Notice Nr. 2916/2025/2

Summary: Open recruitment competition for an assistant research for an indefinite period of time in the disciplinary area of History - Profile 2023.11076.TENURE.204 - FCT Tenure (1st edition).

Luís Baptista, Dean of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCSH), through the powers granted him pursuant to Order No 181/2023(1)(b), of 19 December, hereby announces that an international call for applications is open for 15 working days from the day immediately following the publication of this notice in the Official Gazette (Diário da República), for the recruitment of a position for 1 Assistant Researcher in the form of an employment contract for an indefinite period of time at NOVA FCSH, in the subject area of History, with a relevant Curriculum Vitae in Contemporary History, under the FCT Tenure funding instrument and the funding line provided for in Article 137 of the 2024 State Budget for the hiring of PhD Holders in career positions, and takes into account the application submitted by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa to the FCT-Tenure 1st Edition Tender, corresponding to the position with reference 2023.11076.TENURE.204.

The opening of the application process was authorised by an order from the Rector of the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Professor João Sàágua, on January 24th, 2025, following a favourable opinion from the NOVA FCSH Scientific Council.

Once hired, the researcher will be made an integrated member of the Institute of Contemporary History Research Unit, and is expected to develop their research and teaching activities in accordance with the strategic objectives of the said Research Unit and the History Department of NOVA FCSH, contributing to the strengthening and development of the ‘Society and Politics’ and ‘Sustainable territories and environments’ strategic cohesion pillars of NOVA FCSH. 

1 – This is an international application process which is documental in nature and the hiring of the Assistant Researcher will be conducted under the scope of the Portuguese Labour Code, approved by Law No 7/2009, of 12 February, in its current wording, the Programme Contract for support for the development of R&D activities, entered into between FCT, I. P. and the NOVA and pursuant to the provisions of Article 28(4) of the Scientific Employment Regulations (REC), published in the Official Gazette (Diário da República) by Regulation No 607-A/2017, of 22 November, and Regulation No 393/2018, published in the Official Gazette (Diário da República) 2nd Series, No 123, of 28 June, regarding the careers, recruitment and employment contracts of researchers under employment contracts at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

2 – Description of the vacancy: 

2.1 - NOVA FCSH is looking to hire an Assistant Researcher in Empire and Global History: science, technology and labour. The candidate to be hired must demonstrate competences for the development of research within the chronological period from the 18th to the 21st centuries, which may cover all or only parts of this period. In particular, the chosen scientific profile must be able to consider links between the histories of technology, science, labour and the environment, combining the history of colonialism, capitalist development and economic globalisation. This approach implies paying particular attention to issues such as social forms of production, labour relations, technological conditions, infrastructure construction and environmental impacts.

2.2 - The contracted Researcher will form part of the Institute of Contemporary History Research Unit, participating in the following scientific research, dissemination of knowledge and teaching tasks:

a) To develop historical research in its relation with global history, situating the specific case of empires such as Portugal within a broader history of empires;

b) To explore the intersections between material history and the history of production, labour relations, technology and infrastructures;

c) To contribute to the research of the IHC, the IN2PAST Associated Laboratory and NOVA FCSH;

d) To actively seek out and apply for national and international funding opportunities;

e) To teach on various topics of international history, which may include the following: History of Empire and Colonialism; History of Science, Technology and the Environment; and Global History.

f) To contribute to the IHC's research agenda, in particular the critique of methodological nationalism and engagement with connected history.

g) Pursuant to the objective and general guidelines set out in the Call for Applications Notice – FCT Tenure - 1st Edition, it is assumed that the researcher to be hired will be allocated 4 hours per week to teaching, which will be specified in the distribution of the teaching service of this Faculty.

3 – Under the terms of Regulation No 393/2018, of 28 June, the contract to be entered into will have a base-level remuneration of 3.520,87 €, in accordance with level 54A of the 1st payment scale, under a full-time dedication regime.

4 – The recruitment of the researcher to be hired in the form of an employment contract for an indefinite period of time will take place under the terms of Regulation No 393/2018, of 28 June, namely with regard to the three-year trial period. Anything not provided for in this Notice shall be subject to the provisions of the aforementioned Regulations.

5 – The workplace is located at NOVA FCSH, located at Av. de Berna, 26C, 1060-061 Lisbon, at the Colégio Almada Negreiros – Campus de Campolide, 1099-032 Lisbon, and/or at other places necessary to undertake the researcher’s activities.

