R&D Projects
Regulations governing access to funding for scientific research and
technological development projects – 2008
The Portuguese Government's Commitment to Science points to the
rapid scientific and technological development of the country as a national
priority, defining targets and outcome criteria for this development.
Towards the fulfillment of this objective, several measures are considered
among which the enhancement of the R&D Projects Program, evaluated and
selected in public calls, by panels of international experts.
The present Regulations, published in November 2008, introduce significant
alterations relatively to the previous version in order to make it more
general and adapted to the co-funding rules in the framework of the
Programa Operacional Factores de
Competitividade of QREN.
Article 1
Object
- These Regulations set forth the general terms under which funding is
granted to scientific and technological research projects through the
Fundação para a
Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), and, when eligible, co-funded by the
Fundo Europeu de
Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) through the Programa
Operacional Factores de Competitividade (POFC), in accordance with
the provisions of the
Regulamento de Execução do Sistema de Apoio a Entidades do Sistema
Científico e Tecnológico Nacional (Regulamento SAESCTN) for
co-funded projects.
- The System of Support for Entities belonging to the National Scientific
and Technological System under the POFC applies to the Convergence
Objective regions (North, Centre and Alentejo).
- The announcement of the opening of each call may include further
technical stipulations or limitations to the general terms set forth in
these Regulations.
Article 2
Recipient entities
-
The following entities having legal authority to enter into contracts,
either individually or jointly, may submit proposals for funding of
projects under these Regulations:
- Institutions of higher education, their institutes and R&D
centers;
- Associate Laboratories;
- State laboratories;
- Private not-for-profit institutions whose primary object is S&T
activities;
- Companies integrated into projects led by public or
private not-for-profit R&D organizations;
- Other public and private not-for-profit organizations that carry
out or participate in scientific research activities.
- The Principal Contractor (PC) is the organization that proposes and
leads the scientific research and technological development project. In
addition to coordinating the project, the Principal Contractor is
responsible for communicating with the FCT on behalf of all the partners.
- The institutions mentioned in no. 1, paragraph
e) cannot serve as Principal Contractor, except when they are
integrated into European Community programs specifically intended for
industry.
- When various entities participate jointly in a project, the project
proposal must indicate which institution is responsible for each aspect of
the plan of activities and which institution is the Principal Contractor.
- The possible involvement of foreign institutions as partners in the
project shall not confer upon them the status of recipient entity with
funding, except when there is an international agreement or international
reciprocity mechanism, duly signed by the FCT, authorized by the higher
governing bodies and expressly indicated in the Announcement of the Call
for Proposals. These institutions may not be co-funded by the FEDER.
- In international cooperation projects, the figure of the Principal
Contractor does not exist, and all participating Portuguese institutions
shall communicate with the FCT individually.
Article 3
General terms for admission and acceptance of projects
- A Principal Investigator (PI) should be named for each project. He/she
will be co-responsible along with the PC for the proposal and management of
the project and ensuring fulfillment of the proposed objectives and
compliance with the regulations governing the funding award.
- The PI shall be dedicated to the project at no less than 25% FTE for
the duration of the proposed activities.
- Proposals whose PIs are in a situation of unjustified noncompliance
with the regulatory requirements with respect to submission of technical
reports from previous projects shall not be accepted.
- Proposals whose PCs are in a situation of unjustified noncompliance
with the regulatory requirements with respect to submission of financial
reports or return of funds transferred to the PC relative to previous
projects with the same PI shall not be accepted.
- The Acceptance Agreement shall not be made available for signing for
any projects recommended for funding that would cause the respective PI to
exceed 100% FTE dedication when all the FCT-managed projects in which
he/she is participating are taken into account.
- In order for a proposal to be accepted, the PC and Participant
Institutions are required to show proof that they have no outstanding debts
to the Social Security System or the Tax Authorities or to authorize the
FCT to access the respective information.
