Results released Call for the award of 500 researcher contracts – Call Scientific Employment Stimulation – Individual

The results of the 1st were released today Call to Stimulate Scientific Employment – Individual ( CEEC Individual 2017 ). In this Call 500 PhD researcher employment contracts will be granted in all scientific areas and in the four contractual categories. 276 Junior Researcher contracts, 154 Assistant Researcher contracts, 66 Principal Researcher contracts and 4 Coordinating Researcher contracts are proposed for funding by the FCT.

The candidates were selected through an evaluation and classification process carried out by 25 international panels and coordinated by José Carlos Marques dos Santos. The number of places allocated in each scientific panel is proportional to the number of candidates evaluated, maintaining the same rate of funded contracts in all, which corresponds to approximately 12% of the candidates evaluated. 172 contracts were awarded in Natural Sciences, 95 in Engineering and Technology, 71 in Humanities and Arts, 67 in Social Sciences, 62 in Medical and Health Sciences and 33 in Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences. The distribution of contracts between the different categories also took into account the respective number of applications.

Of the 500 researchers now selected, 52% are women . The results of the Call They also reveal the country's strong international attractiveness , as 99 researchers – 20% of those selected – are foreigners. 

With the publication of the results, the preliminary hearing period begins, during which candidates can contest their assessment. Employment contracts must be signed between researchers and host institutions within 90 days after the signing of program contracts between them and the FCT. The CEEC Individual is one of the financing instruments for the recruitment of researchers defined by the Scientific Employment Regulation , launched in 2017 by the FCT, following the publication of Decree-Law No. 57/2016 . The next edition of Call will take place by the end of the year, as provided for in Decree-Law No. 60/2018 .

Another channel created by the Regulation – the Institutional CEEC , whose results from the 2018 edition were recently released – will allow the hiring of 400 researchers.

In 2018, the FCT also supports other Scientific Employment mechanisms, such as the transitional rule of Decree-Law No. 57/2016, under which around 2,000 employment contracts will be financed. You Calls for the selection of researchers to be hired were opened by the institutions and many are still in progress. The 2017 Call for Projects in all Scientific Domains also promotes the hiring of around 1,600 PhD researchers, through Calls that are being opened by the institutions in which the projects are developed. In turn, funding for R&D Units, in the 2017/2018 Evaluation process, also includes the granting of 400 employment contracts for researchers. 

In all cases, the contract is signed between the host institution and the doctoral researcher, and is financed by the FCT. In total, the FCT expects to finance almost 5,000 contracts as part of ongoing initiatives in 2018.