NOTICE FOR THE OPENING OF AN INTERNATIONAL SELECTION TENDER PROCEDURE FOR THE HIRING OF A DOCTORAL RESEARCHER UNDER THE LEGAL REGIME OF SCIENTIFIC EMPLOYMENT

CTTI-PI-13/23-ICVS(1)

Doctor Rui Manuel Costa Vieira de Castro, Professor and Rector of Universidade do Minho, in the use of his own competence, in accordance with the terms of subsection d) of section 1 of article 92 of Law no. 62/2007, from September 10th, and subsection d) of section 1 of article 37 of the Statutes of Universidade do Minho, approved by Normative Order no. 15/2021, published in Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 115, of June 16th, makes it known that, for a period of 20 working days, counting from the business day immediately after the date on which this notice is published, an international selection tender is open for recruitment, in the form of an uncertain term contract celebrated under the Labour Code, of 1 (one) doctoral researcher position of initial level under private law, for the exercise of scientific research activities in the scientific area of Medical Engineering, within the scope of the project entitled “Automatic analysis and training in Focused Cardiac Ultrasound”, with the reference PTDC/EMD-EMD/1140/2020, funded by national funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT I.P.), with a view to the development of R&D activities, namely: to participate in the development and execution of R&D projects and in related scientific and technical activities; monitor the work carried out within the scope of the projects under his/her responsibility; collaborate in the development of training actions within the scope of the R&D methodology; monitor the research work carried out by the scholarship holders, the research interns and the research assistants and participate in their training; collaborate in teaching and participate in the institution's training programs; guide/supervise higher education students, namely undergraduate, master's and doctoral students; perform the functions to which they have been elected or appointed in the bodies of the institution to which they belong.

1. Applicable Legislation: This tender, open by Decree of 17/06/2023 of the Rector of Universidade do Minho, is governed by the provisions of Decree Law No. 57/2016, of August 29th, amended by Law No. 57/2017, of July 19th, which approved a hiring regime of doctorates aimed at stimulating scientific and technological employment in all areas of knowledge, by the Regulation of Scientific Employment (RSE), by the Regulamento da Carreira, Recrutamento, Contratação e Avaliação do Desempenho do Pessoal Investigador em Regime de Direito Privado da UMinho (RPI-UM), amended and republished by the Normative Order no. 10353/2022, published in Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 163, of August 24th, and other applicable laws and regulations.

2. Place of Work: The work placement is located at the facilities of the University of Minho.

3. Monthly salary: The salary to be attributed is of 2.228,11 €, corresponding to the remuneration level 10 included in the annex 1 of the RPI-UM.

4. Eligibility Criteria: Any national, foreign and stateless candidates who hold a doctoral degree in a field of knowledge/specialty considered to be adequate for the scientific area of the tender procedure and hold a scientific and professional curriculum that reveals an appropriate profile for the activities to be developed.

Opponents of this tender with qualifications obtained abroad must prove the recognition, equivalence or registration of the doctoral degree, under the terms of the applicable legislation. This formality must be completed by the signing date of the contract.

4.1. General admission requirements are those defined in point 4. For the purpose of determining the appropriate profile for the activity to be developed, the following are special requirements:

a) Proven experience in the scientific area of this international selection tender procedure of at least 2 years;

b) Computer programming experience, preferentially in Python and/or MATLAB;

c) Proficiency in the English language (written and oral communication).

5. Formalization of the applications: Applications are formalized through a request addressed to the Rector of Universidade do Minho, under the terms defined in the attached template.

5.1. The application must include the following documents:

a) Copy of certificate or diploma degree;

b) Detailed curriculum vitae structured in accordance with point 9;

c) Motivation letter;

d) At least 2 (two) recommendation letters;

e) Copy of the 3 (three) most relevant publications;

f) Other relevant documents for the evaluation of the qualification in the related scientific area;

g) Any other documents that the applicant considers relevant, namely for the assessment of the information referred to in paragraph 2 of article 5 of the RSE.

5.2. Candidates must submit the request and supporting documents, using digital tools, in PDF format, mandatorily by electronic means, to the address icvs.rh@med.uminho.pt, until the deadline for the submission of applications established in this notice, indicating in the subject “Ref. CTTI-PI-13/23-ICVS(1)”.

5.3. Failure to comply with the deadline for submitting the application, such as failure to submit or late submission of the application/request referred to in point 5 and the documents referred to in points a) to e) of point 5.1, determines the exclusion of the application. The exclusion decision is notified to the candidates, by email, for the purpose of holding the hearing of interested parties.

5.4. The jury may, whenever it finds necessary, request candidates to provide documents complementary to the facts referred to in the submitted curriculum, determining a deadline for this purpose.

5.5. False statements provided by the candidates will be punished by law.

6. Members of the Jury: The selection jury has the following composition, according to article no. 13 of the RSE and article no. 35 of the do RPI-UM:

President of the jury: Doctor Jorge Manuel Nunes Correia Pinto, Full Professor of the School of Medicine of the University of Minho;

Other members:

Doctor Paula Cristina Costa Alves Monteiro Ludovico, Associate Professor of the School of Medicine of the University of Minho;

Doctor Vítor Hugo Eira Pereira, Assistant Professor of the School of Medicine of the University of Minho.