6 – National, foreign and stateless candidates may apply if they hold a Doctorate degree in the subject areas of History or, in addition, those who, although holding a Doctorate in a different area, have a relevant scientific curriculum in the areas of Contemporary History.

7 – The application may also be admitted pursuant to the terms of the provisions of Article 24(2)(j) of the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC), ex vi Article 9(2) of Regulation No 393/2018, of 28 June. 

8 – Each member of the Selection Panel will conduct a curricular assessment by submitting a written opinion, which will then be included in the minutes, in which they propose the ranking of the applicants based on the assessment criteria indicated in this notice, scoring each applicant on a numerical scale of 0 to 100 points. 

The selection of the researcher to be hired is conducted through assessment of the scientific and curricular background of the applicants in the selection process, taking as a reference the scientific area for which the call for applications has been opened.

9 – The assessment of the scientific and curricular background, considering the profile appropriate to the activity to be undertaken, focuses on relevance, quality and up datedness of the CV of the applicants in the following components:

I) Scientific Component (0-65 points)

a) the scientific production with international relevance (namely, books, articles in scientific journals, articles in indexed journals, chapters in books) considered most relevant by the candidate, and as the intrinsic quality of the respective content will be assessed, the applicant should select 3 publications (article or book chapter or book) that he/she considers to be the most representative of their career path, individually authored or co-authored as one of the main authors (0-25 points);

b) the research activities undertaken – namely, scientific projects that the applicant has coordinated or co-coordinated and which have been financed by public or private funds in an international competitive tender organised by national or international scientific agencies; individual scientific projects developed after the PhD and which have been financed by public funds in a competitive international tender organised by national or international scientific agencies; national and international scientific networks and consortia (0-15 points);

c) scientific supervision or co-supervision activities – namely, supervision of students in post-doctoral projects, in non-teaching components of doctoral and master’s degrees, as well as internships, including participation in juries for master’s and doctoral exams and evaluation of scientific projects or programmes (0-5 points);

d) Activities involving talks given at scientific congresses and colloquia and other relevant scientific activities with significant internationalisation (0-5 points).

e) scientific development project with pedagogical relevance, up to 4500 words (0-15 points).

II) Pedagogical Component (0-20 points):

f) teaching experience in the subject area of the call for applications, or in advanced technical/scientific training (0-8 points);

g) the presentation of programmes and lesson plans and other teaching materials for at least one course/seminar; and/or other teaching and training activities relevant to the subject area and field of the call for applications (0-12 points). 

III) Other relevant activities (0-15 points):

h) Activities involving outreach and the dissemination of knowledge undertaken, particularly in the context of promoting culture and scientific practices at the national and international level and valued for their impact and recognition among the scientific community and open science practices - particularly the organisation of courses, seminars and conferences (0-5 points);

i) activities involving the transference of knowledge to society, tasks for the economic and social valorisation of knowledge - particularly management and provision of services to the community, collaboration with external entities, participation in the formulation of public policies, science communication or citizen science projects, and participation in projects involving the community or with a social impact (0-5 points);

j) participation in management bodies and participation and performance in tasks assigned by management bodies of the institutions to which the applicants have been linked, including coordination of research groups in research units evaluated by scientific evaluation public agencies (0-3 points);

k) technical/scientific training and additional professional experience considered most relevant by the applicant (0-2 points).

10 – On the basis of the assessment of the Curricula Vitae, their suitability for the scientific area in which the call for applications has been opened, the other documents forming part of the recruitment process and the classifications awarded, in accordance with the criteria indicators and weightings set out above, the Selection Panel will admit the applicants with a final classification, in terms of absolute merit, equal to or greater than 70, or exclude them when they have a final classification of less than 70.

11 – The successful applicants will be ranked by voting by the members of the Selection Panel, respecting the ranking adopted in the opinion referred to in Point 8, as follows: 

a) The first vote is aimed at determining the candidate to be put in first place; 

b) In the vote referred to in the previous paragraph, if an applicant obtains more than half of the votes to take first place, that applicant will be ranked in that position; 

c) If the situation referred to in the previous paragraph does not occur, a new vote will be held, only between the applicants who obtained votes for 1st place, after the withdrawal of the applicant who received the least votes for that place in the previous vote; 

