A call is open to award 1 Doc Research Fellowship or Master Research Fellowship under the project “Small Farms, Small Food Businesses and Sustainable Food Security (SALSA)”, ref. nº  677363, funded by the European Union in the scope of the H2020 Program, call H2020-SFS-2015-2, under the following conditions:

Scientific domain: Environmental and Agricultural Sciences

 Admission requirements: Candidates will be admitted to the call when demonstrating: (i) a PhD degree or a MSc degree in Environmental Sciences, Agriculture, Agro economy, remote sensing and special analysis or other related disciplines; (ii) a record of scientific publication in International Journals with referees.

Preferential factors for admission:

• Proved experience in working with complex project settings;
• Proven fluency in English and Portuguese;
• Research experience with GIS 
• Knowledge of Cape Verde agriculture is desirable;
• Ability to work in a team
• Experience in organizing group activities such as seminars, meetings, Interviews with key informants etc., and getting in touch with small farmers and farmer organization

Work Plan:  SALSA has been designed to meet the significant intellectual and practical challenge of developing a better understanding of the current and potential contribution of small farms and food businesses to Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) in an increasingly globalised and uncertain world. The project will pay particular attention to: capturing the diversity of food systems and small farm situations in Europe and Africa; looking beyond production capacity to include all four dimensions of FNS; fully considering the gradient of socio-economic conditions in different regions of Europe and Africa, and; fully and effectively engaging with stakeholders to cut across classical boundaries in food system structures and situations, Europe-Africa relations, research, policy and practice.

The work will be focused on the Work Packages WP2, WP3 and WP6 “Estimation of the distribution and production capacity of small farms” and WP6 “Enabling conditions for small farms and small food businesses”.

WP3 aims at carrying out, in the 30 reference regions previously selected in WP2, an in-depth assessment of local and regional food systems paying particular attention to the diversity, complexity and context-specificity of local and regional food systems and FNS. WP6 will identify, develop and disseminate policy tools and other support mechanisms that are most appropriate for maintaining and enhancing the contribution of small farms to sustainable FNS. The work package will provide information and guidelines on how small farms and other small food businesses can best be enabled to capitalize on their distinctive assets and particular efficiencies, and thereby contribute to sustainable FNS.

Specifically, the researcher will support the development and implementation of the following tasks:

ü  Selection of stakeholders for focus groups and interviews;

ü  Gathering of specific data on small farms and key features related to crop production through key informants, as also aspects such as affordability, access to food, and nutritional and health;

ü  Implementation of 10-15 more comprehensive semi-structured interviews with carefully selected farmers and small business operators as key informants for each reference region (Santiago island);

ü  Organization and facilitation of three focus groups by region (Santiago island) to discuss and map the local and regional food system, its specific context, as well as local particularities;

ü  To identify a) the particular requirements of the different types of small farms and other small food businesses in the different regions studied, and b) the tools and mechanisms they can best be supported with (e.g. small farmer-friendly financing and investment, pro-small farm value chains, risk mitigation and adaptation strategies, transport and infrastructures, etc.);

ü  Document analysis and analysis of existing statistics and targeted expert interviews will complement the assessment;

ü  Analysis of the results of the interviews and focus groups and reporting to the project coordination team.

Relevant legislation and regulation: This fellowship will be carried on the basis of a signed contract between the University of Cape Verde and the fellowship recipient, under the terms practiced in other University projects and according to the Cape Verdean labor Regulations and legislation.

Place of work: The work is to be developed at ECAA (São Jorge dos Órgãos), of the University of Cape Verde.

Length of the fellowship: Six months, beginning in 1st December 2017, renewable every six months according with a positive evaluation of the Capeverdean Research Team, for a maximum of one year.

Payment: The payment of the service is monthly and is done by check or bank transfer in the amount of 164.636$00 ECV, in case of a Ph.D. or 126.082$00 ECV, in case of a Master, subject to taxes and social security contribution. 

Documents to submit: Curriculum Vitae, Certificates, Certificate of fluency in English, Recommendation letter(s) and a Letter of interest.

Selection: The selection is done based on the documentation sent, mainly the analysis of the CV an interview may be required. The interview will be used to select between candidates equally ranked. When the candidates are not available to come to Santiago, Cape Verde, the interview may be undertaken using skype.

Selection Comittee: Professor Elsa Simões; Professor Arlindo Fortes; Professor Vladmir Ferreira.

Announcement of results:  The results will be published through a ranked listed and disposed at the entrance of ECAA at S. Jorge dos Órgãos. The candidates receive the information by e-mail.

Period for the call and presentation of application: The call is open in between the 1st September and the 30th September 2017, and the results will be announced until 30th October 2017.

The submissions may be done through a motivation letter, a CV, relevant certificates, sent to the executive secretary: Verónica Tavares – veronica.tavares@adm.unicv.edu.cv, until 24:00 H, Cape Verde time, of September 30 th, 2017