ERC-PT Careers

Objectives and Scope

The European Research Council (ERC) annually launches funding opportunities for researchers with high standards and rigor in the evaluation and selection processes. Researchers with funding obtained in these processes, with highly competitive profiles at an international level, offer a unique potential for training the institutions that make up the National Science and Technology System (SNCT) and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

In this context, FCT creates a new program to attract these researchers to permanent positions in research and higher education institutions in Portugal – ERC-PT Careers – financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). The ERC-Portugal Program fits into the resilience dimension of the PRR, and in particular the “RE-C06-i06 – Science Plus Training” component, contributing to modernizing and deepening the production and transfer of knowledge in all its various cycles.

The program will encourage the development of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, with a focus on supporting fundamental research, promoting knowledge transfer, or strengthening intersectoral collaboration. It also adds, to the ERC-Portugal program, objectives and financing associated with attracting talent , including attracting more international investment in science, technology and innovation, and strengthening national R&D capacity within the scope of European research and innovation programs . This funding is intended to serve as an incentive for SNCT or HEI institutions to recruit researchers whose projects are recommended for funding by the European Research Council, contributing to modernizing and deepening the production and transfer of knowledge in all its various cycles.

To these attraction objectives, ERC-PT Careers adds a dimension of talent retention , also promoting the stabilization, in permanent positions, of researchers who are already developing their activity in Portugal. The ERC-PT Careers Program will thus contribute to the objective of raising and consolidating the level of excellence of research carried out in Portugal, simultaneously promoting the sustainability of research teams and their responsible researchers. It will also provide the SNCT with greater capacity to achieve the ambitious national objective of doubling, in the period 2021-2027 and compared to 2014-2020, the capture of funding in European Programs, attracting around two billion euros in funding from the European Union in the areas of Research and Innovation.

This Program is also aligned with the May 2021 Council Conclusions on the attractiveness and sustainability of research careers, adopted during the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The ERC-PT Careers Program also joins two existing ERC-Portugal Programs and axes, increasing its impact and deepening its complementarity, including incentives and services that cover the various cycles of the ERC processes, from the submission of applications or the interview phase, incentives and training for future applications, or the attraction and retention of researchers with research projects, already funded by the ERC, ongoing or recently completed:

ERC-PT Pre-Assessment: support service for the national scientific community in the preparation of proposals to the ERC, through a pre-evaluation model and suggestions for improvement, offered in two modalities, which reflects the evaluation criteria and evaluator profiles of the ERC. The support granted by the members of the Annual College of Evaluators of the ERC-PT Pre-Assessment will also briefly include support in carrying out mock interviews for those researchers who submitted proposals to this axis and passed to the second phase;
ERC-PT A-Projects: qualification of the conditions for a future application to the ERC, through financing the initial development of research projects already evaluated with the “A-Reserve List” and “A-Beyond Budget” classifications;
ERC-PT Careers: attraction and retention of researchers with ERC projects already funded to occupy permanent positions in institutions of the National Science and Technology and Higher Education System.

Characterization and types of financing

ERC-PT Careers will function as a support instrument for national institutions that, cumulatively:

Recruit, for an indefinite period of time, researchers with national or foreign affiliation responsible for ongoing or recently completed ERC projects;
In the case of projects in progress, and at the date of submission of the expression of interest, be institutions hosting these projects.

The funding granted by the ERC-PT Careers Program is associated with the implementation phase of the ERC project of the researcher to be recruited, and is also extended to the recruitment of researchers who have completed their ERC projects less than 24 months ago. This promotes a specific modality of this Program – the new ERC-PT Follow-Up – which, under more advantageous conditions, establishes a more attractive parallel with the existing ERC instrument, Proof of Concept . In this way, and in a comprehensive way, the importance of enhancing the research carried out in ERC projects, in their various execution cycles, also including their subsequent phases, and even, when applicable, diversified levels of transfer of information is recognized. knowledge.

The ERC-PT Careers Program has two types of financing:

ERC-PT Careers ATTRACT: this typology aims to encourage the recruitment, for permanent positions, of researchers with an ERC project in progress, or that was completed less than 2 years ago, who have foreign institutions as a host institution, and that transfer the execution of these projects to SNCT or IES institutions;
ERC-PT Careers RETAIN: this typology aims to encourage the recruitment, for permanent positions, of Researchers in non-permanent positions in SNCT or HEI institutions and with an active ERC project or one that was completed less than 2 years ago;

A. ERC-PT Careers | ATTRACT

For the ATTRACT typology, financial support aims to cover the costs of the national institution for hosting projects that transition from foreign institutions.

The financing amounts depend on the execution time of the ERC project, between the beginning of the project and the moment in which the Researchers are recruited, for an indefinite period, by an SNCT or HEI institution. Therefore, depending on the time elapsed, the financing amounts are as indicated in the following table:

Time elapsed between the start of execution of the project financed by the ERC and the contracting for an indefinite period	Financing
Between 0 and 60 months	550.000€
Between 60 months and 84 months \| ERC-PT Follow-Up	450.000€

To calculate these time intervals, the start dates of the ERC project must be used, as indicated in the subsidy agreement, and the date of publication of the national institution's notice for contracting for an indefinite period.

B. ERC-PT Careers | RETAIN

For the RETAIN typology, funding will consist of an incentive to recruit researchers, with national affiliation, responsible for ERC projects underway or completed less than 24 months ago, restricted to the categories of the Scientific Research Career Statute (ECIC), of the Statute of the University Teaching Career (ECDU) or the Career Statute of Teaching Personnel of Polytechnic Higher Education (ECPDESP) indicated in the section “Conditions of access and eligibility” (paragraph d). This financial incentive is calculated as the value equivalent to 2 (two) years of salary costs for hires made under the three career statutes mentioned.

Final Beneficiaries

The following institutions are final beneficiaries:

Higher education institutions.
R&D institutions with legal personality.
This category includes non-business entities in the Research and Development (R&D) system, namely:
1. Higher Education Institutions, their Institutes and R&D Units;
2. Associate Laboratories ;
3. State Laboratories;
4. International laboratories based in Portugal;
5. Private non-profit institutions, whose main purpose is R&D activities;
6. Collaborative Laboratories;
7. Technology and Innovation Centers.
In the case of R&D Units without legal personality, applications must be submitted by the institution with legal personality, of which they are part, and by the head of the same institution.

Period for submitting applications

The period for submitting applications is open permanently until 5 pm, Lisbon time, on December 31, 2025, or until the maximum program allocation of €11,781,424 is completed, whichever occurs first. Monthly eligibility checks are carried out on submitted expressions of interest.

If the maximum allocation is completed in one of the monthly application selection periods, funding will be allocated applying the criteria of prior submission date.