Evaluation and Multi-Year Funding of Clinical Academic Centers 2022

The Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB) has communicated the provisional results of the first evaluation and multi-year funding of Clinical Academic Centers (CAC) to all applicants.

The external evaluation of the CACs is coordinated by FCT, which delegated to AICIB jointly with the Central Administration of the Health System, I.P. (ACSS), in close articulation with the Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), Directorate-General of Health (DGS) and after hearing the National Council of Clinical Academic Centers (CNCAC).

The application submission period ran from January 10th to April 11th of this year, in accordance with the terms of Notice of the Call de Call. Twelve applications from the respective CACs were submitted and admitted for funding, and 7 applications were provisionally selected, representing a total investment of 1.4 million euros, supported by national funds in the FCT budget. The provisional list of projects recommended for funding from Call is available here.

The evaluation of the applications and the elaboration of the proposal for overall classification and funding was the responsibility of an independent evaluation panel, composed of five (5) evaluators of internationally recognized merit and competence. Each proposal was evaluated and graded based on 3 criteria: a) merit of the institutional articulation; b) valorization of the collaboration; and c) collaborative organization, having been proposed funding the applications that obtained an overall grade equal or higher than "sufficient" (2.5 points), on a scale of 0 to 5, as foreseen in the Evaluation Guide.

The evaluation process involved the analysis of the applications, the public presentation of the CACs followed by discussion with the evaluation panel, and the face-to-face evaluation, with a visit by the evaluation panel to each CAC, which took place during September and October.

The period for a prior hearing is currently underway, as set forth in the Administrative Procedure Code in force, and in article 16(1) of Regulation 735/2021, which establishes the terms of the external evaluation of clinical academic centers.