- In the case of a proposal involving various entities, a protocol must
be signed between the parties explicitly naming the PC and detailing the
scope of cooperation between the entities involved, how the joint
responsibilities will be divided among the parties, the duties and rights
of the parties and, when applicable, any questions regarding
confidentiality, intellectual property and final property of any equipment
acquired or developed during the execution of the project.
- In the proposal phase, the recipient entities must agree to comply with
the applicable national and community norms, particularly as regards
competition, the environment, equal opportunity and gender, and public
contracting whenever applicable.
Article 4
Eligible and ineligible expenses
-
The following costs borne by the recipients and incurred exclusively in
the execution of the project are considered eligible:
- Human resources dedicated to R&D activities, including costs of
individual grant recipients. The funding of grants shall comply with
the norms for the
award of grants in R&D projects.;
- Missions in Portugal and abroad directly related to the project;
- Consultants;
- Acquisition of goods and services and other current expenses
directly related to execution of the project, and the intervention of
licensed auditors or accountants;
- Registration abroad of patents, copyrights, utility models and
designs, national models or brands associated with other forms of
intellectual property, namely fees, prior-art searches and consultants’
fees;
- Adaptation of buildings and facilities when essential to carrying
out the project, namely for environmental and safety questions,
provided that these costs do not exceed 10% of the total eligible cost
of the project;
- Acquisition of scientific and technical instruments essential to
the project and which shall remain attached to the project during the
period of its execution;
- Overheads based on the real costs incurred due to execution of the
project and which are imputable to it on a pro-rated basis according to
a fair and equitable method of calculation duly justified and
periodically reviewed, up to a limit of 20% of the eligible direct
costs of the corresponding participation in the project.
- In determining the amount of the eligible expenses to be co-paid, the
value added tax (VAT) is deducted whenever the recipient entity (proposing
or participating) is subject to this tax and may exercise their right to
the respective deduction.
- Eligibility of expenses is determined by their nature and whether they
are reasonable and comply with the applicable legislation.
- Only costs duly substantiated by invoices or equivalent documents under
the terms of article 28 of the VAT Code and receipts or equivalent proofs
of payment can be funded. All tax requirements set forth in Article 35 of
the VAT Code must be met, and the rules governing public expenditures must
also be followed (whenever applicable).
- The Announcement of the Call for Proposals may limit the types of
eligible expenses referred to in point 1 of this article.
- Under no circumstances shall overfunding of proposals be allowed, and
eligible costs funded by the FCT cannot be the object of funding by any
other national or EU program.
- Expenses incurred prior to the project start date mentioned in the
Acceptance agreement shall not be considered eligible.
- In addition to the restrictions set forth in Appendix
III of the FEDER and Cohesion Fund General Regulations, transactions
between entities participating in the project are not eligible.
Article 5
Application
- Applications shall be submitted after a public call for proposals is
announced on the FCT and Competitiveness Factors Thematic Operational
Programme websites and in the national media.
- Applications must be submitted online through the FCT website by the
deadline indicated in the Announcement of the Call for Proposals.
- As all applications are evaluated by international evaluation panels,
only proposals submitted in English using the form provided for this
purpose on the FCT website, which are properly filled out and submitted to
the entities referred to in article 2 shall be
considered.
- A scanned copy of the Declaration of Intent, in accordance
with the template provided by the FCT, must be submitted online to the FCT
no later than 10 working days after the call is closed. The FCT may request
the original document at a later date.
- The Declaration of Intent must be signed and initialed by someone who
is legally authorized to bind the recipient organizations as well as by the
PI.
- Principal Contractors and Participating Organizations that have not
given their consent to access their tax and social security records under
the terms of Article 4 of Decree-Law 114/2007, of 19 April, must show proof
that they have no outstanding debts to the Social Security System or the
Tax Authorities by the deadline stated in no. 4.
Article 6
Verification of admissibility and eligibility of applications
Verification of the formal admission requirement for the call, the
admissibility and eligibility of the proposing entities and projects is
done by the FCT administrative services prior to beginning the evaluation
and selection process.
Article 7
Evaluation and Selection
- Projects are evaluated by evaluation panels of independent national and
international specialists of recognized merit and competence.
