Call Applications for PhD Studentships – 2020

The media coverage of certain statements made by one of the candidates regarding the FCT's Call Applications Studentships Doctoral Studentships – 2020 has triggered a significant number of contacts with the FCT in recent days from other candidates for this Call, scholarship holders, and other individuals requesting clarification on this situation. In this context, the FCT issues the following clarification note on the process of Call the Award of Studentships for Doctoral Studies – 2020, thereby responding to everyone simultaneously.

   Clarification Note

The Call Applications for Doctoral Studentships – 2020 is proceeding as normal 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 application submission period was extended by one month, closing on April 28, 2020. The FCT thus responded to the many requests from applicants for this extension, due to constraints in completing their applications, particularly in terms of time and access to the necessary documentation.

The process has since been proceeding within the legal deadlines and in accordance with the Notice of the Call Call Notice of the 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 make up for this time and present the results to applicants within the deadlines that have guided this Call previous years. The final results of Call usually published by the end of November, after the deadline set out in the FCT Studentships Regulations for the decision, once the candidates' statements have been analyzed at a prior hearing of interested parties. (More information on the Call page)

This year, the FCT'sCall PhD Studentships received a total of 3,797 applications, with 1,350 Studentships expected to be awarded. The FCT currently supports a total of around 5,000 Studentships . These are Studentships awarded on a competitive basis and intended to support advanced training in all areas of knowledge with a view to the selected candidates obtaining a doctoral degree. Studentships doctoral students to devote themselves exclusively to their research, thereby contributing to the scientific and technological development of the country. Studentships 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 48 months.

Despite all the constraints caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected all sectors of society, FCT has spared no effort to fulfill its annual science funding calendar. In addition to ensuring that the deadlines for Calls various Calls FCT opens every year are met, this year we have supported even more initiatives by launching several exceptional funding lines aimed at developing Portuguese science to combat Covid-19. The following initiatives are particularly noteworthy: special support for Gender Research 4 Covid-19; special support for RESEARCH 4 COVID-19 (with two editions); Call R&D projects AI 4 COVID-19: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in Public Administration; support for Summer with Science, in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES); the Science 4 COVID-19 portal; increased capacity of the RCTS – Science, Technology, and Society Network, which supports internet connections for the teaching and research community; and strengthened capacity of services that provide distance learning and teleworking in the academic and scientific community (Colibri, NAU, Educast, Videocast). All these initiatives are published on the COVID-19 page of the FCT website, which brings together all the information issued by the FCT that is directly or indirectly related to this pandemic situation.