FCT funds 1,778 new doctoral positions between October 2024 and the end of 2025

Today, December 13, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) released the final results of Call FCT-Tenure. A total of 1,104 permanent positions were awarded, in what is the FCT's first funding instrument to support the hiring of researchers exclusively in career positions.

With these results, FCT is supporting the creation of 1,778 new positions for doctoral graduates between October 1, 2024 and the end of 2025. This set of positions includes the 1st edition of the FCT-Tenure program, the Calls CEEC-LA (1st edition), CEEC-Individual (6th and 7th edition) and the ERC-PT Careers program.

Of these new posts, 1,210 (68%) will be permanent, reinforcing the incentives to hire researchers for permanent positions in the FCT's scientific employment funding model.

Adding these new opportunities to the 351 positions contracted in the third quarter of 2024, the FCT expects to reach a total of 2,129 new positions in the research system between July 2024 and December 2025.

This policy represents a significant change from the previous FCT model for funding scientific employment. It is aimed at attracting and retaining scientific talent, with a focus on permanent contracts, either through a teaching or research career (in all career cycles). In addition to reinforcing stability in scientific careers, this approach guarantees a high level of dedication to R&D activities on the part of the researchers supported by FCT and significant strategic autonomy for the institutions.

In addition, the FCT has created specific incentives to promote inter-sector and inter-career mobility. These include programs for non-PhD researchers, namely DoutorAP (1st edition), and Call de Studentships de Doutoramento Não-Académica (3 editions), to which a new Call will soon be added to support the hiring of PhD researchers in a non-academic environment. These measures are part of other initiatives already available to doctoral researchers, such as the DGAE incentives for integrating doctoral graduates into non-university teaching, which value the diversification of researchers' career paths.

The proposal to revise the Statute of the Scientific Research Career (ECIC), currently before Parliament, also provides for the creation of a research career applicable to various public sectors, such as museums and hospitals, broadening career opportunities for researchers and strengthening the social impact of science in different areas of society. It also envisages encompassing the entire career cycle of a researcher in a single statute, including doctoral students, allowing the necessary legal framework for transformations at the level of future FCT Calls .

These actions are even more relevant considering that, between October 2024 and the end of 2025, around 1,171 doctoral researcher contracts funded by the FCT will come to an end, highlighting the importance of initiatives that renew and consolidate career opportunities for doctoral graduates in the country through permanent positions. This figure includes the end of DL57 and Norma Transitória contracts funded under FCT's Calls scientific employment. If contracts terminated since January 2024 are taken into account, this figure rises to 1,388 contracts.

The initiatives underway anticipate the needs of the scientific system and strengthen support for the different generations of researchers in the national science and technology system. This reform of the types of contracts supported by the FCT, both in terms of the number of positions made available and the nature of the contracts, has a significant impact on institutions and the development of researchers' careers in Portugal.