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: IA2021-04-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 - EPIC", funded by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) (reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028953), and by Portuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (reference PTDC/FIS-AST/28953/2017).

The researcher is expected to give support to the participation of the team in CHEOPS satellite data exploitation. Within the scientific themes of CHEOPS, the researcher will have the opportunity to be involved in:
    - the search of transits of already known exoplanets, the better characterization of its radius and composition.
    - support to CHEOPS data exploitation including precise characterization of planetary systems,  including the detailed analysis of the stellar activity;
    - Other relevant science cases with CHEOPS data that the candidate is interested in can also be considered.
    - 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 task has an expected duration of 6 months. The starting date of the contract cannot be later than 1st of July 2021.

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:
     -    Sérgio Sousa (president)
     -    Nuno Santos
     -    Susana Barros
     -    Elisa Delgado Mena (alternate)

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

4. Monthly remuneration: Gross monthly remuneration is 2134.73 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 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;
     -    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. 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 16th February until 17th May 2021. 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 announcement.

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 prodution and research experience), their academic background, and how well all this fits the area of research of this call, namely:
     -    (20%)  motivation letter;
     -    (50%)  CV, including degrees completed;
     -    (30%)  relevance and success/impact of previous research in exoplanets, in particular in areas relevant to the project referred above.

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 60% 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, spcial 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: 15/02/2021

The period for application submission has ended for this opportunity.