Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus - 6th Edition

The support for hiring doctoral researchers aims to strengthen the national scientific and technological system by creating employment opportunities for doctoral researchers, promoting the formalization of scientific employment of PhD holders, helping to attract and retain qualified PhD holders in Portugal and also to contribute to the rejuvenation of scientific institutions. It also aims to support, deepen and specialize the exercise of scientific research and technological development activities aimed at solving scientific missions and challenges framed within the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

General requirements

National, foreign and stateless PhD holders in any scientific area who wish to carry out scientific research or technological development activities in Portugal may apply.

Applicants may not hold a legal employment relationship of indefinite duration with any entity belonging to the National Science and Technology System, as identified in Article 14 of Decree-Law No. 63/2019, of 16 May, whose purpose or content includes scientific research activities.

Specific requirements

The candidate must indicate which level/category of doctoral researcher he/she is applying for, within the three levels open for competition:

1. Junior researcher - PhD holders for 5 years or less, counted as of the closing date of the application submission period, with reduced post-doctoral research experience in the scientific area to which they are applying.
2. Auxiliary researcher - PhD holders for more than 5 and less than 12 years, inclusive, counted as of the closing date of the application submission period, with a relevant curriculum in the scientific area to which they are applying.
3. Principal researcher - PhD holders for more than 12 years, counted as of the closing date of the application submission period, with a relevant curriculum vitae in the scientific area to which they are applying, demonstrating some scientific independence in the last 3 years.

The candidate's scientific independence is defined by originality, scientific capacity and international recognition and affirmation, or by doctoral and post-doctoral supervision, or by the capacity to attract national and/or international funding.

Applications must be submitted by filling out, in English, a specific form that will be avilable electronically on the myFCT portal.

Only the applications submitted and admitted to the application process, after verification of their admissibility, are evaluated.

The evaluation of the candidate for each of the levels of doctoral researcher focuses on two evaluation criteria: (A) merit of the candidate and (B) merit of the research plan.

The evaluation of the applications is carried out by evaluation panels organized by scientific areas (adapted from the Frascati/OECD classification), each of which is coordinated by one of its members and, if necessary, with the collaboration of another member in the role of co-coordinator. The evaluation panels are composed of experts of recognized merit, affiliated to foreign institutions, ensuring the representativeness of the scientific areas selected by the candidates.

The evaluation panels may make use of external evaluators, who prepare opinions on the applications assigned to them, aimed at informing the panels' work and decisions.

The evaluated applications are ranked, in each evaluation panel, in descending order of the final classification for each level of doctoral researcher open to competition and selected up to the number of contracts to be funded.

Only applications with a final classification equal to or higher than 7 (seven) on a scale of 1 (one) to 10 (ten) shall be considered eligible for funding.

Applicants who, in the 5th edition of the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus, obtained a final classification lower than 5 (five) in their application shall be excluded from applying in this edition. The candidates who obtain a final classification lower than 5 (five) in this edition will also be barred from applying to the next edition of the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus. All final classifications mentioned are considered rounded to two decimal places.

The hiring of doctoral researchers is financed by national funds through FCT and, when eligible, co-financed by EU funds.

Within the scope of the funding to be granted, the following remuneration costs are eligible, considering the three levels:

1. Junior researcher - level 33 of the tabela remuneratória única (single remuneration scale).
2. Auxiliary researcher - 1st step of the category of auxiliary researcher of the scientific research career, according to Annex I of Decree Law no. 124/99, of 20 April, under an exclusive dedication or full-time regime.
3. Principal researcher - 1st step in the category of principal researcher in the scientific research career, according to Annex I of Decree-Law no. 124/99, of 20 April, under an exclusive dedication or full-time regime.