Scientific Community Support Fund (FACC)

Statistics

Characterization of support awarded between 2002 and 2008

Financing awarded through FACC by type of support, 2002-2008

Between 2002 and 2006, a total of €5,724,785 was invested in initiatives related to disseminating scientific knowledge and promoting R&D activities through the Scientific Community Support Program (FACC) program. This works out to a yearly average of €1,144,957 made available to fund this program during the five-year period.

Among the various types of support provided, the greatest share, 61.2%, went to organization of scientific meetings. Of the remainder, 22.6% was channeled into publications of a scientific nature (periodicals, 12.3%, and non-periodicals, 10.3%). A further 9.6% made it possible for postdoctoral fellows and graduate students to attend scientific meetings abroad, 5.7% contributed to the functioning of scientific societies and, lastly, 0.9% went to finance stays in Portugal for scientists from abroad.

If we break the total down by scientific field, Natural and Exact Sciences and Social Sciences accounted for about half of the financial support granted during these five years: 25% and 23 %, respectively. These were followed by, in decreasing order, the Humanities (18%), Engineering and Technology (17%), Medical and Health Sciences (8%) and Agricultural Sciences (4%). The remaining 5% went to initiatives without a specifically stated primary field.

Looking at the number of initiatives funded as opposed to the amount of funding, the Social Sciences received the most grants for organization of meetings (27%) and for participation of students in meetings abroad (30%) and the Humanities received the most grants for publications (39%). The number of grants to finance stays in Portugal for scientists from abroad was too low to be of statistical significance for this parameter or for the parameters that follow.

When the average amount of funding awarded to each initiative is calculated (over the entire 2002-2006 period), we see that this varied depending on the type of grant and the scientific field: for organization of meetings, Engineering and Technology received the highest average amount (€2,222), with Agricultural Sciences bringing up the rear (€1,145); for publications, Agricultural Sciences received the highest average amount (€1,713) and Medical Sciences the lowest (€1,182); for grants to scientific societies, Exact and Natural Sciences received the highest average amount (€2,660), while Agricultural Sciences received the lowest (€1,285).

The average grant amount per initiative fell between 2002 and 2006, except in the case of grants to postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students for participation in meetings abroad, where the amount increased at an average annual rate of 5%. The average grant amount for organization of scientific meetings decreased at an average annual rate of 7%; for publications, the rate of decrease was 10%, and for scientific societies it was 12%.

No overriding trend was found for either the amounts awarded or the number of initiatives supported during the five-year period analyzed. In fact, the period was marked by ups and downs. Nevertheless, the number of grants awarded for organization of meetings, publication of scientific literature and participation of postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students in meetings abroad was higher in 2006 than in 2002.

+ More text

Overview

Organization of scientific meetings

Publishing of works of a scientific nature

See also the list of supported periodicals in 2002-2006.

Operation of scientific societies or of scientific institutions of a similar nature

See also the list of supported societies in 2002-2006.

Participation of post-graduate students or post-doctoral fellows in scientific meetings abroad

Short stays in Portugal of scientists residing abroad

Notes

  1. In assembling the statistics, the scientific fields assigned to the grants in the respective management process were grouped according to the first level of the Frascati Manual FOS classification / OECD (February 2007 revision).
  2. The regions identified correspond to NUTS level II units.