FCT started supporting MathJax in its application systems. For other types of formulas, like the ones used in chemistry, use a graphical annex.
When you supply the PI with your FCT Association Key, also supply the DeGois key used, for instance, in the public URL for your DeGois curriculum (it is a 16 digit number, see the image). After introducing the researcher in the team list, the PI can edit the researcher entry to add the DeGois key.
Curricula, both FCTSIG/cv as well as DeGois, are frozen for application purposes when the call closes. Other application data is frozen when the application is sealed.
The full list is available at http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/projectos/concursos/2010/docs/areas.
The field Name in publications or Name under which you publish or similar mentioned in the Guide is now available in the FCTSIG/cv curriculum system editing Personal Data. It is used to simplify recognizing the researcher name when an evalutor browses publication databases, something suggested by intenational evaluators chronically frustrated by long or changed Portuguese names. This possibility is recently available and only really matters in the evaluation portal although it is also used in the application portal to display team member names if available. We will try to include a corresponding DeGois field before the call closes.
No, if an appeal is pending. In the remaining cases yes, but there is no automatic procedure for that purpose. The pratical way to recycle pieces of a previous application is to open two different browsers, for instance Internet Explorer and Firefox, an application in each, and copy from one to the other.
Yes, all main contractors and participating institutions will be funded at 100% except for companies, which will be funded at 50%.
In accordance with the Regulations it is not mandatory for a Researcher to make application to hold an accumulated percentage of time committed to FCT projects not exceeding 100% at the time of application. Nevertheless, in case the project is proposed for funding and if on its start date holds an accumulated percentage of time committed to FCT projects exceeding 100% (including the new project), then the Declaration of Acceptance will not be made available.
No, if an appeal is pending (something introduced in the 2008 Regulations). Otherwise you can but there is no automated procedure.
The full list is available at http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/projectos/concursos/20xx/docs/areas. Note that xx must be replaced appropriately. In particular:
It is some form of support granted by the State (or through state resources) to a company, whose value does not surpass a limit defined in EC regulations or a national legal diploma, during a period of three years starting on the date of the first incentive, independently of the form or objective. This type of support, due to its small amount, is not considered to be incompatible with European Union norms on competition, hence no notification to the European Commission is needed.
Supporting legislation:
Establishes the maximum amount of support granted under Commission Regulations (EC) 1998/2006 of December 15, relative to de minimis support.
http://www.pofc.qren.pt/ResourcesUser/Legislacao/Portaria_184_2009.pdf
Relative to the application of articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty to de minimis support. It defines the EU framework for de minimis support.
http://www.pofc.qren.pt/ResourcesUser/Legislacao/Regulamento%201998_06.pdf
503 904 040
2000 4040 865
The institutions where experiments will be carried out and team members carrying out the experiments (this is not necessarily required of the PI) must be certified to carry them out, through a certificate issued by DGV.
Above that menu to the right there is a link called Organizations that are not listed. Follow it.
Several years ago FCT public keys included the login followed by 4 characters from the password. This was a security risk which caused the forceful expiration of these keys.
The researcher should access
https://www.fct.mctes.pt/fctsig
submit his/her login credentials and will find the Association Key following the Login menu item.
In case the login credentials are unavailable, they should be recovered using
https://www.fct.mctes.pt/fctsig/preregisto.asp?action=esqueceu
which requires reintroducing the email used for registration. The system will automatically send a login and password reminder.
No. The Scientific Career Development Grants, funded in the frame of research projects ( i.e., the grant is supported by the funds of the project) require the grant holder to assume the role of PI with a time allocation to the project of 100%, thus preventing additional involvement in other projects.
Use the web server in your school or center to create a controlled access area with login and password, or with a URL unlikely to be guessed and inside a directory that cannot be listed, and indicate the url (and eventually the login and password) in the application. If you choose controlled access then create a document authentication.pdf with that information. The evaluation panel will receive instructions to access authentication.pdf and to refrain from distributing the material except for the purpose of this evaluation.
No. National Principal Contractors or Participating Institutions, as institutions that may receive funding if and when the project is approved, must have a NIPC (Collective Person Identification Number) and their denomination when applying must perfectly match the one associated to that NIPC.
Foreign Institutions can act as Participating Institutions provided they do not have a requested budget.
Exceptional circunstances concerning foreign institutions are regulated by no. 5 of article 2 of the Regulations.
From a scientific viewpoint the participation of retired researchers as PI or team members of R&D projects does not affect the evaluation of proposals.
Yes, the PI must have a doctoral degree or possess a comparable qualification on account of being integrated in a career where that is explicitly contemplated. The research career is one such case.
Yes. Researches with the categories of Assistant Researcher, Principal Researcher or Coordinator Researcher (DL 124/99 of 20th April) can act as PI of research projects even if they do not hold a PhD degree.
