Agroecology European Partnership Call 2026

FCT is a member of the co-funded European Partnership Agroecology, a Research and Innovation (R&I) initiative that supports the transformation of the European agriculture sector according to the new agroecology paradigm, implementing agricultural systems that are more resilient, productive, and prosperous, and sensitive to local contexts, climate, the environment, ecosystems, biodiversity, and people – objectives to be achieved by 2050.

Agroecology's third joint transnational call for proposals aims to fund R&I projects that focus on two key pillars of the agroecological transition: the genetic and the social dimension.

The general theme of the JTC 2026 is “Fostering plant and animal genetic diversity and empowering farmers to accelerate the agroecological transition”. Proposals to be submitted under this call must provide significant contributions to either one of the following two topics:

1. Enhancing the genetic diversity and variability of crops and livestock for the agroecological transition

The first topic addresses genetic diversity and variability in crops and livestock, with the aim of laying the foundations for increasing the availability of species, varieties, and breeds that will support the development of agroecological farming systems.

2. Strengthening farmers’ involvement and empowerment in the transition towards agroecology

The second topic addresses the social challenges of today’s agriculture, with a particular focus on farmers' motivation, skills, and knowledge and the role of stakeholders in encouraging their engagement in the agroecological transition.

Successful proposals shall contribute to all of the following outcomes/impacts:

• Practical-oriented knowledge, tools and/or innovations available to farmers and the sector, contributing to the uptake of agroecological practices at local, regional and national scales.
• Increased knowledge, knowledge transfer and capacity of farmers and agricultural advisors to implement agroecological practices.
• Increased socio-economic and/or environmental performance of agroecological approaches.
• Enhanced science-policy interfaces serving to facilitate a faster transition to agroecology.

 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 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 in Call Documents).

The 2026 joint transnational call has two phases, 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 and National Annexes (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 should:

1. Consult the Call Documents area.
2. Consult FCT eligibility rules (see the National Annex).
3. Submit, by the transnational consortium coordinator, the proposal form on the application submission platform (see Important links) until 13h in mainland Portugal on 18/02/2026.
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 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 FCT’s participation in this call, unless expressly indicated.

Eligibility

The eligibility check of applications is carried out in 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 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 in the Call Documents area.

Please note:  For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the 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.

• 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 Normas de Execução Financeira 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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Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda

Marta Norton
marta.norton@fct.pt
Tel: (+351) 213 911 565

Pedro Miguel Ferreira
Pedromiguel.ferreira@fct.pt
Tel: (+351) 213 924 445