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What do you need to know?
This grant program funds the recruitment of predoctoral research staff in training to carry out a doctoral thesis in the fields covered by the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), you can find the list of STEP fields and technologies here.The call plans to award up to 250 grants to create predoctoral contracts.
The contracts will have a maximum duration of three years, and the grants may be co-funded d by the European Union within the Catalonia 2021-2027 European Social Fund Plus Program.
The grants are aimed at research entities in Catalonia that are eligible for this call for the hiring of predoctoral research staff in training.
Specifically, these grants may be requested by public and private universities of the university sustem of Catalonia, research centers recognized as CERCA centers, the Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC), and the three major infrastructures of the research system of Catalonia: the Alba Synchrotron (CELLS Consortium), the MareNostrum supercomputer (Barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center), and the National Center for Genomic Analysis.
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The documentation that you must attach to your application in PDF format, is as follows:
a) An annex document that includes a short CV; a technical report summarising the training and research activities expected to be achieved during the three years of the grant; the expected scientific objectives and results; the planned applicability and knowledge transfer, and the possible social impact, economic and scientific research developed and its alignment with the areas and STEP technological area. This attached document can be completed in Catalan, Spanish, or English.
b) Academic transcripts of bachelor's degree or equivalent and master's degree studies that grants access to the doctoral program, stating the date of obtention of the degree and the average mark. If you are still pursuing your studies and have not been completed at the time of submitting your application, you must submit your provisional academic transcripts.
c) Where appropriate, the following equivalence calculations must also be submitted:
Applicants who have completed all or part of their bachelor's, bachelor's, diploma or master's degree studies in centres outside the Spanish university system must accompany their academic transcripts with the equivalence declarations calculated, by the provisions of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.
If the transcript does not include the university’s grading system description, it is necessary to add documentation detailing this system, indicating the maximum and minimum grades and the minimum grade required to pass.
Candidates only have to formalise and submit these equivalence declarations of the average grade without the need to verify or sign their content.
d) If applicable, a copy of the supporting documentation corresponding to the exceptional situations established in the regulatory bases.
You must meet the following requirements:
a) Hold the nationality of a member states of the European Union.
b) Have completed undergraduate studies the equivalent degree with a minimum average grade of the academic record equal or greater than 6.50 (scale from 0 to 10).
- In the case of studies completed abroad, the average grade of the academic record will be calculated by the provisions of the current resolutions of the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of equivalences of average marks.
c) You have completed the studies for admission to a Ph.D. program between the 1st of January 2022 and the start date of the contract.
People who completed their studies leading to the doctorate between 1 January 2019 and the start date of the contract may also participate in the call if, after completing them, they have found themselves in one of the following exceptional situations:
- Worked in a position directly related to their studies for a continuous period of at least 12 months.
- They have taken maternity leave.
- They have been in charge of children under the age of six.
- They have been in charge of people with a legally recognized physical, mental or sensory disability.
- They have suffered any serious illness or accident that requires major surgery or treatment in a hospital and that causes temporary disability for a continuous period of at least 6 months.
- They have suffered any of the situations provided for in article 1 of Organic Law 1/2004, of 28 December, on comprehensive protection measures against gender-based violence.
- They have recognised refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Convention.
d) At the time of joining the affiliated entity, they must be enrolled or accepted in a doctoral programme at a university in the Catalan university system for the academic year established in the corresponding call.
f) Each candidate may only appear as such in an application.
e) Not having a doctoral degree.
g) Not having benefited from any other specific predoctoral research personnel training contract for more than six months.
Requirements for thesis supervisors:
a) Have a statutory or employment relationship with the entity awarding the grant. This link must sufficiently guarantee the supervision and monitoring of the candidate's doctoral thesis.
Part-time staff, staff on leave, visiting professors and emeritus professors do not meet this requirement.
b) Be part of a research group recognized within the framework of the call for grants to support the scientific activity of research groups in Catalonia (SGR-Cat 2021).
c) Each thesis supervisor can only appear in one application.
There are no taxes related to this procedure.
Length
- The grants are awarded for a period of three years.
- Contracts must start on the first day of the month.
Beneficiaries
- Universities in the Catalan university system, CERCA, CSIC centers and large infrastructures: Sincrotró Alba, MareNostrum, and Centre Nacional d’Anàlisi Genòmic.
Grant amount and items eligible to be subsidised
- The grant will cover the contractual expenses generated during the period of three years, including the salary and the employer's Social Security contribution. These expenses will include the compensation costs for the expiration of the contract.
- The costs of the management, supervision and continuous assessment of the doctoral thesis during the contract period.
- Grants aimed to finance training activities under the terms contained in section III of the call regulations and to an amount of €12,000.00 for the whole of the three-year contract.
