Requirements for admission
These scholarships are intended for individuals who meet the requirements set forth in number 1 of Article 30, paragraph 1, of Decree Law no. 74/2006, of March 24, as amended by Decree-Law No. 115/2013 of August 7, and by Decree-Law No. 107/2008, of June 25, Decree-Law No. 230/2009 of September 14 andDecree-Law-Lei No. 63/2016, of September 13. These scholarships are one year in duration, renewable for up to a total of four years and not of less than six consecutive months.
The basic requirement for admission in the doctoral programme is holding, at the date of the application, a nationally recognized civil engineering Master’s degree or a Master’s degree in related areas, such as environmental engineering, mechanical engineering or architecture (with 300 ECTS or more).
The DB holds the right to evaluate the equivalency processes correspondent to a substantial part of the academic degree required for the application.
The academic degrees not awarded by Portuguese Universities will only be accepted if recognize by the Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior or a Portuguese Public Higher Education Institution, according to the requirements set by the applicable laws concerning the recognition of qualifications obtained abroad, namely in Decree-Law No. 341/2007, of October 12, and Decree-Law No. 66/2018, of August 16.
Candidates who have already held, for the same purpose, scholarships of the same type of those of this call are not eligible, if those scholarships have been funded directly by FCT.
In the determination of the score, the following procedure must be followed:
- In the case of a 5-year Bachelor Degree, not awarding a Master degree, or of a Integrated Master degree with a single score, the final score is considered;
- In the case of two-stage Master degrees or Integrated Master degrees with classification in both cycles, the score of the 1st cycle is weighted by the number of years of that cycle and the score of the 2nd cycle is weighted by the number of years of that cycle (with as much precision as the diplomas allow).
In addition, the minimum score obtained by the candidates in the degrees mentioned in the previous paragraphs (determined as stated there) must be 70% of the maximum score in the national scale of the candidates. If requested, candidates must demonstrate that their degree is equivalent to the degree required for the application, and provide official recognition documents translated/written in English. Since English is the official language of the doctoral programme, a minimum fluency in English communication is required. Students from non-English speaking countries should preferentially have one of the following certificates: TOEFL certificate paper based (minimum score 500), TOEFL certificate internet based (minimum score 61), IELTS certificate (academic version, minimum score 6.0) or other recognized English language certificate.
The candidates must agree to enrol in the Doctoral Programme and remain engaged in the programme for a minimum period of 3 years.
The following individuals may apply to this program:
- Portuguese citizens, or citizens of other European Union member states;
- Citizens of other countries who hold permanent residence permits in Portugal or who hold the status of long-term resident, under the terms of Law 23/2007 of July 4, amended by Law no. 29/2012 of August 9;
- Citizens of other countries with whom Portugal holds reciprocity agreements;
- Citizens of other countries, through a preliminary personal interview.
Period of applications
The call (EcoCoRe Call Notice) is open between October 28 and November 15, 2019 at 17:00 GMT.
Application process
Applications are submitted through the IST doctoral programs online platform. The application must include the following components:
- Application form (available at the online platform);
- Copy of ID document / passport and tax card (if applicable);
- General curriculum vitae. It is mandatory to use this CV model;
- Academic curriculum vitae – certified transcripts showing all academic degrees awarded, with final grade;
- The official certificate of the university degree(s) (if applicable, in English);
- Statement of purpose, describing the interest of the candidate in the domains of the PhD programme, personal aims and research topics of interest;
- Reference letters – the contact details (name, institution and e-mail) of at least two references should be supplied.
Candidates must agree to enroll in the Doctoral Programme and remain engaged in the programme for a minimum period of 3 years.
Selection criteria
The selection and ranking of the students will be done in compliance with Decree-Law 32/91. The recruitment procedure will be fully transparent and compliant with the European Charter for Researchers recommendations.
The candidates will be chosen on the basis of merit alone as demonstrated in their applications and the proximity of their education to the PhD programme’s scope. During the selection process, equity between gender, age, religion, social status and any other criteria will be pursued.
The selection of the candidates will be based on an objective evaluation of the following specific criteria and weights:
- Academic achievements (final classification and main area of the previous degree(s), as well as the school in which it(they) was(were) obtained, considered based on their reputation, if possible/available based on an official ranking); preference will be given to candidates with a Civil Engineering background) – 50%;
- Relevant scientific activities (e.g. participation in research projects, authorship of journal and conference papers, patents, among others) – 20%;
- Relevant professional experience (related with the PhD programme’s scope) – 15%;
- Motivation (based on the interview, statement of purpose and reference letters) – 15%.
The selection process will be carried out by the Evaluation Committee (EC, see constitution in section 6.1) of the PhD programme. The EC will meet right after the deadline for applications to carry out the selection of candidates. The EC members will use an identical evaluation grid and the average of the marks given by each member to each candidate will be used to define a provisional ranking.
Three months before the beginning of the PhD programme, the EC will interview (if necessary, by video-conference) the candidates with the biggest potential to be accepted in the PhD programme, thereby defining the final ranking.
Two months before the beginning of the PhD programme, the EC will prepare a selection list and a reserve list, so that the academic year is fully planned before it actually starts.
All the relevant information concerning available positions and scholarships, the selection and ranking criteria, as well as the results of the selection process, will be provided in the PhD programme webpage.
Evaluation
The evaluation of proposals is carried out in two phases, by assessing the merit of each candidate and producing a ranked list of candidates.
First phase - The DB will analyse and evaluate the applications, and the candidates selection will be based on an objective evaluation of the following specific criteria and weights:
- Academic achievements (final classification and main area of the previous degree(s), as well as the school in which it(they) was(were) obtained; preference will be given to candidates with a Civil Engineering background) – 50%;
- Relevant scientific activities (e.g. participation in research projects, authorship of journal and conference papers, patents, among others) – 20%;
- Relevant professional experience (related with the programme’s scope) – 15%;
- Motivation (based on the interview, statement of purpose and reference letters) – 15%.
Second phase - The highest ranked candidates in the first phase will be individually interviewed by the DB (live or via video conferencing) in order to assess their knowledge, specific technical skills, motivation and communication skills in English and thereby defining the final ranking.
The number of selected candidates may be less than the number of scholarships available, depending on their overall merit.
Publication of results
The results of the selection process will be communicated via email to all candidates, and the list of approved applicants will be available at http://ecr.tecnico.ulisboa.pt. In the case of an unfavourable award decision (i.e. for applicants not selected to receive scholarships), the applicant has a period of 10 days after disclosure, to be heard by the DB, by request of a preliminary hearing, pursuant to the Portuguese Código do Procedimento Administrativo. The final decision may be appealed to the DB of the doctoral program, within 15 days after the respective notification.
Selection of the dissertation topics
The selected candidates will then have access to a list of dissertation topics, associated to supervisors and co-supervisors of the various Participating institutions. Each candidate will prepare a ranked list of three of these topics, according to his/her preference. The award of the topic will be made following this ranking. Topics with more than one candidate will be awarded to the candidate with the best ranking after the second phase. The award of the topics may be conditioned to limit the concentration of topics in any of the Participant institutions or supervisor member of these institutions.
Financing
The scholarships awarded under this contract will be financed by funds from the State Budget of the Ministry of Education and Science and, when eligible, by funds from the European Social Fund through the Human Potential Operating Program of the Portuguese NSRF 2007-2013, in accordance with the provisions of the Specific Regulation of Intervention Typology 4.1. Selected candidates must fulfill the FCT form (formularioPT).
Any cases not addressed in the present call are covered by the Regulations for Research Scholarships of FCT, available at https://www.fct.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento2012.phtml.en.