FutureFoodS – European Partnership for a Sustainable Future of Food Systems launches its second call for proposals for funding transnational research and innovation projects.
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FCT is a member of FutureFoodS, a co-funded European partnership focused on transforming food production and consumption in Europe towards more sustainable and resilient systems. The partnership brings together renowned experts, research institutions, companies and policy makers to develop joint solutions to the complex challenges facing our food systems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food security.
FutureFoodS' Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) has identified four thematic areas where better knowledge, advanced know-how and more scalable and innovative solutions can be decisive in bringing about transformations in the food system: (i) changing the way we eat; (ii) changing the way we process and supply food; (iii) changing the way we connect; (iv) changing the way we govern food systems.
For the second call for proposals, the partnership identified a subset of high-priority topics regarding the need for new knowledge and innovations in society and the food sector, in line with the priority thematic areas identified in the SRIA.
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The general theme of the call is "Accelerating Food Sustainability – through Household Dietary Shifts, Trust and Transparency, and Innovations in Circular Food Processing Systems". Transnational research and/or innovation projects to be submitted must address at least one of the following topics:
- Topic 1: Domestic food practices to promote sustainable and healthy diets.
- Topic 2: Towards diversified, sustainable and circular food processing systems.
- Topic 3: The importance of trust and transparency.
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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 with head office in Portugal.
iii. Non-profit private institutions whose main object is R&D activity, 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 type and under any legal form.
The information contained in this section does not exempt you from consulting Article 3 of FCT’s Regulation No.999/2016, in its current wording, i.e., as amended and republished by Regulation No. 5/2024 and corrected by Rectification Statement No. 366/2024/2, of 23 May 2024 (see FCT Regulation in Call Documents and the applicable national and European Union legislation).
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The 2025 FutureFoodS call 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 may 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 (PFA) of its country or region. See the Call Text (under Call Documents) for information on the eligibility rules for 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 should:
- Consult the Call Documents area.
- Consult FCT eligibility rules (see Call Text).
- Submit, by the transnational consortium coordinator, the proposal form on the application Submission platform (see Important Links) until 12 p.m. in mainland Portugal on 11/02/2026.
- Send to FCT, within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the application, a Statement of Commitment (SoC) completed and signed by the Portuguese Researcher in Charge (RC) identified by the PI and by a qualified representative of the PI. The SoC should be sent to the email address indicated in Contacts.
Please note:
- Failure to send the SoC to 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 SoC, 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.
- If two or more Portuguese applicants from the same transnational consortium apply for funding from FCT, each must send a completed and signed SoC to FCT.
- 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 PI stamp or white seal is only required on manually signed SoC.
The information on this page is only a summary 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 the FCT's participation in this call, unless expressly indicated.
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Elegibility
The eligibility check of applications 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 and national annexes in 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 in the Call Documents area.
Please note:
- For a proposal to be declared eligible, it must fulfil both national and transnational criteria.
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 participating 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.
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- FCT Financial commitment for the call: 500 000,00€
- Maximum requested funding for a consortium with portuguese coordination: 250 000,00€
- Maximum requested funding for a consortium with portuguese participation: 150 000,00€
Please note:
- Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT’s Regulation No. 999/2016, in its current wording, i.e., as amended and republished by Regulation No. 5/2024 and corrected by Rectification Statement No. 366/2024/2, of 23 May 2024 (see FCT Regulation and Financial Implementation Rules in Call Documents 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 250.000,00€ or with Portuguese participation 150.000,00€. 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.
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Pedro Miguel Ferreira
pedromiguel.ferreira@fct.ptMarta Norton
marta.norton@fct.pt