Support our Talent

NOVA University Lisbon values the talent of its researchers and offers specialized support to their professional and personal development. Committed to promoting sustainable research careers and attracting and retaining talent, NOVA provides several resources to the research community.

 

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

NOVA is focused on the development and support of our researchers and their careers, with efforts to enhance their personal and professional value. We are dedicated to continuously assessing the needs of our community and updating the support, counselling and educational offerings of our institution.

This commitment was reinforced by NOVA’s participation as a pilot institution in the SECURE project – Sustainable Careers for Researcher Empowerment –, which aims to improve research careers and integrate the European Commission’s recommendations for talent attraction and retention.

To strengthen the tools and resources available for career development, NOVA is now an institutional member of Vitae. Vitae is an international platform that supports institutions in the professional development of their students and researchers. NOVA researchers can register on the platform by using their institutional email and access a set of members exclusive resources and recommendations for academic and non-academic careers! Register here.

For any doubts, contact us at nova.research@unl.pt.

Self-assessment of transferable competences and knowledge

The first step in career planning would be to do a self-reflection and evaluation exercise and identify both our academic and non-academic (transferable) skills. Recognizing our professional competences, along with personal values, personality traits and interests, broadens our job opportunities.

By exploring new areas of knowledge or developing soft skills early in your career, you contribute to a successful professional progression, either in academia or the private sector. Vitae provides a wide range of recommendations for your career development, such as professional development planning  or useful tools to assess your capabilities and expertise.

 

ResearchComp

The European Commission has launched the ERA Talent platform, which includes ResearchComp, a tool designed in alignment with the ESCO classification that helps researchers assess the level of their competence. This creates a common language among individuals, organizations and public sector, making it easier to identify jobs that match your profile.

A wide range of institutional resources, including online competency tests, can serve as alternatives and be used as a guide to assess your level of expertise in professional skills. Here’s some examples:

NOVA currently offers a wide range of courses that focuses on developing core competencies for researchers. Established in 2013, NOVA Doctoral School is a visionary program with training on transferable skills for researchers at the early career stages of their careers.

Simultaneously, NOVA has implemented several actions to develop your entrepreneurial skills, including programs specific to researchers. Feel free to visit NOVA Innovation portal and get to know the spin-offs already developed by members of NOVA. If you have a project with innovative results, fostering knowledge transfer and valorization might be the best way to upgrade your career! Contact us via novaimpact@unl.pt to better understand how we can help you turn knowledge into entrepreneurial projects.

The acquisition of new competences and exposure to new resources will increase your awareness of job market opportunities, both within academia and in other sectors.

Even with a CV rich in experience, securing competitive and stable funding in academia remains a challenge. Research support offices at NOVA provide a direct and continuous assistance with a successful funding application, project and innovation management, science communication, and more. As a complement, NOVA has also established several initiatives that offer formative support, such as:

Not all researcher plan for a future in academia, but career mobility might be challenging if you are unaware of the available job opportunities or struggle to identify roles that better match your profile. Vitae offers valuable resources and career stories that can serve as guides or examples for exploring alternative careers options [1],[2],[3],[4]. There are also more in detail resources such as the list of career options by Prospects, or the career mobility focused podcasts PhD Career Stories, Research Adjacent or Science Lives.

Participation in Career Panels, or engaging with mentoring and alumni networks, also provides opportunities to explore alternative careers through personal testimonies. These initiatives facilitate the dialogue with professionals in roles you might be interested in and offer deeper insights into the requirements, tasks, responsibilities and advantages of those positions. NOVA is currently organizing a mentor network and a series of webinars to introduce you to various career profiles. Stay tuned for updates on these initiatives!

Besides working on enriching your CV, it is also crucial to efficiently communicate your professional value during the recruitment process. This communication should be adjusted depending on your professional options (academia, governmental organizations, companies, etc). Vitae shares a wide range of recommendations under this scope, like write a CV, cover letter or successfully network.

NOVA has also implemented initiatives such as How to Write a Narrative CV, which looks to best equip our researchers with the concepts and tools necessary to best convey their professional journey and value. Follow this page to have updates on future webinars!

Follow the page I want to work at NOVA to explore the career opportunities we have available for you. For academic alternatives, within or outside Portugal, we invite to check EURAXESS portal dedicated to this topic.