According to the provisional results of the 2025 Doctoral Research Scholarship Award Competition, 37% of the 4,169 applications received were approved.
Of the 1,550 scholarships awarded, 1,000 pertained to the general academic context application line, and 550 resulted from the specific non-academic environment application line, which supports doctorates developed in collaboration between academia and other entities, including companies and public administration.
“Compared to the previous competition, 22% more scholarships are awarded in the specific non-academic environment line, aligning with the 21.7% increase in applications for this type of scholarship,” the FCT stated in a press release.
The allocation of doctoral scholarships represents an investment of 133 million euros, funded by the State Budget and, in the case of eligible projects, through revenues from the Demography, Qualifications and Inclusion Program of the European Social Fund.
“In this edition, the contracting process for the scholarships will be ensured by the contracting institutions – institutions of the Scientific and Technological System – which had to associate themselves with the applications for validation,” the statement added.
The over four thousand applications were evaluated by 537 evaluators, distributed across 38 panels.
The majority of approved scholarships (83%) will support research projects conducted entirely in Portuguese institutions, 16% of the scholarships will be mixed, and only 1% will be conducted in foreign institutions.
A quarter of the scholarships falls into the Social Sciences domain, followed by Engineering and Technology Sciences (21%) and Humanities (18%).
In the case of specific applications in an academic environment, the majority falls within Engineering and Technology Sciences (38%), followed by Medical and Health Sciences (21%) and Social Sciences (13%).
The final results of the competition will be published by early November, and approved scholarships will commence on the first day of the month indicated by the candidate during contracting, between September 1 and August 1.
“Whenever contracting occurs after the start of the research work funded by the scholarship, retroactive payment of the scholarships will be made,” FCT clarified.