d) If there is more than one applicant to be withdrawn, by an equal number of votes, with a minimum of one vote each, a vote shall be taken only considering those applicants to determine the applicant to be removed from the next vote; in this vote, each member shall vote, from among the applicants with equal votes, for the applicant who occupies the lowest position in the ranking contained in their opinion; 

e) In the event of a tie, the tie-breaker is made either through a tie-breaking vote or the casting vote of the chairperson of the Selection Panel, pursuant to Article 19(3) of the ECIC; 

f) The vote is repeated until it is determined which candidate should be ranked first, using the procedure described above. If only two applicants remain and each of them receives half the votes, the tie-breaker shall be the casting vote of the chairperson of the Selection Panel; 

g) Once the first-place applicant has been chosen, that applicant is removed from the vote and the full process is repeated for the second-place applicant and so on until an ordered list of all the applicants is obtained. 

12 – The Selection Panel has the following composition:

Chairperson: 

Professor Luís Baptista, Dean of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, through the powers granted him. 

Members:

Doctor Zoltán Biedermann, Professor of History, University Colege London;

Doctor Harry G. West, Professor of Anthropology, University of Exeter;

Doctor Francisco Tristão de Bettencourt Conceição Rodrigues, Charles Boxer Professor, Department of History, King’s College London, Reino Unido;

Doctor Ana Cristina Fonseca Nogueira da Silva, Full professor, Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;

Doctor José Luís de Oliveira Garcia, Principal research, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa;

Doctor José Manuel Fraga Mapril Gonçalves, Associate Professor with tenur, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa;

Doctor Pedro Aires Ribeiro da Cunha Oliveira, Associate Professor, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

13 - The application form must be sent by email and must be accompanied by the following documentation in Portuguese or English:

1. Submission of the application form (available at 

https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/content/uploads/2020/02/Formul%C3%A1rio-de-Candidatura_Application-Form-Researcher.pdf) where the present procedure is explicitly mentioned;

b) A certificate attesting to a Doctorate degree in the subject area of the recruitment process;

1. Sworn statement in accordance with the appropriate form (available at

https://www.fcsh.unl.pt/faculdade/concursos_para_investigadores/), where the Doctorate degree has/have been awarded by a foreign higher education institution;

d) Copy of the applicant’s Curriculum Vitae, organized in accordance with the design indicated in Point 9 of this Notice;

e) A digital copy of the works mentioned in the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae, particularly those considered most representative for the purposes of point 9(a) of this Notice;

e) A sworn statement, that if the selection panel chooses to request any other documentation cited in the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae, it will be submitted within 10 working days;

g) Have a good knowledge of written and spoken Portuguese 

Applicants of foreign nationality, except those from Portuguese-speaking countries, must, when applying, submit a worn statement committing them to demonstrate, within one year of signing any contract, a level of knowledge of the Portuguese language (written and spoken) that will allow them to be assigned teaching duties, without any limitations on communicating in Portuguese with students;

h) Other documents that the applicant considers relevant for analysing their application.

14 – Applications should be accompanied, under penalty of exclusion, with the documents mentioned above and should be sent within 15 working days from the day following the publication of this Notice in the Official Gazette (Diário da República), to the email address drhrecrutamento@fcsh.unl.pt. The subject of the email should indicate the reference in the notice and the documents should preferably be in PDF format. 

15 – The Selection Panel has the right to ask any applicant, in case of doubt, to produce supporting documents for their statements. 

16 – False statements made by applicants will be punished pursuant to the law.

17 – If the PhD of the selected candidate has/have been conferred by a foreign higher education institution, its recognition must comply with the provisions of Decree-Law No 66/2018, of 16 August, and any formalities established therein must be fulfilled by the date of signing the contract. 

18 – The candidate ranked immediately after the first ranked candidate will be invited to the position under consideration, when the academic degree of that PhD holder is not recognised after the above-mentioned formalities have been completed.

19 – All Applicants will be notified of the final decision of the selection panel by email.

20 – The call for applications procedure can be consulted by candidates at the Human Resources Division of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa through email to the Chairperson of the Selection Panel: drhrecrutamento@fcsh.unl.pt.

21 – In fulfilment of Article 9(h) of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, the Public Administration, as an employer, actively promotes a policy of equal opportunities for access to employment and professional advancement, taking scrupulous care to avoid any form of discrimination. 

22 – Pursuant to the Personal Data Protection Act, the data collected as part of this call for applications will be processed exclusively for the purpose of processing the application.

January 25, 2025 — The Dean, Professor Luís Baptista