A call for applications is now open for the attribution of 1 (one) Research Fellowship for Master Enrolled in a Non-Academic Degree Course within the scope of the R&D project “A Transdisciplinary Approach to the identification of Personalized Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets for Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis”, with the reference LCHR17 – 00634, financed exclusively by “Fundação la Caixa”, under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Health Sciences.

Recipient category: Masters in the areas of Health Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biology, Biochemistry, or related areas and enrolled in a Non-Academic Degree Course integrated in the educational project of the institution (UMinho) developed in association or cooperation with one or several R&D units.

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, according to the type of the fellowship, issued by the academic services of the Higher Education Institution, indicating, respectively, the academic year or its duration (star and term);

- Enrollment in non-certified courses (without curricular units) will not be considered as proof of enrollment.

Candidates profile:

a) Mandatory requirement:

- Masters in the areas of Health Sciences, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Biology, Biochemistry, or related areas.

b) Not benefited from a non-conferring degree research grant for a cumulative period of 2 years followed or interpolated.

c) Contracting requirements:

- Enrollment in a Non-Academic Degree Course integrated in the educational project of the institution (UMinho) developed in association or cooperation with one or several R&D units;

- Proof of academic qualifications completed at the deadline for applications, including those resulting from academic degree recognition processes.

d) Preferential factors:

- Knowledge acquired during the academic formation to develop the work plan, including laboratory techniques in: cell culture and in vitro infection models, functional genomics analyses in response to infection, flow cytometry and fluorescence and confocal microscopy, and techniques of molecular biology (e.g. RT-PCR, Western blotting);

- Fluent English language.

Applicants eligibility: Applicants must comply with the eligibility conditions laid down in article 9 of the Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho.

Workplan and objectives to be achieved: aims to develop and consolidate the scientific training of the scholarship holder, through involvement in research work, carrying out the following R&D activities:

- The project focus on translational research with the goal of understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie the development and phenotype of invasive fungal infection in patients at-risk;

- The work plan includes: (i) assessment of antifungal effector functions of immune cells by resorting to in vitro models of infection and (ii) the identification and decoding of human genetic variants involved in antifungal mechanisms and their assessment as genetic markers for the risk of fungal infection;

- The following indicators are identified: 1 - Development of the above-mentioned tasks with success and with safety; 2- Detection of less than 10% of technical flaws in the development of the indicated tasks.

Applicable legislation and regulations: Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho, published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021.

Host/Contracting institution and scientific supervision: The workplan will be carried out in the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), of the School of Medicine (EM) of University of Minho, located in the Campus de Gualtar, under the scientific supervision of the Doctor Agostinho Carvalho.

Fellowship duration: The grant will take place for a period of 8 months, with a provisional starting date on January of 2023. The fellowship grant may eventually be renewed, after a positive evaluation, not exceeding the maximum duration of the project that is expected to end on 09-14-2023 and the maximum duration of the scholarship:

- 1 year: graduates or masters enrolled in non-conferring courses that do not award an academic degree (the total duration of the scholarship cannot exceed an accumulated period of 2 years, consecutive or interpolated; resuming, a fellow cannot accumulate more than 2 years in this typology of research fellowship).

Amount of the research grant: The value stipend (Monthly Maintenance Allowance) is 1.144,64 euros per month, in accordance with the stipends values published by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT I.P.) in the country (Annex I – Monthly Stipends Values for the maintenance allowances of the FCT Regulation for Research Studentships and Fellowships) and Annex II of the Regulation of Scientific Research Fellowships of the University of Minho, published in “Diário da República”, 2nd serie, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021, according to the applicable regulation.

Payment is made on the 23rd of each month, through bank transfer to the Bank Identification Number of the fellow identified in the contractualization process.

Other benefits: Reimbursement of Voluntary Social Security (Social Security contributions), corresponding to the 1st level of discounts (for research grants with a total duration 6 months or higher) 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.

Selection panel:

President:

– Doctor Agostinho Albérico Rodrigues de Carvalho, Principal Researcher of ICVS, of School of Medicine, of University of UMinho.

Effective Members:

– Doctor Cristina Amorim Cunha, Assistant Researcher, of ICVS, of School of Medicine, of University of UMinho;

– Doctor Fernando José dos Santos Rodrigues, Associate Professor with Habilitation, of School of Medicine, of University of UMinho.

