Notice of the Call for Master Studentship in the scope of the project PRIMA/0010/2021

A call is open for the award of 1 (one) Research Grant (BI) for a Master's student within the scope of the Research Project entitled "Resilient Mediterranean with a holistic approach to sustainable agriculture: Addressing challenges of water, soil, energy and biodiversity” (ref. PRIMA/0010/2021) funded exclusively national funds through FCT and taking place at UBI, under the following conditions:

1. Research Field: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biotechnology and related

2. Objetives:

The project will be run at UBI to accomplish the objectives included in Work Package 4.1 devoted to the optimization of vertical constructed wetlands (CW) at laboratory scale to purify wastewaters produced by the cork industry for agricultural reuse. Several issues, such as, temperature rise, population growth, soil increase urbanization, increment of industrial and agricultural activities, etc., impose that the management of the limited natural resources (i.e., soil, water, and energy) and biodiversity preservation are priority topics for Mediterranean countries. However, the absence of infrastructures to allow the depuration of the wastewaters produced by agro-industries up to the requirements allowing discharge into natural watercourses, or ideally, enabling reuse is recognized as an obstacle to sustainable water management, namely in rural areas. Production and transformation of cork are well perceived and recognized as environmentally sustainable activities, this perception is partially reduced due to the wastewater produced during the initial stage of the raw material processing, done by immersion of the raw cork in boiling water. Cork boiling wastewater depuration is difficult to accomplish due to the high concentration of organic compounds, including phenolic compounds, and strong dark-brown colour. For this task, new advanced CW concept will be first developed and tested in laboratory using parallel units to overcome previously identified challenges and optimize the construction and operation parameters of these systems, namely, artificial aeration, different substrates (gravel, LECA, plastic media, and biochar) and plants. The operation and control of the depuration performance will require the determination of several analytic parameters (pH, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Biological Oxygen Demand, total nitrogen and phosphorus, etc.). The results and conclusions issued from this task will be used to construct and run demonstration units.

3. Work plan:

The fellow will develop the tasks required for the operation of the macrophyte lagoon systems to be tested with effluent from an industrial unit and required for performance assessment. To the fellow will be also demanded the organization of experimental data produced during the fellowship period.

4. Work location:

The work will be developed at the FibEnTech and Chemistry Department of the University of Beira Interior under the scientific supervision of Doctor Arlindo Caniço Gomes ([email protected] ).

5. Fellowship duration and conditions:

The fellowship is opened for 6 months, starting on October 2022. The activity is in regime of exclusive dedication in accordance with the . The fellowship contract may eventually be renewed for an additional period of 6 months, however, it may not exceed the maximum duration of 12 months, nor the project completion date.

6. Deadline and receipt of applications:

The call is open from August, 1th, 2022 until 23:00 on August, 16th, 2022. Applications should be addressed to Doctor Arlindo Caniço Gomes, Project Research Coordenator, to the e-mail [email protected] with the indication on the subject: “Candidatura a Bolsa PRIMA/0010/2021”.

7. Documents for application:

The candidates should present:

. Motivation letter;

. Detailed Curriculum Vitae;

. Certificate of completion of the previous degree;

. Recomendation letter (optional);

. Other documents considered relevant;

. Declaration of honour from the candidate stating, for BI scholarship, that he/she meets the conditions for being award the scholarship according to article 6 of the RBIUBI.

8. Selection Committee:

Applications will be assessed by a panel as follows:

President: Doctor Arlindo Caniço Gomes, Auxiliary Professor UBI

Effective members:

Doctor Rogério Manuel dos Santos Simões, Associated Professor UBI

Doctor Maria Lúcia Almeida da Silva, Auxiliary Professor of UBI

Substitute member: Doutor António João Carvalho de Albuquerque, Associate Professor UBI

9. Publication/notification of results:

The final results of the evaluation process will be published in a sorted list, by the final classification obtained, and posted in a visible and public place of the Faculty of Science of the University of Beira Interior. The candidate(s) will be notified of the decision by e-mail.