FCT in 2018 – highlights of a year of achievements

2018 was a year of growth for Science and Technology (S&T) in Portugal, with the highest investment observed since 2010. The new S&T policies initiated in 2016 and 2017 began to produce results, namely in scientific employment, in the connection to the productive sector, with the creation of Collaborative Laboratories, and in internationalization, particularly in the areas of health, digital and space and Earth observation. It was a year of intense activity, with the launch and operationalization of several evaluation and financing mechanisms, such as the new Calls scientific employment, the operationalization of the transitional standard for scientific employment, the evaluation of R&D Units, the attribution of the CoLAB title, the contracting and financing of almost two thousand R&D projects in all domains as well as the launch, evaluation and start of contracting of Studentships of doctorate of Call 2018. 

With this in mind, the FCT is today publishing a summary document of this activity, in which it informs the scientific community of its work. The Calls Calendar for 2019 is also being released today, so that the community can better plan their research and when to submit their applications. These two documents should be published annually, so that the FCT's activities become increasingly transparent.