DUT Call 2024

Created under Horizon Europe, EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, the DUT partnership aims to tackle the challenges of urban transition by involving regional, municipal and local communities. DUT aims to create a strong community around urban transitions and to establish a well-known research and innovation platform that will help cities become more sustainable, inclusive and liveable.

Together with the European Commission, DUT aims to support transnational research and/or innovation projects around the Partnership’s Transition Pathways.

Circular Urban Economies Transition Pathway (CUE TP)

• CUE Topic 1: Creating a new paradigm for urban water cycles
• CUE Topic 2: Circular models for regenerating, repurposing, protecting and conserving urban space for biodiversity
• CUE Topic 3: Multi-City strategies for circular urban economy monitoring and management

15-minute City Transition Pathway (15mC TP)

• 15mC Topic 1: Advancing urban mobility: innovations for inclusive and youth-centric mobility systems
• 15mC Topic 2: Reconsidering urban mobility systems: towards system innovation and proximity policies for sustainable city regions (this topic is not funded by FCT – see information about FCT at Annex A: Specific Funding Agencies’ Budgets and Rules of Eligibility, in the Call Text, available in the 'Call Documents' area)
• 15mC Topic 3: Evidence for the urban mobility transition – data and indicators for effective decision-making

Positive Energy Districts Transition Pathway (PED TP)

• PED Topic 1: Local PEDs in a multi-level perspective
• PED Topic 2: Towards the climate-neutral city: PEDs, system integration and urban strategies
• PED Topic 3: Managing the urban energy transition: data management and decision support systems

The following are individual or co-promotion beneficiaries:

a) Non-entrepreneurial entities of the R&I system, namely:

    i. Higher education institutions, their institutes and R&D units;

    ii. State, Associated or International Laboratories based in Portugal;

   iii. Private non-profit institutions whose main purpose is R&D activities, including Collaborative Laboratories (CoLab) and Technology and Innovation Centres (TIC);

   iv. Other non-profit public and private institutions developing or participating in scientific research activities.

b) Companies of any nature and in any legal form.

The information contained in this section does not exempt you from consulting Article 3 of the Regulation of projects financed exclusively by national funds, Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3 January, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 October (see FCT Regulation, available in the 'Call Documents' area).

DUT Call 2024 consists of the submission of pre-proposals (1st phase) and full proposals (2nd phase). Only the pre-proposals submitted by the transnational consortia in the 1st phase and selected by the Call Steering Committee, made up of the participating funding agencies (PFA), based on the ranking list proposed by the external evaluators, will be invited to submit full proposals in the 2nd phase.

Each Proposing Institution (PI) that is part of a transnational consortium can only apply for funding from the PFA of its country or region. See Annex A: Specific Funding Agencies' Budgets and Rules of Eligibility, in the Call Text (under 'Call Documents'), for information on the eligibility rules of each PFA and on the transnational eligibility rules. For a proposal to be eligible, it must comply with the national and transnational eligibility rules.

To submit their application, each Portuguese PI wishing to apply for funding from FCT must:

1. consult the Call Text in ‘Call Documents';
2. consult FCT eligibility rules in Annex A: Specific Funding Agencies’ Budgets and Rules of Eligibility
3. submit, through the coordinator of the transnational consortium, the proposal form on the application submission platform (see 'Important links') by 12:00 GMT in mainland Portugal on 14/11/2024;
4. send to FCT, within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the application, a Statement of Commitment (SoC) completed and signed by the Researcher in Charge (RC) identified by the PI and by a qualified representative of the PI. The SoC should be sent to the emails indicated in 'Contacts'. 

Please note:

• Failure to send the SoC to the FCT on the date referred to in paragraph 4, or the unjustified delivery of the SoC after that deadline, or the delivery of an incomplete DC, without one of the two parts – RC and PI  – that make it up or without the signatures of the Portuguese RC and/or a qualified representative of the Portuguese PI, will result in the application being declared ineligible and withdrawn from the call.   
• If two or more Portuguese applicants from the same transnational consortium apply for funding from FCT, each must send a completed and signed SoC.
• One SoC must be sent to FCT for each application submitted by the same RC and PI.
• Portuguese partners of transnational consortia that do not apply for funding from FCT do not need to submit the SoC to FCT.
• The digital signature of the representative of the PI must contain professional attributes that identify the functions performed by the representative.
• The PI stamp or white seal is only required on manually signed SoC.

The information on this page is only a summary of the information of the call, does not exempt the candidates from carefully reading all the call documents available on this page and on the call website (see ’Important links’) and refers only to FCT's participation in this call, unless expressly indicated.

Eligibility

The eligibility check of proposals is carried out at both stages of the call (pre-proposal submission stage and full proposal submission stage):

• National/Regional Funding Agencies check national eligibility of applications, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements in the applicable national/regional regulations and other applicable documents (see FCT Regulation, Normas de Execução Financeira FCT and the information regarding FCT in Annex A: Specific Funding Agencies' Budgets and Rules of Eligibility, in the Call Text, available in the 'Call Documents' area).
• Transnational eligibility check of applications will be performed by the Call Secretariat, according to the transnational eligibility criteria presented in the Call Text (see Call Text, available in the 'Call Documents' area).

Please note:

• For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the national and transnational criteria.
• FCT and CCDRC, as Portuguese funding agencies on this call, reserve the right to evaluate the possibility of transferring application(s) to other Portuguese funding agency if an application is considered non-eligible by the funding agency selected by the candidate institution, but is eligible by the other Portuguese funding agency, which will from then on be responsible for managing the application(s).The transfer of applications will be carried out in accordance with the terms set out in the MoU signed between the parties.

Evaluation

The call includes two evaluation phases:

• Pre-proposal evaluation stage.
• Full proposal evaluation stage.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the evaluation criteria described in the Call Text in the ‘Call Documents’ area.

The Call Steering Committee (CSC), formed by national/regional funding agencies, will decide, according to the stage the call is at, which 1) pre-proposals to invite to submit a full proposal and which 2) proposals to recommend for funding.

• FCT financial commitment for the call: €500 000,00
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: €200 000,00
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: €100 000,00

Please mind:

• Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT’s ’Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds’, Regulation of projects financed exclusively by national funds, Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3 January, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 October (see FCT Regulation and Normas de Execução Financeira FCT, both available in the ’Call Documents’ area, and the applicable national and European legislation).
• If more than one Portuguese applicant from the same transnational consortium applies for funding from FCT, the combined budget requested from FCT by the Portuguese applicants may not exceed the maximum funding limit for a consortium with Portuguese coordination (€200 000,00) or with Portuguese participation (€100 000,00). The Portuguese applicants of the same transnational consortium will have to share the funding that will be granted by FCT.
• The dedication (FTE) in transnational projects is not considered for the 100% (FTE) dedication to national projects.
• Under the terms of number 2 of Article 7 of the Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, payments made directly or indirectly to companies through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.

• Call website
• Matchmaking platform
• Application submission platform
• DUT website
• Partnership page on the FCT website

Alexandre Maurício
alexandre.mauricio@fct.pt
Tel: (+351) 213 917 648

Joana Pinheiro
joana.pinheiro@fct.pt
Tel: (+351) 213 911 567