JUNIOR RESEARCHER (M/F) Chemistry/Marine Biogeochemistry - 1 VACANCY

Reference: CCMAR/ID/17/2018

The Algarve Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) opens a call for a Junior Researcher (M/F) of any nationality, including stateless candidates. The employment contract will be for an uncertain length of term in programme contract CEECINST/00114/2018 funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P.

Job Summary and Duties: 

The Assistant Researcher will:
a) Make cutting edge contributions to one or several of the following topics: chemical processes in the world’s ocean, cycling of nutrients, C pump, ocean acidification. 
b) Provide advice to students (MSc, PhD).
c) Further the development of the CCMAR strategy.
d)Obtain external funding for research and collaborate in collective initiatives of CCMAR.

Relevant Legislation:
⦁    Decree-Law nr 57/2016, from 29th August, altered by Law nr 57/2017, from 19th July, (RJEC).
⦁    Portuguese Labour Law, approved by Law nr 7/2009, from 12th February in its current form.  
⦁    Decree – Law nr 124/99, from 20th April in its current form.
⦁    Regulatory Decree nr 11-A / 2017, of 29th December.
⦁    Decree – Law nr 29/2001 of 3rd February.
⦁    Portuguese Administrative Procedure Code

Starting Date: The contract is expected to start in January 2019 and will only last for the necessary execution of the working plan.
 

Workplace: The workplace is CCMAR (Gambelas Campus of the University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal) 

Working Schedule: 35 hours per week.

Monthly Remuneration: Gross monthly Remuneration is 2.128,34€, in accordance with subsection a), section 1, article 15 from Law nr 57/2017, 19th July, and with the remuneration position at initial level predicted in article 2 of Regulatory Decree nr 11-A/2017, of 29th December, correspondent to level 33 at Tabela Remuneratória Única, approved by Order nr 1553-C/2008, 31st December.
Application Period:  Between 20th November 2018 and 20th December 2018. 

Required Profile: 
1.    The candidate should have less than 5 years of experience after completion of a PhD in Chemistry, Chemical Oceanography or similar area, and an integrated and holistic approach to Ocean Sciences, with experience at sea (participation and organization of oceanographic campaigns), excellent knowledge of laboratory techniques and statistics. 
2.    The candidate should have an excellent curriculum and research capacity demonstrated through publication in internationally recognized journals, invitations to speak at conferences, prizes, as well as the proven capacity to obtain funding in completive calls.   
3.    A high proficient in English (spoken and written)

Non-compliance with any of these requirements invalidates the application. Provision of false documentation will be punished by law.

Selection panel: in accordance with article 13º of RJEC the selection panel is composed of Adelino Canário, Professor at Algarve University and CCMAR’s President (President), Fátima Filomena Guedes Abrantes, researcher at CCMAR and IPMA (Member), and Rui Orlando Pimenta Santos, Professor at Algarve University and researcher at CCMAR (Member). 

Evaluation and Selection Process
The evaluation is carried out in two phases, which will result in a final classification between 0 and 100 points.

First phase: Curricular assessment
The evaluation of all candidates in the first phase must be completed within a period of no more than one calendar month after the applications are received.
The selection is made through the evaluation of the motivation letter which will include relevant activities and career development plan, and curriculum vitae, which will include the candidate’s scientific and professional career path focusing on the relevance, quality, and timeliness of the criteria referred to in Article 5 (2) (a) to (d) of the RJEC. The following assessment criteria, and the candidate’s ability to perform the duties required, will be considered:

CA) Scientific, technological production in the last five years, deemed most relevant by the candidate;
CB) Activities of applied research or based on practice, developed in the last five years, that the candidate considers with greater impact;
CC) Activities of extension and dissemination of knowledge, namely in the promotion of the culture and the scientific practices, developed in the last five years, that the candidate considers more relevant;
CD) Project management activities and programmes of science, technology and innovation, or experience in observation, monitoring and evaluation of the scientific and technological system or higher education in Portugal or abroad developed in the last five years. 
The period of five years referred in the evaluation criteria may be increased by the selection panel, at the request of the candidate, when justified on grounds of suspension of scientific activity for socially protected reasons, namely for reasons of parental leave, prolonged serious illness, and other situations of unavailability for work legally protected. 
The candidates who have obtained less than 70 points in the curricular assessment will be considered not approved in absolute merit. The decision to exclude on absolute merit is communicated to the candidates by electronic mail for the purpose of hearing with interested parties.

