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: IA2023-22-CTTI

The 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 Intrumentation / Planets, under an unfixed-term contract (contrato de trabalho a termo incerto).

The position is offered in the context of the project e-CHEOPS (PEA: 4000142255), funded by ESA/PRODEX and other funds of the planets team.

The successful applicant is expected to maintain and implement algorithms for the Data Reductions Pipeline (DRP) of the CHEOPS mission (ESA) during the extension of the mission, expected to last until the end of 2026. The DRP is fully operational and has been used during the nominal CHEOPS mission. It is expected that updates are implemented to the DRP to cope with the aging of the instrument and more specifically of its detector. Activities will also include the participation in specific DRP meetings, as well as the participation in specific working groups of the CHEOPS science team, in particular the TS1 WG which works on the monitoring of the instrument, and the TS2 which works on the analysis of the scientific data of the mission. These working groups are the most important ones for the definition of the DRP requirements. The attendance of these meetings can be both via teleconference (e.g. zoom) and in person (across different European countries).

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 of:
     -  Sérgio Sousa (president)
     -  Nuno Santos
     -  Jarle Brinchmann
     -  Elisa Delgado Mena (alternate)

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

4. Monthly remuneration: The gross monthly remuneration is €3 327,76 , corresponding to the category of Assistant Researcher of the Scientific Research Career Status.

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 86/2023 of 10th of October which changes the Decree-Law nº 66/2018 of 16th August, and Ministerial Order nº 43/2020 of 14th February which changes the Ministerial Order nº 33/2019 of 25th January (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 signing the contract.

6. The call admission requirements are:
     -    General: PhD degree
     -    Specific: Experience in data reduction for CCD detectors and strong programming skills (Python). Knowledge of software architecture and design patterns, writing clean code, and automated testing is an advantage. Knowledge of astrophysics, namely, stellar physics and exoplanet science, will also be regarded favorably. The successful candidate should be proficient in written and spoken English.

7. Following article nº 5 of RJEC, selection is to be made based on 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, or other legal situations of unavailability to work.

10. Application formalization: The call is open from the 11 of december 2023 to 10 of january 2024. 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)    cover letter (maximum of 1 page);
     b)    certificate or PhD diploma copy;
     c)    Curriculum Vitae, detailed and structured according to section 8 of this announcement (maximum of 4 pages, with at least 10pt font size);
     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 (maximum of 1 page, with at least 10pt font size), according to article 5, nº 2, of RJEC and section 8 of this announcement;
     f)     name and contact details (position, email, address) of up 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 taking into account the quality, state-of-the-art and 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%)  cover letter;
     -    (45%)  CV, including degrees completed;
     -    (45%)  relevance and success/impact of previous research experience, in particular in areas relevant to the project referred above, judged based on evidence presented n the CV and possible clarifications provided by the indicated referees (item f of point 10).

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

15. After application of the selection criteria indicated in item 13, the jury shall prepare a sorted list of admitted candidates and their respective classification. Only candidates with a final classification 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: The list of both admitted and excluded candidates and the final classification list shall be posted at CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, and the candidates will be notified by email.

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 counted from the deadline of application.

19. This call is exclusively destined to fill this/these specific vacancy(ies) and can be terminated at any time until the approval of the final list of ordered candidates, and expires with the respective occupation of that/those vacancy(ies).
 
20 Non-discrimination and equal access policy: CAUP promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, thus no applicant may be privileged, benefited, undermined or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty, namely, due to ancestry, age, gender, sexual orientation, civil status, family situation, economic situation, origin or social condition, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic disease, nationality, ethnicity or race, country or territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs, or trade union affiliation.

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 application form, on their honour, their respective disability degree, type of disability and communication/expression means to be used during selection period, under the regulations mentioned above.

Publication date: 6 december 2023

The period for application submission has ended for this opportunity.