Universidade Europeia (UEL), as part of the Cultivating Holistic CoLLaborations: ENGaging Excellence in European Universities (ChallengeEU) consortium, which includes Hochschule Offenburg (Germany), South East European University (North Macedonia), ECAM LaSalle (France), Mid Sweden University (Sweden), the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (Latvia), Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW (Switzerland), and Universidad Europea de Valencia (Spain), is launching its first call for the award of 5 (five) PhD Research Scholarships, under the FCT Research Grants Regulation (RBI) and the Research Fellow Statute (EBI), as currently in force.

The scholarships will be funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT), under the Collaboration Protocol between FCT and Universidade Europeia (ChallengeEU).

1. Scientific Areas

The applicant must select 1 main area (SDG 3, SDG 9 OR SDG 13) and up to 3 subthemes/keywords. Applications will be accepted in the following areas:

Health and Well-Being (SDG 3)

• Health promotion, prevention, and social determinants of health (including territorial inequalities).
• Innovation in healthcare and proximity-based services (especially in rural/peripheral regions).
• Digital health and hybrid care delivery models (telehealth, monitoring, health literacy).

Smart Digitalization (SDG 9)

• Digital transformation in education and research (platforms, open resources, alternative credentials).
• Digital skills and digital inclusion (especially in regions with low literacy).
• Responsible technologies and innovation (governance, transparency, explainability, trust in digital systems).

Sustainable Futures (SDG 13)

• Climate transition and applied sustainability in a regional context (energy, mobility, water, waste, circularity).
• Green innovation and the adoption of sustainable technologies in regional “testbeds.”
• Scenario planning and implementation strategies for sustainability in specific territories.

2. Application Submission

The call is open from 00:00 on March 15 to 23:59 on May 15, 2026 (Lisbon time).

Applications and the supporting documents required under the FCT RBI and this Call for Applications must be submitted exclusively by email to: research@universidadeeuropeia.pt. Applications or any additional information submitted by other means will not be accepted.

The procedures of the call—such as submission of applications, the evaluation process, prior hearing, and publication of results—will take place exclusively by electronic means.

Each applicant may submit only one application, selecting 1 main area (SDG 3/9/13) and up to 3 subthemes/keywords in order of priority, under penalty of cancellation of all applications submitted.

Providing false statements or committing plagiarism is grounds for cancellation of the application, without prejudice to the adoption of other sanctioning measures.

3. Type and Duration of Scholarships

PhD Research Scholarships are mixed scholarships (periods in Portugal and abroad) and are intended to fund research activities leading to the award of a doctoral degree at Universidade Europeia and at another participating ChallengeEU university(ies), within the scientific domains covered by the consortium.

The research activities leading to the doctoral degree will take place at Universidade Europeia and at the foreign universities in the ChallengeEU consortium.

The duration of mixed scholarships is, as a rule, annual, renewable up to a maximum of 48 months requested in the application. Scholarships may not be awarded for a period shorter than 3 consecutive months nor longer than 48 months. The period of the work plan to be carried out at a foreign university in the ChallengeEU consortium may not exceed 12 months.

4. Eligible Applicants

PhD Research Scholarships are intended for applicants enrolled—or who meet the conditions required to enroll—in a doctoral program leading to a doctoral degree, and who intend to carry out research activities leading to that degree at Universidade Europeia.

5. Eligibility
   1. Eligibility Requirements

The following may apply to this call:

• Portuguese nationals or citizens of other European Union Member States;
  • Citizens of third countries;
    • Stateless persons;
    • Citizens holding political refugee status.

