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R&D Projects

Call for Proposals for Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects in all Scientific Domains — 2009

Important milestones

Applications since
18/09/2009
Submit application before
16/12/2009, 5pm
Submit statement of commitment by
15/01/2010, 5pm

Announcement

Objectives and Priorities

The Portuguese government’s science and technology policy considers growth, reinforcement and consolidation of the Sistema Científico e Tecnológico Nacional (SCTN) to be a national priority in order to make the system more competitive, both within the country and internationally, and to facilitate articulation between centers of knowledge and business. In this framework, fostering and strengthening the capabilities of scientific and technological institutions by enabling research teams at these institutions to participate in scientific research and technological development (SR&TD) projects in all scientific fields is deemed particularly important.

Recipient Entities

Research teams from the following entities, either individually or jointly, may apply:

  1. Institutions of higher education, their Institutes and R&D Centers;
  2. Associate Laboratories;
  3. State Laboratories;
  4. Private, not-for-profit organizations whose principal object is science and technology activities;
  5. Companies, as long as they are integrated in projects led by public or private not-for-profit R&D organizations;
  6. Other public and private not-for profit organizations which carry out or participate in scientific research activities.

Regional Scope and Funding

Regional Scope

The region to which the projects belong is determined by the NUTS II Region where the Proposing Organizations and participants are located.

Funding

Projects in which the Proposing Organization is located in the NUTS Regions of Lisbon or the Algarve or the Autonomous Regions are financed through national funding from the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES).

Projects in which the Proposing Organization is located in the NUTS II Convergence Objective Regions (North, Central and Alentejo) are co-funded with funds from the Operational Programme 'Thematic Factors of Competitiveness'. In these cases, any Proposing Organizations located outside the Convergence Objective regions are financed by Portuguese funds through MCTES.

Funding from the Competitive Factors Operational Programme shall take the form of non-reimbursable funding in the amount of 70% of eligible project expenses, or 50% in the case of companies. In the latter case, only applied research activities shall be funded. Companies located outside the Convergence Regions shall be funded at 50% through national funds.

The maximum funding per project shall be 200,000€.

Budgetary Appropriation

The FEDER budgetary appropriation designated for this call for proposals as part of the Operational Programme 'Thematic Factors of Competitiveness' is 40 million €.

Application submission

Applications must be submitted starting September 18th 2009 and before 5pm (Lisbon time) December 16th 2009, in the appropriate electronic web application through

https://concursos.fct.pt/projectos/

Projects, whose Principal Investigators or team members exceed 100% dedication to projects funded by FCT, will not allowed to be funded.

No application will be accepted where the Principal Investigator has less 25% dedication to the project or some team member has less than 15% dedication.

The same Principal Investigator can not submit the same project to more than one scientific area.

Proposals in which the Principal Investigators or Proposing Organizations are in a situation of unjustified noncompliance with the regulatory requirements with respect to submission of Technical or Financial reports and return of unused balances from previous projects shall not be accepted.

Projects still under review in other calls are not admissible in this call.

The maximum duration of the projects to be funded shall be three years.

Selection method of projects to be funded

The evaluation shall be done by international panels of independent reviewers, to be set up for each scientific area.

The selection method and ranking of projects is based on a Project Merit Indicator using the following criteria, which are described in greater detail in the Regulations Governing Access to Funding for Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects:

  1. Scientific merit and innovative nature of the project from an international viewpoint,
  2. Scientific merit of the research team,
  3. Feasibility of the plan of work and reasonableness of the budget,
  4. Contribution to increasing the body of knowledge and competence of the Portuguese National Science and Technology System (expected effects and results).

For the purpose of selection and decision-making regarding funding, projects shall be ranked by score obtained in the review process in decreasing order.

Publication and further Information

This Announcement and other pertinent items and information are available on the websites of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia and of the Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade.

Information regarding the contents of the application form may be requested by e-mail from concursoprojectos2009@fct.pt. For information regarding questions related to the technical aspects of the website, please contact the webmaster by e-mail at webmaster@fct.pt.

September 18th, 2009

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