The Centre for Marine Sciences (CCMAR) opens one (01) Research Fellowship for a person with a Master Degree of any nationality, including stateless candidates, and holders of political refugee statute, in the scientific field of Biological Sciences within the research project ref. 2022.08563.PTDC: INNATEMEM—Harnessing innate immune training for enhanced disease response in marine bivalves—funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P./MCTES through national funding (PIDDAC) under the following conditions:
Host and Contracting Institution: CCMAR
This fellowship is intended for Master’s degree holders that are enrolled in a non-academic degree course, integrated in the educational project of a higher education institution, and developed in association or cooperation with one or more R&D units at the starting date of the fellowship.
Work Plan, Tasks to perform and objectives:
The INNATEMEM project aims to study bivalve immunity and to identify and characterize new players in innate immunity and innate memory response acquisition.
Specifically, the fellowship holder will be involved in the following tasks and objectives:
- Sample preparation for transcriptomics and metagenomics analysis
- Bioinformatic analysis of transcriptomes and confirmation using molecular biology techniques
- Bioinformatic analysis of tissue microbiomes
- Sample handling for molecular biology, biochemical and histological analysis
- Planning and experimental design in the context of the project objectives
- Activities of technology/knowledge transfer and outreach and scientific paper writing in the context of the project objectives
- Contribute to the general maintenance of the host laboratory
Scientific Supervisors:
Professor João Cardoso, Lecturer at Algarve University, and researcher at CCMAR and coordinator of the project and Professor Deborah Power, Full Professor at Algarve University and group leader at CCMAR.
Workplace:
The workplace is CCMAR (Gambelas Campus of the Algarve University, Faro, Portugal).
Requirements for the application:
Applicants must meet all the conditions stated below:
- Master’s degree in Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biology, or related fields.
- Good knowledge of written and spoken English.
- This fellowship will only be granted to those who do not exceed, with the conclusion of the present fellowship contract, an accumulated period of two years in this type of fellowship, consecutive or otherwise, and the required information should be explicit in the candidate’s CV.
Non-compliance justifies exclusion from the procedure.
It is considered as an advantage:
Preference will be given to applicants with previous experience in a scientific research laboratory and with demonstrated expertise in the following activities: bioinformatic tools applied to the analysis of transcriptomes and metagenomes of marine organisms and/or marine environmental samples; Molecular biology techniques (RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, PCR, qPCR).
In the event of a tie between candidates during the selection process, this argument may be used to select the candidates.
Fellowship conditions:
The fellowship will have a duration of 12 months, or until the end of the research project with a provisional start date of October 2023. The fellowship must be carried out under an exclusivity regimen, according to the FCT Fellowship Regulation (RBI) and of the CCMAR fellowship regulations (see here) based on the Portuguese law 40/2004, of 18 of August (Scientific Research Fellowship holder statutes) amended by the Decree-Law 123/2019 of 28 of August. A maintenance allowance of 1199.64€ will be paid monthly, through bank transfer, and will be updated as stipulated by the Foundation for Science and Technology.