To apply for the PhD Research Scholarship, applicants must:

• Hold a master’s degree in an area compatible with the scientific areas described in item 1;

  • Reside permanently and habitually in Portugal on the scholarship start date and, for the period abroad, maintain the applicable requirements under the RBI/EBI—this requirement applies to both Portuguese and foreign citizens;
    • Not have previously benefited from an FCT-funded PhD scholarship or PhD in Companies scholarship, regardless of its duration;
    • Not hold a doctoral degree.
  • Application Admissibility Requirements

   

It is mandatory to attach the following documents, otherwise the application will not be admitted:

1. The applicant’s curriculum vitae, duly updated, on the CIENCIA VITAE or ORCID platform; applications whose CV contains no curricular information—showing only the name and CIENCIA ID identification—will be considered not eligible;
   1. Certificates of academic degrees held, obligatorily stating the final grade and, where possible, the grades obtained in all completed courses, or alternatively, a sworn statement by the applicant on how they will complete the master’s degree by the end of the application deadline;
      1. Record of recognition of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions and record of conversion of the respective final grade to the Portuguese grading scale, or alternatively, a sworn statement on how the applicant will obtain such conversion before the contract is signed; the foreign degree must have been obtained during the application period.
      2. A motivation letter with a detailed and reasoned explanation of a research topic of interest to the applicant, fit to the topic, availability for mobility, and objectives (100–200 words);
      3. Two distinct letters of recommendation; the recommender may email them directly, referencing the call and the applicant, to: research@universidadeeuropeia.pt;
      4. A Work Plan to be developed within the scientific areas defined in this call—see item 1—containing the following sections: Title, Abstract, State of the Art, Objectives, Detailed Description, and Bibliographic References, with a maximum of 10,000 characters (including spaces) and excluding the timeline diagram. The Work Plan must be accompanied by a Schedule, indicating the proposed tasks timeline and the main milestones to be achieved. The applicant must also indicate potential supervisors.
      5. The application and all documents submitted, including motivation and recommendation letters, must be in a single language only—Portuguese or English.

The following should be noted regarding the eligibility requirements above:

1. Only applicants who have completed the master’s degree by the end of the application deadline will be admitted. If they do not yet have the completion certificate, a sworn statement by the applicants on how they will complete the required qualifications for the purposes of the call by the end of the application deadline will be accepted. Award of the scholarship is conditional on the presentation, during contracting, of proof of the academic qualifications held. In the case of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, and in order to ensure equal treatment between applicants holding foreign and national degrees, recognition of those degrees and conversion of the respective final grade to the Portuguese grading scale are mandatory.
   1. Recognition of foreign academic degrees and diplomas, as well as conversion of the final grade to the Portuguese grading scale, can be obtained at any public higher education institution or at the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES, only in the case of automatic recognition).

6. Work Plan and Scientific Supervision

The scholarship holders’ work will be partially carried out at foreign universities in the ChallengeEU consortium, for a period that may not exceed 12 months.

All research work will be carried out under the supervision of a scientific supervisor designated by the host institutions, as provided for in Article 5-A of the EBI.

All work plans must be detailed as per item 5.2, paragraph (f).

7. Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation process assesses the merit and feasibility of the work plan, the applicant’s CV and motivation, and their performance in a possible interview, conducted in English by videoconference. The evaluation is based solely on the elements submitted by the application deadline.

Admissible applications will be evaluated with a score from 1 to 9 (one to nine), rounded to tenths, for each of the following evaluation criteria:

• Criterion A – Merit of the Work Plan and the Applicant (weight 70%):

Subcriterion A1 – Detailed analysis of the work plan, curriculum vitae, scientific publications and communications in the area, as well as outreach activities, weight 50%;

Subcriterion A2 – Participation in projects and research or professional experience, weight 40%.

Subcriterion A3 – Motivation Letter, weight 10%. Criterion A is calculated using the formula:

Criterion A = (0.5 × A1) + (0.4 × A2) + (0.1 × A3)

• Criterion B – Videoconference interview, conducted in English, for candidates whose intermediate score is greater than or equal to 6.5 (weight 30%).

For the final scholarship decision process, applicants will be ranked according to the following weighted formula that takes Criteria A and B into account:

Final Score = (0.7 × A) + (0.3 × B)

In the event of a tie in the final score, applicants will be ordered based on the scores obtained in each evaluation criterion, in the following order of importance: Criterion A, then Criterion B.

Applicants whose application is evaluated with a final score below 6.0 points are not eligible for the scholarships.