- Evaluation panels shall be set up for each call for proposals and
scientific area and shall consist of a minimum of three members, one of
which will be an area coordinator who will coordinate the respective panel,
and at least one member per sub-area.
- The majority of the panel members shall be specialists from foreign or
international scientific institutions or be nominated by them.
- No one who is responsible for or involved in any program or project
submitting a proposal in the call for proposals or who is responsible for a
proposing or participating organization may serve on the evaluation panels.
Article 8
Nomination of the members of evaluation and selection panels
- Members of the evaluation panels shall be designated by the President
of the FCT. The list of experts who make up the panels shall be approved by
the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education.
- The composition of the evaluation panels shall be published on the FCT
website.
Article 9
Duties of the evaluation and selection panels
-
The evaluation and selection panels are charged with:
- Proposing the naming of national and foreign experts to submit
opinions regarding the proposals submitted whenever these are deemed
necessary;
- Determining whether projects are eligible under the terms set forth
in the call for proposals;
- Applying the approved evaluation criteria and notation tools;
- Selecting and ranking proposals to be funded;
- Recommending, with due justification, possible modifications to the
plan of work and the proposed budget for each proposal selected;
- Suggesting associations or collaboration between projects in order
to form larger teams with greater scientific capabilities, with the
necessary changes in the funding to be awarded;
- Writing up an evaluation for each project and an overall evaluation
report for the respective scientific area.
-
The experts referred to in paragraph a), no. 1 of the
current article, designated by the FCT based on the recommendations
of the evaluation panel, shall be Portuguese or foreign individuals of
recognized competence in the scientific areas of the proposals to be
evaluated, who shall be responsible for issuing the expert opinions
that are requested of them by the evaluation panels.
-
The evaluation panel for a project shall have access to all the
proposals that the PI and other members of the research team are
involved in.
Article 10
Evaluation and selection criteria
-
The Announcement of the Call for Proposals applicable to scientific
research and technological development projects shall list the criteria
used to evaluate the proposals, namely:
- Scientific merit and innovative nature of the project from an
international standpoint;
- Scientific merit of the research team;
- Feasibility of the plan of work and reasonableness of the budget;
- Contribution to the body of knowledge and competence of the
National Science and Technology System;
- Potential economic value of the technology (if appropriate).
-
Application of these criteria shall take into account, among other
considerations, the following:
- For criterion A:
- Relevance and originality of the project proposed (based on the
state-of-the-art in a determined scientific area and previous work
done by the proposing team);
- Methodology adopted for carrying out the project;
- Expected results and their contribution to scientific and
technological knowledge;
- Resulting publications and articles;
- Contribution towards promoting and disseminating science and
technology;
- Production of knowledge that can be incorporated into and
applied to the business sector.
- For criterion B:
- Scientific productivity of the team (references to publications
and citations in published works, other relevant indicators);
- Abilities and skills to adequately execute the proposed project
(team configuration, Principal Investigator’s qualifications);
- Ability to involve young researchers in training;
- Availability of the team and non duplication of objectives in
relation to other projects underway;
- The degree of internationalization of the team;
- Degree of success in previous projects in relation to the
Principal Investigator (PI) (in the case of young PIs, this
requirement must be assessed based on the potential revealed by the
PIs curriculum vitae in the absence of prior concrete
accomplishments);
- Level of commitment of any companies participating in the
project (if applicable).
- For criterion C:
- Organization of the project in terms of the proposed objectives
and resources (duration, equipment, size of the team, institutional
and management resources);
- Institutional resources of the participating entities, in
particular of the Principal Contractor (PC) (technical-scientific,
organizational and managerial and, when appropriate, co-funding
capacity on the part of companies).
- For criterion D:
- Contribution to the body of knowledge and competence of the
National Science and Technology System (expected effects and
results).
- For criterion E:
- Potential economic value of the technology (if appropriate),
namely in terms of its impact on the competitiveness of the
national socio-economic system.