7. Rules of operation of the Jury: The jury shall deliberate by means of a nominal vote in accordance with the adopted and published selection criteria, and abstentions will not be allowed.

7.1. The jury meetings will be documented in written minutes, containing a summary of what has taken place, as well as the votes cast by each of the members and the respective grounds, being provided to the candidates whenever requested.

8. Approval on absolute merit:

8.1. The jury must decide on the absolute merit of the candidates, based on the merit of the global curriculum of the candidates in the scientific area in which the tender is open, and also considering the fulfilment, cumulatively, of the following requirements:

a) Participation in R&D projects in the areas of medical image processing and/or artificial intelligence;

b) Scientific productivity, measured by, at least, 1 of the evaluation indicators presented below:

i. Publication of, at least, 2 articles in peer-reviewed journals of the scientific area of this international selection tender procedure;

ii. Registration of 1 international patent in the scientific area of this international selection tender procedure and fulfilment of, at least, 50% of the objectives of publication foreseen in the point above (8.1.b.i.).

8.2. The decision of exclusion on absolute merit is notified to the candidates, by email, for the purpose of holding the hearing of interested parties.

8.3. Once the deadline for the exercise of the right of hearing the interested parties has expired, the jury analyses the allegations presented and, if it keeps the exclusion decision, notifies the excluded candidates by email with delivery receipt, subsequently beginning the application of the selection methods to the admitted candidates.

9. Method(s) and evaluation criteria: The selection methods to be applied within the scope of this tender procedure consist of the Scientific and Curricular Path Assessment (SCPA), with a weighting of 90%, and the Interview (INT), which is exclusively intended to clarify aspects related to the results of the candidates' research, with a weighting of 10%.

All candidates approved on absolute merit are subjected to the scientific and curricular path assessment, to be carried out according to the criteria and weights defined in point 9.3. However, only the 4 candidates approved and best positioned in the ranking/ordering resulting from the scientific and curricular path assessment will be admitted to the Interview and ranked/ordered in it.

9.1. The Scientific and Curricular Path Assessment (SCPA) focuses on the relevance, quality and timeliness:

a) of the scientific, technological, cultural or artistic production of the last five years considered most relevant by the candidate for the area of recruitment and applied research activities, or based on practice, considered to have the greatest impact by the candidate for the area of recruitment, with a minimum weight of 80%;

b) of the activities of extension and dissemination of knowledge, namely in the context of the promotion of the cultural and scientific practices considered most relevant by the candidate, and activities for the management of science, technology and innovation programs, or experience in observation and monitoring of the scientific and technological system, with a maximum weight of 20%.

9.2. The five-year period mentioned in the preceding paragraph may be increased by the jury, if requested by the candidate, and when justified on grounds of suspension of the scientific activity for socially protected reasons, such as parental leave, prolonged serious illness, and other situations of unavailability for work that are legally protected.

9.3. In the evaluation of the Scientific and Curricular Path Assessment (SCPA) the following parameters and evaluation criteria will be considered, with their respective weights:

STP – Scientific and Technological Production, with a weight of 80%:

Corresponds to the assessment of the scientific and technological productivity, to be appreciated through the following subfactors:

- STP1: Quantity of scientific or technological production (number of papers published in international peer-reviewed journals, including review papers, book editing, book chapters, communications in congresses, etc.);

- STP2: Quality of the scientific or technological production (recognition that is given by the scientific community, translated in the quality of the publication sites, the impact of that scientific production and in the citations that are made by other authors).

- STP3: Intellectual Property (Authorship and co-authorship of patents and/or utility models and records/registration of ownership of intellectual property rights).

Each subfactor will be assessed through the following parameters:

STP = up to 100 points: Scientific and technological production in the area in which the tender procedure is opened;

STP = up to 70 points: Scientific and technological production in related areas;

STP = up to 30 points: Scientific and technological production in other areas.

The classification in the STP criteria will be obtained through the following formula: STP = 0,45STP1 + 0,45STP2 + 0,1STP3.

EMA – Extension and Management Activities, with a weight of 20%:

Corresponds to the assessment of the extension and management activities developed, to be appreciated through the following subfactors:

- EMA1: Scientific-pedagogical activities (participation in academic management bodies and scientific/academic juries);

- EMA2: Activities of science and technology dissemination (organization/participation in scientific events/initiatives of scientific and technological dissemination: congresses, conferences, lectures, seminars, among others).

Each subfactor will be assessed through the following parameters:

EMA = up to 100 points: Extension and management activities in the area in which the tender procedure is opened;

EMA = up to 70 points: Extension and management activities in related areas;

EMA = up to 30 points: Extension and management activities in other areas;

EMA = 0 points: No extension and management activities.

