ERC-PT Careers

Program to attract and retain researchers with ERC projects already funded (ongoing or recently completed) to fill permanent positions in institutions of the National Science and Technology and Higher Education System. 

In addition to ERC-PT , the ERC-Portugal program includes two other areas: the ERC-PT and ERC-PT Projects.

Objectives and Scope

The European Research Council (ERC) launches annual funding opportunities for researchers with high standards and rigor in the evaluation and selection processes. Researchers who obtain funding through these processes, with highly competitive profiles at the international level, offer unique potential for capacity building in the institutions that make up the National Science and Technology System (SNCT) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

In this context, FCT has created a new program to attract these researchers to permanent positions in research and higher education institutions in Portugal – ERC-PT  – funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). The ERC-Portugal Program falls under the resilience dimension of the PRR, and in particular under the component “RE-C06-i06 – Science Plus Training,” contributing to modernizing and deepening the production and transfer of knowledge in all its various cycles.

The program will foster the development of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, focusing on supporting fundamental research, promoting knowledge transfer, and strengthening cross-sector collaboration. It also adds to the ERC-Portugal program objectives and funding associated with attracting talent, including attracting more international investment in science, technology, and innovation, and strengthening national R&D capacity within the scope of European research and innovation programs. This funding is intended to encourage SNCT or IES institutions to recruit researchers whose projects are recommended for funding by the European Research Council, contributing to modernizing and deepening the production and transfer of knowledge in all its various cycles.

In addition to these attraction objectives, ERC-PT adds a talent retention dimension, also promoting the stabilization, in permanent positions, of researchers who are already working in Portugal. The ERC-PT Program will thus contribute to the goal of raising and consolidating the level of excellence of research carried out in Portugal, while promoting the sustainability of research teams and their principal investigators. It will also give the SNCT greater capacity to achieve the ambitious national goal of doubling, in the period 2021-2027 and compared to 2014-2020, the amount of funding obtained from European Programs, attracting around two billion euros of European Union funding in the areas of Research and Innovation.

This Program is also aligned with the May 2021 Council Conclusions on the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers, adopted during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Characterization and types of financing

The ERC-PT will serve as a support tool for national institutions that, cumulatively:

1. Proceed with the recruitment, for an indefinite period, of researchers of national or foreign affiliation responsible for ongoing or recently completed ERC projects;
2. In the case of ongoing projects, and at the date of submission of the expression of interest, they must be host institutions for those projects.

Funding granted by the ERC-PT Program is linked to the implementation phase of the ERC project of the researcher to be recruited, and is also extended to the recruitment of researchers who have completed their ERC projects less than 24 months ago. This promotes a specific modality of this Program—the new ERC-PT – which, under more advantageous conditions, establishes a more attractive parallel with the existing ERC instrument, Proof of Concept. This broadly recognizes the importance of enhancing the research carried out in ERC projects, in their various implementation cycles, including their subsequent phases and, where applicable, diverse levels of knowledge transfer.

The ERC-PT Program has two types of funding:

• ERC-PT ATTRACT: this category aims to encourage the recruitment, for permanent positions, of researchers with an ERC project currently underway, or completed less than two years ago, who have foreign institutions as their host institution, and who are transferring the execution of these projects to SNCT or IES institutions;
• ERC-PT RETAIN: this category aims to encourage the recruitment of researchers in non-permanent positions at SNCT or IES institutions to permanent positions, with an active ERC project or one that was completed less than two years ago;

A. ERC-PT | ATTRACT

For the ATTRACT typology, financial support aims to cover the costs incurred by the national institution in hosting projects transferred from foreign institutions.

The amounts of funding depend on the duration of the ERC project, from its start date to the date on which the researchers are recruited on a permanent basis by an SNCT institution or higher education institution. Therefore, depending on the time elapsed, the amounts of funding are as indicated in the following table:

To calculate these time intervals, the start dates of the ERC project, as indicated in the grant agreement, and the date of publication of the national institution's call for applications for permanent positions should be used.

B. ERC-PT | RETAIN

For the RETAIN typology, funding will consist of an incentive to recruit researchers with national affiliation who are responsible for ERC projects that are ongoing or have been completed less than 24 months ago, restricted to the categories of the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC), the University Teaching Career Statute (ECDU) or the Statute of the Career of Teaching Staff in Polytechnic Higher Education (ECPDESP) indicated in the section "Conditions of access and eligibility" (point d). This financial incentive is calculated as the equivalent of two (2) years of salary costs for hires made under the three career statutes mentioned.

Final Beneficiaries

The following institutions are the final beneficiaries:

1. Higher Education Institutions.
2. R&D institutions with legal personality.
   This category includes non-business entities in the Research and Development (R&D) system, namely:
   1. Higher Education Institutions, their Institutes, and R&D Units;
   2. Associate Laboratories;
   3. State laboratories;
   4. International laboratories based in Portugal;
   5. Private non-profit institutions whose main purpose is R&D activities;
   6. Collaborative Laboratories;
   7. Technology and Innovation Centers.
3. In the case of R&D units without legal personality, applications must be submitted by the institution with legal personality to which they belong and by the head of that institution.

Application period

The application period is open permanently until 5 p.m. Lisbon time on December 31, 2025, or until the maximum program allocation of €11,781,424 has been reached, whichever comes first. Monthly checks are carried out to verify the eligibility of the expressions of interest submitted.

If the maximum allocation is reached in one of the monthly application selection periods, funding will be awarded based on the date of submission.

Call Page

For more information and access to the application form, please visit the Call page.

Contacts

Information about the Call be requested via email: ercpt@fct.pt. The FCT invites institutions interested in benefiting from this support to contact the FCT, even if they are in the preliminary stages of the research contracting process.