Clarification on the evaluation of the FCT Call Researchers 2013

Following some doubts and requests for clarification that have reached the FCT services and the Board of Directors, regarding the way in which the evaluation exercise of the Call Investigador FCT 2013 took place, FCT clarifies the following:

A - Assessors and panel members

1. the entire evaluation exercise was carried out in strict compliance with the provisions of the Evaluation Guide published in due course on the FCT website and in compliance with the applicable regulations;
2. For the 2013 edition, it was decided to use a single evaluation phase;
3. The results of the evaluation (single phase) are the responsibility of an evaluation panel of recognized international merit made up exclusively of foreign scientists and unrelated to Portuguese institutions;
4. To support the panel's decisions, each application was evaluated separately by, as a rule, three external evaluators, of which two are foreign and one Portuguese, all of internationally recognized scientific merit;
5. The way in which the external evaluations were used in the evaluation process is the sole responsibility of the panel members and will be transmitted to the applicants in the form and with the content determined by the panel and expressed in the Evaluation Guide published on the FCT website;
6. This procedure is similar to other Calls recently launched by FCT, such as the Call for Exploratory IC&DT Projects in all Scientific Domains - 2013.

B - Prior hearing and contracting

1. As a result of the opinions of the Evaluation Panel, on November 26, 2013, the FCT informed the candidates proposed for funding of its intention to fund the employment contracts that these researchers will establish with the host institutions;
2. In the same communication, the FCT informed that for these candidates "As the decision is favorable, the prior hearing of interested parties is waived, under the terms of article 103, no. 2, paragraph b), of the Code of Administrative Procedure", considering the selection process to be concluded for these candidates;
3. Candidates who were not recommended for funding were assured of their right to a prior hearing and complaint under the terms of the law, and were also informed that the deadlines only start to run once the ratings and comments of the evaluators and/or panel members have been made available on the computer platform, in the candidate's area;
4. FCT has duly taken care of the legal framework and budgetary availability to support applications which, as a result of the arguments presented at the prior hearing, have the decision not to fund them reversed;
5. FCT therefore guarantees that the Call and associated procedures will take place in strict compliance with the legal provisions for researchers whose application was not proposed for funding.

C - Delays and signing of program contracts

1. The panel meetings ended on November 22, 2013, and due to computer problems with the evaluation platform, it has not been possible to make the ratings and comments made by the evaluation panel available to date;
2. FCT takes full responsibility for this computer problem and is making every effort to resolve it quickly;
3. The speed of the process of signing program contracts between the FCT and the host institutions is due to the need to conclude employment contracts between the host institutions and the FCT researchers by the end of 2013, in accordance with the 2013 state budget law. Therefore, in order not to harm the selected candidates, the FCT has chosen to promote the signing of the program contracts with the host institutions on a single day, December 2, 2013, which will then be able to sign the individual employment contracts with the FCT researchers proposed for funding without further delay;
4. The list published by FCT on November 29, 2013 does not represent the final list of candidates referred to in the regulation. This will be published once all the regulatory procedures have been completed.

FCT, December 3, 2013

Update
December 11, 2013

Yesterday (December 10, 2013), the ratings obtained by the candidates in the evaluation exercise were published on the Investigador FCT platform, and notification emails were sent to the candidates. Each candidate has access, in their personal area, to their final classification and the comments made by the evaluation panel and/or external reviewers. Each candidate also has access to the ranked list of all candidates. This list is also available on the FCT website.