Organisation/Company Universidade do Minho - ISISE Department ISISE Research Field Engineering » Civil engineering Engineering » Mechanical engineering Computer science » Informatics Other Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Master Positions Application Deadline 2 Apr 2026 - 23:00 (Europe/Lisbon) Country Portugal Type of Contract Not Applicable Job Status Not Applicable Offer Starting Date 19 Mar 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Reference Number COMPETE2030-FEDER-00796500 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No Offer DescriptionA call is open to award (1) research grant within the R&D Project "FiCoFEMAI – Integrated and reliable design methodology for steel fibre reinforced concrete structures assisted by nonlinear finite element analysis and artificial intelligence tools", project number 16782, operation code COMPETE2030-FEDER-00796500, funded by the Innovation and Digital Transition Program(COMPETE 2030), by Portuguese Foundations for the Science and Technology, by PORTUGAL 2030 and by European Union, in the following conditions: RESEARCH FIELD: Civil Engineering, Aeronautics, Mechanics, Informatics or related fields. RECIPIENT CATEGORY: Degree courses:Students enrolled in a PhD. Non-conferring degrees courses:Masters enrolled in non-academic degree courses. CANDIDATES PROFILE / CANDIDATE ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS Mandatory requirements: In order to apply, the candidates must possess: A Master's degree in the field of Civil Engineering, Aeronautics, Mechanics, Informatics or related fields; Applicants must comply with the eligibility conditions set out in Article 9 of the Research Grant Regulations, No. 950/2019, of 16-12-2019, of FCT I.P.. At the time of the respective hiring, candidates must prove that they are enrolled in one of the following courses: PhD in the field of Civil Engineering, or in related fields; In a Course that do not confer an academic degree, in the area or area related to that requested in the tender. Preferential factors: Have demonstrable experience in the use of machine learning algorithms applied to engineering phenomena, especially in the areas of structural engineering; Have applied knowledge in the finite element method; Have proven experience in software development in C, C++, C# or Python programming languages; Be fluent in written and spoken English. 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, issued by a Higher Education Institution, according to the type of the fellowship, indicating the academic year or its duration (start and term). APPLICATION / ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS The call is open from 19/03/2026 to 02/04/2026 (23:00 – Europe/Lisbon). Applications must be sent exclusively by e-mail to barros@civil.uminho.pt ,with the subject " Edital BI-ISISE-UMINHO-FiCoFEMAI-16782-B1.4 ", with the following documents: Elements of the National Identity Card/Citizen Card/Passport/Visa/Title of Residence; Curriculum Vitae of the candidate, in Portuguese or in English; Certificates of the academic degree(s) required, specifying the final grading (mandatory) and, if possible, the grades obtained in all the attended curricular units, or, alternatively, the candidate's declaration of honor that the degree was obtained until the end of the term of application (Annex I); Certificate of recognition of foreign academic degree and conversion of the respective final grading into the Portuguese grading scale, or, alternatively, the candidate's declaration of honor (Annex II), if applicable; Statement proving that meets the conditions for the grant typology, according to the application requirements (Annex III); Motivation letter, in Portuguese or in English. Failure to comply with the deadline for submitting the application, such as failure to submit or late submission of the application and the documents referred to in points 2) to 4), determines the exclusion of the application. Regarding the above mentioned admissibility requirements, the following should be noted: In the case of a degree granted by a foreign higher education institution, and in order to ensure the application of the principle of equal treatment to candidates holding foreign and national academic degrees, it is mandatory to recognize the degree and convert the respective final grading to the Portuguese grading scale. 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. 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 respective criteria. Candidates will be evaluated on the remaining parameters. Only candidates who have completed the required qualification by the end of the application period will be admitted. If they do not yet have the official degree certificate, a declaration of honor from the candidate stating that he/she has completed the qualifications required by the end of the application period, will be accepted. At the time of the respective hiring the candidate must present the official degree certificate. DURATION OF THE RESEARCH GRANT The research grant is 12 months, with a provisional starting date in May 2026. The grant may be renewed until the maximum predicted in the project and/or applicable legislation, if it is necessary to complete the academic degree or to carry out activities that are essential for the conclusion of the project. If the grant is awarded to candidates enrolled in a course that does not confer an academic degree, the grant cannot be renewed. WORK PLAN AND OBJECTIVES Analysis of fibre-reinforced concrete structures assisted by models based on the finite element method; month 1 to month 6; Execution of parametric studies using finite element–based software to support design rules for fibre-reinforced concrete structures; month 6 to month 12. HOST INSTITUTION AND SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISION The work will be carried out at ISISE - Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering - Civil Engineering Department, School of Engineering of the University of Minho, located at