The aim of this Call is to fund exploratory projects (PEX) in all scientific fields, with a special focus on innovative proposals aimed at researchers at the start of their careers, or original ideas and concepts that have a high degree of novelty and show the potential to disrupt previous work by more experienced researchers.

The planned duration of the projects to be developed is 18 months, and the maximum funding to be awarded has been increased from 50,000 euros to 60,000 euros per project, without reducing the total number of projects to be funded. The overall budget for this measure is 24 million euros, an increase of 4 million euros compared to Calls .

Applications must be submitted on a specific form, available from December 19, 2024 on the myFCT platform, until 5 p.m. on February 25, 2025 (mainland Portugal time). For more information, please visit Call.

Budget for Exploratory Research Projects:

• Budget Form-ist-english_V1_2025
• Budget Form_ist-id_english_V1_2025
• PEX_2024_25_IST
• PEX_2024_25_IST_ID

Important Information – The deadline for sending the budget and calls to be verified by the DP services:

*Until 02/18/2025: Please send the budget provided to the email nicdt.dp@tecnico.ulisboa.pt.

 **The Proposing Institution will not accept applications not previously validated by the services.

Call Documents:

• Announcement for Proposal Submissions
• Application Guide
• Guide for Peer Reviewers
• FCT Projects Regulations
• Methodology for Applying Simplified Costs – Lump Sums
• FAQs
• FAQs_Advanced Computing_Research Data
• CIÊNCIAVITAE Guide
• Ethics Self-Assessment Guide
• Data Protection