Steps to follow
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1
Step one
Apply for the candidate
Deadlines
Deadlines
From 03/15/2025 to 04/09/2025Deadlines
The application deadlines will open in the upcoming days.
First phase
Applications must be submitted electronically, accompanied by the documentation indicated in call legal text.
The provisional application must be submitted by the candidate for the recruitment aid electronically through the Formulari de sol·licitud FI-STEP 2025 following the provided instructions.
Each thesis supervisor can only appear in one application of each call.
If you have doubts as a research candidates, check here.
This procedure can only be done online.
Submission of provisional applications: You do not need to have an idCATMòbil or digital certificate.
Application form FI-STEP 2025
Download and fill out the "Document annex normalitzat FI-STEP 2025" and save it to your computer. Once completed, convert the document to PDF format (the only valid format) and attach it to the application form along with the rest of the documentation required in the bases in this same format.
The form and the rest of the attached documentation to complete application for this grant and cannot exceed 5 Mb.
Go to the "Tràmits" web page and submit the application. If the application has been sent correctly, the service will generate a message indicating that the proposal has been received. This automatic message is the receipt.
Check the necessary technical conditions to do the online procedures.
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Step two
Confirmation of applicant institutions
Second phase
Second phase
To access the second phase, it is essential that the applicant entities have previously signed the corresponding agreement with AGAUR, which can be found on the AGAUR website.
The deadline for submission of provisional applications marks the start of a period for applicant institutions to access the AGAUR grant management (BOGA) to confirm or reject the submission of applications.
The deadline for institutions to confirm or reject the submission of provisional applications for new grants will be open from April 10 to May 6, 2025 at 2 p.m., Barcelona local time.
To submit the application, the legal representative must sign the confirmation document generated by BOGA and send it to AGAUR through the EACAT platform, or other valid electronic registration.
Doubts about beneficiary entities visit.
AGAUR will prioritize applications submitted within the framework of the corresponding call following the criteria established in the call's rules.
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Step three
Administration respons
When is the response received from the Administration?The maximum legal period to resolve is six months, counting from the publication of this call in the DOGC. Once this period has elapsed without [...]
When is the response received from the Administration?
The maximum legal period to resolve is six months, counting from the publication of this call in the DOGC. Once this period has elapsed without express resolution, the application has elapsed. applicant can understand rejected his application. Request for administrative silence.What response is received?
The resolution is published on the electronic board of the Administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya. To disseminate it more widely and for information purposes, the results of there-solution can be consulted on the websites of the AGAUR and the Secretariat for Universities and Research (SUR).Can an appeal be filed?
The resolution exhausts the administrative procedure. Interested persons may lodge an appeal before the President of the Comissió Executiva d’Ajuts de Recerca, within one month from the day following its publication on the electronic board of the Administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya, or they may file a contentious-administrative appeal directly before the contentious-administrative court of Barcelona, within two months, counting from the day following its publication in the aforementioned dashboard.
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Step four
Acceptance an accreditation of the contract
The acceptance of the grant for the new concessions will be carried out jointly with the certification of the hiring of the researcher and must be formalized by means of a standardized model signed [...]
The acceptance of the grant for the new concessions will be carried out jointly with the certification of the hiring of the researcher and must be formalized by means of a standardized model signed by the legal representatives of the beneficiary entities.
The acceptance document, which also certifies this incorporation, must be submitted electronically within a maximum period of two months from the day following the start of the contract object of the grant.
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Step five
Incorporation of the candidate
The contracts subject to this grant must begin no later than 1st of November of 2025.
The contracts subject to this grant must begin no later than 1st of November of 2025.
Candidates who are granted the aid by substitution must join it within the period established by the awarding resolution.
All contracts must begin on the first day of the month.
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Step six
Justification of the grant
Universities must justify the grant of each researcher, within a maximum period of one month from the end of the grant, by means of the following documentation:
Universities must justify the grant of each researcher, within a maximum period of one month from the end of the grant, by means of the following documentation:
a) A technical report of the justified action signed by the contracted researcher and by the thesis supervisor.
b) An economic report justifying the cost of the contracts carried out based on the results obtained.
c) The beneficiary universities must also provide the necessary information for the elaboration of the indicators required by the ESF+
In addition, the beneficiary entities and the recipients of the aid must submit to the administrative and on-the-ground actions carried out by the AGAUR. Both verifications will be carried out by sampling.
Predoctoral researchers must fill in the FSE+ participant file, which will be requested via email during the first year of benefit.
All standardised justification forms can be found on the AGAUR website.
This programme is financed by European Social Fund Plus (ESF+)
