HEI-Lab is looking for a Junior Researcher proficient in Extended Reality (XR). The person hired will be responsible for various phases of research and integrated in a multidisciplinary team of researchers at the crossroads of XR, human behavior including psychology, and artificial intelligence. Work will be developed at Universidade Lusófona (Lisboa) in the context of the HEI-Lab research unit under the scientific supervision of Professor Pedro Gamito. Responsabilities include:

1. Design and validate XR systems that simulate psychologically relevant human experiences and behaviours.
2. Integrate psychophysiological and behavioural signals into adaptive XR environments for real-time interaction.
3. Contribution to the development of scientific  and technological advancements in digital health and behaviour modelling.
4. Submit and support HEI-Lab’s contributions to national and EU-funded projects (Digital Europe, Horizon Europe, FCT).

a)    PhD in Computer Science or Video Games or Psychology or related fields.
b)    Participation as a researcher in funded R&D Projects. 
c)    Minimum of 4 scientific articles published as "Author” or “co-author" in indexed scientific journals with international circulation. 
d)    International Profile. 
e)    Be proficient, speaking and writing in P English.
f)    Technical skills including: experience with Python (Pandas, Numpy, Matplotlib, etc.); experience with popular Python Machine Learning Libraries (PyTorch, Keras, etc.); statistical and machine Learning expertise and supervised and unsupervised methodologies; experience with Unity3D, Unreal Engine or other game engines
g)    Valuable Bonus Skills include: Previous experience with psychophysiology data collection; designed, implemented and collected data from trials with human participants; published author in the field of XR, HCI, or Machine Learning, or Psychology or Psychophysiology.
 

Contractual terms: 

a. The position of the PhD Researcher is made effective using an uncertain term employment contract, funded by FCT, under the terms of Decree-Law n. 57/2016 of August 9th, amended by Law n. 57/2017 of July 19th, and the Portuguese Labour Code. The contract will have a duration of 12 months, renewable to a maximum of 36 months. Start date is October 2025. 
b.The tasks to be carried out in the fulfillment of this position are those considered in the scope of the Research project mentioned in the previous article.
c. The tasks comprehended in the object of the employment contract take place in the facilities of Campo Grande, 376, in Lisbon, or in such places deemed necessary to implement the research plan.
d. The gross base monthly salary to be payed is 2351.53 Euros (14 months) according to paragraph a) of n. 1 of article 15 of Decree-Law n. 57/2016, of 9 August, amended by Law n. 57/2017, of 19 July, and to the first remuneration position of the initial level as laid down in article 2 of Regulatory Decree n. 11-A/2017, of 29 December, corresponding to position 33 of the Single Remuneration Table approved by Order n. 1553-C/2008, of 31 December.
 

 Position to be filled and terms of open call: 
a)    The call aims to hire a Junior researcher, with an uncertain term employment contract. 
b)    Junior Researcher: PhD holders for 5 or less years, with limited post-doctoral research experience in the scientific area of the application.
c)    National, foreign or stateless Ph.D. researchers may apply to the position.

Cumulatively, the candidate should have the following academic profile:

a)    PhD in Computer Science or Video Games or Psychology or related fields.
b)    Participation as a researcher in funded R&D Projects. 
c)    Minimum of 4 scientific articles published as "Author” or “co-author" in indexed scientific journals with international circulation. 
d)    International Profile. 
e)    Be proficient, speaking and writing in P English.
f)    Technical skills including: experience with Python (Pandas, Numpy, Matplotlib, etc.); experience with popular Python Machine Learning Libraries (PyTorch, Keras, etc.); statistical and machine Learning expertise and supervised and unsupervised methodologies; experience with Unity3D, Unreal Engine or other game engines
g)    Valuable Bonus Skills include: Previous experience with psychophysiology data collection; designed, implemented and collected data from trials with human participants; published author in the field of XR, HCI, or Machine Learning, or Psychology or Psychophysiology.

