1. Opening of an international selection tender for a PhD position for the practice of research activities in the scientific area of Epidemiology and Ecology of Infectious Diseases, under a 36 months fixed-term public service work contract regime, in the scope of the project “Colossus: Control Of tubercuLOsiS at the wildlife/livestock interface uSing innovative natUre-based Solutions” (reference POCI-01-0145- FEDER-029783), funded by Programa Operacional de Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI), FEDER component, and Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa (Portugal).

2. The candidate will be responsible for carrying out scientific research in the area of epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases, with particular emphasis on the eco-epidemiology of animal tuberculosis and the application of advanced mathematical and computational tools to the development of predictive mathematical models of transmission at various scales, based on the incorporation of the molecular signature of clinical isolates.
   The candidate will also be responsible for participating in the organization of the various activities integrated in the above-referenced research project, including the planning and development of laboratory and fieldwork and the preparation and writing of scientific articles; participate in the dynamization of collaborations in the research area of the project; participate in activities of extension and dissemination of knowledge, as well as in the supervision of postgraduate and advanced training students.

3. The place of work is located at INIAV, IP- Pólo de Vairão (Vila do Conde), Portugal, with availability for frequent trips to INIAV headquarters located in Oeiras.

4. The candidates may be national, foreign and stateless holding a doctorate degree (PhD) in Biology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics or related scientific areas, and holders of a scientific and professional curriculum that shows an adequate profile appropriate to the activity to be developed, namely proven experience in epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases and transmission dynamics modeling. If a doctorate degree has been awarded by a foreign higher education institution, it must comply with the provisions of Decree-Law no. 341/2007, of 12th of October, and any formalities therein established must be fulfilled by the expiration of the deadline for the application.

5. Preference will be given to applicants with proven experience in mathematical modeling of transmission dynamics, population dynamics, nonlinear dynamics, application of quantitative methods, including deterministic models and / or stochastic processes, to the reconstruction of the demographic history of pathogens. Experience in phylogenetic analysis, as well as proficiency in R, Matlab, Python, C and / or Java programming will be valued.

6. In accordance with Article 13.º of the RJEC, the jury of the competition is composed as follows:
   President: Mónica Sofia Vieira Cunha
   Member: Rogério Paulo Andrade Tenreiro
   Member: Maria Gabriela Miranda Gomes
   Member: Liliana Monteiro Salvador

7. Jury operation rules
   7.1. The deliberations are held by roll call voting requiring the absolute majority of votes of the members of the jury present at the meeting, not permitting abstentions;
   7.2. The jury deliberates approval on absolute merit, based on the scientific area of the PhD diploma and based on the scientific merit of the overall curriculum of candidates with regards to the scientific area of the Competition and also taking into account, cumulatively, compliance with at least one of the following requisites:
   7.2.1. The applicant is the author or co-author of at least 3 articles in the scientific area that the Competition is open, indexed in the ISI Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science where document type = article or document type = review, or in the SCI Verse Scopus with the same characteristics; or
   7.2.2. The applicant is the author or co-author of articles in the scientific area that the Competition is open that sum up at least 15 citations; or
   7.2.3. The applicant have proven experience in at least 2 or more preferential factors (indicated in 9.);
   7.3. The decision of exclusion on absolute merit is notified to the candidates, by e-mail, for the purpose of holding the hearing of the interested parties.
   7.4. Once the absolute merit approval stage is reached, the jury will begin to evaluate the applications, taking into account the evaluation criteria of this announcement.

8. Pursuant to article 5 of the RJEC, the selection is made through the evaluation of the scientific and curricular career of the candidates, that focuses on the relevance, quality and timeliness of the candidate's professional experience in the last five years in the specialized scientific area for which the competition is open and in the evaluation of the suitability of the candidate's experience in the development of the mentioned project.

9. 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 the scientific activity for socially protected reasons, namely for reasons of parental leave, prolonged serious illness, and other situations of unavailability for work legally protected.

