NOTICE OF OPENING OF AN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR THE RECRUITMENT OF A DOCTORATE UNDER THE ARTICLE 23 OF DECREE-LAW No. 57/2016, OF AUGUST 29, WITH THE AMENDMENTS INTRODUCED BY LAW 57/2017, OF 19 JULY AND COMPLEMENTARY LEGISLATION
Public Notice Number ARDITI-HOTMIC-001
1. At the meeting dated of 28/05/2021, the Board of Directors of the Regional Agency for the Development of Research Technology and Innovation (ARDITI) took a decision to open an international selection competition for one doctorate position, starting level, in the form of an employment contract under an unspecified fixed-term work contract under the “Código do Trabalho” (Labor Code), for the exercise of scientific research activities in the area(s) of Plankton Ecology, with emphasis on microplastics sampling, in order to develop activities within the scope of the project “MICROPLAST/0002/2018 – HOTMIC: Horizontal and vertical oceanic distribution, transport, and impact of microplastics”, namely:
• Participate in scientific cruises and missions for the study of microplastics pollution around Madeira Island;
• Coordinate and conduct sampling campaigns to collect microplastics and plankton in the sea surface and water column around Madeira Island;
• Assess correlation between microplastic contamination and other biotic and abiotic indicators;
• Contribute to the writing of scientific publications within the scope of the project.
The present call is opened under the project “MICROPLAST/0002/2018 – HOTMIC: Horizontal and vertical oceanic distribution, transport, and impact of microplastics”, financed by FCT.
2. Applicable law:
Decree-Law No. 57/2016, of August 29, the regulations for hiring doctorates to stimulate scientific and technological employment in all areas of knowledge (RJEC), with the amendments introduced by Law No. 57 / 2017, dated July 19, also taking into account the provisions of Regulatory Decree No. 11-A / 2017, of December 29, which establishes the remuneration levels in the doctoral hiring regime.
“Código do Trabalho” (Labor Code), approved by the Law No. 7/2009, of February 12, in its current wording.
3. In compliance with the provisions of article 13 of RJEC, the jury of the competition is composed as follows:
• President: João Canning-Clode (PhD), Principal Investigator and Coordinator of MARE-Madeira/ARDITI;
• Member: João Monteiro (PhD); MARE-Madeira/ARDITI;
• Member: Joana Raimundo (PhD), IPMA;
4. The place of work is located at ARDITI, in Edifício Madeira Tecnopolo, Piso 2, Caminho da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal, but without prejudice the fact that the provision of work may also take place in other facilities related to the activity of ARDITI or indicated by it.
5. The monthly remuneration to be awarded is 2.134,73 euros, corresponding to level 33 of the single remuneration table (TRU), approved by Ordinance No. 1553-C / 2008 of 31 December, in its current wording.
6.
6.1 Decree Law no. 57/2016, of August 29, in its current wording, which approved the regulations for hiring doctorates to stimulate scientific and technological employment in all areas of knowledge (RJEC), is an enabling norm for this international selection competition.
6.2 The opening of this competition is intended for the selection of a doctorate's researcher place for the exercise of Scientific Research activity under an unspecified fixed-term work contract under the “Código do Trabalho” (Labor Code) approved by Law No. 7 / 2009, of February 12, in its current wording, being the basis of contracting the execution of a service determined, precisely defined and non-durable.
6.3 The maximum term of the working contract is 18 (eighteen) months.
6.4 Termination of the financing, termination of the project or completion of the tasks that are the subject of this competition shall determine the expiration of the contract that will operate with the communication referred to in article 345 (1) of the “Código do Trabalho” (Labor Code), meaning that the employer shall notify the termination of the contract to the employee, at least seven, 30 or 60 days in advance, according to whether the contract lasted up to six months, six months to two years, or longer period."
7. The competition is open for national candidates, foreigners and stateless persons who hold a doctoral degree in a branch of knowledge or specialty that covers the scientific area of Marine Biology, Biological Sciences or related scientific area, as well as those to whom, under the terms of Decree-Law n No. 66/2018, of August 16, regulated by Administrative Rule no. 33/2019, of January 25, amended by Ordinance No. 43/2020, of 14 February, was recognized the totality of the rights inherent to the degree of “Doctor”, and are also holders of a scientific and professional curriculum that reveals an adequate profile to the activity to be developed.
8. Formalization of applications:
8.1 Applications must be sent by email to
The equivalence, recognition or registration of the “Doutor” degree should be obtained up to the last day of the tender opening period.
8.2 The application shall be accompanied by documents proving the conditions laid down in point 7 for admission to this invitation to tender, in particular
a) Motivation letter.
b) Copy of certificate or diploma;
c) Detailed curriculum vitae, structured in accordance with the items in point 14, indicating the works, and adding a copy of them, that the candidate considers most relevant to each of the items in point 14;
d) Other documents that the candidate considers relevant for the analysis of his / her application (e.g., relevant scientific publications).
8.3 Applicants submit the application and documents referred to in 8.1 and 8.2 in PDF format, up to the last day of the tender opening period, which is fixed at 10 working days after publication of this Notice. An applicant may, by reason of the impossibility or excessive costs of sending any of the documents referred to in 8.1 and 8.2 by e-mail, deliver them on physical support, respecting the above date, by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt to the address postal service “Edifício Madeira Tecnopolo, Piso 2, Caminho da Penteada, 9020-105 Funchal” or by hand at Administrative e Financial Department of ARDITI. Not being accepted the justification of the candidate for the delivery of documents only in physical format, the President of the Jury will give an additional period of 3 working days to present them also in digital support.
