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Call for the Attribution of Studentships for PhD Research - 2020

The media coverage of certain statements made by one of the candidates about the FCT's Call for the Attribution of Studentships for Doctoral Research - 2020, has triggered, in recent days, a very significant number of contacts with FCT by other candidates to this Call, grant holders and others requesting clarification on this situation. In this context, FCT issues the following note of clarification on the process of Call para Atribuição de Studentships de Investigação para Doutoramento - 2020, thus responding to all at the same time.

   Clarification Note

The Call for Attribution of Studentships for PhD Research - 2020 is running smoothly at FCT. This year, at the beginning of the process, and for the benefit of applicants due to the difficulties caused by the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic, the period for submission of applications was extended by one month, closing on 28 April 2020. FCT has thus responded to the many requests from applicants for this extension, due to constraints in the completion of their processes, particularly in terms of time and access to the documentation needed for applications.

The process is, since then, taking place within the legal deadlines and according to the edict of the Notice of the Call of Call, in a similar way to what happens every year with this Call. Despite the one month extension of the application deadline, FCT is making every effort to make up for this time and present the results to the applicants within the deadlines that have guided this Call in previous years. The final results of Call are generally published by the end of November, at the end of the period provided for in the FCT Regulation of Studentships of Research for the decision after analysis of the pronouncements of the applicants in the headquarters of prior hearing of interested parties. (More information at Call )

This year, the FCT'sCall de Studentships de Investigação para Doutoramento received a total of 3797 applications, with an expected allocation of 1350 Studentships. FCT currently supports a total of about 5 thousand Studentships doctoral grants. These are Studentships of merit awarded competitively and intended to support advanced training in all areas of knowledge and with a view to obtaining the academic degree of Doctor by the selected candidates. The Studentships allow doctoral students to dedicate themselves exclusively to their research, thus contributing to the scientific and technological development of the country. Studentships has a monthly value of 1,064.00€ for work plans carried out in Portugal and 1,865.00€ for work plans carried out abroad; the maximum duration of Studentships is 48 months.

Despite all the constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected all sectors of society, FCT has spared no effort to meet its annual schedule for science funding. In addition to ensuring normal compliance with the deadlines of the various Calls that FCT opens every year, this year we supported even more initiatives through the launching of several exceptional funding lines, directed to the development of Portuguese science in support of the fight against Covid-19. The following initiatives stand out: special support Gender Research 4 Covid-19; special support RESEARCH 4 COVID-19 (with two editions); Call for R&D projects AI 4 COVID-19: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration; Summer with Science support, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Higher Education (DGES); the Science 4 COVID-19 portal; increasing the capacity of the RCTS - Science, Technology and Society Network, which supports the teaching and research community's Internet connections; strengthening the capacity of services that ensure distance learning and teleworking in the academic and scientific community (Colibri, NAU, Educast, Videocast). All these initiatives are disclosed in COVID-19 on the FCT website, which gathers all the information that is being issued by the FCT, directly or indirectly related to this pandemic situation.