ERC-PT Careers

Every year, the European Research Council (ERC) launches funding opportunities for researchers with highly demanding and rigorous evaluation and selection processes. Researchers with funding obtained in these processes, with highly competitive profiles at international level, offer a unique potential for empowering the institutions that make up the National Science and Technology System (SNCT) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

In this context, FCT is creating a new programme to attract these researchers to permanent positions in research and higher education institutions in Portugal - ERC-PT Careers - funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR).  The ERC-Portugal Programme falls within the resilience dimension of the RRP, and in particular the “RE-C06-i06 - Ciência Mais Capacitação” component, helping to modernise and deepen the production and transfer of knowledge in all its various cycles.

The programme will foster the development of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, with a focus on supporting basic research, promoting knowledge transfer or strengthening cross-sector collaboration. It also adds to the ERC-Portugal programme objectives and funding associated with attracting talent, including attracting more international investment in science, technology and innovation, and strengthening national R&D capacity within the scope of European research and innovation programmes. This funding is intended as an incentive for SNCT institutions or HEIs to recruit researchers whose projects are recommended for funding by the European Research Council, helping to modernise and deepen the production and transfer of knowledge in all its various cycles.

To these attraction objectives, ERC-PT Careers adds a talent retention dimension, also promoting the stabilisation, in permanent positions, of researchers who are already working in Portugal. The ERC-PT Careers Programme will thus 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 sustainability of research teams and their lead researchers. It will also give the SNCT greater capacity to achieve the ambitious national goal of doubling its funding from European Programmes in the 2021-2027 period compared to 2014-2020, attracting around two billion euros in funding from the European Union in the areas of Research and Innovation. This Programme is also in line with the Council Conclusions of May 2021 on the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers, adopted during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The ERC-PT Careers Programme adds to the two existing 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 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";
• 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 Careers will act as a support instrument for national institutions that, cumulatively:

1. Recruit, for an indefinite period, researchers of national or foreign affiliation responsible for ongoing or recently completed ERC projects and,
2. In the case of ongoing projects, and at the time of submission of the expression of interest, are host institutions for these projects.

The funding granted by the ERC-PT Careers Programme is linked to the stage of execution of the ERC project of the researcher to be recruited, and is also extended to the recruitment of researchers who have completed their ERC projects less than 24 months ago. This promotes a specific modality of this Programme – the new ERC-PT Follow-Up – which, under more advantageous conditions, establishes a more attractive parallel with the existing ERC instrument, Proof of Concept. In this way, and in a comprehensive way, the importance of boosting the research carried out in ERC projects, in its various implementation cycles, including its subsequent phases, and even, where applicable, diversified levels of knowledge transfer, is recognised. 

The ERC-PT Careers Programme has two types of funding:

• ERC-PT Careers ATTRACT: this typology aims to encourage the recruitment, to permanent positions, of researchers with an ERC project underway, or which has been completed less than 2 years ago, who have foreign institutions as their host institution, and who transfer the execution of these projects to SNCT institutions or HEIs;
• ERC-PT Careers RETAIN: this typology aims to encourage the recruitment, for permanent positions, of researchers in non-permanent positions in SNCT or HEI institutions and with an active ERC project or one that was completed less than 2 years ago.

For the ATTRACT typology, the financial support is intended to cover the national institution's costs for hosting projects that are transferred from foreign institutions.

The funding amounts depend on how long the ERC project takes to complete, between the start of the project and the time the researchers are recruited for an indefinite period by an SNCT or HEI institution. Thus, depending on the time elapsed, the funding amounts are as shown in the table below:

To calculate these time intervals, the dates of the start of the ERC project, as indicated in the grant agreement, and the date of publication of the national institution's call for open-ended contracts should be used.

For the RETAIN typology, the funding will consist of an incentive to recruit researchers, with national affiliation, responsible for ERC projects in progress or completed less than 24 months ago, restricted to the categories of the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC), the University Teaching Career Statute (ECDU) or the Polytechnic Higher Education Teaching Staff Career Statute (ECPDESP) indicated in the "Conditions of access and eligibility" section (point d). This financial incentive is calculated as the value equivalent to 2 (two) years of salary costs for hires made under the three career statutes mentioned.

