Call for Assignment of Studentships for Doctoral Research – 2020

The media coverage of certain statements about the Call for Assignment of Studentships of Research for Doctorate – 2020 of the FCT, given by one of the candidates, triggered in recent days a very significant number of contacts with the FCT by other candidates for this Call , scholarship holders and other people requesting clarification on this situation. In this context, the FCT issues the following clarification note on the process of Call for Assignment of Studentships for Doctoral Research – 2020, thus responding to everyone simultaneously.

   Clarification Note

THE Call for Assignment of Studentships Doctoral Research Program – 2020 is taking place at FCT as normal. This year, at the beginning of the process, and for the benefit of candidates due to the difficulties caused by the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic, the application submission period was extended by one month, ending on April 28, 2020. The FCT thus responded to the many requests from candidates for this extension, due to constraints in completing their processes, namely in terms of time and access to the documentation required for applications.

The process has since been taking place within the legal deadlines and in accordance with the Notice of the Call for Call , similar to what happens every year with this Call . Despite the one-month extension of the application period, the FCT is making every effort to compensate for this time and present the results to candidates within the deadlines that have guided this period. Call in previous years. The final results of the Call are generally published by the end of November, after the deadline set out in the Regulations Studentships FCT Investigation Department for the decision after analyzing the candidates' statements in the preliminary hearing of interested parties. (More information on the Call page )

This year, the FCT Call for PhD Research Studentships received a total of 3,797 applications , with 1,350 expected to be awarded. Studentships . The FCT currently supports a total of around 5 thousand Studentships of doctorate. These are Studentships merit awards awarded competitively and designed to support advanced training in all areas of knowledge and with a view to obtaining the academic degree of Doctor by the selected candidates. To the Studentships allow doctoral students to dedicate themselves exclusively to their research, thus contributing to the scientific and technological development of the country. To the Studentships have 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, the FCT spared no effort to meet its annual science funding schedule. In addition to ensuring normal compliance with the deadlines of the various Calls that the FCT opens every year, this year we support even more initiatives through the launch of several exceptional financing lines, aimed at the development of Portuguese science in 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; support Summer with Science , in collaboration with the General Directorate of Higher Education (DGES); the Science 4 COVID-19 portal; increasing the capacity of RCTS – Science, Technology and Society Network, which supports the internet connections of the teaching and research community; 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 published on the COVID-19 website of the FCT , which brings together all the information being issued by the FCT, directly or indirectly related to this pandemic situation.