Important notice for applicants with diplomas issued by foreign higher education institutions:

• Applicants with diplomas issued by foreign higher education institutions may apply and will be evaluated by the same criteria as applicants with diplomas issued by Portuguese institutions, provided that they submit, with their application, proof of recognition of academic degrees or a request for automatic recognition of degrees, and conversion of the final grade to the Portuguese grading scale, under the applicable legislation.
• Applicants with recognized foreign diplomas who do not provide proof of conversion of the final grade to the Portuguese grading scale will be evaluated with the minimum score (0 points) in Subcriterion A1.
• In any case, scholarship contracts with applicants holding degrees issued by foreign institutions will only be signed upon presentation of proof of degree recognition and conversion of the final grade, as indicated above.

8. Disability Bonus

Applicants who declare a disability level equal to or greater than 90% will receive a 10% bonus in Criterion A – Applicant Merit. Applicants who declare a disability level equal to or greater than 60% and less than 90% will receive a 5% bonus in this criterion. The disability level must be duly proven by submitting, with the application, the Multiuse Disability Certificate (Atestado de Incapacidade Multiuso), issued under Decree-Law No. 202/96 of October 23, as currently in force.

9. Evaluation Panel

The evaluation panel is composed of the following members:

Sandra Martins, FCS, Universidade Europeia (Chair); Sofia Almeida, FCST, Universidade Europeia; Hande Ayanoglu, IADE, Universidade Europeia.

Alternates:

Teresa Santos, FCS, Universidade Europeia; Carla Costa, FCST, Universidade Europeia; Carlos Rosa, IADE, Universidade Europeia.

The panel will evaluate all applications according to the evaluation criteria mentioned in this Call for Applications, weighing the evaluation elements.

During the evaluation process, all panel members, including its coordinator, undertake to comply with a set of responsibilities, such as the duty of impartiality, declaration of any conflicts of interest, and confidentiality. At all stages of the evaluation process, confidentiality is fully protected and ensured in order to guarantee the independence of the evaluation of applications and all opinions produced.

For each application, the panel will produce an evaluation form that clearly, coherently, and consistently presents the arguments leading to the scores given for each evaluation criterion and subcriterion, and describes any trade-offs.

Panel meetings must produce minutes for which all panel members are responsible. The minutes and their annexes must obligatorily include the following information:

• The name and affiliation of all panel members;
• Identification of excluded applications and their justifications;
• Final evaluation forms for each applicant;
• Provisional ranking and ordering of applicants, in descending order of the final score, of all applications evaluated by the panel
• Conflict of Interest Declarations (CDI) from panel members.

10. Publication of Results

Evaluation results are communicated to the applicant’s email address (or another address indicated by the applicant), and official publication is made available on the Universidade Europeia website.

11. Prior Hearing, Complaint, and Appeal Deadlines and Procedures

After communication of the provisional list of evaluation results, applicants have a period of 10 working days to, if they so wish, submit their comments in the context of a prior hearing of interested parties, under Articles 121 and following of the Administrative Procedure Code.

The final decision will be issued after analysis of the statements submitted in the context of the prior hearing of interested parties. A complaint may be filed within 15 working days from the date of notification of the final decision, or alternatively an appeal may be filed within 30 working days, also counted from the date of notification. Applicants who choose to file a complaint must address their arguments to the member of the FCT Board of Directors with delegated competence. Applicants who prefer to appeal must address their arguments to the FCT Board of Directors.

12. Scholarship Start Date

Approved scholarships will start on day 1 (one) of the month to be indicated by the applicant during contracting. Applicants have a deadline of 6 months from the date of communication of the conditional award of the scholarship to submit the documents required for contracting the scholarship.

13. Requirements for Awarding the Scholarship

Scholarship contracts are signed directly with FCT.

The following documents must be mandatorily submitted for scholarship contracting purposes, should the scholarship be awarded:

1. Copy of civil identification, tax identification, and, where applicable, social security identification document(s)1;
2. A document proving permanent and habitual residence in Portugal, valid on the scholarship start date.
3. Copy of certificates of academic degrees held;
4. Submission of the record of recognition of foreign academic degrees and conversion of the respective final grade to the Portuguese grading scale, if applicable;
5. Work plan;
6. Document proving enrollment and registration in the 3rd cycle (doctoral) program of the institution’s academic offer where the applicant is admitted to the doctorate;
7. Statement by the supervisor(s) assuming responsibility for supervising the work plan, under Article 5-A of the Research Fellow Statute (template to be provided by FCT);
8. Document proving the applicant’s acceptance by the institutions where the research activities will take place, guaranteeing the conditions necessary for their proper development, as well as compliance with the duties set out in Article 13 of the Research Fellow Statute (template to be provided by FCT);
9. Updated document proving compliance with the exclusive dedication regime (template to be provided by FCT).

