ERC-Portugal Program

The ERC-Portugal Program includes incentives and services that cover the various cycles of national participation in the ERC's Calls , from the preparation and submission of applications, and intermediate evaluation phases (interview), to incentives and training for future applications and the attraction and retention of researchers with research projects already funded by the ERC, in progress or recently completed.

ERC-Portugal is subdivided, in an integrated and complementary way, into three axis programs:

ERC-PT Pre-Assessment: a service to support the national scientific community in preparing proposals for the ERC, through a pre-assessment model and suggestions for improvement, which mirrors the ERC's assessment criteria and assessor profiles, available in two forms;
ERC-PT A-Projects: incentive to improve the conditions for a future ERC application, by funding the initial development of research projects already evaluated with the top classifications not selected for ERC funding;
ERC-PT Careers: attracting and retaining researchers with ERC projects already funded (ongoing or recently completed) to take up permanent positions in institutions of the National System of Science and Technology and Higher Education.

ERC-PT Pre-assessment

ERC-PT A-Projects

ERC-PT Careers

Objectives and scope

The European Research Council is a body that aims to fund the highest quality basic research in Europe, through Calls competitive grants for researchers and their teams, supporting frontier and disruptive research in all fields of knowledge, and with scientific excellence as its sole evaluation criterion.

Within the framework of the ERC's Calls , research carried out in Portugal secured 1.1% of the funding allocated in the previous H2020 Framework Program, corresponding to approximately 150 million euros. Although this is an excellent result when compared to Widening countries with scientific communities of a similar size to Portugal's, such as Greece or Czechia, it is still below the performance of countries with around half as many researchers (measured in FTE) as Finland, Norway or Ireland. Similarly, research in Portugal is still underperforming the European average in terms of the success rates of proposals submitted to the ERC (2013-2023: 7.8% vs. 12.2%), with some differences by scientific field (LS: 10.3% vs. 12.9%; PE: 6.1% vs. 12.3%; SH: 7.1% vs. 11.3%). Also noteworthy are some indicators of recent growth, such as the number of projects approved in the Advanced Grant category (2013-2020: 8 vs. 2021-2023: 10) or the evolution of the same number in the field of HS, in the 3 most recent years achieving more than half the funding in projects than in the previous 14 years (2007-2020: 25 vs. 2021-2023: 13). This panorama, in its indicators and trends, also represents an important margin of progression and a set of opportunities for Portuguese participation and that of its scientific community.

It is within this framework, and collaborating with the national scientific community in the development of these margins of progression, that FCT is reconfiguring the ERC-Portugal Program, deepening its innovative design in the European panorama, providing it with a set of axes and instruments and an integrated architecture, designed to cover the various cycles of national participation in the Calls ERC.

ERC-Portugal meets the following general objectives:

Increasing and empowering the levels of participation of the national scientific community in a reference body in the European research context, while broadening the universe of institutional and geographical participation;
Raising the quality of national applications submitted and Portugal's competitiveness on the ERC's Calls , translating into an increase in success rates and levels of funding for Portugal in its various instruments;
Creation of mechanisms to help attract researchers with highly competitive international profiles, while also promoting the stabilization and retention in the SNCT of researchers working in Portugal;
Reinforce or complement existing support processes for the preparation of ERC applications at the level of institutions, in the various scientific fields, with the highly specialized support of a College of experienced evaluators, all former ERC panel members in various editions, and covering all panels and scientific areas;
Add new types of services and dissemination activities made available by FCT to the national scientific community, particularly in the area of peer review;
To deepen and consolidate the FCT's levels of collaboration with the national scientific community, through an innovative set of support instruments and services made available in an integrated manner;
Contribute to the internationalization process of the national scientific community and SNCT institutions;
Developing a strategiccontinuum between national and European funding instruments;
Promotion of collaborative ecosystems, with an inclusive strategy, including the valorization and transfer of knowledge at an intersectoral level.

Team

To serve the scientific community in the various areas of the Program, ERC-Portugal has a multidisciplinary team with the following areas of activity:

Mapping, characterization, analysis and monitoring of national participation in ERC funding instruments, by field and scientific area, and institutional and geographical distribution..;
Scientific support to the national scientific community, through the production of specialized support documents for the submission of applications to the various ERC instruments, both of a public and restricted nature, including on new evaluation methodologies that are being implemented;
National representation on the ERC Program Committee;
Specialized scientific support in the area of peer review in the context of funding agencies and developments in evaluation processes, also translated into support for the preparation of applications or the organization of workshops and webinars, with the collaboration of the Annual College of Evaluators;
Actions to disseminate and promote the ERC instruments and their rules, in the context of the work carried out by the National Contact Points;
Coordination and support for the activities of the Annual College of Assessors, with a particular focus on the evolution of assessment processes, including the updating of criteria and procedures implemented by the ERC;
Creation and implementation of a communication strategy, including the provision of updated data mapping and characterization of national participation in ERC instruments, dedicated news on ERC-Portugal program calendars and initiatives, or communication material around the national scientific community and its paths (including narrative formats, storytelling, etc.);
Management and administrative support, including managing and monitoring the submission of applications, eligibility verification processes and the contracting and granting of funding.