- For other types of projects, the announcements of the calls for
proposals shall establish the criteria for evaluation and selection to be
applied.
Article 11
Communication of results
- The President of the FCT shall notify the PI and the PC of the proposed
decision of whether or not to fund the project within 10 working days of
receiving the expert opinions and reports mentioned in paragraph g) of
no. 1 of Article 9. This notification shall include
the evaluation panel’s expert opinion.
- Under the terms Article 100 and subsequent articles of the
Code of Administrative Procedure, for the purpose of Preliminary Hearing,
the PI may, if he/she so wishes and within 10 working days of being
notified of the proposed decision, comment the decision, responding with
any observations that he/she deems pertinent. These observations must be
submitted online on the FCT website.
- In the observations referred to in the previous number, the PI should
make a distinction between those comments that are of an administrative or
procedural nature and those that are of a technical or scientific nature.
- The PI who accepts the proposed decision will need to explicitly state
this fact on the FCT website together with any budget changes implied by a
budget smaller than originally proposed, during the period stated in
no. 2.
- The appreciation of technical/scientific comment during
Preliminary Hearing, will be carried out by an expert panel, after the
closure of regular procedures of the Call in all scientific domains.
Article 12
Analysis of Preliminary Hearing comments
- Any duly substantiated comments submitted by the PI
regarding the proposed decision shall be examined:
- for administrative or procedural questions, by the FCT;
- for technical or scientific questions, by panels of independent
experts.
- Members of the panels of experts referred to in no.
1 shall be designated by the President of the FCT. The list of experts
who make up the panels shall be approved by the Minister of Science,
Technology and Higher Education.
- The same restrictions that apply to members of evaluation panels as set
forth in these Regulations shall also apply to members of these panels of
experts.
Article 13
Duties of the panels of experts
- The panels of experts referred to in no. 5 of
Article 11 are charged with analyzing any observations of a technical
or scientific nature that are submitted during the Preliminary Hearing and
recommending to either uphold or modify the decision regarding approval and
funding as well as recommending, with due justification, changes to the
project or the funding to be awarded.
- The analysis of observations submitted during Preliminary Hearing
should not be considered a second scientific evaluation of the proposals or
as an evaluation of the competence of the evaluation panels.
- The tasks of the expert panels are as follows:
- To analyze the observations made by the proposing entities in
response to the scientific reasoning behind the evaluation in the
context of the results of the evaluation for each scientific area and
to determine whether there were gross errors or negligence that were
detrimental to the proposing entities; the decision of the evaluation
panel will only be reversed in the event that such acts are confirmed;
- To draw up a final report that includes, in addition to the
results, any criticisms or recommendations that may contribute to
improving the evaluation system.
- Any situations of conflict of interest that come to light during the
expert panel’s intervention must be identified in the final report.
- The President of the FCT shall notify the PI of the proposal of the
decision regarding projects analyzed by the panel of experts.
Article 14
The funding decision-making process
- For projects not co-funded by the QREN, the President of
the FCT shall submit his/her funding decision, duly substantiated by the
corresponding evaluation reports, to be approved by the Minister of
Science, Technology and Higher Education.
- In the case of projects co-funded by the POFC (QREN), the President of
the FCT shall submit the decision proposals, duly substantiated by the
corresponding evaluation reports, to the Managing Authority of that
program.
- The Managing Authority of the POFC shall decide on the
funding based on the terms of the proposal referred to in the previous
number.
Article 15
Acceptance agreement and project start date
- The PC and the PI shall be notified of the project funding decision by
the FCT within 10 working days after the final decision is known, under the
terms of Article 14, nos. 1 and
3.
- Once the notification of the funding decision has been
sent to the PC, and in situations that do not violate the provisions of
Article 3, the acceptance agreement must be signed and
initialed by someone legally authorized to bind the Principal Contractor
and the Participating Organizations, as well as by the Principal
Investigator and returned to the FCT within 20 working days. This deadline
may be extended for an equal length of time provided that the Principal
Contractor presents justifiable grounds to the FCT.