In the case of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, under the terms of Decree-Law n. 66/2018 of 16 August, and so as to ensure the application of the principle of equal treatment to candidates holding foreign and national academic degrees, it is mandatory to obtain the recognition of said degrees and the conversion of their respective final score to the Portuguese rating scale. The recognition of foreign academic degrees and diplomas as well as the conversion of the final score to the Portuguese rating scale, should be available by the deadline for submission of applications. The recognition of foreign academic degrees and diplomas as well as the conversion of the final score to the Portuguese rating scale may be required in any public higher education institution or at the General-Directorate for Higher Education (DGES, only in the case of automatic recognition). Regarding this issue, candidates should consult the portal of DGES at the following address: http://www.dges.gov.pt.
 

Jury Composition 
The Jury has three members nominated by COFAC, crl Board. In accordance with the article 13 of Decree-Law n. 57/2016, of 29 August, amended by Law nº 57/2017, of 19 July, the following members were appointed:

(i) President - Pedro Santos Pinto Gamito, Director HEI-LAB;
(ii) Member - Maria Micaela Leal da Fonseca, Deputy Director and Principal Researcher of HEI-Lab;
(iii) Member – Raquel Costa, Executive Director of HEI-Lab;
(iv) Member - Louis Philippe Simões Castelo Branco Lopes, HEI-Lab Researcher;
(v) Member – Helga Miguel, HEI-Lab Science Manager;
Substitute members: Jorge Oliveira, HEI-Lab Researcher.

The nominated jury is responsible for examining the applications. Minutes of all the jury meetings will be drawn up containing the description of the subjects discussed, as well as the votes cast by each of the members and the grounds for the decisions taken. Applications admitted to the competition are evaluated considering the quality, timeliness and relevance of the scientific (scientific production and research experience) and profes-sional curricula of the interested parties, as well as the respective adequacy to the proposed work plan.

Selection method
The candidate will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
1. Candidate merit (75%);
2. Interview (25%).
Each criterion is scored on a scale from 0 to 20. Applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria will be auto-matically excluded from assessment. No applicants will be accepted with an overall weighted score in appli-cant’s merit of less than 15 out of 20. Should no applicants meet the eligibility criteria or applicant’s merit min-imum score the jury reserves the right to not award the contract.
Only candidates with a merit greater than 15 will be admitted to the interview. If the jury chooses not to inter-view the candidates, the merit of the candidate will correspond to 100% of the candidates' evaluation. Candi-dates not fulfilling the areas of knowledge requirements will be directly excluded
In the event of a tie, the final decision will be the responsibility of the jury’s chairman. 
After the selection stages have been concluded, the jury will draw up, within no more than 7 workdays, a minute which will include the final decision and a ranking.
 

Jurisdiction and opening of insolvency proceedings
a)    COFAC - Cooperativa de Formação e Animação Cultural, holding the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, author of the opening of this call. 
b)    Publication of the procedure observes that established by article 11 of Decree-Law no. 57/2016, of August 29, amended by Law nº 57/2017, of 19 July. 
 

Deadline
The call is open from July 14 (Lisbon time) to July 28 2025.

The jury's final deliberation, referred to in paragraph 9.4 of the previous number, is communicated to the interested parties so that, in the exercise of the right of prior hearing provided for by the Administrative Procedure Code, they can, within 10 working days, pronounce themselves.

Dissemination of results 
The list of admitted and rejected applicants, as well as their respective final scores, will be displayed in the facilities of Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, at Avenida do Campo Grande, nº 376, in Lisbon and, moreover, they will be posted on the website www.ulusofona.pt; the applicants will be notified by email.

Policy of non-discrimination and equal access: COFAC/Universidade Lusófona actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, whereby no candidate may be privileged, benefited, disadvantaged or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty on the grounds of, inter alia, ancestry, age, gender, 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 trade union membership (Law n. 93/2017, 23 August).

Data Protection: By applying, you agree with the use of your personal data by COFAC/Universidade Lusófona staff for exclusive purposes of this open call. COFAC/Universidade Lusófona administrative staff will use your contacts to contact you directly, and in the publication of the results, according to the principles set by the GPDR.