ERC-PT Pre-assessment

Support service for the national scientific community in the preparation of proposals to the ERC, through a pre-evaluation model and suggestions for improvement, which mirrors the ERC's evaluation criteria and evaluator profiles, available in two forms.

In addition to the ERC-PT Pre-assessment, the ERC-Portugal program includes two other axis programs: ERC PT - A Projects and ERC PT - Careers.

Objectives and scope

ERC-PT Pre-assessment is a new Program and axis of FCT's ERC-Portugal, consisting of a peer pre-assessment service available to researchers in the national scientific community who are preparing applications to the European Research Council (ERC). In line with the best international peer review practices, this new program aims to be an important tool available to the national scientific community, proposing a model for pre-evaluation and suggestions for improving proposals that mirrors the ERC's evaluation criteria and evaluator profiles.

The ERC-PT Pre-assessment aims to help meet some of the challenges facing applications submitted by the national scientific community, namely the existence of margins for progression: (i) at international level, in the levels of submission and success rates of national applications compared to the European average; and (ii) at national level, in the diversification and broadening of the growth of these indicators in the various national research institutions and all scientific fields. Its scope and the availability of two pre-assessment modalities are also important contributions to the national scientific community, extending and adapting to the specificities of the various scientific areas, as well as making up for the lack of or reinforcing similar pre-assessment processes that already exist in national institutions.

These are the objectives of this new program:

• To support the national scientific community in the preparation of proposals to the ERC, through a pre-evaluation model framed by the ERC's evaluation criteria and evaluator profiles;
• Contribute to raising Portugal's funding levels in the ERC, success rates and the quality of national applications submitted;
• To reinforce or fill gaps, free of charge and in all scientific fields, in similar pre-assessment processes that exist at institutional level;
• With the introduction of this new axis, in terms of its scope and diversity of beneficiaries, it complements the strategy of the recent ERC-Portugal Program to finance ERC applications evaluated with the highest score but without funding;
• Adding a new type of service, this one in the area of peer review, to those already made available to the national scientific community by the FCT.

Characterization and pre-assessment models

Researchers will be able to choose between two proposal models to be submitted later under one of the ERC's Calls types, Starting Grant (StG), Consolidator Grant (CoG) and Advanced Grant (AdG):

• Step 1 - submission of part B1 of the application, including Extended Synopsis and Narrative CV, which will be pre-evaluated and commented on by 1 evaluator, and the researchers will receive a report;
• Step 2 - submission of parts B1 and B2 of the application, which will be pre-evaluated and commented on by 3 evaluators, with the researchers receiving 3 reports.

The application proposals submitted to the ERC-PT Pre-Assessment will be evaluated according to the ERC's evaluation criteria for the respective Call, and will be carried out by an annually appointed college of international evaluators, with profiles of high experience in evaluation processes, preferably with experience as panel members at the ERC.

In the Step 2 model, and in order to preserve the diversity of perspectives of the evaluations produced and their contribution to the improvement and enrichment of the proposals, researchers will receive not one consensual report, but the three reports produced. In either model, the format of the report will follow a structure of stating and justifying the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal, plus a section of comments and suggestions on aspects considered to be potentially improving the application.

In addition, in the Step 2 model, if the evaluators so indicate depending on the particular competitiveness of the proposal, there may be an additional cycle of interaction, in the form of a zoom meeting, after receiving the reports and before submitting the applications to the ERC.

Eligibility and required documentation

The Program's eligibility conditions are:

1. The submission of a single proposal in one of the two pre-evaluation models, step 1 (B1) or step 2 (B1 and B2), respecting the maximum number of pages defined by the ERC for the respective edition of the Call;
2. Send the completed form provided;
3. Declaration of commitment to submit an application, at a SNCT host institution, to the ERC Call which the ERC-PT Pre-Assessment relates;
4. Declaration of support for the application from the host institution.

The form that must accompany the submission of the proposal can be downloaded here. 

The documentation referred to in points a) and b) must be written in English. All documentation must be sent in PDF format to the email address ERCPT@fct.pt.

As in all FCT evaluation processes, evaluators will be bound by confidentiality agreements.

Calendar

In order to guarantee the timely sending of reports to researchers, the Program's calendar model will be as follows: (i) sending the application proposals up to about 2 months before the deadline for submitting applications set by the ERC; (ii) sending the pre-assessments and reports to researchers up to about one month before the same deadline.

Note on the calendar for calendar year 2025In order to better inform the planning of researchers accessing the support granted by this program, FCT will now publish the date on which the reports of the Annual College of Evaluators will be sent to future ERC applicants.

With regard to the timetable presented here, it should be noted that, as the dates for the new ERC Work Programme 2026 Calls have not yet been released by the ERC, the periods presented here may be subject to change once they are released. Without prejudice to the provisional nature of this calendar for the StG-2026 and CoG-2026 Calls , the dates presented here are based on probable estimates, based on calendars from previous editions.

ERC-PT Pre-assessment "Advanced Grant 2025"

As far as the ERC-ADG-2025 Call is concerned, and given that ERC applications will have to be submitted on August 28, sharing this date with the national scientific community is even more important, since we have brought forward the submission of these reports to July 3, in order to make it possible to hold online meetings with the Members of the College who produced the reports, to be held at a time when both Members of the College and researchers are mutually available, during the month of July.

ERC-PT Pre-assessment "Starting Grant 2026"

ERC-PT Pre-assessment "Consolidator Grant 2026"

Given the festive break in the last two weeks of December, and possible scheduling constraints, both on the part of the Members of the College and the researchers accessing the program, it was thought that it would be useful to make a few days available after this period for online meetings, also considering a period of one week for the introduction of any improvements to the application, resulting from suggestions made during these meetings.

Contact

For further information or clarification, please contact: ERCPT@fct.pt.