Granting the scholarship is also dependent on:

• Compliance with the requirements set out in this call for applications;
  • The outcome of the scientific evaluation;
  • Absence of unjustified non-compliance with the fellow’s duties under a previous scholarship contract funded, directly or indirectly, by FCT;
  • FCT budget availability.

Failure to submit any of the documents required to complete the scholarship contracting process within 6 months of the date of communication of the conditional award decision results in the expiry of the award and closure of the process.

14. Funding

Scholarship payments will start after the candidates return the duly signed scholarship contract, which must occur within a maximum of 15 working days from the date of its receipt. Scholarships awarded under this call will be funded by FCT through State Budget funds and, when eligible, through European Social Fund funds, via the Demography, Qualifications and Inclusion Program (PDQI), in accordance with the regulatory provisions set for this purpose.

15. Scholarship Components

The fellow receives a monthly maintenance allowance, the amount of which varies depending on whether the activity takes place in Portugal or abroad, under the table in Annex I of the FCT RBI.

The scholarship may also include other components, under Article 18 of the FCT RBI and the amounts set out in Annex II.

All fellows benefit from personal accident insurance for research activities, paid by FCT.

All fellows who are not covered by any social protection scheme may secure the right to social security by joining the voluntary social security insurance regime, under the Code of Contributory Regimes of the Social Security System, with FCT covering the costs of the contributions under and within the limits set out in Article 10 of the EBI.

16. Payments of Scholarship Components

Payments due to the fellow are made by bank transfer to the account identified by the fellow. The monthly maintenance allowance is paid on the first business day of each month.

Payments for enrollment, registration, or tuition components are made by FCT directly to the national institution where the fellow is enrolled or registered.

17. Terms and Conditions for Scholarship Renewal

Renewal of the scholarship always depends on a request submitted by the fellow within the 60 working days prior to the renewal start date, accompanied by the following documents:

1. Opinions issued by the supervisor(s) and the host institution(s) on the monitoring of the fellow’s work and evaluation of their activities;
2. Updated document proving compliance with the exclusive dedication regime;
3. Document proving renewal of enrollment in the doctoral program.
4. Information and Publicity of the Funding Granted

In all R&D activities directly or indirectly funded by the scholarship—namely in all communications, publications, and scientific creations, as well as theses—carried out with the supports provided for under the scholarship, mention must be made of the financial support of FCT and the European Social Fund, namely through the Demography, Qualifications and Inclusion Program (PDQI). For this purpose, the FCT, MCTES, ESF, and EU emblems must appear on documents relating to these actions, in accordance with the graphic standards of the EU support program.

Dissemination of research results funded under the RBI must comply with FCT’s open access rules for data, publications, and other research outputs in force.

In all scholarships—and particularly in the case of actions supported by EU funding, namely ESF—monitoring and control actions may be carried out by national and EU bodies under applicable legislation. Fellows are required to cooperate and provide the requested information, including responding to surveys and evaluation studies in this area, even after the scholarship has ended.

19. Non-Discrimination and Equal Access Policy

FCT promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access. Accordingly, no applicant may be privileged, benefited, harmed, deprived of any right, or exempted from any duty on grounds including, among others, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family situation, economic situation, education, origin or social condition, genetic heritage, reduced capacity to work, disability, chronic disease, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological convictions, and trade union membership.

20. Applicable Legislation and Regulations

This call is governed by this Call for Applications; by the FCT Research Grants Regulation, approved by Regulation No. 950/2019, published in Series II of the Diário da República on December 16, 2019; by the Research Fellow Statute, approved by Law No. 40/2004 of August 18, as currently in force; and by other applicable national and EU legislation.

21. Contact Point

Requests for information about the call should be sent to: research@universidadeeuropeia.pt