Notice of Opening - Grants for MAP-i PhD Scholarships

Notice of Opening

Grants for PhD Scholarships within the

Doctoral Programme FCT MAP-i in Computer Science

The PhD program MAP-i was selected in the competition for funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology, IP (FCT, IP), having been awarded 6 PhD scholarships per edition, for 4 years. Under that tender the Scientific Committee is tasked to select students who will benefit from the scholarships funded by FCT, IP. The grants will be awarded directly by FCT to the student.

Thus, under the Estatuto do Bolseiro de Investigação Cientifica, approved by Law no. 40/2004 of 18 August, in its current wording, and Regulamento de Bolsas da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Scientific Committee launches a tender for the selection of grantees to award individual grants to support the first year of studies of this doctoral programme in 2016/2017.

1. RECIPIENTS

Grant recipients need to meet the requirements of paragraph. 1 of Article 30. Decree-Law No. 74/2006, of 24 March, as amended by Decree-Law No. 107/2008, of June 25, and 230/2009 of 14 September. The duration of the scholarship is annual, renewable up to a maximum of four years. It can not be awarded for periods of less than six consecutive months. All applicants for these scholarships must have previously applied, or apply in the last phase of application for 2016/2017, for admission to the edition of the Doctoral Programme FCT MAP-i for the 2016/2017 school year. Applications to MAP-i follow the procedures detailed in http://www.map.edu.pt/i

Recipients are nationals or citizens of other member states of the European Union; Citizens of third States, holders of valid residence permit or beneficiaries of the status of long-term resident, pursuant to the Law n. o 23/2007 of July 4, amended by Law No. 29/2012, of August 9, Citizens of third states with which Portugal has entered into reciprocal agreements, or citizens of third states, which are considered selectable after an individual interview.

2. APPLICATION SCHEDULE

Applications are open between the 4th and the 20th of July, 2016

3. APPLICATIONS

Applications must be formalized through a letter of application addressed to the Director of the MAP-I programme, in which the candidate declares awareness and acceptance of the rules in the Regulamento de Bolsas de Investigação da FCT, IP, accompanied by the following documents: Curriculum Vitae duly signed and dated; certificate of qualification (photocopy) with explicit mention of final degree classification, corresponding percentile, and classifications per course; three recommendation letters; statement of purpose (motivation letter); and any other documents the candidate may consider relevant to the assessment of merit mentioned in the curriculum vitae.

Applications may be placed electronically simultaneously with the MAP-i application process, by following the instructions available at the programme’s website (http://www.map.edu.pt/i). Candidates wishing to apply for a grant after having applied for the programme (but still within the application deadline) may do so by sending their application letter addressed to the MAP-i programme’s director, to the email address pos.graduacao@fc.up.pt.

Since applying for a grant implies that the candidate is also applying for the MAP-i programme, and given the fact that the documents supporting both applications are the same, the documentation supporting the grant application will be obtained from the elements submitted in the MAP-i application process. Recommendation letters should be sent directly by their respective authors to the email address of the programme’s executive board, mapi@map.edu.pt.

Candidates can also explicitly express their interest for this grant application to be made available to other grant offers from research projects associated with the Doctoral Programme MAP-i, allowing documentation access to the researchers responsible for these research projects.

4. EVALUATION

The evaluation of applications is made by a jury appointed by the MAP-i Scientific Committee at its meeting on 1st of June, 2016, involving 12 professors of the Universidade do Minho, Universidade de Aveiro and Universidade do Porto, four per each University, coordinated by the MAP-i Director, Professor Jorge Miguel de Matos Sousa Pinto. The following 12 professors were appointed to this jury: João Álvaro Brandão Soares de Carvalho, José Manuel Esgalhado Valença, Jorge Miguel de Matos Sousa Pinto (coordinator), Orlando Manuel Oliveira Belo, Joaquim Arnaldo Martins, Maria Beatriz Alves de Sousa Santos, Valeri Skliarov, Paulo Jorge dos Santos Gonçalves Ferreira, António Beça Gonçalves Porto, Eugénio da Costa Oliveira, Fernando Manuel Augusto da Silva, Gabriel de Sousa Torcato David.

The jury will assess the merit and produce an ordered list of candidates based on the criteria described in the “Regulamento para Atribuição de Bolsas de Doutoramento no âmbito do Programa de Doutoral FCT MAP-I” available in the MAP-i official website (http://www.map.edu.pt/i).  The evaluation will have two components, distributed in two phases. The first phase is a document analysis, following the evaluation rules fixed in the “Regulamento para Atribuição de Bolsas de Doutoramento no âmbito do Programa de Doutoral FCT MAP-I”. Such rules classify each candidate from 1 (minimum) to 5 (maximum) in the following three criteria: i) merit of the candidate evaluated through his curriculum vitae (with weight 6), supported by documentary university records certifying the accomplished final classifications for both first and second cycle degrees, and any publications or other elements the candidate may consider relevant for curricular assessment; ii) merit of the candidate evaluated through analysis of three letters of recommendation (with weight 1); iii) merit of the candidate evaluated through a statement of purpose on his objectives and motivation (with weight 3). The second phase consists of an interview, in person or remotely, for the best 10 candidates who achieved a classification equal or above 3.5 in the first phase. The final grading will be the weighted average of the final classification in both phases (document analysis: 60%, and interview: 40%).

5. RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT

The results of the evaluation will be announced by email addressed the applicants, using the email address associated with the grant application, and made public in the MAP-i website.

In case of a negative decision on the requested scholarship, the applicant has a period of 10 days after disclosure, to be heard in a preliminary hearing, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Code. The following final decision made by the Scientific Committee, may be appealed within 15 working days after the respective announcement.

6. FUNDING

The grants awarded under this contract will be financed by funds from the Orçamento de Estado do Ministério da Educação e Ciência and, when adequate, by funds of the Fundo Social Europeu. Grants starting date cannot be before 1st of October, 2016.

All missing aspects from this Notice of Opening will follow the Regulamento de Bolsas de Investigação Cientifica da FCT, I.P available at : http://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento.phtml.pt