Although FCT expects that researchers should be aware of such data, each researcher can browse the current status according to FCT records by logging in to https://www.fct.mctes.pt/fctsig/.
Expenses related to voluntary social security contributions of individual grant recipients can be included under Human Resources provided that these are duly justified.
According to the Regulations, institutional overheads arising from the execution of the project are considered eligible up to a maximum of 20% of the total eligible direct costs, i.e. the types described in the Regulations and in the Announcement of the Call for Proposals.
Yes but only until the Call closes. A batch process is run at that time making copies of CVs both from FCTSIG/cv and DeGois. (This is a change from the traditional process, which would make copies of curricula at the time the application was submitted, starting with the 2010 Call in all scientific domains.)
The URL for the original FCT curricula system, FCTSIG/cv, is
https://www.fct.mctes.pt/fctsig/cv
Curricula in the DeGois platform can also be used. In this case researchers should indicate to the PI not only their FCT Association Key but also the DeGois key.
The CV must be submitted in English with the obvious exceptions: postal addresses, publication titles (original title should be used), etc.
Being a Participating Institution does not require or imply receiving funding through the project.
The information should be limited to projects which have been approved through peer-review and that have been completed, are underway or are pending that have been led by the PI of the current proposal. The most relevant projects initiated within the last 5 years should be mentioned, regardless of the source of funding.
The objective of this section is to describe the group’s previous work, any alternative methodologies competing with those proposed in the current project and to justify the need for the proposed innovation. The literature review should by critical, i.e. simply referring to a previous work without commenting on the contribution the work brings to the approach proposed for this project or without mentioning its limitations is neither significant nor useful. Previous results of the PI and the research team are evaluated positively. The reviewers look at this section to evaluate the PI’s vision and knowledge regarding the state of the art and the reason why the PI believes that the methodologies proposed will produce the best results. The PI must convince the reviewers that he/she and the project research team have suitable background and awareness of the open problems in the research area in question.
Include the references cited in the technical and scientific description of the proposal, using a cross-referencing method chosen by the PI. Include the title, the authors’ names in the order that they appear in the publication, the name of the book or periodical, volume number, page numbers and year of publication. If the publications are available online, include the respective URL.
É o valor em meses completos equivalente ao total de trabalho do/a investigador/a ao longo do projecto. Para o calcular, começar por estimar a percentagem do tempo completo semanal de trabalho em todas as tarefas de índole profissional que é dedicada pelo investigador ao projecto em cada uma das suas diferentes fases. Exemplos:
The total number of person*month is calculated by adding up the amount of time dedicated to the project for all the phases that must be considered.
A Principal Investigator must have a sufficient amount of time dedicated to the project to carry out the proposed activities - no less than 25% of full time. Other members of the research team must also have a sufficient amount of time dedicated to the project in order to carry out the proposed activities.
The sum of the percentages dedicated by each researcher to FCT projects underway may not exceed 100% in the case of full-time researchers and must be commensurately less in other cases.
The convention adopted by the OECD applies here. A full-time week for a researcher is not a fixed number of hours, but rather the total time dedicated by this individual to carrying out all professional activities, research or otherwise, during or outside normal working hours. The percentage of full time set aside for the project should be estimated in relation to the definition of full time given above.
A project’s scientific field is defined as the principal scientific area and sub-area chosen by the Principal Investigator.
The evaluation is done by review panels organized according to scientific field. The aim of organizing the panels according to scientific field is to ensure a priori that each panel evaluates a sufficient number of proposals to be able to compare them. The review process provides for recourse to outside specialists for expert opinions whenever the degree of specialization of a particular proposal does not allow it to be appropriately evaluated by the members of the panel. Each panel is responsible for identifying proposals that need to be treated this way and arranging for the corresponding specialist reviewers. The panel coordinator is responsible for ensuring that this procedure is followed.
The list of projects that appears at the beginning of the form includes proposals that have been submitted by the same Principal Investigator through the current version of the FCT Calls for Project Proposals portal. To access proposals that have previously been submitted by the same Principal Investigator, see the explanation and link at the bottom of the page.
A scanned version must be submitted no later than 10 working days after the call is closed or the proposal will not be accepted.
The Declaration of Intent can only be printed out after the proposal has been sealed.
This refers to the technical progress reports and final reports which must be submitted in accordance with the respective regulations and to any remaining balances from projects.
