Josh's Water Jobs – FEUP - Research Initiation Grant

Offer Description

1 Research Initiation Grant (M/F)

Call open for applications for a Research Initiation Grant within the framework of project SWMOF – A smart process for water harvesting from air and water distribution based on eco-friendly MOFs, with the reference: Water4All/0003/2022 financed by Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P through national funds, under the Water4All partnership, under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Chemical Engineering

Admission requirements:

To be a student enrolled in a higher technical professional course, a bachelor’s degree, in an integrated master’s degree or in a master’s degree, in the area of Chemical Engineering or related areas, a requirement to be duly proven at the time of signing the contract.

To be holder of an academic degree (bachelor’s degree) enrolled in a non-academic degree course integrated in the educational project of a higher education institution, developed in association or cooperation with one or more R&D units, a requirement to be duly proven at the time of signing the contract.

If the degree has been awarded by a foreign higher education institution, it must comply with the provisions of the Decree-Law no. 66/2018, of august 16th, and any formalities established there must be fulfilled until the time of signing the contract.

In accordance with article 5º of the Regulation of Research Grants of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P.:

the scholarship can only be awarded to those who do not exceed, with this scholarship contract, including possible renewals, an accumulated period of one year in that typology of scholarship, followed or interpolated.
The grant cannot be awarded to anyone who has already benefited from research grants directly or indirectly funded by FCT, awarded under the terms of Research Grant Holder Status

Activity Outline: 3D printing of structured hybrid adsorbents for water harvesting. Fixed-bed column experiments for water capture via Electric Swing Adsorption (ESA), using the hybrid MOF based materials as adsorbent. And numerical simulation of the fixed-bed column experiments.

Legislation and regulations: Law Nº. 40/2004, of 18th August, in its current wording (Statutes of Scientific Research Fellow) and Regulation of Research Grants of Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, in force and Regulation of Research Grants of University of Porto, in force.

Work place: The work will be developed at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), under the scientific supervision of Professor Alexandre Ferreira.

Grant duration: Initial duration of 3 months, with the predicted starting date in May 2026, on an exclusive basis eventually renewable but never exceeding the project duration.

The eventual renewal of the scholarship will be carried out as determined in article 5º of the Research Grants Regulation of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P.

If it is not possible to ensure the duration of 3 months estimated in the previous paragraph, this duration will be adjusted according to the end date of the project, and provided that the minimum duration of 1 consecutive month is guaranteed, in accordance with paragraph 3 of article 5 of the Research Grant Regulations of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P.

Stipend: The grant stipend amounts to 651,12 € according to the table of values of the grants awarded directly by FCT, I.P. in the Country. The payment will be made by bank transfer.

Selection procedure:

Curricular evaluation which will focus on the merit of the candidate and the following criteria will be valued:

1. Academic training in the area of Chemical Engineering- 8 points; related areas – 4 points; other areas – 0 points.

2. Experience in the project area – up to 7 points; experience in other areas – 3 points; no experience – 0 points;

The two best ranked candidates, according to the above criteria, will be called for an interview. This will have an additional score of up to 5 points.

If the minimum score of 16 points is not reached by any of the candidates, the scholarship may not be awarded.

Selection Jury:

President: Professor Doutor Alexandre Filipe Porfírio Ferreira

Effective member: Professora Doutora Ana Mafalda Almeida Peixoto Ribeiro

Effective member: Doutora Albertina Gonçalves Rios

Supplementary member: Doutor Ricardo Jorge Nogueira dos Santos

Supplementary member: Professor Doutor Diogo Filipe Mateus Rodrigues

Advertisement of final decision: The results of the evaluation will be released to the candidates

by email to the email address indicated in the application process.

Deadline for applications and form of presentation of the applications:

The call is open from 19-03-2026 to 01-04-2026(until 23h59m, GMT time).

Applications must be formalized by email to aferreir@fe.up.pt and to recursoshumanos@fe.up.pt, clearly stating the reference FEUP-SWMOF_CAU10 and including the following pdf documents: Motivation letter, Copy of certificates evidencing academic degree (referring to the course average – for each cycle or integrated cycle – and grades in the course units ) detailed Curriculum Vitae, Declaration on honor that the candidate fulfills the requirement contained in article 5 of the Regulation for Research Grants of the Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. (model below) and other documents considered relevant by the applicant.

Declaration on honour

I, (identification of the scholarship holder), holder of the Citizen Card / Visa / Residence Permit no. valid until _____, declare under honour, to be in the conditions of nos. 4 and 5 of article 5º of the Research Grants from FCT, IP – Regulation No. 950/2019, of 16 December.

Oporto, __/__/__

Signature

_________________

(scholarship holder)