Funding programme to improve the conditions for a future ERC application, by funding the initial development of research projects already evaluated with top classifications not selected for ERC funding
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Every year, the European Research Council (ERC) launches funding opportunities for researchers with highly demanding and rigorous evaluation and selection processes. Many applications are considered to be of high scientific quality and are recommended for funding, but are unsuccessful due to the call budget’s depletion. This includes both ‘A-Reserve List’ or ‘A-Beyond Budget’ proposals that are not selected for funding.
This funding is intended as an incentive for SNCT institutions and their researchers to enable applications submitted to the ERC that have obtained an ‘A’ score after the last evaluation phase, and have been recommended for funding, but ultimately were not funded.
The programme will foster the development of the innovation ecosystem, with a focus on supporting basic research, promoting knowledge transfer or strengthening intersectoral collaboration. The ERC-PT A-Projects Programme will contribute to the goal of raising and consolidating the level of excellence of research carried out in Portugal, while at the same time promoting the training of innovative lines of research and the researchers responsible for them.
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The ERC-PT A-Projects Programme its one of the three ERC-Portugal axes, increasing their impact and deepening the complementarity between them. It now includes incentives and services that cover the various cycles of the ERC process, from the submission of applications, the interview phase, or incentives and training for future applications, to the attraction and retention of researchers with ERC funded ongoing or recently completed research projects:
- ERC-PT Pre-Assessment: support service for the national scientific community in the preparation of proposals to the ERC, through a pre-assessment model and suggestions for improvement, offered in two modalities, which mirrors the ERC's assessment criteria and assessor profiles. The support provided by the members of the ERC-PT Pre-Assessment Annual College of Evaluators will soon also include support in carrying out mock interviews for those researchers who submitted proposals to this axis and went on to step 2 of the evaluation process;
- ERC-PT Careers: attracting and retaining researchers with ERC projects already funded to take up permanent positions in institutions of the National System of Science and Technology and Higher Education;
- ERC-PT A-Projects: enabling the conditions for a future ERC application, by funding the initial development of research projects evaluated with "A-Reserve List" and "A-Beyond Budget".
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ERC-PT A-Projects will support researchers and their research institutions whose ERC applications, in the Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy typologies, have obtained an ‘A’ score after the last evaluation phase, but have been left without funding.
According to the types of applications submitted to the ERC, the funding will be as follows:
- Starting, Consolidator or Advanced typologies: funding will correspond to an incentive of 250.000€.
- Synergy typology:
- Applications with 1 Principal Investigator affiliated to an SNCT institution: funding will result from applying the formula ‘150.000€ + f.100.000€’, where f corresponds to the percentage to be received by the PI of the total budget submitted in the ERC application rated ‘A’.
- Applications with more than 1 Principal Investigator affiliated to an SNCT institution: the funding formula to be awarded to each of the PI's will be ‘150.000€/x + f.100.000€’, where x corresponds to the number of PI's involved in the application, with f corresponding to the percentage to be received by each PI from the total budget submitted in the ERC application rated ‘A’.
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The following institutions are the final beneficiaries:
- R&D units with legal personality.
- In the case of R&D Units without legal personality, applications must be submitted by the institution with legal personality in which they are integrated and by the head of the same institution.
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The following access and eligibility conditions must be met:
- Each application must submit proof of the ERC rating of ‘A’ of an IR affiliated to an SNCT institution after the last evaluation phase in the Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy typologies of the ERC, by the deadline of 31 December 2025.
- Only applications from IRs that are integrated members of an SNCT institution at the time of submitting the application to ERC-PT A-Projects will be eligible.
- Only applications that have been notified by the ERC of the outcome of the competition after 1 January 2023 will be considered eligible and, in cases where such notification takes place after the date of publication of this Call for Applications, are submitted no later than 3 months after the notification by the ERC of the outcome of the competition has taken place. In cases where such communication by the ERC has taken place between 1 January 2023 and the date of publication of this Call, only those applications submitted up to 3 months after this date of publication will be considered eligible.
- Applications from IRs who have benefited from this support in the last 36 months are not eligible.
- The SNCT institution of which the IR is an integrated member commits to provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for carrying out research and preparing a quality application to the ERC.
- The IR commits to submit a new proposal to the ERC calls, in any of the Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy typologies, with an SNCT institution as the host, by the deadline of 31 December 2025.
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The period for submitting applications to this Call is from 26 September 2024 until 5pm Lisbon time on 31 December 2025 or until the programme's maximum allocation is reached, whichever happens first. Monthly eligibility checks are carried out on the applications submitted.
In the event that the maximum allocation is reached during one of the monthly application selection periods, funding will be awarded using the earlier submission date criterion.
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Applications and the corresponding documents must be submitted on the application form available here.
The following documents must be attached to the application, respecting the conditions defined in the section of the Notice "Conditions of access and eligibility":
- Proposal submitted to the European Research Council (Parts A, B1 and B2).
- Proof of ERC classification of ‘A’ after the last evaluation phase for the Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy typologies.
- Declaration from the SNCT host institution, of which the researcher is a member at the time of submission of the ERC-PT A-Projects application, commiting to provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for carrying out the research funded under this programme and preparing a quality ERC application.
- Declaration of commitment by the Principal Investigator (PI) to resubmit a proposal to the ERC calls, in any of the Starting, Consolidator, Advanced or Synergy typologies, by the deadline of 31 December 2025.
- Declaration that the funding to be awarded does not significantly jeopardise environmental objectives within the meaning of Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council ("do no significant harm" principle).
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- FCT is responsible for the selection process and monitoring the implementation of approved applications.
- When selecting applications, the FCT will appoint a Selection Committee, which will be responsible for considering and verifying the applications submitted.
- The application selection process will be carried out on a monthly basis, by checking that all submitted documentation complies with the principles of not significantly jeopardising environmental objectives within the meaning of Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
- FCT will be responsible for the final approval of the applications submitted, once the process conducted by the Selection Committee has been finalised.
- The selection of applications for funding and the respective communication of results must take place within a maximum of 30 days of submission, notwithstanding compliance with the deadlines set out in the Code of Administrative Procedure.
- FCT will notify each applicant (beneficiary organisation) of the final result of the selection and decision process, which will also be published on the FCT website.
- After this communication, the beneficiary organisation will have 5 working days to accept the FCT's decision.
- After accepting the decision, the FCT will send the beneficiary organisation, within 5 working days, all the documents needed to conclude the funding contract.
- If the maximum allocation is reached during one of the monthly application selection periods, funding will be awarded using the criterion of the date of submission.
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Information about this Programme should be requested via e-mail to ercpt@fct.pt.