Results of the special support program “Portugal and the Holocaust: research and memory”

The FCT has announced the results of its special support program “Portugal and the Holocaust: research and memory,” in which six interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and development (R&D) projects were selected for funding under the “Never Forget” project—a national program focused on Holocaust remembrance. This support had a budget allocation of €200,000 financed by national funds through the FCT budget.

The application period ran from December 18, 2020, to January 15, 2021, and 26 eligible applications were submitted. The six selected projects will receive funding of between €31,973 and €33,656 per project, for a maximum duration of 12 months.

The projects will focus on the following lines of research and action: provision of educational resources, in physical or digital format, including the creation and production of artistic content that highlights the importance of knowledge and memory about the Holocaust in the field of education, particularly in citizenship education; the actions of Portuguese people who distinguished themselves in various areas, particularly in supporting victims of Nazi persecution and extermination policies, the life stories of Portuguese victims of the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, the role of Portuguese diplomacy, notably the figure of Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes; the actions of journalists, taking into account their influence on the formation of public opinion and on the cultural representation and interpretation that arose in relation to all these events; archival processing, digitization, and study of Portuguese documentary collections related to the aforementioned topics; and collaborative research that promotes best practices in knowledge exchange, public engagement, and the impact of research on this topic.

Of the selected projects, four are coordinated by men and two by women. The committee of experts that issued a scientific opinion to support the decision of the Chair of the Governing Board was composed of ten members, five men and five women. The success rate of applications was 23%.

The Memory of the Holocaust is the subject of Council of Ministers Resolution No. 51/2020, of June 25, and includes a program with a set of initiatives to strengthen knowledge, preserve memory, and disseminate information. This special support for R&D projects "Portugal and the Holocaust: research and memory," with the Holocaust and its conceptual framework as a reference, aimed to promote scientific research, developing new knowledge in various areas from a multidisciplinary perspective, with contributions from history, philosophy, human rights, religious studies, political science, law, sociology, literature, the arts, in short, with developments in the social sciences and humanities, reinforcing their presence on the national scientific agenda.