RESTART Programme – 3rd Edition

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), in line with its commitment to promoting the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge, based on high international standards of quality and competitiveness, aims to foster gender equality in R&D activities and careers, which is inseparable from equal opportunities for the entire national scientific community. With this goal in mind, FCT is launching the 3rd edition of the RESTART program.

In the careers of researchers, and with greater incidence on researchers in the early stages of their careers, parenthood creates additional challenges, with impacts ranging from scientific production to the management of teams and projects, to the attraction of funding, and may influence career horizons and the planning of research paths.

The RESTART program is therefore aimed at promoting gender equality and equal opportunities by providing competitive funding for individual R&D projects across all scientific fields, when carried out by researchers who have recently taken parental leave, including adoption-related leave. In line with public policy in this area, RESTART also includes, under specific eligibility conditions, cases of shared parental leave, which encourage equality in caregiving and the sharing of family responsibilities and leave durations.

By supporting a competitive return to research activities in new personal and professional circumstances, RESTART will enable researchers to pursue and develop an original and innovative research idea, with the possibility of including additional human and/or material resources, according to the funding available and the proposed duration of the project.

This funding instrument is aligned with the concerns and recommendations of various international bodies, including the Council of the European Union and the OECD, which seek to promote better work–life balance for individuals engaged in R&D activities.

Eligible applicants, with the support of a host institution, include national, foreign, and stateless researchers who cumulatively meet the following requirements by the deadline for the submission of applications:

i) Hold a doctoral degree;

ii) Be an integrated PhD member of an R&D unit or have an employment contract with a State laboratory;

iii) Have benefited from parental leave, including adoption-related leave, lasting at least 120 days. In the case of shared parental leave, including adoption-related leave, the applicant must demonstrate that they have taken, either exclusively or jointly, at least 72 days of leave, within the period from April 10, 2024 (inclusive) to the start date of the application submission period for this call (inclusive). The minimum required number of days for each type of leave (120 or 72 days) must be met within this timeframe, regardless of when the leave started or ended.

In the case of researchers holding a research fellowship (“bolsa”), they may submit as proof of parental leave a declaration from the hiring institution stating the suspension of the research activities funded by the respective fellowship, for a period equivalent to that referred to in iii). For fellowships whose hiring institution is, or has been, FCT, and in order to simplify the application submission process, the submission of this statement may be replaced by simply indicating the reference of the respective FCT fellowship.

Applications will not be considered eligible if the applicant is the Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI of a project funded or recommended for funding by FCT as of September 1, 2025.

Applications that have already been selected for funding by FCT or by other funding agencies will not be accepted.

Multiple applications for the same proposal are not allowed:
i) Within the scope of this Call Notice;
ii) Across different Call Notices with overlapping submission periods.
Applications are considered multiple if they share the work plan, in whole or in part. In cases of multiple applications to Calls with different thematic scopes and non-overlapping submission periods, a recommendation for funding in one of them will result in the exclusion of the remaining applications from the decision process.

In order not to exclude any potential candidate for the RESTART Programme in what regards the number of parental leave days eligibility condition, we invite you to send us any doubts that still subsist to the email restart@fct.pt.

Applications must be submitted by filling out, in English, a specific form that will be avilable electronically on the myFCT portal.

The evaluation criteria for the RESTART program will be the following

i) Scientific quality, innovative nature and feasibility of the proposed research plan,

ii) Merit of the applicant and adequacy of the profile to the proposed research plan,

and  iii) Impact of the research project execution on the researcher’s career development.

Proposals will be supported with a maximum duration of 18 months of development and a maximum limit of 50.000 euros of funding per project. For this call, a total budget of 1,6 million euros is predicted.

​​​​​​​​​​​​R&D Units financed by the FCT’s Pluriannual Funding Programme, State Laboratories, and Associated Laboratories with approved statute.

In case of host institutions without legal personality, the beneficiary entity will be the institution with legal personality in which they are integrated.

For a set of frequently asked questions and eligibility scenarios about this program, please refer to the FAQ page of RESTART Programme.