1 Research Fellowship for R&D Initiation (BII) is open within the Exploratory Project “EVORISE – Exploring the evolutionary origin of sentience” (2022.05256.PTDC, P.I. Davide Vecchi), funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under the following conditions:
1. Scientific Area: Biology, Law, or Philosophy.
2. Requirements for admission: Knowledge of the English language (in particular proficiency in reading and writing) is necessary.
3. Additional optional skills and qualifications: Student of 3rd year of Bachelor’s degree in biology, law or philosophy. Demonstrable expertise in bioethics will be considered a preferential skill during the selection process. A particular interest on themes related to sentience research and its legislative aspects, such as animal welfare and protection, will be considered a futher preferential skill during the selection process.
4. Contracting requirements: Presentation of the academic qualifications and/or diplomas. Enrolment in Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, Law or Philosophy.
5. Work plan: One of the outputs of the project EVORISE (https://evorise.rd.ciencias.ulisboa.pt) is to articulate a prospective bioethical paper on the foundations of sentientist ethics. Sentientism is the ethical theory according to which moral status or consideration depend on sentience ascription. The widening of sentience ascription to a large(r) part of the biota potentially creates a challenge for sentientist ethics: unless sentientism finds a way to satisfactorily answer the related questions of how to conceptualise and characterise with precision the degree of sentience sufficient for moral considerability, it might be argued that a new kind of foundation for organismal moral considerability is needed. The Fellowship holder will become a full member of the project’s team. The main task of the Fellowship holder will be to critically assess relevant legislative frameworks and directives for animal protection and welfare (e.g., Portugal, New Zealand, UK, EU). The researcher will redact a report with a comparative analysis of their respective rationales (e.g., relative to the sentience indicators supporting the spirit of the legislation). The report will inform the development of the project’s outcome. The team’s plan is to articulate an article in a prominent science policy or bioethical journal on the ethical foundations of sentientism. The aim of the article is to serve for local and EU science policy.
The call is open until June 19, 2023.
Information and contacts: https://www.euraxess.pt/jobs/108337