Admissibility Requirements

Applicants must meet one of the following requirements:

• They must be Portuguese citizens, or citizens of other European Union Member States.
• They must be citizens from third-party states.
• They must be classified as Stateless.
• Or they must be beneficiaries of the political refugee status.

Applicants to PhD Scholarships must:

• Hold a Master’s degree at Architecture, Urbanism, Territorial Engineering or in related areas.
• Have permanent residence in Portugal, even if the work plan is partially conducted at a foreign institution (mixed scholarships); this requirement applies to both Portuguese and foreign citizens.
• Not have been the recipient of a PhD scholarship or a corporate PhD scholarship directly financed by FCT, regardless of its duration.
• Not hold a doctoral degree.

Under pain of an application being nullified, applicants must submit the following documentation:

• Identity card/passport details.
• A Curriculum Vitae.
• Copies of the certificates for academic degrees held, specifying the final grading and, if possible, the grades obtained in all courses, or, alternatively, the candidate's sworn statement as to the completion by him/her of a master's degree by the application deadline.
• Registration of equivalence for academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions and official registration of the equivalence of the respective final grading to the Portuguese classification scale, or, alternatively, the applicant's sworn statement as to the completion of a foreign degree equivalent a Master’s degree by the application deadline.

A research project (including objetives, state of the art and methodology(ies)) framed in the objectives of the Line 1 of CiTUA's research (Emerging forms of inhabiting the space in contemporary urban territories, resulting from the evolution of social demands). The objective of this line is the understanding and advance of knowledge in: a) social, cultural, economic, technical and environmental significance of built spaces and the interaction with public interest, memory and history, cultural diversity and local features; b) the effects of spatial design on aspects of social, cultural, organizational and economic and environmental performance of buildings and urban areas; c) the criteria and methods for designing architectural programmes that reflect new and emerging ways of inhabiting, considering  new social demands and technological/digital developments (e.g. in spaces intended for education, housing, health, work, culture). Additionally, the research project should include a working plan with the initiatives that it is proposed to implement in the framework of the CITUA objectives and activities. This document should not exceed 10 pages, written in Times New Roman, font size 11, with 1.5 line spacing.

• A letter of motivation.
• Recommendation letters (maximum of two).
• The application and all the associated documents, including motivation and recommendation letters, must be written in the Portuguese or English languages.

It is recommended, albeit without prejudice to admissibility, but with consequences in terms of assessment, that candidates:

• Be skilled in one of three languages English, French and Spanish - in addition to Portuguese.
• Preferably have research experience.

Regarding the aforementioned admissibility requirements, the following should be noted:

• In the case of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, and in order to ensure application of the principle of equal treatment to candidates who hold foreign and domestic academic degrees, official equivalence recognition of these degrees and conversion of the final grading to the Portuguese classification scale are compulsory.
• The recognition of foreign academic degrees and diplomas as well as the conversion of the final grading to the Portuguese classification scale may be required by any public higher education institution, or by the Direção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES), for automatic recognition of a degree. For more about this subject please visit http://www.dges.gov.pt.
• Only applicants who have completed the study cycle leading to a Bachelor or Master’s degree by the application deadline, will be admitted. If they do not yet have a course certificate, a sworn statement from the candidates will be accepted. The granting of the scholarship will depend on the presentation of proof of the required academic qualifications.

. SCHOLARSHIP MONETARY CONSTITUITIVE ELEMENTS

Scholarship holders will receive a monthly stipend in accordance with the table in Annex I of the RBI.

The stipend may include other elements, in accordance with Article 18 of the RBI and in the amounts identified in Annex II.

All scholarship holders who are not covered by any social security regime can ensure exercise of the right to social security through access to the voluntary social insurance regime, under the terms of the Social Security System Contributory Schemes; FCT will ensure payment of the charges resulting from the contributions under the terms of and subject to the limits provided for in Article 10 of the EBI.

. PAYMENT OF SCHOLARSHIP MONETARY ELEMENTS

Payments due to the scholarship holder will be made by bank transfer, to the account identified in the scholarship holder’s file. The monthly allowance is paid on the first business day of each month.

Payments of registration, enrolment or tuition fee components are made by FCT directly to the national institution where the holder is enrolled in a PhD programme.

