Expressions of Interest - Research Data Management (2024)

The Call aims to contract up to 10 Research Data Management Centers.

Applicants can be institutions that are part of the national science and technology system, as defined in Decree-Law 63/2019 of May 16.
Proposers can apply individually or in co-promotion. In the case of co-promoted applications, one applicant must be identified as the leader.

No, the same legal entity can only apply to one Center.
It is recommended that institutions coordinate to submit an application.

Entities that respond to this call for the creation of a Center for the Management of Research Data may also submit a proposal for the creation of a Consortium, under the invitation to be launched by the FCT, within the scope of the PN CADAI. However, if they are selected to be part of the Consortium, the expression of interest formulated by the institution, individually or in co-promotion, will not be considered and, in the latter case, regardless of whether the entity is the leader or not.

The Consortium's main objectives are:

• To support the entities of the national scientific and higher education system in the development and application of data management skills and action strategies, in accordance with the principles of Open Science and FAIR Data;
• Support convergence with national legislation and European directives on data management and sharing;
• Coordinate and develop three cross-cutting areas, considered crucial and transformative:
  • Institutional policies on data management and sharing;
  • Curation of research data throughout the data cycle;
  • Training and capacity building in best practices.
• Articulate, advise and support Centers for Research Data Management, to be selected by the FCT;
• Support the convergence of national infrastructures and services with the EOSC and with European research infrastructures and networks.

As part of Research Data Management, FCT's digital services unit, FCCN, offers a system of Data Management Plans and a data repository service, the Polen repository, which is currently finalizing its pilot phase and could be an option for institutions and/or teams of researchers who do not have their own solution. For more details on these services, see here.
Within the scope of the PNCADAI program, it is also planned to provide digital services for managing active data, as well as storage and backup infrastructures.
The proposal may assume the existence of these services in the future. However, the institution is free to choose the digital services that suit it best.

The contract expires when all the agreed activities have been completed, or when the implementation period of the RRP set for December 31, 2025 ends, whichever comes first.

The amount that the FCT is willing to pay for the execution of all the services that constitute its object is €220,500, plus VAT at the legal rate in force.

As this is a procurement process, the bidding entity is responsible for carrying out the expenditure it deems essential for the execution and achievement of the objectives and deliverables described, with a view to the impacts and results set out in the proposal.

Proposals must be written in English, with the exception of the Acronym and Full Title (first item of point 9. Elements to be included in the Proposal), which must be identified in Portuguese and English.

The elements that must be included in the proposal are covered in point 9 of the Appeal.

The curriculum vitae of the person(s) responsible for the application and the main elements, completed on the CIÊNCIAVITAE platform, must be published and the relevant records for evaluation by the evaluation panel must be accessible with the privacy level "Public". These CIÊNCIAVITAE parameters must be ensured until the accepted proposals and the final results of the evaluation process are known.

It is recommended that the curriculum vitae be submitted in English.

The following deliverables must be provided during the period of execution of the contract: the elements to be included in the application proposal, the "Coordination and Management of the Center" deliverables and the "Operational Activity" deliverables, as designated in point 11 of the Call. Some of the "Operational Activity" deliverables are linked to the Consortium's activities (see question #5).

Proposals should be submitted, in English, to the following email address: compras@fccn.pt, with the reference RI/00139/2024 entered in the "Subject" field of the email.

Proposals will be evaluated by an evaluation panel made up of independent national or foreign experts to be appointed by the FCT.
The merit of the proposals will be assessed taking into account the eight criteria described in point 10 of the Call and assigning a score based on a scale of 0 to 5. Applications with a score of 24.00 or more will be considered eligible.
The selection process will also take into account the objective of maximizing coverage and comprehensiveness in terms of geographical area and thematic areas. To this end, bonuses have been included for proposals by virtue of their geographical area and thematic area (see question #15).

After assessing the merit of the proposals, 3 points will be awarded to the best proposals in each geographical area and each thematic area and 1 point to the second best proposals in each of these areas.

The scientific area(s) of activity must be identified in accordance with the "Classification ofFields of Science and Technology"(FoS) approved by the OECDand adopted by Portugal in 2007. If the proposal operates in more than one scientific area, the main scientific area must be indicated.

Any information on the procedure should be requested via the following email: compras@fccn.pt, as mentioned in point 21 of the Appeal.

The recording of the information session, held on July 11 and promoted by FCT through FCCN - Serviços Digitais, is available for consultation.

You can also consult the presentation document.

Note: Changes have been made to points 9, 10 and 15 of the Appeal which are not included in this clarification session. For more information, see the republished Appeal.

The deadline for submitting proposals for the creation of Research Data Management Centers has been extended, given the changes to points 9, 10 and 15 of the Call, and is now August 22, until 23:59.

With a few exceptions where the questions were addressed directly to the applicant, the requests for clarification, sent by the entities through the official channel compras@fccn.pt, have been taken into account in the production of the questions/answers presented here (FAQs). In the same way, doubts raised during the clarification session were taken into account.