This refers to financial reports or return of funds transferred to the PO in previous projects with the same PI.
| Field | Limit |
|---|---|
| 1. Identification of the project - Title PT | 255 |
| 1. Identification of the project - Title EN | 255 |
| 3.1. Summary PT | 5000 |
| 3.1. Summary EN | 5000 |
| 3.2.1. Literature Review | 6000 |
| 3.2.2. Research Plan and Methods | 9000 |
| 3.2.3. Tasks - Description and Expected Results | 4000 |
| 3.2.4.a. Description of the Management Structure | 3000 |
| 3.2.4.b. Description of milestone | 300 |
| 5. Projects Funded – Results | 5000 |
| 6. Predicted Outcomes - Actions to publicize scientific activity | 3000 |
| 8.1. Justification of Human Resources | 600 |
| 8.2. Justification of Travel Expenses | 600 |
| 8.3. Justification of Consultants | 600 |
| 8.4. Justification of acquisitions of goods and services | 600 |
| 8.5. Justification of patents | 600 |
| 8.7. Justification of adaptation of buildings | 600 |
| 8.8.2. List of equipment to be purchased - Justification | 600 |
Yes. Spaces, line endings, etc. Be pessimistic.
Given the importance of the Curriculum Vitæ (CV) in evaluating the execution of the project and the research team, consultants should submit their CVs online.
As an alternative to online submission, a public access URL where the consultant’s CV can be viewed can be indicated.
The consultant should register in FCTSIG and access https://www.fct.mctes.pt/fctsig/cv to register or update the CV.
The public key should be indicated in the field on the application form for justification of consultants (point 4.3).
You have two options: write the name if you guess that you (and the community in general) do not need to refer often to this institution and the name is sufficiently well known for identification; in other cases follow the link Instituições que não constam da lista to make it available (2 working days).
Yes, foreign institutions can be participating organizations in the project, but only at zero cost. In situations where there are international agreements or international reciprocity mechanisms duly signed by the FCT, authorized by the governing bodies and expressly indicated in the Announcement of the Call for Proposals, foreign institutions may be funded.
Yes. If they are affiliated with foreign institutions and travel as part of the project, expenses are only considered eligible if they are submitted through the Portuguese institutions involved.
Only eligible expenses related to acquisition of services from foreign institutions are considered admissible.
Yes, if the tasks they perform are essential to carrying out the project and provided that the research team does not have the specialized skills needed to carry out these tasks. These expenses should be included under Acquisition of Services.
Yes, but only under Overheads and only if they are admissible in the institution’s distribution of overheads system.
No, with the exception of Overheads and Adaptation of Buildings and Facilities.
As a rule, project funding does not cover the cost of salaries or bonuses.
In special cases, salary costs may be included under Human Resources, provided that these are duly justified in the proposal. It must be shown that the recipient organizations have no other alternatives at their disposal in terms of specialized human resources capable of carrying out the proposed work.
The beneficiaries cannot be affiliated with the public administration and the expenses resulting from contract signed are only considered eligible for the period of execution of the project and at the amounts corresponding to the % of full time at which the worker is hired.
According to the Regulations, expenses incurred to acquire goods and services are considered eligible. Therefore, a contract can be entered into to have a service performed at the institutions of origin of foreign researchers.
Yes. Doctoral or master’s students who are receiving grants from the FCT can be members of the research team, provided that the subject of their dissertations is appropriate to the subjects of the proposals. Remuneration for members who are receiving an FCT grant is not considered an eligible expense.
BDCCs may be applied only to coordination of projects.
BCCs can be awarded to members of the research team.
The Human Resources item is designed to give preference to funding of individual grants through opening public calls for applications according to the Norms for the award of grants in research projects, for the purpose of involving young researchers in training.
The members of the research team do not necessarily have to be affiliated with the participating organizations, but they must show that suitable conditions available for them to carry out the tasks they are charged with.
In the case of individual grants, the costs mentioned above may all be included except for cost-of-living increases to monthly maintenance subsidies.
If there is a cost-of-living increase in the grant amounts, this cost can only be covered by transferring funds between budget categories without altering the amount of funding awarded to the project.
With respect to contracts, DL no. 64/A/89 should be consulted. We must point out however that severance pay at the end of the contract is not considered eligible.
The starting date of a project must fall within 90 days after the date notification of funding was issued.
FCT co-funding to companies may not exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation. During the course of the project, the companies involved must submit proof of the total expenses, both those that are funded by the FCT and those borne by the company itself.
The Declarations of Intent must be signed by the highest governing body of the participating organizations and by the PI and initialed on every page of the corresponding part of the declaration.
Yes, provided that the same eligibility rules as those that apply to the rest of the team members are observed and that there is no double coverage of expenses included in the individual grant.
Yes, if the activities in the project fall within the Fellowship Plan of Work and no additional payments are received in the framework of the project.
Some forms now have stricter checking of URLs and we plan to extend that checking to all similar locations. We suggest you browse
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/topics/urlencoding.htm
The Protocol will not be submitted during the application period but only if the project is recommended for approval. The FCT wil make available a protocol template.
No. Being institutions without an associated budget, signing the Declaration is not mandatory.
Ongoing revision: February 13, 2011.
