Call 2021 FCT Studentships Call received 3,381 applications

The 2021 Call Studentships Doctorates from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), for which applications were open from March 1 to 31, received a total of 3,381 applications. The Call the award of 1,450 Studentships funding.

Most candidates (82.3%) intend to carry out their study plan at national host institutions, followed by a mixed system at national and foreign host institutions (15.3%) and, to a lesser extent, entirely abroad (2.4%).

Foreign applicants represent 30% and come from a total of 71 countries. The countries with the most Call applicants Call Brazil (48.2%), Italy (9.2%), Iran (7.7%), Spain (4.2%), and India (2.6%).

By gender, women represent 56% of candidates and men 44%. 

The distribution of candidates by major scientific areas is as follows: Social Sciences – 23.7%, Engineering and Technology Sciences – 23.5%, Humanities 17.4%, Medical and Health Sciences – 11.5%, Natural Sciences – 11.2%, Exact Sciences 7.5%, and Agricultural Sciences 5.3%. (see Table 1)

Submitted applications will be evaluated by 36 Evaluation Panels. The panels with the highest number of applications are: Clinical Medicine and Health Sciences – 5.3%, Arts – 4.9%, and Computer Science and Information Technology – 4.8%.

FCT Doctoral Studentships are competitively awarded grants to support advanced training in all areas of knowledge for the purpose of obtaining a doctoral degree. These Studentships doctoral students to devote themselves exclusively to their research, thereby contributing to the scientific and technological development of the country. The FCT currently supports around 6,000 doctoral Studentships .

Table 1

Distribution of applications submitted by main scientific area and by gender of applicants

Appendix: Statistical report on the Call application process