COMPETITION FOR GRANTING ONE RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP IN MATHEMATICS (STATISTICS) – 9/2021

PUBLIC NOTICE

Title : COMPETITION FOR GRANTING ONE RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP IN MATHEMATICS (STATISTICS) – 9/2021

A tender is open for the attribution of one Research Scholarship for a MSc within the scope of the R&D Unit “Center for Mathematics and Applications” (CMA) (UI/297/2020), financed by “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.”/MCTES (ref. UIDB/00297/2020) through national funds (PIDDAC) (OE), under the following conditions:

Scientific Area:

Mathematics

Recipients profile/category:

Mandatory requirements:

Candidates must hold a MSc in Mathematics or in Statistics or in related areas and must be enrolled in a doctoral program in Statistics area in a Portuguese Institution of Higher Education. The documents that verify this situation must be presented, at most, by the time of the scholarship contract, being able to be replaced previously by a Declaration on honor.

The registration and/or recognition in Portugal of the master degree will be verified at the time of signing the contract under the provisions of article 25 of Decree-Law no. 66/2018, of 16 August.

Preferred factors:

Mastering the INLA and SPDE methodologies for spatial modelling.

Work Plan:

This work aims initially to develop and study the properties associated with geostatistical models for binary variables, under a Bayesian framework, using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) and the recent approach of the Stochastic Partial Differential Equations (SPDE) to estimate the random field that describes the continuous stochastic process associated with the risk. These models are typically used for constructing disease risk maps based on surveys and for species distribution studies but are also suitable for presence/absence date of sea infractions in patrol operations, object of this project. It is intended, during the scholarship period, to analyse and model with the abovementioned methodology a set of data this nature provided by the Portuguese Navy and prepare a paper to submit for publication.

Applicable legislation and regulations:

Law No. 40/2004, of August 18, amended and republished by Decree-Law No. 202/2012 of August 27 (Statute of the Scientific Research Fellow) and amended by Decree-Law No. 233/2012 of October 29, by Law No. 12/2013 of 29 January, by Decree-Law No. 89/2013, of 9 July and Decree-Law No. 123/2019, of 28 August; Regulation of Research Grants of NOVA.id.FCT – Association for Innovation and Development of FCT; Regulation of Research Grants of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. in force (https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento.phtml.pt ).

Workplace:

The work is to be carried out at the facilities of the Center for Mathematics and Applications (CMA), hosted at the Department of Mathematics, located in Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT-NOVA), under the scientific supervision of Professor Isabel Natário, being the hiring entity the NOVA.id.FCT – Association for Innovation and Development of FCT.

Fellowship duration:

The fellowship is for 3 months, scheduled to start in October 2021. Not open to renovation.

Monthly maintenance allowance amount:

The net salary will be €1104.64, according to the table of scholarships awarded directly by FCT, I.P., in the country, with payment made monthly by bank transfer.

Other components can be added to the scholarship in accordance with the NOVA.id.FCT Scholarship Regulation.

Selection criteria:

The selection criteria and their respective weighting will be the following:

CV analysis (graded from 1 to 20): 30%;

Adequation of the CV to the working plan (graded from 1 to 20): 30%;

Motivation (appreciation of the motivation letter) (graded from 1 to 20): 20%;

Interview (graded from 1 to 20), only for the top 3 applicants in the previous 3 criteria: 20%.

All applications are evaluated on a scale of 0 to 20. Candidates who do not obtain a minimum score of 15, from the jury's evaluation according to the selection criteria, will not be hired.

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

Composition of the Selection Jury:

President of the Jury: Professor Fernanda Cipriano (CMA and DM-FCT NOVA).

Effective Jurors: Professor Raquel Menezes da Mota Leite (CMAT and DM-UM) and Professor Filipe Marques (CMA and DM-FCT NOVA).

Substitute Jurors: Professor Carlos Agra Coelho (CMA and DM-FCT NOVA) and Professor Frederico Caeiro (CMA and DM-FCT NOVA).

Form of advertising/notification of results:

The evaluation results proposed by the juri will be notified, up to 90 days after the deadline for the submission of applications, by email, of the results proposed by the jury, with access to the minutes and the provisional ranking list. After notification, candidates will have 10 working days to comment on the draft decision (prior hearing of interested parties, under the terms of the Code of Administrative Procedure). The final decision will be taken after the expiry of the prior hearing period, again notified to all candidates by e-mail. Of this final decision the candidates can file a complaint within 15 working days (to the e-mail address used for the notification), or an hierarchical appeal, within 30 working days, addressed to NOVA.ID.FCT's Board through the address [email protected] .

Application deadline and form of application submission:

A tender is open from the 2nd to the 15th September 2021.

Documentation to deliver:

Applications must be formalized, obligatorily, by sending the following documents:

a) Motivation letter;

b) Curriculum Vitae;

c) Copy of the MSc certificate and other certificates considered relevant for the application;

d) Proof of enrolment in a doctoral program in the current academic year, being able to be replaced previously by a Declaration on honor;

e) Recommendation letters (optional);

f) Declaration on honor (according to the draft available here ).

Form of submission of the applications:

Applications should be sent by email, preferably in .pdf format, to [email protected] , under the email subject “Application to MSc Research Fellowship at CMA”.

Drafts:

The drafts of: i) fellowship contract, ii) final report to be presented by the fellowship holder, iii) final report to be presented by the scientific advisor, and; iv) declaration on honor, can all be found on NOVA.id.FCT website.