Bolsa de Investigação

Organisation/Company Universidade Politécnica de Viana do Castelo (UNIPVC) Research Field Engineering Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Positions Bachelor Positions Application Deadline 1 Nov 2026 - 23:59 (Europe/Lisbon) Country Portugal Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Other EU programme Reference Number NORTE2030-FEDER- – heAICare Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

INVITATION FOR PROPOSALS FOR A RESEARCH GRANT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF AN R&D PROJECT. An international competition is open for 10 consecutive days for the awarding of a Research Grant (BI) within the scope of the ADiT-Lab (Applied Digital Transformation Laboratory) research unit of the Polytechnic University of Viana do Castelo (UNIPVC), recognized by the FCT with reference UID/06121/2025, funded by the project NORTE2030-FEDER- – heAICare - AI-Based Solutions for Optimization of Feto-Neonatal Neurodevelopment: Monitoring, Diagnosis and Personalized Treatment”, funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the NORTE2030 program of the Coordination and Development Commission of the Northern Region (CCDR-N).

The conditions for awarding the Grant are as follows:
Scientific Area: Computer Engineering / Artificial Intelligence.

Admission requirements: Candidates for the scholarship must be enrolled in a master's degree program in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Graphics and Multimedia Engineering, or related fields. Candidates should possess knowledge and/or experience in:

• Development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning models;
• Image and video processing and analysis;
• Computer vision;
• Python programming;
• Development and training of deep learning models;

The following may apply to this competition:

• Portuguese citizens or citizens of other Member States of the European Union;
• Citizens of third countries outside the European Union;
• Stateless persons;
• Citizens benefiting from political refugee status.

Preferred conditions: experience in applied research projects in the field of Artificial Intelligence; knowledge of deep learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch or equivalents); experience working in interdisciplinary teams; Autonomy and dynamism; fluency in English (spoken and written), good level of written communication.

Work plan: The scholarship holder's work plan will focus on the development of Artificial Intelligence models for monitoring babies through cameras, within the scope of task A4.4 – AI models for infant monitoring via cameras.

In the first phase, the fellow will participate in defining the architecture of the intelligent monitoring system, including identifying functional requirements, specifying video acquisition flows, and defining strategies for processing and analyzing multimodal data. The work will include the development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence and deep learning computer vision models, using image processing techniques, temporal signal analysis, and the fellow will also participate in the development of models for detecting pain, discomfort, and emotions through facial analysis of newborns, using facial recognition methods, expression classification, and machine learning. In addition, the work plan will involve the collection, preparation, annotation, and processing of clinical and multimedia data necessary for training and validating the developed models, ensuring compliance with applicable ethical and data protection standards. The fellow will be responsible for the integration and experimental validation of the developed models in a laboratory and/or clinical environment, including performance evaluation, robustness, and generalization capacity of the algorithms. The plan will also include the production of technical and scientific documentation, preparation of progress reports, support for the dissemination of scientific results, and collaboration with the multidisciplinary teams involved in the heAICare project.

Applicable legislation and regulations: Current Research Grant Holder Statute ( ) Research Grant Regulations of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo approved by Order No. 7347/2020, of July 22.

Workplace: The work will be carried out in person at ADiT-Lab, located at the School of Technology and Management of the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, under the scientific guidance of Professors Jorge Manuel Ferreira Barbosa Ribeiro, Filipe Manuel Sampaio Carvalho and Jorge Manuel Esparteiro Garcia.

Term of the grant: The grant will last 6 months, with a planned start in November 2026, with the possibility of renewal up to a maximum of 24 months, as prov