General requirements

National, foreign and stateless PhD holders in any scientific area who wish to carry out scientific research or technological development activities in Portugal may apply.

Applicants may not hold a legal employment relationship of indefinite duration with any entity belonging to the National Science and Technology System, as identified in Article 14 of Decree-Law No. 63/2019, of 16 May, whose purpose or content includes scientific research activities.

Specific requirements

The candidate must indicate which level/category of doctoral researcher he/she is applying for, within the two levels open for competition:

1. Junior researcher - PhD holders for 5 years or less, counted as of the closing date of the application submission period, with reduced post-doctoral research experience in the scientific area to which they are applying.
2. Assistant researcher - PhD holders at the closing date of the application submission period, with a relevant curriculum in the scientific area to which they are applying.

Suspensions and interruptions in research activity may be considered when calculating the time after obtaining the doctoral degree, if properly documented, as detailed in the application guidelines.

Applications must be submitted by filling out, in English, a specific form that will be avilable electronically on the myFCT portal.

The evaluation of the candidate for each of the levels of doctoral researcher focuses on two evaluation criteria: (A) merit of the candidate and (B) merit of research and career plans.

The evaluation of the applications is carried out by Evaluation Panels organized by scientific areas (adapted from the Frascati/OECD classification), each of which is coordinated by one of its members and, if necessary, with the collaboration of another member in the role of co-coordinator. The Evaluation Panels are composed of experts of recognized merit, affiliated to foreign institutions, ensuring the representativeness of the scientific areas selected by the candidates.

The Evaluation Panels may make use of external evaluators, who prepare opinions on the applications assigned to them, aimed at informing the panel's work and decisions.

The evaluated applications are ranked, in each Evaluation Panel, in descending order of the final classification for each level of doctoral researcher open to competition and selected up to the number of contracts to be funded.

Only applications with a final classification equal to or higher than 7 (seven) on a scale of 1 (one) to 10 (ten) shall be considered eligible for funding.

Applicants who, in the 7th edition of the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus, obtained a final classification lower than 5 (five) in their application shall be excluded from applying in this edition. The candidates who obtain a final classification lower than 5 (five) in this edition will also be barred from applying to the next edition of the Individual Call to Scientific Employment Stimulus, regardless of any other restrictions that may be considered.

The hiring of doctoral researchers is financed by national funds through FCT and, when eligible, co-financed by EU funds.

Within the scope of the funding to be granted, the following remuneration costs are eligible, considering the two levels:

1. Junior researcher - level 33 of the tabela remuneratória única (single remuneration scale).
2. Assistant researcher - 1st step of the category of assistant researcher of the scientific research career, according to Annex I of Decree Law no. 55/2025, of 28 April, under an exclusive dedication.

FCT signs a contract with the host institutions of the selected candidates, ensuring full funding for eligible costs incurred in hiring the candidate for up to 3 years. Any selected candidate has the possibility of using the 3 years of FCT funding for their salary over a period of 6 years. Researchers can utilize contract suspension periods to have extended stays at other academic or non-academic institutions, national or foreign, and benefit from other funding sources.