Call for Advanced Computing Projects (6th ed) - A0 | A1 (Round D)

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) seeks to aggregate national advanced computing resources, promoting cooperation between the various centres involved and developing national and international partnerships with other entities. Under the terms of the Advanced Computing Projects Regulation, published under no. 10/2022 in the Diário da República, the allocation of national computing resources is made following a tender procedure whose terms are publicised on the FCT website.

São beneficiários, individualmente ou em co-promoção:

• As instituições de I&D (Investigação e Desenvolvimento)
• Os laboratórios colaborativos;
• Os centros de interface tecnológicos;
• As infraestruturas de ciência e tecnologia;
• As redes e consórcios de ciência e tecnologia;
• Instituições privadas sem fins lucrativos que tenham como objeto principal atividades de I&D;
• Polos de Inovação Digital;
• Outras instituições públicas e privadas, sem fins lucrativos, que desenvolvam ou participem em atividades de investigação, desenvolvimento ou inovação;
• Empresas que desenvolvam projetos de computação avançada, em atividades de investigação, desenvolvimento ou inovação.
• Pessoas singulares que exerçam atividade em Portugal e que pretendam desenvolver projetos de computação avançada em qualquer área científica.

Relativamente a candidaturas de empresas como beneficiárias, os projetos de computação avançada deverão:

• ocorrer no âmbito da investigação e inovação pré-concorrencial, cujos bens ou serviços objeto dessa investigação ou inovação não tenham ainda valor comercial atribuído.
• não ultrapassar o conjunto de todas as candidaturas deste tipo, 50% da dotação computacional total a atribuir no presente concurso.

• High Performance Computing (HPC)
• Artificial Intelligence Computing (IA)
• Scientific Cloud Computing (SCC)

These advanced computational models aim to support applications in various areas, such as bioinformatics, climate, materials and life science, computational chemistry, physics, and civil engineering, among others, thus supporting research and enhancing the competitiveness of the national industry.

• A0 – Experimental Access recommended for teams with no previous experience or history of using RNCA resources to test and explore the available HPC, AI, Cloud or visualisation resources for 6 months.
• A1 – Development Access recommended for software performance testing, code optimisation, scalability testing, benchmarking, re-factoring for 3 - 12 months.
• A2 – Regular Access recommended for scientific or innovation projects whose team has consolidated previous experience and needs resources in Deucalion and/or Cirrus+Stratus platforms for 12 months.
• A3 - Larger Access recommended for scientific or innovation projects whose team has consolidated previous experience and require larger amounts of resources on the Deucalion or MareNostrum 5 platforms for 12 months.

See more details on the limits and maximum duration for each type in section 3 of the Call Notice - check supporting documentation in the sidebar.

All A0 and A1 applications will only be submitted for validation of technical suitability by the technical teams operating the computing platforms in accordance with the following simplified criteria:

• T1: Technical suitability to Advanced Computing resources 
• T2: Computational resources reasonableness 
• T3: Work Plan

This validation is based on the qualitative classification of "accepted" and "not accepted", with no final score being calculated. Accepted applications will be dealt with in rounds and on a first-come, first-served basis until the defined quota is exhausted.

A1 Applications must be submitted in English on a form on the myFCT platform.

At the end of the deadline, applications will be validated for their technical suitability and then allocated to the platforms. If the quota of resources (15%) is not used up in this batch, new batches of submissions will be opened according to the schedule:

Round of applications | Submission dates

A 10/09/2025 (17h) – 10/11/2025 (17h) Fast Track **
B 10/11/2025 (17h) – 15/01/2026 (17h) Fast Track ** & Integral Track ***
C 15/01/2026 (17h) – 15/03/2026 (17h) Fast Track **
D 15/03/2026 (17h) – 15/05/2026 (17h) Fast Track** & Integral Track ***
E 15/05/2026 (17h) – 15/09/2026 (17h) Fast Track **

*Não se abrirão novos lotes em caso de esgotamento de recursos no lote anterior. Formato da data: dd/mm/aaaa.
(ENG) new rounds will not be opened in the event of resource exhaustion in the previous round. Date format:
dd/mm/yyyy.
** via rápida apenas com validação técnica e administrativa SÓ para projetos com avaliação científica prévia nos 
últimos 3 anos – ver ponto 8.1.2 do aviso – candidaturas abertas em contínuo em 5 lotes(ENG) fast track with technical 
and administrative validation ONLY for projects with prior scientific evaluation in the last three years – see point 8.1.2 
of the notice – call open continuously in five cut-offs.
*** via integral incluirá avaliação com painéis de avaliação científica externos, além da validação técnica e 
administrativa – candidaturas abertas em 2 lotes não consecutivos. (ENG) Integral track will include evaluation by external 
scientific evaluation panels, as well as technical and administrative validation – applications are open in two non-consecutive cut-offs

Important note: The following limits defined in the call for proposals apply:

• Limits for A0 applications: Each IR can submit a maximum of ONE application in each typology, subject to the availability of resources (see the call notice).
• Resource limit for A1 projects: 50,000 CPU core.hours, 500 GPU.hours, between 3 and 6 months (see the call notice).

• Limits for A1 applications: Each IR can submit a maximum of ONE application in each typology, subject to the availability of resources (see the call notice).
• Resource limit for A1 projects: 100,000 CPU core.hours, 5000 GPU.hours, between 3 and 12 months (see the call notice).

Information about applications can be requested through the email address: computacao-avancada@fccn.pt 

No information published on this page replaces or supersedes the Regulations and the Call Notice.