FCT available to establish prior program contracts under the transitional rule of DL 57/2016

In response to requests made by various institutions and in order to encourage the opening of the Calls provided for in the transitional rule of Decree-Law no. 57/2016 as amended by Law no. 57/2017, the FCT is available to establish prior program contracts, signed before the signing of the employment contracts between the institutions and the doctoral graduates selected in the Calls, after validation of the lists of fellows identified by the institutions as giving rise to positions to be funded by the FCT. The signing of these program contracts does not exempt the FCT from verifying that the requirements of the Call have been met and that the contract has been signed, at the end of the process, when any budgetary adjustments will be made.

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

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

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

With this measure, the FCT intends to help speed up institutions' compliance with the transitional rule, helping them in their decision to open Calls order to meet the legal deadline of August 31 stipulated in Law 57/2017.

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