Second phase: Interview
If the selection panel considers it necessary for the evaluation, the top five candidates with the highest scores of the curricular assessments that were approved in absolute merit will qualify for the second phase, consisting of an individual interview, either face-to-face or through a videoconference. Interviews will be conducted up to 10 days after the decision taken by the evaluation panel. The interview will be weighted, at most, as 10% of the final classification score and will serve the sole purpose of clarifying aspects related to the results of scientific research of the candidates. 

Functioning of the Selection Panel
Each member of the selection panel will assess all the candidates in all the factors from CA to CD scoring between 0 and 100, and must present the reasons for the scores given. Abstention is not allowed. A similar procedure will be followed regarding the candidates that are called for the interview. The candidates that are not called for an interview will have 0 points in the second phase.
The curricular assessment (C) of each candidate is obtained from the sums of the scores of each criteria multiplied by the weights according to the formulation, rounded to the decimal place.
C = CA*75 + CB*10 + CC*10 + CD*5
The final score (FS) of each candidate is obtained from the sum of the results of the curricular assessment (C) and of the interview (I), if applicable, according to the following formulation, rounded to the decimal place.
FS = C*90 + I*10
After determining the final score (FS) of all candidates, each member of the selection panel will rank the candidates according to the final scores assigned to them from the highest to the lowest. This is followed by the vote to the first place and for each successive place. A candidate is selected when they receive the majority of votes. If this does not happen in the first round of voting, the least ranked candidate is eliminated, and the procedure is repeated with the remaining candidates. In case of a draw the vote of the President of the selection panel decides.
The selection panel will write minutes of the meetings with a description of the evaluation and selection process including an ordered list of candidates, their classification, and the final decision. The CCMAR Board of Directors shall validate the final decision of the selection panel.
In the event that no applicant has the necessary profile, or the funding conditions have significantly changed since the announcement of this position, the selection committee reserves the right to close the call without any recruitment. In the event that the selected person does not accept the position or resigns during the contract, the jury reserves the right, upon convenience and opportunity, to assign the post to the next applicant in accordance with the ranking positions, through a judgment of convenience and opportunity.

Application submission process and documents: Only applications submitted through the CCMAR website will be considered: https://www.ccmar.ualg.pt/list/job. Applications are considered to be correctly submitted only after the candidate has received a confirmation e-mail from CCMAR. Applications (in English) should include a Motivation Letter (including a personal assessment of the relevance of the activities of the last five years for the present application, highlighting the chosen scientific publications, and a career plan), a detailed curriculum vitae (prepared in accordance with the requirements and selection criteria of the application), digital copies (e.g PDFs) of up to 5 relevant publications; copy of the candidate’s Ph.D. certificate; the email and telephone contacts of up to 3 referees; other documents deemed as relevant for the application.

Results: The lists of admitted and excluded candidates, and the final classification list, shall be posted on the CCMAR website at https://www.ccmar.ualg.pt/list/job-closed and all candidates will be notified by email.  

Preliminary Hearing and Final Decision Deadline: After notification, candidates have 10 working days to contest the preliminary decision. The final decisions will be announced within 90 days of the application deadline.

Disabled candidates shall be preferred in a situation of equal classification, and said preference supersedes any legal preferences. Candidates must declare, on their honour, their respective disability degree, type of disability and communication / expression means to be used during selection period on their application form, under the regulations above.

CCMAR’s non-discrimination and equal access opportunities policy – No candidate can be privileged, benefited, jeopardised or be deprived of any right or exempt of any claim in regards to descendent, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, economic situation, origin, social economy, genetic heritage, disability, chronic disease, nationality, ethnicity, territory of origin, language, religion, politics, ideology or union membership.  
The members of the jury approved this announcement on 2 November 2018.