The classification in the EMA criteria will be obtained through the following formula: EMA = 0,6EMA1 + 0,4EMA2.

The final classification of the SCPA is obtained by the following formula: SCPA = 0,8STP + 0,2EMA.

9.4. The Interview (INT), with a duration of 20 minutes, will be classified on a numerical scale from 0 to 100 points, applying the following parameters and evaluation criteria, with the respective weights, and the final classification of the ENT is obtained by applying the following formula: INT = 0,1CM + 0,6RRR + 0,1OC + 0,2FEN:

CM – Candidate Motivation, with a weight of 10%:

Corresponds to the evaluation of the candidate's level of motivation to perform the activities to be provided/developed in the project: CM = up to 100 points.

RRR – Relevance of the Research Results, with a weight of 60%::

Corresponds to the evaluation of the clarification of aspects related to the candidate's research results: RRR = up to 100 points.

OC – Oral Communication, with a weight of 10%::

Corresponds to the evaluation of the oral communication skills/capability of the candidate: OC = up to 100 points.

FEN – Fluency in English, with a weight of 20%::

Corresponds to the evaluation of the candidate's fluency in the English language: FEN = up to 100 points.

9.5. Candidates who have scored less than 60 points in the Scientific and Curricular Path Assessment (SCPA) are considered excluded from the tender procedure and the subsequent selection method, namely the INT, will not be applied to them, as well as candidates who, although approved in the SCPA, are not included in the tranche used for the purposes of the INT, as referred to in point 9., and candidates who do not attend the INT or withdraw from the tender procedure are also considered excluded from the tender procedure.

9.6. The valuation of the evaluation parameters is expressed on a numerical scale from 0 to 100 points.

9.7. The classification of each candidate is obtained by the average of the classifications of each one of the members of the jury. In case of a draw, the president of the jury will make a final decision to untie the applicants.

10. Order of candidates: The order of the candidates must be based on the evaluation made according to the evaluation criteria described in this notice.

10.1. After completion of the application of the evaluation criteria, the jury will draw up an orderly list of successful candidates with their respective classification.

10.2. The final classification of the candidates is expressed on a numerical scale from 0 to 100 points, with the classification being obtained through a weighted average.

11. Participation of interested parties and decision: The final ordering is notified to the candidates, by email with receipt of delivery of the notification, allowing them to pronounce for the purpose of preliminary hearing of the interested parties, pursuant to article 121 and following of the Code of the Administrative Procedure, applying, with the necessary adaptations, the provisions of article 31 of the RPI-UM.

11.1. After the hearing of the interested parties, the jury analyses the allegations presented and approves the final ordering list of the successful candidates. Within 90 days, from the deadline for submission of the applications, the final decisions of the jury are given.

11.2. The period referred to in the previous number may be extended when the high number of candidates and/or the special complexity of the competition justifies it.

11.3. The final decision of the jury is approved by the Rector of Universidade do Minho, who also decides on the hiring.

12. Publication of results: The list of admitted and excluded candidates, as well as the final ranking list of the successful candidates, are published on Universidade do Minho's website, and the candidates are notified by email with receipt of delivery of the notification.

13. The present tender is exclusively designated to fill the indicated vacancies and may be terminated up to the homologation of the final ranking list of candidates, expiring with the respective occupation of the jobs on offer.

14. The present announcement was approved by the jury of the tender procedure at its meeting on 06/07/2023, according to the approved minute of the said meeting.

15. Non-discrimination and equal access policy: Universidade do Minho actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, so that no candidate may be privileged, benefited, harmed or deprived of any right or exempt from any duty due, namely, to ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, economic situation, education, social origin or condition, genetic heritage, reduced working capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological convictions and trade union membership.

15.1. Pursuant to section h) of article 9 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the Public Administration, as an employer, actively promotes a policy of equal opportunities for men and women in accessing employment and professional advancement, scrupulously any form of discrimination.

The Rector, Professor Rui Vieira de Castro

ANNEX

REQUEST

To the Rector of Universidade do Minho

Name (…), birthdate (…), VAT no. (…), identification card no. (…), address (…), Postal code (…), Mobile Phone no. (…), email address (…), holder of a degree in (…), hereby requests that you kindly accept my application to the international competition for recruitment in the form of an uncertain term contract, under the Labour Code, the Decree-Law no. 57/2016, of August 29th, as amended by Law no. 57/2017, of July 19th, and the “Regulamento da Carreira, Recrutamento, Contratação e Avaliação do Desempenho do Pessoal Investigador em Regime de Direito Privado da UMinho”, amended and republished by the Normative Order no. 10353/2022, published in “Diário da República”, 2nd Series, no. 163, of August 24th, of 1 (one) doctoral researcher position of initial level under private law, in the scientific area of Medical Engineering, according to a notice published in the “Diário da República” no. __, 2nd series, of __/__/__, with the ref._______.

I also declare that I agree to receive by email the communications and notifications resulting from the present selection tender procedure.

Find attached the following documents: xxx

(Place and date)

(Signature)