The selection methods to be used will be as follows:

• Criterion A: assessment of the Master's degree.
• Criterion B: appreciation of the adequacy and merit of the research project (presented through a written document including state of the art, methodology(ies) and objectives).
• Criterion C: assessment of publications.
• Criterion D: interview.

Specification: Criterion A (Master’s Assessment):

• Master's final grade: 10 to 15 in the Master's final grade = 50 to 75 points; 16 to 20 in the Master's final grade = 80 to 100 points.

Admissible applications will be scored on a scale of 0 to 100 (zero to one hundred) in each of the following evaluation criteria:

• Criterion A - 0 to 100, with a weighting of 20%.
• Criterion B - 0 to 100, with a weighting of 40%.
• Criterion C – 0 to 100, with a weighting of 10%.
• Criterion D – 0 to 100, with a weighting of 30%.

Applicants shall be ranked in two phases:

• In accordance with the weighted average of the classification obtained in each of the criteria (A, B and C), which shall be known as the Ci or intermediate classification and is reflected in the following formula:

Ci = Criterion A x 0.2 + Criterion B x 0.4 + Criterion C x 0.1

• Only candidates who achieve 45 or more points in the intermediate classification will be selected for the interview phase. Final classification (Cf) is the result of the intermediate classification plus the classification obtained in Criterion D (interview), in accordance with the following formula:

Cf = Ci + Criterion D x 0.3

For the purpose of award of the scholarship, only candidates who achieve 75 points or more in the final classification (Cf) shall be considered.

In the event that tie-breaking is necessary, the ranking of the applicants shall be based on the classifications assigned in each of the assessment criteria in the following order of precedence: criterion B, criterion D, criterion A and criterion C.

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

• Candidates with diplomas issued by foreign higher education institutions can apply and will be evaluated using the same criteria as candidates with diplomas issued by Portuguese institutions, as long as they submit, in their application, proof of recognition of equivalence of their academic degree and conversion of the final grading to the Portuguese classification scale, pursuant to the applicable legislation.
• As the only exception to the previous rule, applicants with foreign degrees who do not show proof of conversion of the final grading to the Portuguese classification scale will be given a minimum classification (50 points) in Criterion A.
• At any rate, scholarship contracts with candidates holding diplomas issued by foreign institutions will only be concluded upon presentation of proof of recognition of equivalence of their academic degree and conversion of the final grading, as indicated above.

ASSESSMENT

The assessment jury for the applicants is made up of the following members:

• Prof. Teresa Heitor, Instituto Superior Técnico (Coordinator)
• Prof. Alexandra Alegre, Instituto Superior Técnico
• Prof. Jorge Gonçalves, Instituto Superior Técnico

They are joined by the following as alternate members:

• Prof. Ana Tostões, Instituto Superior Técnico
• Prof. Francisco Teixeira Bastos, Instituto Superior Técnico
• Prof. Patrícia Lourenço, Instituto Superior Técnico

The assessment jury will assess applications in accordance with the assessment criteria for this Call, taking all assessment elements into consideration.

All panel members, including the coordinator, are committed to respecting a set of responsibilities that is essential to the assessment process, such as the duties of impartiality, declaration of any potential conflict of interest situations and confidentiality. At all times during the assessment process, confidentiality is fully protected and ensured in order to guarantee the independence of all opinions produced.

Jury members, including the coordinator, cannot be advisors or co-supervisors of applicants of this Call.

For each application, a final assessment form will be produced by the panel, in which the arguments that led to the ratings attributed to each of the assessment criteria and sub-criteria will be presented in a clear, coherent and consistent manner.

Minutes of the assessment panel meetings, which are the responsibility of all its members, will be produced.

Minutes and annexes must include the following information:

• Name and affiliation of all members of the assessment panel.
• Identification of all excluded applications and the respective reasoning.
• Methodology adopted by the panel in cases that are considered special.
• Final Assessment Sheets for each applicant.
• Provisional list of the classification and ranking of applicants, in descending order based on the final classification, for all applications assessed by the panel.
• Conflict of Interest Statements from all panel members.
• Possible delegations of votes and competences due to justified absence.

APPLICABLE LEGISLATION AND REGULATION

The Call is governed by this notice, by the FCT Research Scholarship Regulations, approved in the form of Regulation No. 950/2019, published in the II Series of the DR of December 16, 2019, by the Regulations on Research Scholarships approved by Law 40/2004, of August 18, in its current reading, and by other applicable national and community legislation.