Organisation/Company: Universidade de Coimbra
Department: SGRH - DRGC
Research Field: Other
Researcher Profile: Established Researcher (R3)
Positions: PhD Positions
Country: Portugal
Application Deadline: 28 May 2025 - 23:59 (Europe/Lisbon)
Type of Contract: Permanent
Job Status: Full-time
Hours Per Week: 35
Offer Starting Date: 14 Apr 2025
Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? European Union / Next Generation EU
Reference Number: ALIANÇA
Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No
Offer Description
I publicly announce that, by the Rector of the University of Coimbra, Prof. Doctor Amílcar Falcão, order of 07/02/2025, an international tender to fulfill 1 (one) vacancy for the position of Principal Researcher in the scientific area of Social Sciences is hereby open for 30 (thirty) working days following the publication of the present notice in Diário da República [Official Journal of the Portuguese Republic]. The stated position will be held under a public service employment contract of unspecified duration at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra.
This international tender shall be conducted pursuant to the Estatuto da Carreira de Investigação Científica [Career of Scientific Research Statute] in its latest version, hereinafter referred to as ECIC, and Regulamento de Recrutamento, Contratação e Prestação de Serviço de Pessoal de Investigação Científica da Universidade de Coimbra [Regulation on the Recruitment, Hiring and Service Providing of Scientific Staff of the University of Coimbra], Regulation Nr. 810/2021, of 30 August, hereinafter referred to as RRCPSPICUC, as well as further applicable legislation.
I – Reference and Place of Work:
I.1. Public tender reference: IT074-25-14952
I.2. Place of Work: Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra
I.3. Salary: 3.950,17 €, corresponding to the rank and index referred in the table in Annex 3 to Decree-Law nr. 408/89, of November 18, in its current version, without prejudice to legally imposed restrictions.
II - Functional content:
The functional content is that corresponding to the stipulations in article 5, paragraphs 2 and 4 of the ECIC, and article 7, paragraphs 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the RRCPSPICUC.
III – Admission Requirements:
III.1. General requirements: Applicants shall be at least 18 years of age or older, not be inhibited to holding a job in the public sector nor forbidden to perform the intended position; applicants shall also be in good health and possess the psychological profile required for the job and shall meet the compulsory vaccination requirements.
III.2. At the time of application, applicants shall fulfill the special admission requirements set forth in article 11, paragraph 1 of the ECIC and article 25, paragraph 2 of the RRCPSPICUC:
1. Be an assistant researcher, from the same or another institution, in the scientific area of the tender, and have a minimum of three years of effective service in that category or have passed a public qualification or aggregation test.
2. Be an assistant researcher at the same or another institution, in a different area, but with a relevant scientific curriculum in the area for which the competition is open, and have a minimum of three years’ effective service in that category or have passed a public qualification or aggregation exam.
3. Be a principal researcher at another institution in the scientific area of the tender.
4. Be a principal researcher at another institution in a different area, but have a relevant scientific curriculum in the area for which the tender is open.
5. Hold a doctoral degree in the scientific area of the tender, and have a minimum of three years' professional experience in this area after obtaining their doctorate, or have passed a public qualification or aggregation exam.
6. Hold a doctoral degree in a different area, but have a relevant scientific curriculum in the scientific area of the tender, and have a minimum of three years' professional experience in these areas after obtaining their doctorate degree or having passed a public qualification or aggregation exam.
III.3. If the candidate's PhD is not in the scientific area of the procedure, the candidate is admitted if he/she presents proof that requested from the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra a document certifying:
* That the scientific area in which he/she has an academic qualification is also considered as a similar area to the one put up for tender procedure; or
* That the scientific area in which the candidate provided services is considered to be a related area of the one put up for tender procedure.
IV – Application:
IV.1. Submission: candidates must access and register on the electronic platform apply.uc.pt, to submit the application, selecting the procedure to which they intend to apply.
The documents included in the application are exclusively in digital portable document format (pdf), with the exception of the documents referred in IV.2.4. and IV.2.6., which can be delivered in other digital formats.
The application submission is carried out by completing the sections available on the Apply UC electronic platform, under “My application”.
If the Scientific project or any of the works/papers submitted contains classified information, reveal trade or industrial secrets or literary, artistic or scientific property secrets, candidates must select that option, available on the platform for each document; otherwise, those works/papers can be freely accessed by any of the other applicants when consulting the file.
Candidates can highlight in their CV periods of suspension of professional activity for socially protected reasons, namely, for reasons of parental leave, prolonged serious illness, and other legally protected situations of unavailability for work, always attaching supporting documents, and the jury must ensure that their evaluative judgment is not influenced by these pauses.
