FCT’s ERC Portugal Program
ERC-Portugal is FCT’s new program to boost the various cycles of national participation in the Calls of theEuropean Research Council ( ERC), from preparing and evaluating applications, to training future applicants and attracting and retaining talent. The ERC-Portugal program already has three axes: ERC-PT Pre-assessment, ERC-PT A-Projects and ERC-PT Careers.
ERC-PT Pre-assessment supports the national scientific community in preparing proposals to the ERC. It consists of a pre-assessment by peers at the proposal preparation stage, following international best practice and according to the ERC’s assessment criteria. The process is conducted by a College of international evaluators, appointed annually and covering all scientific areas, with highly experienced profiles in evaluation processes, preferably with experience of several editions as ERC panel members. It culminates in suggestions for improving the proposal, which reflect the ERC’s evaluation criteria and evaluator profiles. This axis has supported national applications in 3 Calls ERC. Despite being a very recent program, it already has applications that have been selected for funding or have reached the second stage of the evaluation process.
ERC-PT A-Projects, the first axis launched under this program, is an FCT funding line for national applications with a top evaluation and recommendation for funding by the ERC, but which do not obtain funding due to budget limitations. Applications with an ‘A’ rating in the Starting, Consolidator and Advanced grants typologies are eligible for this funding, and, from October 2024, also Synergy grants. This financial support, up to a maximum of 250,000 euros per application, aims to enable institutions in the National Science and Technology System (SNCT) and their researchers for future ERC applications. The application period is open until December 31, 2025.
ERC-PT Careers, launched in June 2024, promotes the attraction and retention of researchers with projects funded by the ERC’s Calls , still in progress or completed in less than 2 years, for permanent positions in SNCT and Higher Education institutions. This axis is made up of two types: (i) ATTRACT, with funding of up to 550,000 euros, to host projects that are transferred from foreign institutions through open-ended contracts with their principal investigators; (ii) RETAIN, an incentive to recruit researchers already carrying out research in Portugal and with an ERC project active or completed less than 2 years ago, for permanent positions in SNCT or Higher Education institutions.
ERC-PT A Projects and ERC-PT Careers are funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), in the resilience dimension and in the “RE-C06-i06 – Science Plus Capacity Building” component.
For more information and details about ERC-Portugal, see the program page.
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