Research Fellowship - Master; 1 vacancy

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE AWARD OF A RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

Fellowship Reference: NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-045073_BI_06/2021 CMEMS

Title: Research Fellowship - Master; 1 vacancy

A call for applications is now open for the attribution of 1 (one) research grant of within the scope of the R&D project “ITEC Smart Automation I4.0”, NORTE-01-0247-FEDER-045073, funded by FEDER through Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: MsC degree in Engineering and Management of Information System

Recipient category:

• Students of a PhD programme in the field for this research grant;
• Candidates with a Master degree enrolled in a non-academic degree course in the field for this research grant or related field (e.g. post-graduation, specialization courses, advanced studies integrated in the educational project of the University of Minho).

Requirement for granting the fellowship:

• The applicants may apply without prior registration in the course for which the fellowship is open. The requirement to enroll 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 enrollment 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).
• Enrollment in non-certified courses (without curricular units) will not be considered as proof of enrollment.

Candidates profile:

• Candidates must have, at the time of application, a Master's degree in Engineering and Management of Information System. Proof of academic qualifications completed at the deadline for applications, including those resulting from academic degree recognition processes, is required during the contracting phase.
• Candidates enrolled in a course that does not award a degree: Candidates who, with the conclusion of the scholarship contract in question, including the renewals provided for in the notice, exceed a cumulative period of two years in this type of scholarship, with the conclusion of the scholarship in question, cannot benefit from the scholarship. or interpolated;
• Priority will be given to candidates with knowledge of technical life cycles and quality for software products, software development processes and software quality verification and validation approaches and tools.

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 work to be developed will consist in the development of systematized software development processes, in particular:

• Standard definition of software development activities;

• Design and development of a new life cycle and quality management process for software products.

This research context and methodological approach is adequate for the development of the doctoral thesis.

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 Center for Microeletromechanical Systems (CMEMS-UMinho) and ALGORITMI Research Center of the University of Minho in Campus de Azurém, under the scientific supervision of the Professor Ricardo J. Machado.

Fellowship duration: The grant will take place for a period of 12 months, with a provisional starting date on January of 2022. In case of a PhD student, the fellowship grant, may eventually be renewed up to the maximum duration allowed in the project and/or by the legislation and regulations in force for this type of scholarship.

Amount of the research grant: The value stipend (Monthly Maintenance Allowance) is 1104,64€ 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 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: President: Professor Ricardo J. Machado (Department of Information Systems of University of Minho); Effective members: Professor Miguel Abrunhosa de Brito (Department of Information Systems of University of Minho); Professor Pedro Miguel Gonzalez Abreu Ribeiro (Department of Information Systems of University of Minho); Substitute member: Professor Helena Cristina Coutinho Duarte Rodrigues (Department of Information Systems of University of 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 20 values:

a) curricular assessment, namely final average of course (40%);

b) consolidated knowledge (60%), in:

i. life cycle and quality management techniques for software products (35%);

ii. software development processes (35%);

iii. software quality verification and validation approaches and tools (30%).

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

CF = (a*0,4) + (b*0,6), in which

b = (b.i*0,350) + (b.ii*0,35) + (c.ii*0,30)

An interview can be held to all candidates. In this case, the selection methods change to the following:

a) curricular assessement, namely final average of course (40%);

b) consolidated knowledge (40%), in:

i. life cycle and quality management techniques for software products (35%);

ii. software development processes (35%);

iii. software quality verification and validation approaches and tools (30%).

c) interview, with a weighting of 20%, which will evaluate:

i) clarifying explanations on the curricular elements and additional information, with a weighting of 50%;

ii) evaluate the candidate's attitude profile and motivation, with a 50% weighting.

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

CF = (a*0,4) + (b*0,4) + (b*0,2), in which

b = (b.i*0,350) + (b.ii*0,35) + (c.ii*0,30)

b = (c.i*0,50) + (b.ii*0,50)

Candidates who obtain a valuation lower than 9,50 values in any of the selection methods are considered excluded from the final valuation.

The jury reserves the right not to award the research grant if candidates with the appropriate profile are not presented to the competition.

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, Professor Sandra Paiva.

Application deadline and submission: The call for applications is open from13th till 24th of December of 2021 .

Applications must be formalized by sending an application letter with the following documents: curriculum vitae; qualifications certificate or declaration of the applicant; motivation letter; statement proving that meets the conditions for the grant typology, according to the application requirements; other documents important to the evaluation process.

Applications must be sent by email to [email protected] , indicating the reference of the call for applications in 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.

Declaration of Honor

Academic habilitations

(name), applicant to the research fellowship vacancy under the I&D project (title or reference), published in the Euraxess portal, reference (fellowship Reference), hereby declares to have a degree on XXXX (name of the course), concluded in the University of XXXX, on the XX/XX/XXXX, with the final grade of XX.

I have submit my diploma for recognition in the University of XXXX, according to the Decree-Law nº 66/2018 of August 16th1 , concluded on the XX/XX/XXXX, with the final grade of XX.

I further declare that I undertake to present proof of my diploma recognition obtained under the Portuguese Law, until the date of the conclusion of the fellowship contract, in case of being selected for the vacancy in this competition.

As this is true, this declaration will be dated and signed by me.

(Place), (date).

__________________________

(name)

____________________________

[1]DGES (Foreign Degrees and Diplomas): https://www.dges.gov.pt/en/pagina/degree-and-diploma-recognition?plid=1536 ; University of Minho: Recognition of foreign degrees and diplomas: https://www.uminho.pt/EN/education/Pages/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications.aspx

Declaration of Honor

Academic habilitations

(name), applicant to the research fellowship vacancy under the I&D project (title or reference), published in the Euraxess portal, reference (fellowship Reference), hereby declares that complies with the conditions for the type of scholarship of the referred call, reference above, in accordance with the application requirements, legislation and regulations indicated in the notice.

As this is true, this declaration will be dated and signed by me.

(Place), (date).

__________________________

(name)