What we do

The Research Support Unit (DAPI) disseminates information about competitive national and international funding opportunities in the areas of research and development for the whole scientific community of UC.

How?

• We gather and organise the information provided by funding organisations: calls, applicant guides, programme regulations;
• We make briefings about the conditions of participation of UC researchers/staff in the different calls for applications.

In this page we provide information about funding organisations.

We also suggest that you check the initiatives promoted by the UC Strategic Areas Unit .

The dissemination of funding opportunities includes, among other initiatives, direct contact with researchers and groups of researchers, via the organisation of:

• Funding programmes’ promotion activities,
• Information sessions,
• Training sessions and workshops,
• Brokerage events.

How to schedule an information session?

In order to schedule an information session, please send us an email (dapi @ uc.pt) with the topic and the target audience of the session.

The Research Support Unit (DAPI) helps with the search of partner organisations to participate in R&D projects via the dissemination of expressions of interest, which can be done in two directions:

• Forwarding of R&D expressions of interest from external organisations to staff and researchers of the relevant fields within UC.
• Survey of the needs of UC staff and researchers regarding the setup of external partnerships and interaction with the national contact points of the funding programmes in Portugal.

Within this context, it is important to mention that UC is part of two large networks of European prestigious universities, within which you can find partners in all scientific fields:

• Coimbra Group
• EC2U – European Campus of City Universities

Below you can also find a (non-exhaustive) list of sites where you can search partners for your research projects:

• Funding & Tender Opportunities Portal (FTOP/ FTP)
• Idealist Partner Search (mainly information and communication technology)
• Enterprise Europe Network
• Education partners

Should you need help, please contact us (dapi @ uc.pt).

The specialised support to the elaboration and submission of project applications to competitive funding programmes with the involvement of the University of Coimbra is one of the main activities of the Research Support Unit (DAPI).

Preferably, when preparing an application, you should request DAPI’s support at least 30 days before the submission deadline.

Timeline

DAPI’s support request

Please make your request by email (dapi @ uc.pt) including the following information:

• Principal Investigator and the respective contact details;
• Funding programme and Call;
• Application abstract;
• Tasks to be developed by UC;
• UC team members;
• Partner organisations;
• Resources and costs to implement the project tasks/ activities allocated to the UC.

Support provided by DAPI

• Overview of the funding programmes’ framework and participation rules;
• Partner organisation search;
• Clarification of details, specificities and objectives of the calls and other documents published by the funding organisations;
• Elaboration of templates to support the building of the application;
• Gathering and preparation of institutional information about the University of Coimbra;
• Budget elaboration and verification of the applicable rules;
• Liaison with other services of the University of Coimbra for technical advice and/ or negotiation and formalisation of partnership agreements;
• Providing of official application support documents of the University of Coimbra (e.g. support/ endorsement letters);
• Liaison with the funding programme officers in order to facilitate the contacts with the applicants.

In case of application approval, the Research Support Unit (DAPI) makes the follow-up of the funding negotiation and contracting.

Negotiation:

• Verification of the terms of the approval;
• Reorganisation of the resources’ allocation;
• Budget updating;
• Organisation of documents: memoranda, agreements, contract annexes.

Contracting:

• Formalisation of the funding;
• Preparation of the necessary elements for the contract and annexes;
• Verification of the work plan and allocated resources;
• Organisation of the project file;
• Project registration in the SAP system.

The Research Support Unit (DAPI) provides the following services to R&D units:

• Application support to multi-annual funding;
• Updating of research teams in the FCT system;
• Assistance in the setup of R&D partnerships.