2019 Exploratory Research Projects

Exploratory Research Projects are up to one-year, goal-oriented scientific projects on emerging and transformative R&D topics, and holding the promise of moving into higher Technology Readiness Levels.

Although the 2019 solicitation raised a lot of interest from our transatlantic community, the available budget was limited to eight successful applications, with the maximum eligible investment per project being set at € 50 000 for the Portuguese research team and complemented by an equivalent amount on UT Austin’s side through the Program’s budget at the American partner. In the second quarter of 2020, through an independent and transparent evaluation process, organized by FCT with the close support of the Program and involving fourteen renowned scientific experts from reputable organizations across Europe and the United States, eight projects covering the full spectrum of scientific areas of the Program were picked out for funding.

The area of Nanotechnologies aggregated the largest number of funded projects (four), followed by Advanced Computing (two). Exploratory topics ranged from nanomaterials to design new vaccine adjuvants to flexible materials for application as mechanical energy harvesters and sensors; programmable and adaptable storage for AI-oriented HPC Ecosystems, or automatic treatment planning for proton therapy.

Check out next the full list of funded projects.