CENTRE OF BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING: CEB-BI-61-2026

Euraxess; Braga; Hybrid; EUR 14,000 - 17,000; Full time

Job summary

A Univ. do Minho, Centro de Engenharia Biológica, está a oferecer uma bolsa de Investigação (12 meses) para o projeto VictuAI. Candidatos com mestrado em áreas afins deverão demonstrar matrícula em curso relacionado à área de IA, bioinformática ou engenharia biológica.

A bolsa destina-se a desenvolver pipelines de mineração de texto, extrair conhecimento de patentes e integrar dados num repositório do projeto, sob supervisão de docentes da universidade. Inicio previsto em dezembro de 2026.

Qualifications

• Mestrado compatível com informática, bioinformática, biologia, bioquímica ou engenharias afins.
• Conhecimentos em bioinformática, bases de dados, IA e NLP.
• Experiência em desenvolvimento de software, preferencialmente Python.

Responsibilities

• Desenvolvimento de pipelines de software para mineração de texto.
• Extração de conhecimento a partir de patentes relacionadas com alimentos.
• Integração com a base de conhecimento do projeto VictuAI.

Skills

Bioinformática

Bases de dados

Modelação de dados

Inteligência Artificial

Processamento de linguagem natural

Desenvolvimento de software

Education

Mestrado em áreas relacionadas

Tools

Python

Job description

Organisation/Company Centro de Engenharia Biológica da Universidade do Minho Department Engenharia Biológica Research Field Other Researcher Profile Other Profession Positions Master Positions Application Deadline 27 Oct 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Lisbon) Country Portugal Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE AWARD OF A RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

Research Fellowship (1 vacancy)

CEB-BI-61-2026

A call for applications is now open for the attribution of one research grant within the scope of the R&D project, VictuAI – Artificial Intelligence for the lifecycle of food supplements, reference NORTE2030-FEDER-02303300, co-financed by the European Union through the Regional Program NORTE 2030 (CCDR-N), under the following conditions:

Scientific Area: Artificial Intelligence.

The open position is intended for candidates holding a master’s degree who, on the date of their hiring, prove their enrolment in one of the following courses:

- PhD in Informatics, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering or similar areas;

- Non-degree course.

Requirement for granting the fellowship:

• The applicants may apply without prior registration in the course for which the fellowship is open. The requirement to enrol in a degree course or non-degree course will be verified on the date of contracting the fellowship;
• Only fellowships whose selected applicants present a valid proof of enrolment in a degree course or non-academic degree course, integrated into the educational project of a higher education institution, will be contracted, according to the type of the fellowship, indicating, respectively, the academic year or its duration (start and term).

Applicants’ eligibility:Candidates who meet the conditions set out in Article 9 of the Research Grant Regulations, No. 950/2019, of 16-12-2019, of FCT I.P. are eligible.

Nationals or citizens of other European Union member states, third-country nationals, stateless persons, and citizens with political refugee status are eligible to apply for this competition.

Candidate admissibility requirements:

Mandatory requirements:

• Have a master’s degree in Informatics Engineering, Bioinformatics, Biology, Biochemistry, Genetics,Chemical and Biological Engineering,Biomedical Engineering or equivalent field.

Preferential factors:

• Knowledge and previous experience in the fields of Bioinformatics, databases and data modelling, Artificial Intelligence and/ or natural language processing;
• Previous experience in the development of software, preferably in the Python language.

Workplan and objectives to be achieved: development of software pipelines for text mining allowing the search and monitoring of relevant patents related to food supplements, as well as the extraction of knowledge from them, allowing to integrate with the knowledge base developed in the project.

Applicable legislation and regulations: Research Fellow Statute (EBI), approved by Law nº. 40/2004 of August 18, in its current wording and FCT Research Fellowship Regulation, approved by Regulation nº 950/2019, published in the Diário da República, 2nd series, of December 16, 2019, in its current wording, and Scientific Research Fellowship Regulation (RBIC) of the University of Minho, approved by order nº 4998/2025, published in the Diário da República, 2nd series, nº 81, of April 28, 2025 Amended and republished through amendment statement no. 634/2025/2, published in the Official Gazette, 2nd series, no. 132, of July 11.