IV.2 Mandatory documents to be delivered:
1. Curriculum Vitae duly dated and signed.
2. Copy of qualification certificates. Opponents selected for the position(s) to be filled who hold a foreign doctoral degree must present the recognition or registration (as applicable) of their degree at the time of contract signing, in accordance with Decree-Law No. 66/2018, dated August 16th, under penalty of exclusion.
3. Separate copy of the 3 (three) of the candidate's most relevant works/papers that have contributed to the development of the scientific area for which this tender is open, and justified, in a separate document, the reasons for this choice.
4. Copy of all works/papers mentioned in the Curriculum Vitae.
5. Scientific project for the next 5 years, with a limit of 5 pages, related to the research lines in the scientific area for which this tender is open to which the candidate proposes to dedicate himself in the UC, obeying the following requirements: presentation of the main problems to which the candidate intend to dedicate the future research, contextualizing them in the current state of the art in these field; systematic and succinct description of the research strategies that the candidate proposes to adopt in order to develop his research and solve or contribute to the resolution of the problems he has mentioned; explanation of the reasons and motivations for his choices.
6. Any other information considered relevant by the candidate.
7. Document mentioned in point III.3., if applicable.
8. Report of the activities developed by the candidates.
9. Copy of the certificate of approval in public examinations of qualification or academic title – Agregação - when applicable under the terms of point III.2.
IV.3. All application documents above indicated in IV.2 shall be submitted in Portuguese or English, exception made to those mentioned in IV.1.2.4 and IV.2.6, which may be submitted in a different language. If the original documents mentioned under IV.2.2 and IV.2.3 are written in a language other than Portuguese or English, candidates are required to include a version in one of those languages. Exception is made to Diplomas, when written in Latin, in which case no translation is required.
IV.4. Applicants, who are non-native speakers of either Portuguese or English, shall attest their proficiency at level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in, at least, one of those languages.
IV.5. Applications that do not comply with the instructions or that fail to meet the tender’s formal requirements, pursuant to the applicable laws and to this Public Notice, shall not be accepted. In the same way, if the required documents or papers are submitted outside the established timeframe, the application shall not be accepted.
IV.6. The present tender ceases with the occupation of the position, or, when the position cannot be totally occupied, due to the inexistence or insufficiency of candidates to continue this tender.
V – Selection methods and criteria:
V.1. The selection methods to be used are approval in absolute merit and evaluation of the candidates' scientific and curricular background.
V.2. Evaluation of Absolute Merit
1. Approval on Absolute Merit will be given to candidates who hold a curriculum vitae that the jury considers adequate for the position to be filled, namely the merit of their scientific and technical work, as well as their professional experience and training, compatible with the category and scientific area for which the tender is open, always taking into account, for this evaluation, the following reference criteria:
1. To have participated in the design, development and execution of at least 4 (four) internationally funded research projects;
2. To have participated in the development of training activities in the field of research and development in the last 3 (three) years;
3. To have proven experience in the national or international scientific and technological system in research management, namely holding leadership positions in research organizations for a minimum of 2 (two) years.
4. To have (certified) postgraduate training in research management.
V.2.2. The Jury shall decide on admission or exclusion on absolute merit by roll-call vote, based on compliance or noncompliance with the requirements set out in paragraph V.2.1, and by an absolute majority of votes in favour from among the members present at the meeting.
V.3. Assessment of the scientific and curricular background For the assessment of the scientific and curricular background of the candidates, the following evaluation criteria should be considered: the quality of the candidates' scientific and technical work, professional experience, professional training, contribution to scientific guidance activities, participation in teaching activities and management bodies, community service and the quality of the scientific project, according to the following weighting.
V.3.1. Quality of the scientific and technical work, with a weighting of 30%, considering the following evaluation parameters:
1. Scientific production, taking into account the books, book chapters, articles in scientific journals and international conference proceedings of which the candidate has authored or co-authored, considering their nature and impact, the scientific/technological level and innovation, diversity and multidisciplinarity, international collaboration, the importance of contributions to the advancement of the current state of knowledge and the importance of the works that were selected by the candidate as the most representative, namely in the regarding its contribution to the development and evolution of the scientific field for which the competition is open;
2. Co-ordination and participation in scientific projects and in science and technology management: the candidate's potential and previous experience in participating and coordinating activities and projects subject to competition on a competitive basis, as well as in research teams, in the area for which the tender is open, namely taking into account the territorial scope and its dimension, the technological level, the interdisciplinary dimension, and the importance of contributions, innovation and diversity;
3. Creation and reinforcement of laboratory facilities, taking into account the participation and coordination of initiatives by the candidate that have resulted in the creation or reinforcement of laboratory infrastructures of an experimental and/or computational nature to support research;
4. Promotion of scientific activity and in science and technology management: taking into account the ability to coordinate and lead research teams demonstrated by the candidate;
5. Impact and national and international recognition of scientific production, taking into account awards from scientific societies, editorial activities in scientific journals, participation in editorial bodies of scientific journals, coordination and participation in program committees of scientific events, holding invited lectures at scientific meetings or in other institutions, participation as member of scientific societies for competitive admission and other similar distinctions.
