Postdoctoral & Doctoral Fellowships & Grants, FCT, Portugal 2009

Fellowship Description:
Under the terms of the regulations for Advanced Training and Qualification of Human Resources, and taking into account the Scientific Research Grant Recipient Statute approved by Law 40/2004 of 18 August 2004, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) hereby opens a call for applications for funding of the following types of individual grants:

Post Doctoral Grants (BPD)
These grants are intended for individuals who have already completed a doctoral degree, preferably within the last five years, for the purpose of carrying out advanced research in Portuguese or foreign scientific institutes of recognized merit.

Doctoral Grants (BD)
These grants are intended for individuals who hold a Licentiate’s, Master’s or other academic degree who have been accepted to a doctoral program in a university.

Fellowship Funding:
These grants will be funded by the Programa Operacional Potencial Humano of the QREN Portugal 2007-2013 and by national funds made available through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education MCTES.

Important Details About Dates:
This call for applications is open between 12 May and 15 September 2009, and will have two evaluation cycles.
All applications sealed by 5 pm, Lisbon Time, on 16 June 2009 will be evaluated in the first cycle. In the second cycle, all applications sealed between the previous deadline and 5 pm, Lisbon Time, on 15 September 2009 will be evaluated.

Fellowship Applications:
Individual applications must be submitted using the appropriate online form, which is available at: http://concursos.fct.mctes.pt/bolsas/
Applications submitted by any other means will not be accepted. All supporting documents for the application must be scanned and submitted using the form in accordance with Article 19 of the Regulations.

Post Doctoral Grant (BPD) candidates who have not yet completed the doctoral degree should pay special attention to point 6 of Article 19 of the Regulations.
Doctoral Grant (BD) candidates who have not yet completed the academic degree required for this type of grant may only apply during the first evaluation cycle if they declare that they will have obtained the degree by no later than 30 September 2008; they may apply during the second cycle if they declare that they will have obtained the degree by no later than 31 December 2008. If these expectations are not fulfilled, the grants will not be awarded.

Grants approved during the first evaluation cycle shall start no earlier than 1 October 2009; grants approved during the second evaluation cycle shall start no earlier than 1 January 2010.

Although this call for applications consists of two evaluation cycles, each applicant may submit only one application, which will be evaluated by a review panel from the scientific area indicated by the applicant (each candidate may apply to only one scientific area). If two applications are submitted, both will be canceled.

Fellowship Evaluation Procedure:
Only applications that have been sealed by the applicants will be evaluated. The evaluation will take into account the quality of the candidate, the plan of work and the host institution conditions. The review panel for each main scientific field, to which an evaluation guide will be distributed, will examine the corresponding applications, weigh the evaluation criteria and produce a ranked list of applicants.
The regulations are available online at: http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/regulamento2008

Closing Date: 15 September, 2009

Source: alfa.fct.mctes.pt