Host/Contracting institution and scientific supervision: The workplan will be carried out in the Centre of Biological Engineering, located in the University of Minho, Campus of Gualtar, in Braga,under the direction of Doctor Nuno Miguel Dias Cerca, coordinator of the host entity, and whose scientific guidance will be the responsibility of Professor Miguel Francisco de Almeida Pereira da Rocha.

Fellowship duration: The grant will take place for a period of 12 months, with a provisional starting date in December 2026.

The fellowship grant may eventually be renewed within the limits established and cannot exceed the maximum duration of the projectand if the project is extended.

Renewal conditions: the research fellowship can be renewed for additional periods until it reaches:

• 1 year: masters enrolled in non-conferring courses that do not award an academic degree (the total duration of the scholarship cannot exceed an accumulated period of 2 years, consecutive or interpolated);
• 4 years: Phd students

Amount of the research grant: The amount of the grant corresponds to 1359,64€ per month, according to the table of valuesof theFoundation for Science and Technology FCT, I.P. grants in the country and the table of valuesof Scientific Research Grants of the University of Minho, updated annually by decision of the Management Board.

Payment is made on the 23rd of each month, through bank transfer to the Bank Identification Number of the fellow identified in the contracting process.

Other benefits: Reimbursement of Voluntary Social Security (Social Security contributions), corresponding to the 1st level of discounts (for research grants with a total duration 6 months or higher) and personal accident insurance.

Exclusivity regime: The grantee will perform the activities under exclusivity, as foreseen in article 5º of the Research Fellow Statutes and applicable regulations.

President:

Miguel Francisco de Almeida Pereira da Rocha, Associate Professor with Habilitation at the Department of Informatics of the University of Minho;

Effective members:

Óscar Manuel Lima Dias, Assistant Researcher at the Centre of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho;

Andreia Filipa Ferreira Salvador, Assistant Researcher at the Centre of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho;

Substitute members:

Ricardo Nuno Correia Pereira, Assistant Researcher at the Centre of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho;

Clarisse Salomé Nobre Gonçalves, Assistant Researcher at Centre of Biological Engineering of the University of Minho.

The first effective member or the second effective member in the event of the first member’s inability, will substitute the President of the selection panel in case of impediment, with these members being replaced by the designated substitute members.

Criteria and procedures for applications assessment and selection: The applications assessment will focus on the candidate's Merit, following evaluation criteria, valued on a scale of 0 to 5 values.

A1 - Academic path (considering the classifications of academic degrees), with a weighting of 40%;

A2 - Personal curriculum (considering professional and scientific background), with a weighting of 45%

A3 - Motivation letter, with a weighting of 15%.

The final classification of the applicant’s merit with the achieved through the following formula:

AM = (A1 x 0,4) + (A2 x 0,45) + (A3 x 0,15)

Candidates with a score of less than 3,50 points in the AM criterion will be excluded.

In the event of a tie in the final classification, the fellowship grant will be awarded to the candidate who obtains the best classification in parameter A2.

Notes Applicants with degrees obtained abroad must present proof of recognition of qualifications in Portugal and conversion of the final classification obtained in them to the Portuguese classification scale or declaration under the terms indicated in the previous point. Candidates who do not comply with one of these provisions, the selection panel will assign “0” in the grade of the graduation and/or master course. Candidates will be evaluated on the remaining parameters.

Non-discrimination and equal access policy: UMinho promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, whereby no candidate may be privileged, benefited, harmed or deprived of any right or exempt from any duty due to, in particular, of ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family situation, economic situation, education, origin or social condition, genetic heritage, reduced work capacity, disability, chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological convictions and union membership.

Requirements

Research Field Computer science » Informatics Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field Biological sciences » Biology Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field Chemistry » Biochemistry Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field Biological sciences » Biological engineering Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field Engineering » Biomedical engineering Education Level Master Degree or equivalent

Research Field Engineering » Computer engineering Education Level Master Degree or equivalent