Operational Programme Science, Technology, Innovation

In Portugal, the main national research programmes run in the scope of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - Foundation for Science and Technology. This happens either with respect to basic or applied research. That organization has the statute of a Research Directorate General in the scope of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (since 2002). Previously, FCT was inserted in the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Other programmes supporting RTD activities can be found in other organizations. Therefore, they are targeted to very broad objectives and they are not field thematic oriented like the ones of FCT. Such other programmes aim to more general objectives such as increasing innovation, competitiveness or the technology bases without specifying materials as an eligible field.

The programmes of FCT do not define a priori specific objectives for particular fields of science and technology. In general, this organization launches more or less regularly large spectrum programmes covering a large set of fields at the same time. The eligible fields are defined in the content of the calls for proposals. Materials is usually one of the fields that has been included.

In the programmes of FCT that have been opened across the second half of the nineties, no priori budget is allocated to materials science. The same happened in the last calls for proposals launched on 2000, 2001 and 2002 and applies also to other Science and Technology (S&T) fields. There is the intention to modify in the future this approach, by defining priorities throughout budgetary ceilings per area.

The selection of projects has been performed mainly on the basis of quality criteria and then trying to accommodate the best projects in the available budgets.

A large share of projects last for three years.

As it was stated above it may happen that in the near future priorities start being defined with a priori budgetary implications.

It is not possible, under the conditions, to state a figure relative to a priori budget allocation on the field of materials. Therefore, by analyzing the approved and running projects, the following figures arise:
Projects initiated in 2000: 2 886 768 euros
Projects relative to call of 2001: 3 010 871 euros
Projects relative to call of 2002: already evaluated, but not approved.

To promote the scientific production on an international competitive basis; to develop a modern network of R&D entities; to organize a coherent matrix of science equipment; to mobilize the capability of international cooperation on Science and Technology; to stimulate the cooperation between firms and R&D institutions; to internationalize the technological innovation; to develop integrated oriented inter-sectoral programmes.
In the last call launched on 2002, projects were eligible in the following disciplines:
_Solid State Physics; _Solid State Chemistry; _Polymers; _Metals; _Ceramics; _Electronic materials; _Biomaterials.
Different types of entities (research centers, universities, state laboratories, firms) may submit projects. The main performers are the research centers linked to universities.

Projects are selected throughout an evaluation process encompassing the following main criteria:
_Scientific merit of the proposal _Originality of the proposal _Scientific merit of the research team (where internationally acknowledgeable credible scientific production is included) _Qualification of the team to perform the project _Configuration of the team and room for integration of young researchers _Feasibility of the activities and budget adequacy _No overlap with other running projects.