Auxiliary RESEARCHER (M/F) in the area of Bioinformatics/Data Science - 1 VACANCY

Reference: CCMAR/IA/14/2023

Project: ref. 101058785| HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01

The Algarve Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) opens a call for an Auxiliary Researcher in the area of Bioinformatics and/or Data Science (M/F), of any nationality, including stateless candidates, under an uncertain term employment contract within the research project FAIR-EASE, ref. 101058785, HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01 funded by Horizon Europe of the European Commission in order to recruit and select the best candidate for the development of the project activities under the following conditions:

About CCMAR: The Algarve Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR-Algarve, https://ccmar.ualg.pt/) - is one of the foremost marine science research centres in Portugal, classified Excellent in successive evaluations promoted by the Foundation for Science and Technology, and gathering experts in the fields of marine biology, ecology, oceanography, environmental sciences, biotechnology, fisheries, and aquaculture. With a multidisciplinary team, well-equipped facilities and laboratories, CCMAR-Algarve develops activities that fall into five different core areas: Research, Training, Business, Society, and Collaboration.

 

Job Summary and Duties: 

This post is for an Auxiliary Researcher in the field of Bioinformatics and/or Data Science to engage with all aspects of the FAIR-EASE project (https://fairease.eu) and provide expertise in support of CCMAR members.

 

Earth system domains are interconnected and even if interfaces between domains appear of primary importance for several studies with large societal impacts, such as climate change, agriculture and food, human safety and health, the present digital architecture is based essentially on distributed and domain-dependent data repositories inducing real difficulties for integrated uses of all the environmental data. To go beyond this state-of-the-art, the overall objective of FAIR-EASE is to customize and operate distributed and integrated services for observation and modelling of the Earth system, environment and biodiversity by improving the TRL of their different components implemented in close cooperation with user-communities, the European Open Science Cloud and research infrastructures in their design and sustainable availability. The project will: (1) Improve a FAIR-EASE data discovery and data access service, relying on pre-operational existing services, in order to provide users with an easy and FAIR tool for discovery and access to environmental multidisciplinary and aggregated data-sets as managed and provided by a range of European data infrastructures; (2) Set up a FAIR-EASE Earth Analytical Lab, with EOSC connectivity supporting, through web-based interfaces, predefined processing tools and on-demand data visualization services for remote analysis and processing of heterogeneous data facilitating the cross-disciplinary collaboration, reducing the time to results and increasing productivity; and (3) Develop a number of multidisciplinary Use Cases (UCs) to contribute requirements for the FAIR-EASE system components and to validate and demonstrate the capabilities of the FAIR-EASE service for supporting open science.

 

 

Specifically, the Auxiliary Researcher will:

• Engage in the FAIR-EASE project, and other national and European research projects (Horizon Europe Programme), and contribute to RIs for biological data and Open Science (e.g. ELIXIR, EOSC);
• Collaborate with the institutional structures and departments of CCMAR in developing software and IT solutions and contribute to the development of data management policies that optimise internal processes and enhance the offer of technology and knowledge solutions for the Centre.
• Develop and maintain applications and support processes for CCMAR's research infrastructures, and technological and scientific platforms;
• Develop and maintain applications and processes to support service provision and the commercialisation of knowledge and technology;
• Provide bioinformatic support to researchers and students including the development of training curricula;
• Further the development of the scientific strategy 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
• Internal Regulation For Scientific Research and Technological Development Personnel, and Science and Technology  Management and Communication at  Centro de Ciências do Mar do Algarve here

 

Starting Date: The contract is expected to start in January 2024, and will last only for the time necessary to complete the described work plan.

Workplace: The workplace will be at CCMAR (Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal) and other places necessary to the completion of the job tasks.

Working Schedule: 35 hours per week.

Monthly Remuneration: Monthly gross salary of 3327.76€.

 

Application Period: Between the 01st of August and 11th September 2023 at 23:59 (WEST, Lisbon time, Portugal).

Required Profile:

1. The successful candidate will have completed a PhD in Bioinformatics, Data Science, Information Technology or similar, with at least 3 years experience in similar functions, and be well-qualified, dynamic, and highly motivated to develop their career in a stimulating international and interdisciplinary environment.
2. The candidate should have an excellent curriculum and research capacity demonstrated through publication in internationally recognized journals, project leadership, service provision, invitations to speak at conferences, prizes, as well as the proven capacity to obtain funding in competitive calls.
3.         A high proficiency in English (spoken and written).

