ANNOUNCEMENT FOR TWO (2) RESEARCH GRANTS IN THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT BLOCKDFAKE

APPLICATION opens from 14th till 27th of March/2025

Ref.ª BLOCKDFAKE-1: BI-BOLSA

Number of grants: 2

The Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica (ISR) – Universidade de Coimbra opens call for 2 (TWO) research grants (BI) for Master holders. In the scope of the Scientific Research Project n.º BLOCKDFAKE2024.07681.IACD, supported by the measure “RE-C05-i08.M04 – “Apoiar o lançamento de um programa de projetos de I&D orientado para o desenvolvimento e implementação de sistemas avançados de cibersegurança, inteligência artificial e ciência de dados na administração pública, bem como de um programa de capacitação científica”, within the financing contract between the Estrutura de Missão Recuperar Portugal (EMRP) and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P. (FCT), as intermediate beneficiary.

Scientific Area: Electrical and Computers Engineering, Informatics Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physics Engineering and Mathematics.

Application profile: Master’s in Electrical and Computers Engineering, Informatics Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physics Engineering, Mathematics or similar. The chosen applicant will integrate a multi-disciplinary team with the objective of developing a DeepFake Detector, resorting to Artificial Intelligence tools, that can be used to certify the content in the Portuguese Public Administration databases. The candidates must have skills in programming in C/C++ and/or Python and on Deep Learning applications (even if in the academic environment only) (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow). Knowledge in computer vision is preferable. 

NOTE: Candidates with foreign academic diplomas are obliged to present records of the equivalence/recognition of such diplomas and the conversion of the respective final notes to the Portuguese classification scale (whenever a final classification is attributed with the foreign diploma), issued by the Directorate-General for Higher Education or by a Portuguese public higher education establishment (regulated by Decree-Law no. 341/2007, of 12 October) or, in alternative, present the document of equivalence/recognition of such foreign qualifications to the corresponding Portuguese qualifications, issued by a Portuguese public higher education establishment (regulated by Decree-Law no. 283/83, of 21 June).

Project: This grant is supported by the Project n.º BLOCKDFAKE2024.07681.IACD, supported by the measure “RE-C05-i08.M04 – “Apoiar o lançamento de um programa de projetos de I&D orientado para o desenvolvimento e implementação de sistemas avançados de cibersegurança, inteligência artificial e ciência de dados na administração pública, bem como de um programa de capacitação científica”, within the financing contract between the Estrutura de Missão Recuperar Portugal (EMRP) and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P. (FCT), as intermediate beneficiary.

Work plan: The selected candidates will work in two research lines. The first research line is dedicated to the design and implementation of methodologies to detect manipulated video content, particularly, but not exclusively, related to the generation of fake content, usually known as DeepFake content. The methodologies to study and develop shall search for fake content using visual and nonvisual cues. The second research line is dedicated to the introduction of a hidden signature on the images using watermarking or steganography so that the visual content remains signaled as original, thus creating a way to easily detect manipulated content in the databases. Both research lines will work on the implementation of a Proof-of-Concept of the system be developing an Information System for demonstration.

The work plan for Research Line 1 then comprises the following tasks:

1. Literature review
2. Design of the Information System for the Proof-of-Content (in conjunction with Research Line 2)
3. Study of the algorithms created in the Lab for DeepFake content detection
4. Study and Design of a new algorithm for deepfake detection
5. Exhaustive tests to improve the methods accuracy
6. Integration of the algorithms in the security measures developed in the Research Line 2
7. Demo construction and PoC building (in conjunction with Research Line 2)
8. Documentation and Report writing

The work plan for Research Line 2 then comprises the following tasks:

1. Literature review
2. Design of the Information System for the Proof-of-Content (in conjunction with Research Line 1)
3. Study of the algorithms created in the Lab for watermarking and steganography
4. Study and Design of a new algorithm for watermarking/steganography of videos
5. Exhaustive tests to improve the methods accuracy
6. Integration of the algorithms with the deepfake detection methods developed in the Research Line 1
7. Demo construction and PoC building (in conjunction with Research Line 1)
8. Documentation and Report writing

Regime: The attribution of the grants does not generate or entitle a relation of a legal-labour nature, it is undertaken in an exclusive dedication regime and the fellow is granted with the Fellow Statute of the Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica – Universidade de Coimbra, according to Research Grant Statute or the Regulation of Research Grants of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., both in its actual wording.

Location: The Works will take place at the Instituto de Sistemas e Robótica – Universidade de Coimbra.

Duration: The Grant have a duration of 9 months, possibly renewable until the end of the project, depending on the merit evaluation. The beginning of the Grant is expected for April of 2025.

Scientific orientation: Researcher Guilherme Schardong (PI) and Professor Nuno Gonçalves.

Finantial conditions: The amount of the Grant is 1.309,64€ corresponding to the monthly compensation stipulated in the FCT table (https://www.fct.pt/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Tabela_valores_SMM_2025.p…), plus social security (Seguro Social Voluntário, first level contributions), if the candidate opt for it, and personal accidents insurance. The payment will be made by check or bank transfer. This amount will not be increased during the entire period of the grant duration.

Selection method: Curricular evaluation (50%), and interview (50%) to the best applications at the Curricular Evaluation phase. 

Selection and attribution criteria: 

In the curricular evaluation (50%) will be considered the following criteria: global merit of the curriculum vitae (30%) and adequation of the candidate to the project (70%). 

In the interview (50%) for the best 2 candidates of the Curricular Evaluation it will be evaluated the motivation degree and the commitment for the task to develop.

The candidates with a final evaluation of 3.5, or lower, in the scale of 5 values will be excluded. The jury reserve the right to don’t attribute the Grant in the case of no candidate has the required profile.

Jury: President: Doutor Guilherme Schardong. Vogals: Professor Doutor Nuno Miguel Mendonça da Silva Gonçalves and Doutor João Sena Marcos.

Publication of the results: The evaluation results will be announced within 90 days after the end of the applications submission deadline, by notifying the applicants via email. After the announcement of the results, candidates are considered automatically notified to, if they wish to do so, comment on the results on a preliminary hearing period within 10 days after that date. After this, the selected candidates will have to declare in writing their acceptance. Unless a justification worthy of consideration is presented, if the declaration is not submitted within the referred period, it is considered that the candidate waivers the grant. In case of resignation or withdrawal of the selected candidate, the next candidate with the highest evaluation score will be notified immediately.

Application submission: The applications shall be sent by email to guilherme.schardong@isr.uc.pt, nunogon@deec.uc.pt, and joao.marcos@isr.uc.pt specifying in the subject: BLOCKDFAKE-1. The application must include the following documentation: CV, habilitation certificate including the final scores obtained in the undergraduate subjects and a motivation letter.

Submission of applications: The application process is open from 14th till 27th of March/2025.