- If the duly signed acceptance agreement is not returned to the FCT by
the deadline referred to in the previous number for reasons imputable to
the Principal Contractor, the decision to award the funding shall expire.
- Project start dates shall be no later than 90 calendar days after the
PIs and PCs have been notified of the funding decision except in situations
duly justified to the FCT and by decision of the President of the FCT.
Article 16
Changes to projects
- Requests to make changes to projects already approved must be
formalized by submitting a written document by e-mail containing detailed
information justifying the need for the change.
- Changes that take the form of a change between funding categories
without increasing the total amount of public funding, and which do not
exceed 20% of the amount designated for each of the funding categories (not
applicable to overheads or to adaptation of buildings and facilities) do
not require special approval, but they must be submitted by the PI on the
FCT website and must be described and duly justified in the progress
reports to be sent to the FCT.
Article 17
Payments
- Advance payment of 20% of the approved funding for the project shall be
made to the PC once the respective acceptance agreement referred to in
no. 2 of Article 15 has been returned to the FCT.
- Payments shall be made to the PC as reimbursements for each list of
documented expenses, in amounts that will allow for a progressive reduction
of the amount of the advance payment referred to in no. 1.
- The remainder, up to the amount of funding approved, shall be paid in
the form of a final reimbursement once the scientific and financial
components of the project have been completed.
- Under no circumstances shall the sum of the payments exceed 95% of the
total funding approved before the project is completed.
- No payments can be made until it has been confirmed that the recipient
of the funding has no outstanding debts to the Social Security System and
the Tax Authorities.
- Lists of expenses to be submitted to the FCT should document a minimum
amount of expenditure paid totaling at least 10% of the total funding for
the project. The last list of expenses is exempt from this rule.
- The length of time between expense lists submissions should not exceed
six months; this period shall be counted from the date that Advance Payment
is made at the start of the project.
- The last expense list should be submitted no later than 30 calendar
days after the conclusion date of the project. Upon that date, it shall be
deemed that lists of all expenditures made by the recipient entities have
already been submitted.
- Payments made to companies, directly or through the Principal
Contractor, may not exceed 50% of the total cost of the company's
participation. During the course of the project, any companies involved
must submit proof of the total expenditure, both those funded through the
call and those borne by the company itself. Payments to companies in the
form of advance payments shall require a bank guarantee for the respective
amount involved.
Article 18
Proof of expenses
- Proof of expenses shall be made by online submission of lists
identifying the expenses paid, using the form provided for this purpose on
the FCT website.
-
With respect to overheads, expenses shall be substantiated by the
following documents:
- An itemized list of the expenses submitted, with the respective
breakdown percentages, which must be signed by the financial director
of the institution;
- Description of the calculation method and breakdown key used for
assigning overheads for the project;
- Recipient institutions must keep a dossier containing copies of the
documents related to overheads to substantiate the lists submitted.
- Eligible expenses made by the recipient entities must be certified by a
licensed auditor or, in the case of projects with an eligible expenditure
of less than €200,000, recipient entities may elect to have this
certification done by a licensed accountant, which will confirm that the
approved expenses were made, that the documents substantiating the expenses
have been correctly entered in the ledgers and that the financial support
has been properly accounted for under the terms of the applicable laws.
When the recipient entities are Public Administration entities, the
aforementioned certification may be carried out by the financial officer
authorized by the respective entity.
Article 19
Revocation of the funding decision
-
The decision to fund may be revoked by the President of the FCT, or by
the Management Authority of the POFC if co-funding was awarded under
this program, under the following circumstances:
- Noncompliance with the regulations or nonfulfillment of
commitments made which seriously jeopardizes achievement of the defined
objectives, for reasons imputable to the Principal Contractor or
Participating Organizations or the Principal Investigator, or for
refusal to supply information or any other relevant items that may be
solicited;
- Noncompliance, for reasons imputable to the Principal Contractor or
Participating Organizations, with their respective legal and fiscal
obligations;
- Giving of false information regarding the recipient’s
situation or falsification of data provided in the proposal, evaluation
and follow-up of the project.