 

Selection panel: in accordance with article 13º of RJEC the selection panel is composed of Doctor Cymon Cox Principal Researcher at CCMAR, President of the jury; Doctor Teresa Correia Principal Researcher at CCMAR (member), and Doctor Andrzej Tkacz, Auxiliary Researcher at CCMAR (member).

 

Evaluation and Selection Procedure:

The evaluation will consist of a Curricular assessment (final classification between 0 and 100 points).

The evaluation and selection of applications will consider the candidate’s scientific and curricular career path focusing on the relevance, quality, and timeliness of the criteria referred to in Article 5 (2) (a) to (d) of the RJEC, as follows:

CA) Scientific and technological, cultural or artistic production in the last five years, deemed most relevant by the candidate to perform the project tasks, in accordance with the value defined. The content of the scientific production is more relevant than the publication metrics, or the publisher entity. (30%);

CB) Activities of applied research or based on practice, developed in the last five years, that the candidate considers with greater impact for the tasks to perform in the project, in accordance with the value defined (40%);

CC) Activities of extension and dissemination of knowledge, namely in the promotion of the culture and the scientific practices and developed in the last five years, that the candidate considers more relevant (10%);

CD) Management activities of scientific projects and programmes of research, technology and innovation, or experience in observation, monitoring and evaluation of the scientific and technological system, or higher education, in Portugal or abroad. (20%).

 

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 selection committee reserves the right to contact and interview candidates if additional information or clarification of any curricular aspect is necessary related with the research results. In case it takes place, the interview aims to evaluate in more detail the curricular items used to grade the candidate according to the list above.

 

Functioning of the Selection Panel

Evaluation (from 0-100 points) is obtained through assessment of the 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 the CV that will include the activities of the specific field and of the scientific and professional path of the applicant and of up to 3 scientific papers of the candidate’s choice.

The score of each candidate is obtained from the sums of the scores of each criterion multiplied by the weights according to the formulation:

C = CA*30% + CB*40% + CC*10% + CD*20%

After determining the final score C 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 is decisive.

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, the selection committee reserves the right to close the call without any recruitment. In the event that the selected person does not take up the position because of failure to comply with documentary requirements or any other reason or later, during the contract, if they resign the jury reserves the right, upon convenience and opportunity, to assign the post to the next applicant in accordance with the ranking positions based on the selectable reservation list that can be used up to 12 months of the date of the present announcement.

 

Application submission process and mandatory documents:

Applications must be complete and submitted through the CCMAR website 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) must include:

1. A Motivation Letter (in English), including a personal assessment of the relevance of the activities of the last five years for the present application, highlighting the chosen publications.
2. Detailed CV (in English) including the activities of the specific field and of the scientific and professional path of the applicant, organized according to the evaluation criteria CA to CD.
3. A copy of the Doctoral Degree Certificate.
4. E-mail contacts of up to 3 referees.
5. Up to a maximum of 3 scientific papers chosen by the candidate.

 

Non-compliance with this documents/information determines the immediate rejection of 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 the assessment of all applications the jury will write a provisional minute with the description of the admission process, assessment and selection, including the list of the ordered candidates and their classification and decision. All candidates will be notified by email of the provisional decision of the jury. In accordance with article 121 of the Portuguese Administrative Procedure Code, after being notified by electronic email all candidates have 10 working days, counted from the date of dispatch of the notification by electronic email, to contest the preliminary decision sending an email to the jury of the present call.  The final decision will be validated by the CCMAR board of Directors, and all candidates will be notified by electronic email within 90 working days counted of the application deadline.

Candidates holding degrees awarded by a foreign university should have their degree recognized by a Portuguese higher education institution by the time of contract signing. Non-compliance justifies exclusion from the procedure. Information about the recognition procedures can be obtained at any Portuguese university or here.

The board of Directors reserves the right, due to a change in circumstances at the date of the present announcement, to cancel the present call without any recruitment.

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 regard 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 27th  July 2023.

 

Project FAIR-EASE received funding from European Commission’s HORIZON EUROPE  INFRA programme under the grant agreement No 101058785