Electors list

Please see attached file.

ANICT Electors list

Elections calendar

• 26th July 2010 Posting of the electoral calendar, election date and voters list. Announcement of polling places.
• 28th August 2010 Deadline for appealing about voting lists.
• 8th September 2010 Deadline for proposing candidate lists.
• 10th September 2010 Deadline for requesting correspondence voting.
• 15th – 27th September 2010 Electoral campaign.
• 28th September 2010 Reflection day (no campaign).
• 28th September Deadline for correspondence voting arrival.
• 29th September 2010 Elections.
• 30th September 2010 Deadline for posting the electoral results.
• 8th October 2010 Deadline for appealing the electoral results.
• 15th October 2010 Deadline for the electoral committee to answer to election appealing.
• 3rd January 2011 Appointment of the ANICT board.

Elections anouncement

Please download attached file:

ANICT Elections Announcement

Meeting with the Vice-Rector for research of the University of Porto

On the 20th of July, ANICT members Miguel Jorge, Mónica Oliveira, Miguel Santos and João Lopes met with the Vice-Rector for research of the University of Porto, Prof. Jorge Gonçalves, to discuss the future strategy of UP with regards to the integration of researchers with temporary contracts. The Rectory showed great interest in carrying out such an integration based on merit criteria, and are currently studying possible mechanisms for that purpose.

ANICT suggestions for FCT

After the last ANICT-FCT meeting, ANICT direction sent 3 letters with suggestions to improve some aspects related to Science managment in Portugal. You can download the letters in the following links (portuguese only):

Carta para a FCT: Novas regras de atribuição de bolsas para estrangeiros

Carta para a FCT: sugestões para avaliação de bolsas de investigação

Carta para a FCT: questão sobre propinas de bolsas mistas de doutoramento

Institutional meeting with FCT

The ANICT board of directors met with the President of FCT, Prof. João Sentieiro, on the 6th of July 2010. Several issues were discussed, including the evaluation of Researchers, the new FCT rules for grant applications by foreign nationals, the FCT grant application procedures, and the FCT rules for payment of tuition fees for mixed grants.

Ciência 2010 meeting

The President of ANICT, Nuno Cerca, was an invited speaker in the panel dedicated to Post-Graduate Studies in Portugal during the Meeting with Science and Technology in Portugal – Ciência 2010 – that took place in Lisbon from the 4th to the 7th of July 2010.

Meeting with FCT

On the 6th of July 2010, ANICT had a second meeting with FCT. The following topics were addressed:

• ANICT informed FCT about that the discussion of researcher evaluation had been launched. Our plan is to stimulate an internal debate regarding this issue, followed by the preparation of a more detailed report that includes external input. This report would then be publicly presented at a national meeting. We invited FCT to be present at this meeting. Prof. João Sentieiro expressed his reservations about a merely metric evaluation that relies only on a bureaucratic process. He believes that the evaluation should be strongly based on a peer-review concept, by international panels. We explained that ANICT strongly defends transparent and fair evaluation procedures, and that we should aim to promote excellence and quality, not merely quantity of output. We defended that a fair and transparent evaluation should necessarily play a part in contract renewals and career progression, in order to promote excellence in research.
• We informed FCT that the new PhD fellowship application rules regarding foreign applicants would have a negative impact on some fields of Science, where it is currently difficult to recruit Portuguese PhD students. We suggested a possible way to minimize this problem, by allowing researchers already involved in FCT research projects to apply for FCT individual grants. FCT explained the reasons for the new rules, and was open to including ANICT’s suggestion.
• We remarked on several obstacles that are hindering a truly fair and transparent evaluation of FCT individual grant applications: i) the insufficient renewal of the evaluation panels, and the lack of clarity regarding the choice of panel members; ii) the fact that some panels were not abiding by the rules set in the Guide for Evaluators. We offered some suggestions to improve the process, and were then asked by FCT to send those proposals in a detailed written document.
• We raised several concerns regarding the FCT rules for payment of tuition fees and bench fees for mixed PhD grants. Prof. João Sentieiro was sensitive to this issue, and suggested that we present our suggestions in written format for the consideration of FCT.