2 (two) Research Fellowships (BI) for Master Students

2 Research Fellowship(s) (BI) is(are) open at the FCiências.ID – Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, for the project/R&D institution “hey, Hal, curb your hallucination! / Enhancing AI chatbots with enhanced RAG solutions”, “2024.07592.IACDC”, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. through national funds under the Program in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Cybersecurity of relevance to Public Administration, under the following conditions:

1. Scientific Area: Artificial Intelligence
    
2. Admission requirements: 
   a) Bachelor degree in Informatics Engineering - information available in the CV;
   b) Background and vocation for the design and development of large language models based on deep learning and capable of multimodal processing - information available in the cv and motivation letter;
   c) Mastery of the Portuguese language (spoken and written), in the European variant, at level C2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, certified with respective diploma, or as a mother tongue, since it is a project that aims to develop conversational agents in Portuguese, European variant, and it is essential that the candidate is able to evaluate their performance - information made available in the CV.
    
3. Additional optional skills and qualifications: Recent approval or frequency of Curricular Unit of Interaction in Natural Language or Natural Language Technology with a very strong exposure and learning of large language models for the Portuguese language.
    
4. Contracting requirements: Presentation of the academic qualifications and/or diplomas. Enrolment in  MSc in Cognitive Science.
    
5. Work plan: 
   1) With the maximum level of autonomy and capacity framed in this research grant, cutting-edge research on Artificial Intelligence applied to Language Technology for conversational agents in view of multimodal information processing including the development of neural models for language and image using deep learning technology, with particular focus on the Portuguese language;
   2) Preparation and participation in project meetings and subsequent actions;
   3) Preparation of articles and publication of results;
   4) Participation in the dissemination activities of the project.
    The work plan is included in Activity 2.1 (Development of Foundation Neural Language Models) of the project Accelerat.ai: Multilingual Intelligent Contact Centers.
    
6. Legislation framework: Research Fellowship Holder Statute, in accordance with Law 40/2004, of 18 August, in its current version and the FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships, in its current version  (Reg. 950/2019 published in DR on 16th  December: https://dre.pt/application/file/a/127230968,  or at the FCT website: https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento.phtml.pt), and FCiências.ID Fellowship Regulation, as approved on 12th May 2020 (available at Regulamento de Bolsas de Investigação Científica da FCiências.ID).
    
7. Place of work: The work will be developed at the NLX – Natural Language and Speech Research Group, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon under the scientific supervision of Professor António Branco.
    
8. Fellowship duration: This position is initially opened for 6 months due to start in May 2025. The fellowship contract may be potentially renewed for until the end of the project , in accordance with the provisions of Regulation of Research Fellowships from the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. 
    
9. Monthly allowance: The fellowship amounts to €1040,98, according to table values of the fellowships awarded directly by the FCT, IP. The fellowship holder will have a personal accident insurance and can ensure the right to social security through adherence to the voluntary social insurance scheme, if not covered by any other social protection scheme, pursuant to Código dos Regimes Contributivos do Sistema Previdencial de Segurança Social.
   The fellowship will be paid monthly by bank transfer. 
    
10. Evaluation and selection process: Candidates will be assessed by 
    1. Failure to satisfy the Admission Requirements constitutes sufficient reason for non-admission of candidates on absolute merit.
    2. The final grading system for candidates shall be expressed on a scale of 0 to 100%.
    3. The following are evaluation criteria on the merits:
    a) Classification in the bachelor's degree - 25%
    b) Previous education with curricular units related to the area of Language Technology- 25%;
    c) Alignment of the motivation letter with the work plan - 25%;
    d) Mastery of the working language - 25%;
    e) Interview, if deemed necessary by the jury. If there is an interview, the sum of the classification obtained in the evaluation criteria a) to d) will correspond to 90% of the final classification and the interview will correspond to 10%. 
    4. The jury reserves the right not to award the fellowship if the profile of the candidates is not suitable.
    Applicants whose application is scored with a final classification of less than 80 points are not eligible for granting a fellowship.
     
11. Selection Committee: 
    President - António Manuel Horta Branco;
    1st effective member - Luís Manuel dos Santos Gomes;
    2nd effective member - João Ricardo Martins Ferreira da Silva;
    1st alternate member - Carlos Alberto Pacheco Dos Anjos Duarte;
    2nd alternate member- Ana Paula Pereira Afonso.
     
12. Publication/notification of results: All the candidates will be notified by e-mail, sent by the call holder, with the selection meeting minutes enclosed.
     
13. Deadlines: This call for applications is open from 16/04/2025 to 02/05/2025.
     
14. Application: Applications should be sent via e-mail to bolsas@gmx.com, by attaching the following documents: 
    a) Curriculum vitae;
    b) Certificate of completion of previous degree Note 1, 2;
    c) Motivation letter;
    d) Other documents considered relevant.
     
15. Processing of personal data: FCiências.ID – Associação para a Investigação e Desenvolvimento de Ciências, as the controller under the General Data Protection Regulation, collects and processes the personal data requested in the context indicated in paragraph 14., under the legitimate interests in ensuring the award of the research fellowship to candidates with the indicated profile.
    The personal data will be kept for the period necessary for the execution of the purposes for which they are intended, being ensured the processing and protection in an appropriate and diligent way, the confidentiality and integrity of these data, through appropriate technical and organizational measures.
    Personal data may be transmitted to third parties, namely the entity funding the research project, solely for the purposes specifically established. In this sense, whenever the transfer of personal data to countries outside the European Union and/or international organizations is necessary, compliance with the applicable legal provisions is ensured.
    You have the right to request access, rectification, elimination, limitation of processing, the right to object and also data portability (if technically feasible), through the e-mail address: dpo@fciencias-id.pt. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the National Data Protection Commission. 
    For more information, we recommend consulting the Internal Rules of Data Protection of FCiências.ID - Association for Research and Development of Sciences at https://fciencias-id.pt/.
     
16. Time limits for the appeal procedure: In case of negative decision, the candidates have 10 business days, after the date of announcement of the results of the candidates’ evaluation, to pronounce their disagreement in accordance with the Código do Procedimento Administrativo. Appeals against the final decision may be submitted to the Administration Board of FCiências.ID (fciencias.id@fciencias-id.pt) within 15 business days after the notification date.

Note 1: The documents that prove the entitlement of the academic qualifications and diplomas can be dismissed during the application period and replaced by a declaration on their honour from the applicant (Minuta PT, Minute EN). Their delivery is mandatory for the fellowship contractualization.

Note 2: Please note that - higher education degrees and diplomas awarded by foreign higher education institutions  need to be recognized by a Portuguese higher education institution, pursuant to the Decree-Law nr. 66/2018 (August 16) and the Ministerial Order nr. 33/2019 (January 25). The presentation of the recognition certificate is mandatory for contract signature. More information can be obtained at: https://www.dges.gov.pt/en/pagina/degree-and-diploma-recognition.