Clarification about the evaluation of Call Investigator FCT 2013

Following some doubts and requests for clarification that have reached the FCT services and the Board of Directors, regarding the way the evaluation exercise of Call Investigador FCT 2013 was carried out, FCT clarifies the following:

A - Evaluators and panel members

1. the entire evaluation exercise was carried out in strict compliance with the provisions set forth in the Evaluation Guide published in due time on the FCT website and in compliance with the applicable regulations;
2. for the 2013 edition it was decided to use a single stage of evaluation;
3. the results of the evaluation (single stage) are the responsibility of an evaluation panel of recognized international merit composed exclusively of foreign scientists and without any connection 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 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 de Projetos Exploratórios de IC&DT em todos os Domínios Científicos - 2013.

B - Prior hearing and contracting

1. As a result of the opinions of the Evaluation Panel, on November 26, 2013, FCT informed the applicants proposed for funding of its intention to fund the employment contracts that these researchers will establish with their host institutions;
2. In the same communication, FCT informed that for these applicants "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 Administrative Procedure Code", and the selection process is considered concluded for these applicants;
3. Applicants not recommended for funding were assured the right to a prior hearing and complaint under the terms of the law, and it was also communicated that the deadlines will only start counting after the marks and comments of the evaluators and/or panel members are made available on the computer platform, in the applicant's area;
4. FCT has duly taken care of the legal framework and budgetary availability to support applications that, following the arguments presented during the prior hearing, have the decision not to fund reversed;
5. FCT therefore ensures that the Call and associated procedures will be carried out 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 it has not been possible to make the ratings and comments entered by the evaluation panel available to date, due to computer problems in the evaluation platform;
2. FCT assumes 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 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, and in order not to harm the selected applicants, FCT chose to promote the signing of the program contracts with the host institutions on a single day, 2 December 2013, which will thus be in a position 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 ranking list of the applicants referred to in the regulations. This will be published when all regulatory procedures are completed.

FCT, December 3, 2013

Update
December 11, 2013

The scores obtained by the candidates in the evaluation exercise were published yesterday (December 10, 2013) on the FCT Investigator platform, and notification e-mails were sent to the candidates. Each candidate has access, in his/her personal area, to his/her final classification and to the comments made by the evaluation panel and/or the external reviewers. Each candidate also has access to the ordered list with the final ranking of all candidates. This list is also available on the FCT website.