European THCS Partnership 2024 Call

FCT is a member of the co-funded European Partnership THCS - Transforming Health and Care Systems. This partnership aims to coordinate and optimize research and innovation efforts in Europe and its partner countries supporting health and care systems transformation.

The partnership currently brings together 64 partners from 26 countries to ensure the transition towards more sustainable, resilient, innovative, and high-quality people-centered health and care systems.

In Portugal, FCT, the Agency for Clinical Research and Biomedical Innovation (AICIB) and Regional Coordination and Development Commission of Centro (CCDRC) are the organizations that participate in THCS.

The second THCS call aims to support the implementation of innovative, people-centered health and care models that address prevention strategies, with the fundamental help of existing information and digital services and technologies. The ultimate goal is to improve dimensions of the health and care system, such as quality, efficiency, equity and sustainability. Improving the quality of preventive services will lead to improving the quality of life of citizens and patients, as well as reducing the burden and costs of all health and care services.

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, as long as they are part of SR&TD projects led by non-business entities in the R&I system.

The information contained in this section does not dispense with consulting Article 3 of the "Regulations for projects financed exclusively by national funds" (Regulation no. 5/2024, which amends and republishes the Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31ST October).

The THCS Partnership 2024 “Innovate to Prevent: Personalized Prevention in Health and Care Services” call follows a single-phase evaluation and requires a prior “Intention to Apply” step. The call funds projects submitted by transnational consortia.

Applicants can only apply for funding from the respective national/regional funding agencies of the call (please refer to the "Call text" document in the "Call documents" area for the funding agencies of the call).  Each funding agency will only fund projects submitted by team(s) from their countries/regions that are part of the transnational consortia. The transnational eligibility conditions and the national/regional eligibility rules for each funding agency are detailed in the call documents.

To prepare your application you should:

1- Consult the "Call Documents" area.

2- Consult the national/regional rules of the countries that make up the consortium (including the Portuguese ones), available in the "Call text" document. Partners who are considered ineligible could lead to the rejection of the entire consortium.

3- The coordinator of the transnational consortium must complete the proposal form available on the application submission platform (see "Useful links")

4- The national Principal Researcher (PR) – main applicant or co-applicant – and his/her respective Portuguese Proposing Institution (PI) of each application requesting FCT funding must complete and submit, within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the application, a Statement of Commitment duly signed by the Portuguese RC and by the legal representant of the PI. The Statement of Commitment should be sent to the email address indicated in the 'Contacts' tab. Portuguese applicants of transnational consortia that do not apply for funding from FCT do not need to submit the Statement of Commitment to FCT.  The stamp or white seal of the Portuguese Proposing Institution and, if applicable, of the R&D Unit, will not be required on a digitally signed DC, as long as it is signed in the Autenticação.gov application with professional attributes that identify the functions performed by the signatory.

The DC should be sent to the following email: THCS@fct.pt.  

The information contained on this page constitutes only a summary of the joint call information and does not exempt the candidates from carefully reading all the joint call documents available on this page and on the call website (see “Important links”). 

Likewise, the information contained on this page refers only to the participation of FCT in this call, unless/when expressly indicated. In case of participation of other Portuguese funding agencies in the call, applicants should consult the information regarding the participation of each agency on its respective website.

Eligibility

The eligibility check of proposals is carried out in one single stage.

• National/Regional Funding Agencies check national eligibility of proposals, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements in the applicable national/regional regulations (see “FCT’s regulation” and “Financial Execution Rules”, to be available soon, in the “Call Documents” area).
• Transnational eligibility check of proposals will be performed by the Call Secretariat, according to the transnational eligibility criteria presented in the “Call Text” in the “Call Documents” area.

Note: For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the national and transnational criteria.

FCT and CCDRC and FRCT 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 projects recommended for funding will be carried out in accordance with the terms set out in the MoU signed between the parties.

Evaluation

This call will have a one stage evaluation. Proposals will be evaluated by an evaluation panel composed of independent international experts, in accordance with the evaluation criteria described in the “Call Text” in the “Call Documents” area. During the evaluation phase, evaluators may request additional clarifications from candidates regarding their proposals ("rebuttal" process).

It is up to the CSC to decide which proposals to recommend for funding. For this purpose, the CSC will follow the order of the ranking list established by the evaluation panel, according to the available budget.

• FCT financial commitment for the call: 500.000,00€
• 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:

• Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT's “Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds”, Regulation no. 5/2024, of 3 January, which amends and republishes Regulation no. 999/2016, of 31 October (see “FCT’s regulations” in the "Call Documents" area), and other applicable national and community legislation, as well as “Financial Execution Rules”.
• If the consortium includes more than one Portuguese institution that requests funding from FCT, the funds will have to be shared between the participating institutions.
• If two or three Portuguese Proposing Institutions (PI) from the same international consortium apply for funding from the Portuguese agencies FCT and CCDRC, the total budget to be requested to these two agencies cannot exceed the cumulative of 150.000,00 € (Portuguese participation) or 250.000,00 € (Portuguese coordination) per consortium.
• 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 to companies, or indirectly through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.
• If FCT or CCDR Centro reach the limit of the budget that each of the agencies has set for funding projects under the THCS 2024 Call, before the number of projects recommended for funding by each of these agencies is exhausted, the projects recommended for funding that do not have funding may be transferred to the agency that still has the budget to fund projects. The transfer of projects recommended for funding will be carried out in accordance with the conditions set out in the memorandum of understanding signed between the parties.

Call web page

Partnering Tool web page

Application Submission platform

THCS web page

Pedro Miguel Ferreira (tel: [+351] 213 924 445);

Marta Norton (Tel: [+351] 21 391 1565)

THCS@ct.pt