The following institutions are the final beneficiaries:

a) Higher education institutions.

b) R&D institutions with legal personality.

This category includes non-business entities in the Research and Development (R&D) system, namely:

1. Higher Education Institutions, their Institutes and R&D Units;
2. Associated laboratories;
3. State laboratories;
4. International laboratories based in Portugal;
5. Private non-profit institutions whose main purpose is R&D activities;
6. Collaborative laboratories;
7. Technology and Innovation Centres.

c) 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.

The following access and eligibility conditions must be met:

1. Each application must submit proof of recruitment of a researcher who has received ERC funding, in the ERC Starting Grant, ERC Consolidator Grant and ERC Advanced Grant categories, and whose grant agreement is active or has been concluded for less than 24 months, on the date of the call for applications for indefinite contracts, cumulatively respecting the deadline of 31 December 2025.
2. Researchers responsible for an ERC project in progress or completed less than 24 months ago who have, or have had in the year prior, on 20 june 2024 an indefinite contract with a national institution under the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC), the University Teaching Career Statute (ECDU) or the Polytechnic Higher Education Teaching Staff Career Statute (ECPDESP) will not be eligible. In the case of institutions not covered by the aforementioned career statutes, researchers holding an indefinite contract with institutions that have their own scientific research careers covered by the private law regime will not be eligible.
3. In the case of researchers responsible for ERC projects hosted by foreign institutions – ATTRACT axis – they must have demonstrably requested the portability of their ERC project [Grant Portability] to a national institution at the time of the expression of interest.
4. Beneficiary institutions grant the Principal Investigator (PI) during the period of validity of this programme – from the date of publication of this notice until 31 December 2025 – an employment contract for an indefinite period under the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC), the University Teaching Career Statute (ECDU) or the Polytechnic Higher Education Teaching Staff Career Statute (ECPDESP), in the categories of Principal Researcher, Coordinating Researcher, Associate Professor, Full Professor, Coordinating Professor or Principal Coordinating Professor. Institutions not covered by the aforementioned career statutes must grant an indefinite contract equivalent to those provided for in the ECIC for Principal Researchers or Coordinating Researchers.
5. Applications for which the hiring of researchers for an indefinite period is already supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology's FCT-Tenure programme will not be eligible.
6. In cases where recruitment is made under the University Teaching Career Statute (ECDU) or the Polytechnic Higher Education Teaching Staff Career Statute (ECPDESP), the contracting institutions undertake to limit the time spent on teaching to a maximum of 4 hours per week (average value per three-year period) for an initial period of 3 years.

The period for submitting applications is open permanently until 5pm Lisbon time on 31 December 2025, or until the programme's maximum allocation of €11,781,424 is reached, whichever comes first. Monthly eligibility checks are carried out on the expressions of interest 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.

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":

1. Identification of the principal investigator responsible for the ERC project in progress or completed less than 24 months ago;
2. Employment contract of indefinite duration;
3. Grant agreement with the ERC;
4. Proof of application for portability of the ERC project to a national institution [Grant Portability], where applicable.
5. Proposal submitted to the European Research Council (Parts A, B1 and B2).
6. 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).

1. FCT is responsible for the selection process and monitoring the implementation of approved applications.
2. When selecting applications, the FCT will appoint a Selection Committee, which will be responsible for considering and verifying the applications submitted.
3. 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.
4. FCT will be responsible for the final approval of the applications submitted, once the process conducted by the Selection Committee has been finalised.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. After this communication, the beneficiary organisation will have 5 working days to accept the FCT's decision.
8. After accepting the decision, the FCT will send the beneficiary organisation, within 5 working days, all the documents needed to conclude the funding contract.
9. 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.

Information about this Programme should be requested via e-mail to ercpt@fct.pt.