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FCT released the results of the Call for Atribuição de Estatuto de Associate Laboratory

FCT published today, February 24th, the provisional results of the Call for granting the Statute of Associate Laboratory (LA), in which 40 institutions or consortia of institutions were approved for granting the Statute of Associate Laboratory. This Call established the allocation of additional funding for the specific activities of the LA of 23 843 000€ per year, starting in 2021 and for a period of 5 years, in addition to the funding of 53 469 000€ per year already granted to the Research Units that integrate the LA. The results are available here and the evaluation reports here.

The LA are structural components of the National Scientific and Technological System and consist of research and development institutions (R&D) or consortia of R&D institutions that make explicit institutional commitments to the pursuit of national scientific and technological policy objectives. To this end, these laboratories must have human resources and scientific infrastructure that enable them to sustainably promote scientific and technical careers for doctoral candidates.

Started in 2019, the process of granting LA status was prepared and conducted by FCT with transparency criteria and the involvement of the scientific community, in which extensive informal discussions on the regulation of the process were promoted, culminating in a public discussion and publication of the Regulation of Associate Laboratories on November 12, 2019.

The application process for this Call is open continuously with a single annual evaluation period. The applications now evaluated were submitted between September 28th and October 29th, 2020. R&D units funded by FCT with a classification of Excellent or Very Good and with a minimum of 80 integrated doctoral researchers at the time of application could apply, individually or in consortia. 45 applications were submitted, encompassing a total of 118 Units and 10,088 integrated researchers. The evaluation was conducted by a national panel coordinated by Manuel Nunes da Ponte and with the collaboration of an international scientific council. All applications were presented and discussed publicly(videos of the sessions).

The LA approved in this evaluation exercise are distributed throughout the national territory, and in the case of consortia may cover more than one region. In the North region 15 are located, in the Center 7, in Lisbon 15, in Alentejo 2 and Algarve 1.

By major scientific areas, the LA are distributed as follows: Life and Health Sciences: 6; Exact and Engineering Sciences: 18; Natural and Environmental Sciences: 12, Social Sciences and Humanities: 4. Of the 40 LA coordinators, 13 are women (33%).