Atlas of Associate Laboratories

The FCT presented the Atlas of Associate Laboratories Atlas of Associate Laboratories 2022) during the conference "25 Years of FCT in Science: Scientific Employment and Scientific Careers," an event held at the University of Coimbra on March 31. This conference was part of the program for the 25 years of FCT, consisting of 12 scientific sessions addressing important topics for the future of science in Portugal and Europe.

The Atlas of Associate Laboratories LA) is a publication by FCT that gathers information on the 40 institutions or consortia of institutions eligible for Associate Laboratory status. It presents data on the LA's area of activity, the work carried out, the number of PhD researchers, among other information. This Call the allocation of additional funding for specific LA activities of €23,843,000 per year, starting in 2021 and for a period of 5 years, which is in addition to the €53,469,000 per year already granted to Research Units that make up the LAs. The results are available here and the evaluation reports here.

The LA are structural components of the National Scientific and Technological System (SCTN) and consist of research and development (R&D) institutions or consortia of R&D institutions, which make explicit institutional commitments to pursue national scientific and technological policy objectives. To this end, these laboratories must have sufficient human resources and scientific infrastructure to enable them to promote scientific and technical careers for PhDs on a sustained basis.

Started in 2019, the process of granting LA status was prepared and conducted by FCT with criteria of transparency and the involvement of the scientific community, in which extensive informal discussions were held on the regulation of the process, culminating in a public discussion and publication of the Regulation of Associate Laboratories on November 12, 2019.

The application process for this Call open on a rolling basis, with a single annual evaluation period. The applications evaluated were submitted between September 28 and October 29, 2020. R&D units funded by FCT, with a rating of Excellent or Very Good and with a minimum of 80 PhD researchers integrated at the time of application, were eligible to apply, either individually or in a consortium. A total of 45 applications were submitted, covering a total of 118 Units and 10,088 integrated Researchers. The evaluation was conducted by a national panel, coordinated by Manuel Nunes da Ponte and with the collaboration of an international scientific council. All applications were presented and discussed publicly. (videos of the sessions).

This publication joins the Atlas of R&D Units, a publication by FCT launched in January, which brings together information on the 312 R&D Units selected for funding in the latest FCT evaluation process for the period 2020-2023.