Substitute Members:

– Doctor Ricardo Jorge Leal Silvestre, Principal Researcher, of ICVS, of School of Medicine, of University of UMinho;

– Doctor Egídio Manuel Pires Torrado, Assistant Researcher, of ICVS, of School of Medicine, of University of UMinho.

The first effective member will substitute the President of the selection panel in case of impediment, being nominate.

Criteria and procedures for applications assessment and selection: The applications assessment will focus on the candidate's Merit, following evaluation criteria, valued on a scale of 0 to 5 values:

Applicant Merit - AM (100%):

AP) Academic path (considering the classifications of academic degrees), with a weighting of 40%;

PC) Personal curriculum (considering professional and scientific background), with a weighting of 60%;

The final classification of the applicant’s merit with the achieved through the following formula:

AM=(AP*0,4)+(PC*0,4).

Candidates who obtain a score below 2.5 in the AM will be excluded from the present tender procedure.

The final classification (FC) will be obtained by applying the following formula:

FC=AM.

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.

Note: 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 grade of the graduation and/or master course. Candidates will be evaluated on the remaining parameters.

Disclosure of results: The provisional results of applications, based in the selection panel minutes, will be send to the applicants by email, according to article 12 of the RBI of FCT (funding FCT) to article 13 of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho of UMinho (other funding subject to the UMinho regulation).

If case of unfavourable results, the candidates have a period of 10 working days to comment, if desired, in a prior hearing to interested parties, pursuant to articles 121 and 122 of the Code of Administrative Procedure (DL no. 4 / 2015 of January 7th).

The hearing of the interested parties, if excluded, should be justified accordingly with article 124º of CPA.

Complaint and appeal procedures: The final results of the evaluation will be published through an ordered list (alphabetically, by final grade obtained), posted in a visible and public place of the host unit, as well as by email to all applicants, enclosing for that purpose, the minutes of the jury deliberations.

The selected candidate must inform its willingness to accept the grant, in writing. In case of rejection, the fellowship will be awarded to the next candidate in the ordered list of applicants.

There may be a complaint against the final decision, under the terms of paragraph 3 of article 13 of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho.

Application deadline and submission: The call for applications is open from 21th November till 05th December 2022.

Applications must be formalized by sending an application letter with the following documents:

- curriculum vitae (preferably https://cienciavitae.pt/);

- qualifications certificate (master) indicating the final grade obtained and, if possible, the grades obtained in the curricular units or declaration of the applicant;

- motivation letter;

- reference letter;

- statement proving that meets the conditions for the grant typology, according to the application requirements (namely the requirements of subparagraph b) and c) of the point “Candidates profile”).

Applications must be sent by email to (icvs.rh@med.uminho.pt), indicating the reference of the call for applications [ICVS_BI_2022_028(1)] in Subject. Applications submitted by other means will not be accepted.

Fellowship contractualization: The fellowship will be attributed by signing a fellowship contract between the University of Minho and the fellow, accordingly with the contract minute (annex IV of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho, published in Diário da República, 2nd Série, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021, as indicated in 2.4 of the document: “Rules for Granting and Management of Grants within the scope of R&D projects, including infrastructure projects, the multi-annual financing program for R&D units and other FCT financing instruments (Version 2021)”.

The contract may only be concluded after all the documentation required is collected, which must take place within a maximum period of 6 months [including evidences of the academic degrees or diplomas and enrolment in degree courses or non-conferring courses, depending on the type of scholarship].

Once all the documentation has been received, the contracting entity has a period of 15 working days to conclude the scholarship contract, according to paragraph 2 of article 15 of the Regulation of Research Fellowships of the University of Minho. Once received, the fellow must return the contract duly signed within 15 working days.

The activities under the fellowship contract can only began after proper authorization by the contracting entity.

Term and cancellation of fellowship contracts: Without prejudice to the other causes provided the fellowship regulations (UMinho) and in the Statute of the Research Fellow, the fellowship ends with the completion of the work plan, as well as with the expiration date for which it was granted or renewed.

At the end of the fellowship, the grantee is obliged to present a Final Report of the work carried out, in accordance with the objectives and evaluation criteria defined with the scientific advisor, within 30 days after the end of the scholarship.

The final report must be prepared in accordance with Annex I of the Scientific Research Fellowships Regulation of the University of Minho, published in Diário da República, 2nd Série, no. 119, through dispatch no. 6524/2020 of 22-06-2020, ratified by ratification declaration no. 447/2021 of 22-06-2021.