RESTART Programme – 4rd Edition

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), alongside its commitment to promoting the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge, underpinned by high international standards of quality and competitiveness, seeks to promote gender equality in R&D activities and careers, as an integral part of ensuring equal opportunities for the entire national scientific community. To this end, the FCT launches the 4th edition of the RESTART Programme.

The RESTART Programme is aimed at promoting gender equality and equal opportunities through the competitive funding of individual R&D projects in all scientific fields, when carried out by female or male researchers who have recently taken parental leave, including adoption leave. In line with public policies in this area, RESTART also covers, subject to specific eligibility conditions, cases of shared parental leave, which promote equality in caregiving and the sharing of family responsibilities and leave periods.

By contributing to strengthening the conditions for a competitive return to research activities under new circumstances, RESTART will support female and male researchers in pursuing and developing an original and innovative research idea, with the possibility of associating additional human and/or material resources, according to the funding available and the planned implementation period.

This funding instrument is aligned with the concerns and recommendations of several international organisations, namely the Council of the European Union and the OECD, which seek to promote a better work-life balance for those engaged in R&D activities.

Applicants may apply, with the commitment of the host institution, provided that they are Portuguese or foreign nationals or stateless persons and meet all of the following requirements by the deadline for the submission of applications:

i) hold a doctoral degree;

ii) be an integrated doctoral researcher of an R&D unit, or hold an employment contract with a State laboratory;

iii) have benefited from parental leave, including adoption leave, for a period of 120 days or more (in the case of shared parental leave, including shared adoption leave, the applicant must demonstrate that they have taken, either exclusively or jointly, at least 72 days of leave), between 3 June 2025, inclusive, and 1 October 2026, inclusive.

The minimum number of days required for each type of leave (120 or 72 days) must be reached between 3 June 2025 and 1 October 2026, inclusive, regardless of the date on which the leave begins or ends.

In the case of researchers holding a fellowship contract, they may provide, as proof of parental leave, a declaration issued by the contracting institution confirming the suspension of the research activities funded by the respective fellowship, for a period equivalent to that referred to in iii). For fellowships for which the contracting institution is, or has been, FCT, and in order to simplify the application submission process, the presentation of this declaration may be replaced by simply indicating the reference number of the respective fellowship.

Applications from researchers who, as Principal Investigators (PIs) or Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs), are beneficiaries of projects funded or recommended for funding by FCT as of 1 September 2026 shall not be eligible.

Applications that have been selected for funding by FCT or by other funding agencies shall not be admitted.

Multiple applications based on the same proposal shall not be admitted:
i) under this Notice;
ii) under different Notices where there is an overlap between the respective application submission periods.

Applications shall be considered multiple applications where they share all or part of the work plan. In the case of multiple applications submitted under Notices with different thematic scopes and with different application submission periods, a funding recommendation for one of the applications shall constitute grounds for excluding the remaining applications from the decision-making process.

In order to ensure that no potential applicant to the RESTART Programme is excluded on the basis of the eligibility criterion relating to the number of days of parental leave, applicants are invited to send any remaining questions to the following email address: 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.

Beneficiary entities are R&D units funded under the FCT Multiannual Funding Programme, State Laboratories, and Associate Laboratories with approved status.

In the case of host institutions without legal personality, the beneficiary entities shall be the institutions with legal personality of which they form part.

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