3,525 applications submitted in the FCT Studentships Call

The FCT Call the Award of Studentships for Doctorates 2023, which closed last Friday, March 31, received 3,525 applications. Of these, 3,084 applications were submitted under the general application line and 441 under the specific application line in a non-academic environment. This Call to award 1,450 Studentships the FCT plans to announce the provisional results of the application evaluation in July.

Of the total number of applications submitted to Call, 56% were submitted by women and 44% by men, with an average age of 31 among all applicants. Of the types of Studentships , 2,885 are Studentships programs will be carried out in Portugal; 559 are Studentships , with work plans to be carried out in Portugal and abroad; and 81 are Studentships be carried out only abroad.

Within the general application category, Social Sciences was the scientific area that attracted the most applications (24%), followed by Engineering and Technology (22%), Humanities (18%), Medical and Health Sciences (13%), Natural Sciences (11%), Exact Sciences (8%), and Agricultural Sciences (4%).

Within the specific application line in a non-academic environment, the area of Engineering Sciences and Technologies attracted the most applicants (31%), followed by Social Sciences (17%), Medical and Health Sciences (17%), Agricultural Sciences (10%), Humanities (9%), Natural Sciences (9%), and Exact Sciences (6%).

In the specific application line in a non-academic environment, and with regard to the characterization of non-academic entities that, in partnership with universities and research units, will receive the applications submitted, 48% are companies, and 52% are distributed among museums, hospitals, third sector entities, municipal councils, and other public institutions, showing the diversity of scientific paths and institutional configurations promoted under this FCT funding line, as well as the variety of institutions interested in hosting researchers and work plans with a high scientific and innovation profile. It should also be noted that all applications in a non-academic environment have at least one academic host institution, as well as an intersectoral guidance team, promoting greater proximity and more opportunities for collaboration between R&D institutions and the diversity of institutional contexts and activities with which their scientific areas are related.

FCT Doctoral Studentships are competitively awarded grants to support advanced training in all areas of knowledge for the purpose of obtaining a doctoral degree. These Studentships doctoral students to devote themselves exclusively to their research, thereby contributing to the scientific and technological development of the country. Currently, the FCT has more than 7,000 Studentships in progress, and in 2022, 2,446 new Studentships were initiated.

In 2022, FCT support in the area of advanced training corresponded to an annual investment of around €110 million. In addition to this funding, there is the payment of tuition fees directly to higher education institutions and personal accident insurance for scholarship holders, which together represent annual funding of around €17 million.

All information about the 2023 Studentships Call is published on the respective Call pages: general application line and specific application line in a non-academic environment.