The following Portuguese organizations can be beneficiaries of the funding provided through this Call: 

• Higher Education Institutions, their Institutes, and R&D units; 
• State or international Laboratories with head offices in Portugal;
• Non-profit private institutions whose main objective is R&D activities, including Collaborative Laboratories (CoLab) and Centers for Technology and Innovation (CTI); 
• Other non-profit private and public institutions developing or participating in scientific research activities. 

Projects should fall under the category of individual projects or co-promotion projects, submitted by one or two beneficiaries, respectively, with a maximum duration of 12 months.

Applications must be submitted in English, from December 2, 2024, until 5:00 p.m. (Lisbon time, WET) January 22, 2025, using a specific electronic form via the myFCT platform.

Members of the Portuguese research team must have their curriculum vitae completed on the CIÊNCIAVITAE platform; the lead researcher from the CMU partner must provide a 2-page CV in PDF format and also a confirmation statement of their faculty appointment at CMU.

The Declaration of Commitment from the Proposing Institution will be available on the myFCT platform for approval by the head of the Proposing Institution, or a designated representative, after the application submission deadline and until 5:00 p.m. Lisbon time on February 5, 2025.

Applications will be reviewed by international panels of independent experts defined by FCT. 

The selection and ranking of the applications will be based on the following criteria, further detailed in the Guide for Peer Reviewers:

A. Scientific merit (A1) and innovative nature (A2) of the project from an international standpoint and alignment with the goals of Phase III of the CMU Portugal Program – 40%;

B. Scientific merit of the PI and the research team (B1), including the impact of project execution in developing the PI's career and/or research (B2) – 35%;

C. Feasibility of the workplan and the expected indicators (C1), including the project’s impact in a real-world problem, as well as the budget adequacy (C2) – 25%.

The Merit of the Project (MP) is given by:

              MP = 0,40 (0,50 A1 + 0,50 A2) + 0,35 (0,60 B1 + 0,40 B2) + 0,25 (0,50 C1+ 0,50 C2)​​​

The budget allocation for the call is €400,000. Approved projects will be funded by national funds through the FCT budget.

The maximum funding limit for Portuguese institution partners per project is:

• €70,000 for consortia with more than one Portuguese institution;
• €50,000 for projects with only one Portuguese institution.

The CMU Portugal Program will fund the CMU research team in each project, matching the amount allocated to the corresponding Portuguese team. This funding will be granted independently by the CMU Portugal Program.

​​​​​​​The funding to be granted under this call is non-reimbursable, applying the option of simplified costs in the form of a lump sum.

Regardless of the project’s approved funding amount, the initial advance payment is 75% of the approved funding. The remaining amount, up to the approved funding for each project, is paid upon project completion, through a final reimbursement payment method.

The indirect costs are a fixed rate of 25% of all the estimated direct eligible costs. The expenses for the adaptation of buildings and facilities are limited to a maximum of 10% of the project’s total eligible expenses.

The call is governed by the Announcement for Proposal Submission of the Call, the Regulation for Projects Exclusively Funded by National Funds, approved by Regulation No. 999/2016 of October 31, in its current version, and all other applicable national and European legislation.

Applicants are advised to review all supporting documentation available on the call’s webpage prior to submission.

For scientific inquiries, please contact the CMP Portugal Program at the following address: research@cmuportugal.org . 

For information regarding the content of the application form, please email to: concursoprojetos@fct.pt .

None of the information published on this webpage overrides the official Annoucement for Proposal Submissions.