41/ECUM/CFUM/2022 - UIDB/04650/2020.

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE AWARD OF A RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

Title: Research Fellowship; 1 vacancy

A call for applications is now open for the award of one research grant, within the scope of ongoing activities in the Research Line “Physics of Quantum Materials and Bionanostructures”, at the Research Unit Centro de Física das Universidades do Minho e do Porto, with reference UIDB/04650/2020, financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC), under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Physics

Recipient category:

Requirement for granting the fellowship:

• The applicants may apply without prior registration in the course for which the fellowship is open. The requirement to enrol in a degree course or non-academic degree course will be verified on the date of contracting the fellowship;
• Only fellowships whose selected applicants present a valid proof of enrolment in a degree course or non-academic degree course will be contracted, according to the type of the fellowship, issued by the academic services of the Higher Education Institution, indicating, respectively, the academic year or its duration (star and term).
• Enrolment in non-certified courses (without curricular units) will not be considered as proof of enrolment.

Candidates profile:

Applicants’ eligibility: Applicants must comply with the eligibility conditions laid down in article 9 of the Research Grants Regulation of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (2019).

Workplan and objectives to be achieved:

The candidate will be asked to contribute to the experimental realisation and theoretical modelling of an ongoing project on surface plasmon polariton excitation in graphene via a nonlinear wave mixing process. It is expected that the grant holder completes the construction of the experimental setup, including trouble-shooting and calibration, and finally verifies from data analysis the efficiency of the process. Simultaneously, the candidate will also be asked to study the analytical model and numerical simulations done in the group for this experiment and, if needed, to further develop them in order to understand the data. The assessment of this fellowship will be based on the effort by the candidate in the project and in his/her capacity to overcome experimental/instrumental and theory-related problems, and in understanding the results obtained, with the overall goal of characterizing the efficiency of the process. The work plan aims to consolidate the scientific training of the candidate within the framework of his/her master's project.

Applicable legislation and regulations: Research Fellowship Holder Statutes, approved by Law no. 40/2004 of August 18, in its current version published by Decree-Law no. 123/2019 of august 28; Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021 and Regulation of Research Studentships and Fellowships (RBI) of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. - in force.

Host/Contracting institution and scientific supervision: The workplan will be carried out in the Centro de Física da Universidade do Minho of University of Minho), located in the Campus de Gualtar at Braga, under the scientific joint supervision of the Professor Mikhail Vasilevskiy and Assistant Professor José Viana Gomes.

Fellowship duration: The grant will take place for a period of 6 months, with a provisional starting date on September of 2022. This fellowship grant will be terminated after this period.

Amount of the research grant: The value stipend (Monthly Maintenance Allowance) is 875,98 euros per month, in accordance with the stipends values published by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT I.P.) in the country (Annex I – Monthly Stipends Values for the maintenance allowances of the FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships ) and Annex II of the Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021, according to the applicable regulation.

Payment is made on the 23st of each month, through bank transfer to the Bank Identification Number of the fellow identified in the contractualization process.

Other components of the research grant: (define the other components of the research grants, in accordance with the no. 5 of the article 18º of the FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships, no. 950/2019 of 16-12-2019 or article 21º of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), accordingly with the regulations applicable).

Other benefits: Reimbursement of Voluntary Social Security (Social Security contributions), corresponding to the 1st level of discounts (for research grants with a total duration 6 months or higher) and personal accident insurance.

Exclusivity regime: The grantee will perform the activities under exclusivity, as foreseen in article 5º of the Research Fellow Statutes and applicable regulations.

Selection panel: (identify the selection panel President and the effective and substitute members)

President: José Carlos Viana Gomes, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Física da Escola de Ciências da Universidade do Minho.

Effective Members: Mikhail Igorevich Vasilevskiy, Professor Catedrático, Departamento de Física da Escola de Ciências da Universidade do Minho, and Michael Scott Belsley, Professor Associado com Agregação, Departamento de Física da Escola de Ciências da Universidade do Minho.

Substitute members: Luís Manuel Fernandes Rebouta, Professor Associado com Agregação, Departamento de Física da Escola de Ciências da Universidade do Minho, and Nuno Filipe da Silva Fernandes de Castro, Assistant Professor, Departamento de Física da Escola de Ciências da Universidade do Minho.

