. The candidate should participate in the planning of the CHEOPS GTO target list, data reduction and analysis. In particular, we expect the candidate to develop tools to analyse transit light curves in order to derive transit parameters. We also expect the candidate to develop a method to extract clouds and reflective properties of the exoplanets’ atmosphere from occultation observations and phase curves. Given the scientific timescale of the project, preference shall be given to candidates with expertise in the CHEOPS mission in order to optimise the development of the research plan.

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 12 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:
     -    Elisa Delgado Mena
     -    Nuno C. Santos
     -    Sérgio A. G. Sousa (President)

3. Work place: The work place shall be at CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto.

4. Monthly remuneration: Gross monthly remuneration is 2128.34 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 similar and a scientific and professional curriculum whose profile is suited for the activity to be performed can submit his application. In the event the doctorate degree was awarded by a foreign higher education institution, that degree must comply with the provisions of Decree-Law nº 341/2007, of 12th October (approves the legal regime for the recognition of foreign higher academic degrees), and all formalities established therein must be complied with at the application deadline.

6. The call admission requirements are:
     -    General: PhD degree;
     -    Specific: adequate background in Astronomy, Physics, Mathematics, or other relevant domains.

7. Following article nº 5 of RJEC, selection is to be made based on candidate scientific and curricular career evaluation.

8. Scientific and curricular career evaluation focuses on relevance, quality and being up-to-date:
     a)    of scientific and  technological production in the last five years, deemed most relevant by the candidate;
     b)    of research activities, applied or based on practical work, developed in the last five years, deemed most impactful by the candidate;
     c)    of activities of extension and 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 reasoned by socially protected grounds like paternity leave, long-term serious illness, and other legal situations of unavailability to work.

10. Application formalization: The call is open from 21st May until 18th June 2018. Candidates shall submit their application through the form available below, including all supporting documentation (in PDF format) according to sections 6 and 8 of the announcement, namely:
     a)    Motivation letter;
     b)    Certificate or diploma copy;
     c)    Curriculum vitae, detailed and structured according to sections 8 of this announcement;
     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.

11. All candidates who formalize their applications in an improper way or fail to prove 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 evaluation will be based on scientific and curricular content of the application based on specific criteria, namely:
     -    (20%) motivation letter;
     -    (50%) CV, including: degrees completed;
     -    (30%) relevance and success/impact of previous research in exoplanets.

14. Candidate final classification system shall be given based on a scale 0-100.

15. After selection criteria application, the jury shall prepare a sorted list of approved candidates and respective classification. No candidates with a classification below 60% will be approved.

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, all candidates have 10 working days to respond. Jury’s final decisions are pronounced within a period of 90 working 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, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family and economic conditions, origin or social conditions, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, origin territory, religion, political or ideological convictions and union membership.

21. Following Decree-Law nº 29/2001, of 3 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: 17/05/2018

The period for application submission has ended for this opportunity.