V.3.2. Professional experience and training, with a weighting of 15%, considering the following evaluation parameters:
1. Level and adequacy of academic degrees and diplomas or professional qualifications, in the area for which the tender is open;
2. Professional experience of the candidate to carry out duties as a Principal Researcher in the area for which the tender is open;
3. Experience in a leadership position in national or international research organizations, taking into account their role, duration and responsibility.
V.3.3. Involvement in scientific advisory activities and participation in teaching activities, with a weighting of 10%, considering the following evaluation parameters:
1. Activities of follow-up and advising of research work developed by scholarship holders, research interns and research assistants, participating in their training, as well as of supervision of students' theses, namely undergraduate, postgraduate, master's and doctoral students;
2. Collaboration in professional training sessions, namely participation and coordination of training sessions aimed at researchers and the development of research careers, according to their characteristics and the results achieved;
3. Pedagogical content: publications, computer applications and experimental prototypes of a pedagogical nature that the candidate has produced or participated in, and their impact on the national and international community should be considered;
4. Participation in teaching activities: publications, reports or other materials of a pedagogical nature that the candidate has produced or participated in the production of should be taken into account, and their impact on the national and international community should be considered.
V.3.4. Participation in management bodies, with a weighting of 10%, considering the following evaluation parameters:
1. Holding positions or duties in bodies of Higher Education Institutions, and in Research Units, taking into consideration their nature, duration, impact and responsibility;
2. Holding temporary positions and tasks, namely editorial activities in international journals, evaluation in scientific programmes, juries of academic tests, juries of competitions and others that have been assigned by the competent management bodies;
3. Performance in other positions, namely those legally considered equivalent to the effective exercise of teaching activities and those carried out in national and international scientific organizations.
V.3.5. Community service, with a weighting of 15%, considering the following assessment parameters:
1. Provision of services and consultancy: integrated within the mission of the University of Coimbra, namely participation in and implementation of projects, as well as provision of specialized services, with other institutions or companies; dimension, diversity, scientific-technological level and innovation must be considered;
2. Intellectual property: namely authorship and co-authorship of patents, models, trademarks or industrial designs, considering their nature, territorial scope, scientific and technological level and the results obtained;
3. Participation in the preparation of draft legislation and regulations: their nature, territorial scope and technological level should be considered;
4. Active participation in obtaining competitive funding for research and development activities;
5. Promotion and/or participation in studies and debates within society with the aim of diagnosing problems, studying alternatives and defining improvement paths.
V.3.6. Quality of the scientific project in the area for which the tender is open, with a weighting of 20%.
VI– Selection process
VI.1. Preliminary meeting
1. In the preliminary meeting the Jury will verify the requirements for admission of the applications, prepare the list of admitted and excluded candidates.
2. If there are no excluded candidates, at the preliminary meeting the jury also evaluates the candidates.
3. The list of admitted and excluded candidates shall be notified to the candidates for the purposes of a hearing of interested parties in accordance with the provisions of Article 121 et seq. of the CPA.
4. If any allegations are made by the candidates, the Jury will meet to discuss them, and the interested parties will be notified of the Jury's decision.
5. The list of admitted and excluded candidates shall be approved by the Rector after the conclusion of the preliminary meeting or after the conclusion of the assessment and allegations if these take place. The candidates may appeal against the ratification decision under the terms of the general law.
VI.2. Evaluation meeting
1. If, at the preliminary meeting, the jury decides to exclude some candidates, the evaluation meeting is held after the period for the hearing of interested parties and approval of the list of admitted and excluded candidates.
2. In the evaluation meeting, the jury starts by deciding on the approval of candidates on absolute merit, under the terms of point V.2. It then proceeds to evaluate the candidates admitted on absolute merit and prepares the final ranking list.
VI.3. The assessment of the scientific and curricular background may be complemented by an interview for all candidates, whenever the jury decides. The interview does not constitute a selection method and is not graded. It is intended solely to obtain clarification or explanation of elements contained in the candidates' CVs.
VII – Ranking and voting methods:
VII.1. After the debate on the candidates towards establishing a final deliberation about the ranking, each member of the Selection Committee will present a written document, which will be attached to the meeting minutes with their individual ranking proposal, based on the assessment criteria stated in this Public Notice. Throughout the various vote rounds, each member of the Selection Committee must respect their proposed rankings.
