2017 Call for SR&TD Project Grants

(available only in Portuguese)

The process of communicating the results of the Call 2017 of R&D projects in all scientific domains ( Announcement 02/SAICT/2017 ) is completed. The list of applications proposed for funding and the summary of results are available here.

Approximately 375 million euros have been allocated for R&D projects to be carried out over the next 3 years, resulting from joint funding from the FCT, COMPETE2020 and the Portugal2020 Regional Operational Programmes. This is the largest funding ever awarded in Calls of R&D projects in Portugal, a value around three times greater than the overall amount involved in the last Call launched by FCT in 2014.

The information now made public includes the number and funding volume of applications considered eligible, the number and funding volume of projects to be funded and the minimum scores of projects funded by the evaluation panel. All bidders were notified by the various Managing Authorities involved and/or by the FCT (when applicable).

To this Call 2017, 4593 applications were submitted, of which 3304 applications were considered eligible, in accordance with the terms of the Notice of the Call of Call . There are 1618 projects recommended for funding in all areas of knowledge.

The applications were distributed across 33 evaluation panels, according to the respective scientific area. Each application was evaluated by two internationally recognized researchers, for a total of 417 evaluators, who agreed on their classifications in meetings of each panel. 

Within each panel, proposals were ordered solely according to their merit. The classification is the result of the evaluation of the quality of the application, which assesses the scientific merit of the project and the team, and the potential for economic and social appreciation, including, when applicable, classification in the Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3).

As established in the Notice of the Call of Call , a similar success rate was ensured across all evaluation panels in terms of volume of eligible funding requested. Thus, for each evaluation panel a “cut-off line” was defined associated with the merit of the applications, regardless of the geographical location of the proponents and the source of funding (Operational Programs or FCT).

The following note includes a brief description of the evaluation process, following best practices of transparency and scientific rigor. In view of questions raised by some proponents, we emphasize that, within each panel, there are no funded projects with a lower rating than an unfunded project.

Projects whose classification is above the “cut-off lines” are proposed for financing through one of the following methods: 1) by COMPETE2020 and by Regional Operational Programs, with national counterpart provided by FCT, if the projects are eligible and fit within the respective budget allocations; or 2) by the FCT, exclusively through national funds, in other cases.

 Brief summary of the evaluation methodology

The evaluation of projects submitted to Call was based on two evaluation criteria: A and B.

Criterion A, with a weight of 70% in the final classification, evaluates the quality of the project, considering the scientific and technological merit of the project (A1) and the quality of the team (A2), the quality of the proposal and viability of the work plan (A3) and the budgetary reasonableness and financial sustainability (A4). The classification of this criterion is entirely defined by the panel of experts in the respective scientific area.

Criterion B, with a weight of 30% in the final classification, assesses the impact of the project, considering the potential for valorization of knowledge (B2), the additionality effect of the project (B3) and the contribution to achieving the established results (B4). In the case of projects eligible for structural funds, the strategic impact of the project is also assessed (using as parameters the degree of insertion in the smart specialization strategy/RIS3 and the response to societal challenges). Criterion B1 is assessed by the Operational Programs (insertion into RIS3) and by the FCT (response to societal challenges). Criteria B2, B3 and B4 are assessed by the panel of experts in the respective scientific field.

The score for each of the criteria was based on the merit benchmark known previously to Call . As publicly announced, the evaluation by the panel of experts took into account the specificities of the different scientific areas and the diversity of the projects, and was not limited to simple quantitative metrics or a mere accounting of indicators. The classifications attributed by the evaluators were agreed upon within each scientific panel.