Azurém (Guimarães), under the scientific supervision of Doctors Joaquim António Oliveira Barros and Vítor Manuel Couto Fernandes Cunha and coordination of Doctor José Manuel Sena Cruz. EVALUATION CRITERIA The evaluation of the applications will focus on the merit of the candidate, by applying the following criteria on a scale of 0 to 5 points: Candidate's Merit – CM (100%): Criterion A- Final classification obtained in the Integrated Master (or the weighted average between the Master's and the Bachelor's degree, for candidates that don't have an Integrated Master degree: 60% for the Master and 40% for the Bachelor) – 40%; Criterion C- Previous experience in the field of the project – 20%; Criterion E - Proficiency in both written and spoken English (certificate) – 10%. The final classification of the Candidate's Merit (CM) will be obtained by applying the following formula: CM = (A*0,40) + (B*0,15) +(C*0,20) + (D*0,15) + (E*0,10) Candidates with CM less than 2,5 points are immediately excluded. The jury can decide to include in the evaluation process an Interview (INT). Only the three best qualified candidates in the criterion Candidate's Merit (CM) will be considered for the Interview. Besides, the Interview will be conducted in English. Interview – INT (35%): Criterion T1- Motivation, with a weighting of 20%; Criterion T2- Candidate's knowledge on the topic of the call, with a weighting of 40%; Criterion T3- English fluency, self-expression and the critical sense, with a weighting of 40%. The Jury also decided on the valuation of the Interview, according to the following levels: Good – 4 points; Satisfactory – 3 points; Unsatisfactory – 2 points; The final classification of the Interview (INT) will be obtained by applying the following formula: INT = (T1*0,20) + (T2*0,40) + (T3*0,40) The final classification (FC) of Candidate's Merit (CM) and Interview (INT) will be obtained by applying the following formula: FC = (CM*0,65) + (INT*0,35) The Selection Panel reserves the right not to award the research grant in the competition based on the evaluation results of the applicants and their suitability for the project objectives. SELECTION PANEL The Selection Panel is composed by the following elements: President: Doctor Joaquim António Oliveira Barros, Full Professor of Civil Engineering Department, ISISE, School of Engineering, University of Minho. Substitute members: Doctor José Manuel de Sena Cruz, Associate Professor with Habilitationof the Department of Civil Engineering, ISISE, School of Engineering, University of Minho, and Doctor Eduardo Nuno Borges Pereira, Assistant Professor of the Department of Civil Engineering, ISISE, School of Engineering, University of Minho. If the President of the Selection Panel is unavailable, he/she shall be replaced by the first effective member. The first substitute member will replace the effective member. The Selection Panel, including the President, undertake the commitment to respect a set of responsibilities essential to the evaluation process, such as the duties of impartiality, of stating any potential situations of conflict of interest and confidentiality. COMUNICATION OF RESULTS The results of the evaluation are announced by email to all candidates, attaching, for this purpose, the minutes of the jury's deliberations, within a maximum period of 60 working days from the deadline for submission of applications. Candidates are informed, at a preliminary hearing, in accordance with Articles 121 and 122 of the Administrative Procedure Code (DL no 4 / 2015 of January 7), of the likely outcome of the final decision, and may comment within 10 working days of this notification. COMPLAINT AND APPEAL PROCEDURES The selected candidate must indicate, in writing, the intention to accept the grant, within 10 working days of notification of the grant award. The final decision can be contested, having 15 working days for this purpose, or an appeal may be lodged with the Rector within 30 working days, both after the respective notification. REQUIREMENTS FOR FINAL AWARDING OF THE GRANT The scholarship is awarded through the signing of a contract between the University of Minho and the scholarship recipient, in accordance with the draft contract in Annex II of the University of Minho Regulations (RBIC) .At the time of hiring, the following documents must be sent: National Identity Card/Citizen Card/Passport/Visa/Title of Residence; Copy of the certificate of the academic degree; Presentation of the certificate of recognition of foreign academic degree and conversion of the respective final grading into the Portuguese grading scale, if applicable; Document proving enrollment in the Doctoral Program or in a Course that does not confer an academic degree, identified in this application; Science ID; NIB/IBAN (document of the Bank with the name of the candidate); Tax Identification Number (NIF); Digital mobile key (digital signature). 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, in accordance with no3 of the Article 14o the University of Minho Regulations (RBIC). MONTHLY MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE Th e Monthly Maintenance Allowance corresponds to the basic value of 1 309 ,64 euros per month, according to the table of grants of FCT, I.P. in the country (http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores) and Research Scholarship of the University of Minho, updated annually, as decided by the Management Board. Payments are made by bank transfer on the 23rd of each month to the Bank Identification Number of the fellow identified in the contratualization process. OTHER BENEFITS Reimbursement of the Voluntary Social Insurance,if the candidate chooses to receive it, corresponding to the 1st tier of the contribution base (for grants of 6 months or more) 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. TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR GRANT RENEWAL Grant may be renewed for additional periods, if this information is provided in "DURATION OF THE RESEARCH GRANT#J-18808-Ljbffr