VII.2. The first vote round is intended to select the candidate to be ranked in the first place. If a candidate obtains more than half of the votes, they shall be placed in the first position. If this is not the case, candidates with no votes shall be eliminated, as well as the candidate with the least votes, provided the latter obtained at least one vote. In the event of more than one candidate being placed in the last position with only one vote, there shall be a vote to decide whom to eliminate. In this vote round, committee members shall vote on the candidate who had the lowest score according to their individual ranking, and the candidate who obtains the most votes shall be eliminated. If a tie persists between two or more candidates, the Selection Committee Chairman shall decide which candidate should be eliminated.
After this process, the Selection Committee shall vote on the ranking of the remaining candidates. This process is repeated until one of the candidates obtains more than half of the votes for the first place.
VII.3. The candidate placed in the first position shall then be excluded from the next vote round, which shall decide the second place. This process shall be consecutively repeated until all approved candidates are ranked.
VII.4. During the voting of the Selection Committee abstentions are not allowed.
VIII. – Final Report
The Jury draws up a Final Report, signed by all its members, which contains the results of the tender.
IX. Notification of the candidates:
IX.1. The candidate(s) will be notified of the list of admitted and excluded candidates and its approval, of the Draft Final Ranking List, of the Final Report and of the act of approval of the Final Report, by registered letter and by email or by electronic notification automatically generated by a system incorporated into an electronic site belonging to the UC, on the electronic platform for the management of competitive procedures of the University of Coimbra, Apply UC, with the prior consent of the notifying party, under the terms of Article 26 paragraph 5 and Article 27, paragraph 3 of the ECIC, and Article 27, paragraph 4 and Article 29, paragraph 3 of the RRCPSPICUC.
Candidates may, if they wish, within 10 working days appeal against the list of admitted and excluded candidates and the final ranking list draft, under the terms set forth in article 121 of the Portuguese Code of Administrative Procedure (CPA). The time limit begins on the day following notification, under the terms of article 87 of the CPA.
IX.2. The administrative records of the tender may be consulted by the candidates, upon previous appointment, requested by e-mail sent to the Human Resources Management Service's e-mail address: sgrh@uc.pt.
X. Selection Committee:
According to Notice nr. 7218/2025/2, published in Diário da República, II Série, nr. 24, March 18, the Selection Committee is constituted as follows:
Chairman:
Doctor Jónatas Eduardo Mendes Machado, Dean and Full Professor of the Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra.
Committee members:
Doctor Maria Lúcia da Conceição Abrantes Amaral, Full Professor of NOVA School of Law, NOVA University of Lisboa;
Doctor Silvério Carlos da Rocha e Cunha, Full Professor of Departmento of Economics, University of Évora;
Doctor Álvaro Francisco Rodrigues Garrido, Full Professor of Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra;
Doctor José Manuel Aroso Linhares, Full Professor of Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra;
Doctor Maria João Baila Madeira Antunes, Full Professor of Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra.
In the event of absences or impediments of the Chairman, he shall be replaced by Doctor Luís José Proença de Figueiredo Neves, Vice-Rector and Full Professor of University of Coimbra, whom shall be replaced, likewise, by the Committee member Doctor José Manuel Aroso Linhares, Full Professor of Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra.
This Public Notice will be published in Portuguese in Diário da República, 2nd Series, on the website Bolsa de Emprego Público (Governmental Public Employment Portal) and in two daily newspapers with national circulation, as well as in both Portuguese and English at Apply UC (apply.uc.pt) and on the EURAXESS Portugal Portal, at http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/.
Pursuant to subparagraph h) of Article 9 of the Portuguese Constitution, the University of Coimbra, as employer, actively promotes a policy of equal opportunities between men and women in access to employment and professional development and takes action to prevent each and every kind of discrimination, and encouraging underrepresented minorities in each area to apply.
Therefore, no one can be privileged, benefited, harmed or deprived of any right or immune from any duty on account of, in particular, ancestry, age, sexual orientation, gender, marital status, family, economic situation, education, origin or social condition, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic or racial origin, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs and trade union membership.
The University of Coimbra also promotes measures to facilitate work-life balance, recognizing the efforts of workers and promoting motivation.
This procedure is granted under the terms of article 137 of Law no. 82/2023, of December 29, which approved the State Budget for 2024, within the scope of the Aliança program.
This call for applications must be submitted by PhD researchers who perform, or have performed, duties at the University of Coimbra in the scientific area of the call and are covered by the transitional regime provided for in Decree-Law no. 57/2016, of August 29, 2016, in its current wording, and related regulations.
University of Coimbra,
The Chairman, Doctor Professor Jónatas Machado
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