FutureFoodS European Partnership Call 2024

FCT is a member of the co-funded European Partnership FutureFoodS - European Partnership for a Sustainable Future of Food Systems, which aims to collectively achieve, by 2050, food systems in Europe that are environmentally friendly, socially safe and fair, economically viable, healthy and safe, mobilising research and innovation to accelerate the transition to sustainable food systems, that will enable the change from linear food chains to circular food systems, that work while respecting the planet's limits.

In its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), FutureFoodS has identified the following four thematic areas of R&I, which are key to transforming food systems:

1. Change the way we eat
2. Change the way we process and supply food
3. Change the way we connect in food systems
4. Change the way we govern food systems

TOPICS

The overall theme of CTC 2024 is Transforming food systems - reshaping food system interactions, promoting food innovations and empowering sustainable food choices. Proposals to be submitted under this call must address at least one of the following themes:

1. The way towards sustainable and resilient food systems;
2. New foods – Fostering innovations in food design, processing and supply via demand-and-supply reorientation;
3. Empowering sustainable food choices – Enabling food environments and dietary shifts.

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).

The FutureFoodS partnership 2024 call is made up of the pre-proposal submission phase (1st phase) and the full proposal phase (2nd phase). Only pre-proposals submitted by transnational consortia in the 1st phase 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 Participating Funding Agencies (PFAs) in its country or region. See the "Call Text" (in 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 prepare their application, each Portuguese PI wishing to apply for funding from FCT must:

1. consult the Call Documents area;

2. consult the FCT rules (see the Call Text);

3. submit, through the coordinator of the transnational consortium, the completed application form on the application submission platform (see "Useful links") by 12:00 noon in mainland Portugal on 15/01/2025;

4. send to the FCT, no later than 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the application, a Declaration of Commitment (DC) completed and signed by the Principal Investigator (PI) identified by the Proposing Institution and by a qualified representative of the PI. The DC should be sent to the email addresses indicated in the Contacts tab.

NOTES:

– Failure to submit the DC to the FCT on the date referred to in no. 4, or unjustified submission of the DC after that date, or submission of an incomplete CD, without one of the two parts - PI and Proposing Institution - that compose it, or without the signatures of the PI and/or the qualified representative of the Proposing Institution, will determine the ineligibility of the application.

– If two or more Proposing Institutions from the same transnational consortium apply for funding from the FCT, each Principal Investigator must send to the FCT a completed and signed DC.

– A DC must be sent to the FCT for each application submitted by the same PI and Proposing Institution.

– National partners of transnational consortia that do not request funding from the FCT do not need to submit the DC to the FCT.

– The Proposing Institution’s stamp or white seal is only required on manually signed DCs.

The information on this page is only a summary of the information on the call, and it does not dispense with the need to carefully read all the documents on the call for tenders available on this page and on the call page (see Useful links) and refers only to FCT's participation in this call, unless expressly stated.

Eligibility

The eligibility of applications is checked at both stages of the competition (pre-proposal submission stage and full proposal stage):

• • The national/regional funding agencies verify the national eligibility of applications, ensuring that the formal requirements set out in the applicable national/regional regulations and other applicable documents are met (see "FCT Regulations", "Financial Execution Rules" and "National Annex" in tha Call Documents).
  • The transnational eligibility of applications is checked by the Call Secretariat, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements set out in the Call Text (see "Call Text" in Call Documents).

Note:

• For an application to be declared eligible, it must fulfil both the national and transnational criteria.

Evaluation

The Call includes two phases for evaluating applications:

• Pre-proposal evaluation phase.
• Full proposal evaluation phase

Applications will be judged according to the evaluation criteria described in the "Call Text", available in the Call Documents.

It is up to the participating national/regional funding agencies to decide - depending on the phase the call is in - which 1) applications whose pre-proposals will be invited to submit a full proposal and 2) which applications will be recommended for funding.

• FCT financial commitment to the call: €500,000
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: 150.000,00€
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: 250.000,00€

NOTES:

• Funding for Portuguese beneficiaries will be awarded under the Regulation for 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 "Financial Execution Rules", available in the Call Documents area, and the applicable national and EU legislation).
• If more than one Portuguese beneficiary entity from the same transnational consortium requests funding from FCT, the combined funding requested from FCT by the Portuguese beneficiary entities may not exceed the maximum financial limit for a consortium with Portuguese coordination (€250,000) or with Portuguese participation, (150 000€). The Portuguese beneficiaries of the same transnational consortium will have to share the funding that will be granted by the FCT.

• The percentage (maximum and/or minimum) of time dedicated (FTE) to transnational projects is not counted towards the dedication (FTE) of national projects.

• Under the terms of number 2 of Article 7 of the Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds, payments made directly to companies, or indirectly through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.

Call web page

Application submission platform

FutureFoodS web page

Statement of Commitment to be made available soon at Call Documents

Pedro Miguel Ferreira

pedromiguel.ferreira@fct.pt

Marta Norton

marta.norton@fct.pt