ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE OPENING OF AN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO HIRE ONE POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER UNDER ARTICLE 23 OF DECREE-LAW Nº 57/2016, ALTERED BY LAW Nº 57/2017

Ref: IA2018-15-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 project SFRH/BPD/76606/2011, "Exoplanets and their host stars: search and characterization", integrated in the scientific objectives of the thematic line "Towards the detection and characterization of other Earths" of IA. The researcher is expected to contribute to the activities and support the strategy of the thematic line mentioned above. The candidate should be able to contribute to our scientific participation in the ESO and ESA projects (such as ESPRESSO, NIRPS, SPIRou) and be able to contribute to the derivation of stellar properties in stars with planets from the HARPS metal-poor large program survey.

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:
     -    Jarle Brinchmann (President)
     -    Nuno C. Santos
     -    Sérgio A. G. Sousa

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 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 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 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 the use of high-resolution spectroscopy and/or transit measurements for exoplanet research and/or host-star characterisation 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 applied research activities, or based on practical work, developed in the last five years, deemed most impactful by the candidate;
     c)    on the 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 parental leave, long-term serious illness, and other legal situations of unavailability to work.

10. Application formalization: The call is open from 3rd August until 28th September 2018. 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)    motivation letter;
     b)    certificate or PhD diploma copy;
     c)    Curriculum Vitae, detailed and structured according to section 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 call.

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 admitted applications will be evaluated taking into consideration the quality, uo-to-dateness and relevance of the scientific and curricular path of the candidate and respective adequacy to the area of this call, namely:
     -    (10%)  motivation letter;
     -    (50%)  CV, including: academic degrees; indicators of scientific maturity and scientific independence relevant to the scientific strategy of IA; outreach;
     -    (40%)  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 selection criteria application, the jury shall prepare a sorted list of admitted candidates and 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, 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: 02/08/2018

The period for application submission has ended for this opportunity.