Portugal celebrates World Science Day this Thursday with the presentation, in Lisbon, of the support programs for scientists who have been parents or have not received grants from the European Research Council (ERC) after going to the final phase of applications.
The session will open with the President of the Government, António Costa, and the Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Elvira Fortunato, and will close with the Minister of Economy and the Sea, António Costa Silva.
The two support programs are coordinated by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), the main entity, dependent on the Government, that subsidizes scientific research in Portugal, and are included in the Government’s proposal for the General State Budget for 2023, approved by the Cortes Generales on October 27. The final global vote on the bill, after being considered in the specialty, will take place on Friday.
The ERC-Portugal program aims to support, with 250 thousand euroseach national project that has reached the final stage of the European Research Council (ERC) grant competition but has not been funded.
According to the Government, ERC-Portugal intends to “reward the scientific talent of national applications” for ERC scholarships that “obtained a classification that allowed them to pass to the second evaluation phase, but were not proposed for funding.”
Each of these projects, without European funding, will be assigned, for three years, national funding for a total amount of 250,000 euros, by FCT.
“This stimulus also aims to contribute to the retention and attraction of scientific talent nationwide”, According to the government.
The European Research Council is a body of the European Union that finances science considered to be of excellence, specifically through grants.
The Restart program aims to support scientists who “have taken parental leave for an extended period of time” by funding a research project worth up to 50,000 euros, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education said. to Lusa.
The guardianship hopes that the initiative “will have a greater impact on researchers, since they are the ones who use these licenses the most, which implies a break with negative effects on their competitivenessprofessional progression or even lead to the abandonment of their research activity”.
In the same session, contracts for new university residences will be signed and a prize will be awarded to distinguish scientific articles that “contribute to greater knowledge” and with an impact “on the economic and social development of the country.”
The “Impact of Science on the Economy and Society” Award is promoted by the FCT (under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education) together with the Office of Strategy and Studies (Ministry of Economy and Sea).
World Science Day coincides with the National Day of Scientific Culture.
Source: Observadora