The first effective member will substitute the President of the selection panel in case of impediment, being nominate the first substitute member in the place of the first effective member.

Criteria and procedures for applications assessment and selection: The applications assessment will focus on the candidate's Merit, following evaluation criteria, valued on a scale of 1 to 5 values (or another scale):

Applicant Merit - AM (100%):

The final classification of the applicant’s merit with the achieved through the following formula:

MC = (a*0,5) + (b*0,3) + (c*0,2)

The academic degrees and diplomas documents, or their respective recognition when awarded by foreign higher education institutions are not mandatory in the application phase, being replaced by a declaration of honor of the candidate with the contents of academic results. The documents of academic qualification or respective recognition will be required in the contracting phase and must attest facts that occurred on a date prior to the application. In situations of divergence between the information contained in the declaration and the documentation submitted for contracting the grant, only the information contained in the latter will be consider. If the documents proving the ownership of the academic degree and diploma, or the respective recognition under the terms of Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of August 16, do not correspond to the classifications awarded in the evaluation of the academic path, which can change the candidate's ranking, the fellowship won’t be contracted.

Notes: Applicants with degrees obtained abroad must present proof of recognition of qualifications in Portugal and conversion of the final classification obtained in them to the Portuguese classification scale or declaration under the terms indicated in the previous point. Candidates who do not comply with one of these provisions, the selection panel will assign “0” in the grade of the graduation and/or master course. Candidates will be evaluated on the remaining parameters.

Disclosure of results: The provisional results of applications, based in the selection panel minutes, will be send to the applicants by email until 90 working days from the applications deadline.

If case of unfavourable results, the candidates have a period of 10 working days to comment, if desired, in a prior hearing to interested parties, pursuant to articles 121 and 122 of the Code of Administrative Procedure (DL no. 4 / 2015 of January 7th).

Complaint and appeal procedures: The final results of the evaluation will be published through an ordered list (alphabetically, by final grade obtained), posted in a visible and public place of the host unit, as well as by email to all applicants, enclosing for that purpose, the minutes of the jury deliberations.

The selected candidate must inform its willingness to accept the grant, in writing. In case of rejection, the fellowship will be awarded to the next candidate in the ordered list of applicants.

The final decision can be contested within 15 working days, by sending to the President of the jury the corresponding claim. Interested parties may also submit an optional hierarchical appeal, addressed to the Pro-Rector for Research and Projects, Professora Sandra Cristina Almeida Paiva.

Constitution of a selection reserve list: The applicants ranked in the next positions on the ordered list will be included in a selection reserve list, which can be used until 31/01/2023.

Application deadline and submission: Applications are welcome for a period of 10 working days, after data of publication of this notice in the portal.

Applications must be formalized by sending an application letter with the following documents: curriculum vitae; qualifications certificate or declaration of the applicant and motivation letter.

Applications must be sent by email to [email protected] and [email protected] , indicating the reference 41/ECUM/CFUM/2022 - UIDB/04650/2020 in email’s subject. Applications submitted by other means will not be accepted.

Fellowship contractualization: The fellowship will be attributed by signing a fellowship contract between the University of Minho and the fellow, accordingly with the contract minute (annex IV of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in Diário da República, 2nd Série, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021, as indicated in 2.4 of the FCT document: “Rules for Granting and Management of Grants within the scope of R&D projects, including infrastructure projects, the multi-annual financing program for R&D units and other FCT financing instruments (Version 2021) ”.

The contract may only be concluded after all the documentation required is collected, which must take place within a maximum period of 6 months.

Once all the documentation has been received, the contracting entity has a period of 60 working days to conclude the scholarship contract. Once received, the fellow must return the contract duly signed within 15 working days.

The activities under the fellowship contract can only began after proper authorization by the contracting entity.

Term and cancellation of fellowship contracts: Without prejudice to the other causes provided the fellowship regulations (FCT and UMinho) and in the Statute of the Research Fellow, the fellowship ends with the completion of the work plan, as well as with the expiration date for which it was granted or renewed.

At the end of the fellowship, the grantee is obliged to present a Final Report of the work carried out, in accordance with the objectives and evaluation criteria defined with the scientific advisor, within 30 days after the end of the scholarship.

The final report must be prepared in accordance with Annex I of the Scientific Research Fellowships Regulation of the University of Minho (RBIC), published in Diário da República, 2nd Série, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021.