FCT available to establish preliminary Program Contracts for the DL57/2016 transitional rule

(available only in Portuguese)

In response to requests made by various institutions and with the aim of encouraging the opening of Calls in the transitional provision of Decree-Law No. 57/2016, amended by Law No. 57/2017, the FCT is available to establish preliminary program contracts, signed before the signing of work contracts between the institutions and the PhD students selected in Calls, after validation of the lists of scholarship recipients identified by the institutions as giving rise to positions to be financed by the FCT. The signing of these program contracts does not exempt the FCT from verifying effective compliance with the requirements of Call the contract at the end of the process, at which time any budget adjustments will be made.

Prior program contracts will only be signed if the contracting institution so wishes. These program contracts are not necessary for the opening of Calls, which are the sole responsibility of the institutions, nor can they be invoked as a cause for any delays in the tender procedures.

The FCT will begin by offering this possibility to all institutions that have already submitted lists of scholarship recipients under the transitional rule. Other institutions wishing to establish prior program contracts with the FCT must submit lists of eligible scholarship recipients by May 31, 2018. It is up to the institutions to verify the eligibility of scholarship recipients. The FCT can only validate the eligibility of scholarship recipients for whom the institutions provide proof of eligibility, such as Studentships references, project and unit references (provided that the hiring process has been previously sent to the FCT), or Studentships contracts.

In cases where it is not possible to pre-validate the eligibility of some scholarship recipients, they will not be included in the preliminary program contract but may be added after verification of the hiring process of the researcher selected in Call, including validation of the documents proving the eligibility of the scholarship recipient who gave rise to the open position.

With this measure, FCT aims to contribute to accelerating compliance with the transitional rule by institutions, assisting them in their decision to open Calls, in order to meet the legal deadline of August 31 stipulated in Law 57/2017.

Detailed information on the procedures is available in the draft preliminary program contract and in the guidance document. See also the Transitional Rule page.