8.4 The application and documents may be submitted in Portuguese or English, although the President of the Jury, and when a member of the Jury is a non-native Portuguese speaker, may request that, within a reasonable time, the candidate translates into English a document previously presented in Portuguese.
9. By decision of the Chairman of the Board of ARDITI, candidates who do not comply with the provisions of point 8 are not admitted to the competition. Candidates who do not submit the application or who do not deliver all the documents referred to in points 8.2 (a) to (c) or who present them unreadable, incorrectly completed, or invalid are eliminated. The jury is also entitled to require any candidate, in case of doubt and for the purposes of admission to competition, to present documentary evidence of the declarations in the submitted documents.
10. Approval on absolute merit:
10.1 The Jury will deliberate on its approval or rejection on absolute merit, by a justified vote where no abstentions are admitted.
10.2 A candidate is considered approved on absolute merit when he/she obtains a favourable vote of more than half of the members of the jury.
10.3 Candidates who have a scientific and curricular path relevant to the scientific area(s) of the competition and taking into account their suitability for the additional weighting criteria identified in 14.5 will be approved on absolute merit.
10.4 The unfavourable vote to approval on absolute merit can still be justified by the failure to fulfil the following circumstance:
- Curriculum of the candidate is shown to be clearly insufficient and misaligned with the scientific area (s), suffering from serious inaccuracies or not supported by previous work of the candidate.
11. According to article 5 of RJEC, the selection is made through the evaluation of the scientific and curricular path of the candidates.
12. The evaluation of the scientific and curricular path focuses on relevance, quality and timeliness:
a) of the scientific, technological, academic, cultural or artistic production during the last five years and considered more relevant by the candidate;
b) of the applied or practice-based research activities developed over the last five years and considered as having the greatest impact by the candidate;
c) of the activities of extension and dissemination of knowledge developed during the last five years, in particular in the context of promoting the culture and scientific practices considered by the candidate to be of greater relevance;
d) of the activities of science, technology and innovation programs management or of the experience in observing and monitoring the scientific and technological system or higher education, in Portugal or abroad.
13. The period of five years referred to in the preceding paragraph may be increased by the jury, 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.
14. The selection of the doctorate to hire will be made by evaluating the scientific-pedagogical and curricular path of the candidates, focusing on the relevance, quality, timeliness and suitability of this path to the functions to be performed, considering the last 5 years of activity, according to the following evaluation criteria and weights:
- Experience in plankton and microplastic sampling in insular systems (20%)
- Experience in zooplankton experiments in mesocosms (20%)
- Familiarity with plankton biology, ecology and diversity in the region (20%)
- Participation in scientific expeditions and cruises (15%)
- Quality of scientific production considered more relevant by the candidate to the project to be developed (15%)
- Familiar with passive technologies for microplastic sampling in the water column (10%)
15. The jury may decide to select up to 3 candidates who will be called to hold a session presenting the results of their investigation, following which the jury members should stimulate an open debate on its content and innovative character. This presentation session does not constitute a selection method and is not classified, aiming merely to obtain explanations or clarifications of elements contained in the candidates' curricula.
16. The Jury, when it deems it necessary, may request the candidate to present additional documents proving the candidate's statements, which are relevant to the analysis and classification of his/her application.
17. Classification of candidates
17.1. Each member of the jury assigned a classification to each of the candidates in each evaluation criterion, on a scale of 0 to 100 points, ranking the candidates according to their classification consisting on the sum of the partial classifications assigned in each evaluation criterion, and taking into account the weighting factor given to each parameter.
17.2. Candidates shall be ordered by applying the successive voting method.
17.3. The jury decides by absolute majority, and abstentions are not allowed.
17.4. The final classification of each candidate is the one corresponding to his or her ranking resulting from the application of the method referred to in point 17.2.
18. Minutes of the jury meetings are drawn up, which contain a summary of what has taken place in them, as well as the votes cast by each of the members and their reasons, being available to the candidates whenever requested.
19. The false statements made by the candidates will be punished according to the law.
20. The list of admitted and excluded candidates as well as the final ranking list are posted on the premises of ARDITI as well as advertised on the website of ARDITI, and the applicants will be notified by email with receipt of delivery of the notification.
21. Prior Hearing and Deadline for Final Decision: After being notified, candidates have 10 working days to submit a formal rebuttal. Within the term of 90 days, counted from the deadline for the presentation of the candidacies, the final decisions of the jury are given.
22. The final decision of the jury is approved by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ARDITI, who is also responsible for signing the respective contract.
23. This tender is exclusively intended to fill the vacancy (s) indicated and may be terminated until the homologation of the final ranking list of candidates and expiring with the respective occupation of the working position on offer.
24. Non-discrimination and equal access policy: ARDITI actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, so that no candidate can be privileged, benefited, disadvantaged or deprived of any right or exemption from any duty owing, in particular, to ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, economic situation, education, social origin or condition, genetic heritage, reduced working capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs and trade union membership.
25. Under the terms of D.L. No. 29/2001, of February 3, adapted to the Autonomous Region of Madeira by Regional Legislative Decree no. 25/2001/M, of August 24, a disabled candidate has a preference when in equal classification, which prevails over any other legal preference. Candidates must declare on the application form their respective degree of disability, the type of disability and the means of communication/expression to be used in the selection process, under the terms of the aforementioned diploma.
28th of May 2021 - The Chairman of the Board of Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação, Tecnologia e Inovação (ARDITI) – Associação, Professor Doutor Rui Miguel Andrade Caldeira.
Official public notice of the announcement (in Portuguese) here: https://dre.pt/application/file/165950658