2017 Call for SR&TD Project Grants

(available only in Portuguese)

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

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

The information now made public includes an indication of the number and funding volume of the applications considered eligible, the number and funding volume of the projects to be funded and the minimum classifications of the projects funded per evaluation panel. All applicants have been notified by the various Managing Authorities involved and/or by FCT (where applicable).

A total of 4593 applications were submitted to this 2017 Call , of which 3304 were considered eligible, in accordance with the terms of Notice of the Call Call. There are 1,618 projects recommended for funding in all areas of knowledge.

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

Within each panel, the proposals were ranked solely according to their merit. The ranking results from an assessment of the quality of the application, which evaluates the scientific merit of the project and the team, and the potential for economic and social value, including, where applicable, the fit with the Intelligent Specialization Strategy (RIS3).

As established in the Notice of the Call Call, a similar success rate was guaranteed in all the evaluation panels in terms of the 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 applicants and the source of funding (Operational Programs or FCT).

The following note includes a brief description of the evaluation process, following the best practices of transparency and scientific rigor. In view of the questions raised by some applicants, we would like to reinforce that, within each panel, there are no funded projects with a lower rating than a non-funded project.

Projects whose classification is above the "cut-off lines" are proposed for funding in one of the following ways: 1) by COMPETE2020 and the Regional Operational Programs, with a national counterpart provided by the FCT, if the projects fall within the respective budget allocations; or 2) by the FCT, exclusively from national funds, in other cases.

 A brief overview of the evaluation methodology

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

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

Criterion B, with a weight of 30% in the final score, assesses the impact of the project, taking into account the potential for adding value to knowledge (B2), the additionality effect of the project (B3) and the contribution to achieving the set results (B4). In the case of projects eligible for structural funds, the strategic impact of the project is also assessed (taking into account the degree of inclusion in the smart specialization/RIS3 strategy and the response to societal challenges). Criterion B1 is assessed by the Operational Programs (inclusion in RIS3) and by the FCT (response to societal challenges). Criteria B2, B3 and B4 are assessed by a panel of experts from the respective scientific area.

The score for each of the criteria was based on the merit benchmark known prior to the 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 tallying of indicators. The ratings given by the evaluators were agreed within each scientific panel.