10. Evaluation criteria
    The Scientific and Curricular Pathway Assessment focuses on the relevance, quality and ttimeliness of:
    a) the scientific output of the last five years deemed more relevant by the applicant;
    b) Applied or practice-based research activities developed over the last five years and considered by the candidate as having the greatest impact;
    c) 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;

11. Scientific and curricular evaluation. This component of the assessment is expressed on a numerical scale from 0 to 20, taking into account the following criteria:

11.1. Criteria for the evaluation of the Scientific Production of the last five years considered more relevant by the candidate (with the weight of 50%);
a) Scientific publications (60%).
Quality and quantity of scientific production in the area for which the competition is open (books with ISBN, chapters in ISBN books, articles in indexed journals), expressed by the number and type of publications. Candidates must compile a list of the publications produced, together with the impact factor of each journal and the DOI. Particular emphasis will be given to articles with first or last authorship, published in the area of epidemiology and ecology of infectious diseases, namely based on the development of mathematical models of transmission and / or phylogeny of pathogens. For the purpose of qualitative evaluation, the candidate must provide copies of up to 5 articles that he/she considers most relevant.
b) Intervention in the scientific community and creation of scientific teams (40%).
The evaluation of the capacity of intervention in the scientific community is evaluated by:
(i) presentation of invited lectures; (ii) participation in academic juries; (iii) scientific review or editorial decision of manuscripts submitted to indexed international scientific journals; (iv) supervision and co-supervision of postdoctoral, doctoral, masters and undergraduate students.

11.2. Criteria for the evaluation of applied or practice-based research activities developed over the last five years and considered to have the greatest impact by the candidate (with a 40% weighting);
(i) Participation in R & D projects with competitive funding, provision of services to the technical-scientific community, and technology transfer. (ii) Development of new products, methods, algorithms, and / or patents. In this context, the activities developed using quantitative methods and mathematical modeling of pathogen transmission dynamics are especially valued; also valued is the expertise in stochastic processes, deterministic models, nonlinear dynamics and/or transmission models based on the incorporation of phylodynamics.

11.3. Criteria for the evaluation of the activities of extension and dissemination of knowledge developed in the last five years and considered of greater impact by the candidate (with a weighting of 10%);
(i) participation in science management activities and dissemination of knowledge, including the organization of conferences, symposia, seminars and scientific cooperation activities. (ii) Participation and promotion of Citizen Science initiatives / projects.

11.4. The score obtained in the method of evaluation of the scientific and curricular path is expressed in the numerical scale from 0 to 20 points, considering the valuation up to the hundredths.

11.5. The jury deliberates by means of a roll-call vote based on the evaluation criteria, and abstentions are not allowed.

11.6. The classification of each candidate is obtained by the average of the scores of each of the members of the jury. In the event of a tie, the decision of tie-breaker shall rest with the chairman (President) of the jury.

12. The evaluation process includes a professional selection interview (EPS) that is deemed necessary only to the applicants that achieve a classification in the Scientific and Curricular Evaluation of 15 or more, and which is intended for the clarification of aspects related to the elements contained in the curricula of the candidates, as well as the results of their investigation, in order to confirm the suitability of the candidate for the performance of the duties for which he/she is hired.
    12.1. The interview will last for 30 minutes.
    12.2. The evaluation of the interview is expressed on a numerical scale from 0 to 20, and should take into account the applicant's scientific knowledge, motivation, ability to innovate and communicate, as well as his or her career development prospects.
    12.3. The jury shall deliberate by means of a reasoned roll call, and no abstention shall be permitted.
    12.4. The ranking of each candidate is also obtained by the average of the scores of the members of the jury.

13. Ordination the candidates
    13.1. The final score of each candidate is obtained through a weighted average, with a weighting factor of 90% being assigned to the classification resulting from the Scientific and Curricular Evaluation and a weighting factor of 10% to the interview classification.

Please find the full job announcement and application procedure at:

http://www.eracareers.pt/opportunities/index.aspx?task=global&jobId=105705​