- Revocation of the funding decision shall imply cancellation of the
funding and subsequent obligation to repay the co-funding already received,
with the Principal Contractor being required to replace the amounts
received, plus any interest due, within 30 working days of receiving the
respective notification, in accordance with the terms of the Acceptance
Agreement.
- Should the funding decision be revoked for the reasons set forth in
paragraph c) of no. 1, the organization in question
shall be considered ineligible for support under the Support System for the
National Science and Technology System for a period of five years.
Article 20
Progress reports and final reports
- PCs shall submit annual scientific progress reports and a final
scientific report on the FCT website for the purpose of follow-up and final
evaluation.
- Scientific progress reports to be submitted annually on the FCT website
shall briefly describe the work carried out, the results obtained and any
divergence from the work proposed or the budget approved.
- The final report of the scientific activity shall describe, in detail,
the work carried out during the period in question; any publications and
other results ensuing from the project should be itemized. Access to
publications and other results must be ensured by indicating the URL if
they have been published online and made available to the public, or on a
web server maintained by the project, or by transferring the files in pdf
format to FCT servers. The FCT may limit the volume and type of documents
that can be uploaded; the PI shall be responsible for selecting the most
important material and making the remaining work available through a
website if it exceeds this limit.
- Scientific progress reports and final reports must be submitted online
on the FCT website within 30 calendar days after completion of the
activities of each year of the project and after completion of the project,
respectively.
- The final financial report, which is drawn up by the FCT based on the
expenses that were considered eligible during the course of the project and
made available online on the FCT website, must be validated by the PI
within 10 calendar days after it is made available.
- The reports referred to in the previous numbers shall be examined by
follow-up committees set up for each scientific field; these committees may
recommend suspension or cancellation of the funding.
Article 21
Follow-up and monitoring
- Projects may be the object of follow-up and monitoring activities
carried out by the FCT, or by entities designated by the FCT, and by all
entities legally authorized to do so, in accordance with the applicable
rules.
- Recipient entities are required to use a separate accounting system or
a suitable accounting code for all project-related transactions, in
accordance with current accounting standards.
- The original expense documents and receipts must be marked with an ink
stamp, the characteristics of which shall be defined by the FCT.
-
The project dossier shall contain the following items:
- Proposal submission form and respective appendices, including the
Declaration of Intention referred to in article 5,
no. 4;
- Notification of the decision to approve;
- Reformulation of the proposal data to reflect the evaluation panel
recommendations;
- Acceptance agreement;
- Request for change to the decision to approve, if applicable;
- Document showing VAT status;
- Copy of the itemized expense lists and the original documents
substantiating them;
- Itemized list of expenses submitted under the category of
overheads;
- Documentation relative to publicizing the support received;
- Documents demonstrating compliance with the legal regime governing
public contracts, if applicable;
- Documentation relative to audits of the project.
- The technical-financial file must be kept up-to-date; delays of greater
than 60 days shall not be admissible.
-
After conclusion of the project, the respective dossier shall be kept
on file:
- for at least 10 years counting from the date of the last funding
decision awarded to the project under the terms of these Regulations;
- for projects co-funded by FEDER, in addition to the 10 years to be
counted from the date of the last funding decision awarded to the
project, the dossier must be kept until three years after
Competitiveness Factors Thematic Operational Programme is closed.
Article 22
Information and publicity
Recipient organizations must comply with the rules regarding information
and publicity, under the terms set forth by the FCT, in all work ensuing
from the project and on all equipment acquired.
Article 23
Supplementary rules
All other aspects not specifically addressed in these Regulations
governing access to funding for scientific research and technological
development projects and in the Operational Regulations governing the
Support System for the National Science and Technology System (
Regulamento de Execução do Sistema de Apoio a Entidades do Sistema
Científico e Tecnológico Nacional), for co-funded projects, shall be
subject to the provisions of the applicable European Community and national
rules.
Article 24
Date of entry into force
These Regulations enter into force on 26 November 2008.