Ajuts postdoctorals Beatriu de Pinós (BP 2025). ACCIÓ

Contacts:

Marta Renato (marta.renato@gencat.cat) Phone 93.781.97.89;
Montse Boada (montse.boada@gencat.cat) Phone 93.268.77.21

The period for the submission of provisional applications for researcher candidates shall start on the day following the publication of this Resolution in the DOGC and shall end on 4 February 2025 at 14:00:00, local time in Barcelona.

You can refer to the guide to draft a narrative CV (version 1.1).

The deadline for the institutions to confirm or reject the submission of provisional applications shall run from 14 February to 28 February 2025

REGULATION (English version): General terms and Call

IMPORTANT: All the procedures for this call can only be done by electronic means.

Object

The purpose of the Beatriu de Pinós programme is to award the grants on a competitive basis for the employment and incorporation of postdoctoral researchers into the Catalan science and technology system.

Who?

The universities of the university system of Catalonia, research centers, hospital foundations and the three major ICTS infrastructures of the research system of Catalonia (the Alba Synchrotron of the CELLS Consortium, the MareNostrum supercomputer of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - National Center for Supercomputing and the National Center for Genomic Analysis) can benefit from these grants. All beneficiary entities must have an operational headquarters in Catalonia.

Science and technology parks, technology centers, technology activity support centers and technology dissemination centers are excluded from these bases.

Requirements

Candidates of any nationality must meet the following requirements:
a) Having obtained the doctoral degree between between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2022 (the date of obtaining the doctorate is understood as the date of thesis defense and approval).

The period for obtaining the doctoral degree shall be between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2022 if any of the following circumstances can be justified during this period:  

- Having taken a period of maternity or paternity leave.  

- Having had dependent children under 6 years of age.

- Having had dependents with a legally recognised physical, mental or sensory disability.

- Having suffered a serious illness or accident requiring major surgery or treatment in a hospital resulting in temporary incapacity for the person's usual occupation or activity for a continuous period of at least 6 months. Minor surgery and outpatient surgery and rehabilitation treatments carried out outside the hospital system are excluded.

- Being a researcher with recognised refugee status under the 1951 Geneva Convention.

- Having 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.

b) Have, at the deadline for applications date (first phase), a minimum of 2 years of postdoctoral experience outside of Spain. This postdoctoral experience, regardless of the type of affiliation, may have been carried out in different institutions, as long as the total period of postdoctoral stay is at least 2 years.
c) Comply with the following mobility rule: not have resided in Spain for more than 12 months in the last 3 years prior to the deadline for applications (first phase). The mobility rule is also not met if candidates have worked in Spain for more than 12 months in the last 3 years prior to the deadline for applications date. In the case of organizations that, through an agreement applicable to Spain, are considered extraterritorial for these purposes, not having worked at the institution for more than 12 months in the last 3 years prior to the deadline for applications (first phase). In the case of refugee research staff, the mobility rule applies from the date of obtaining official refugee recognition according to the Geneva Convention of 1951.

One of the grants is reserved for candidates with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 33% issued by the assessment and guidance team of the attention centres for people with functional diversity of the Government of Catalonia or equivalent. In the event that no candidate opts for this aid, it will be reassigned by seeking a balanced distribution by knowledge area based on the number of submitted applications.

Candidates who opt for this position must state this and provide the supporting documentation when AGAUR requires it. In the event that this documentation is written in a language other than Catalan, Spanish or English, a sworn translation into one of these languages must also be provided. The non-accreditation of the degree of disability will involve the treatment of the application as ordinary. Candidates who opt for this position must meet the requirements set out in section 4.1 of the regulatory bases.

Candidates who have benefited from a Beatriu de Pinós grant (totally or partially) cannot apply in a new call for these grants.

The responsible researchers for the application must meet the following requirements by the deadline for applications:

Have an employment relation (through a labour contract, or a statutory or affiliation agreement) with the grant beneficiary entity. This relation must guarantee the supervision of the candidate during the three years of the grant. Part-time staff, staff on leave, visiting teachers and emeritus teachers are considered not to meet this requirement.

Period of execution and duration

The contracts object of this funding must have a term of 3 years.
The grant beneficiary institutions must formally enter into the contract in accordance with applicable regulations within the period from the publication of the award resolution on the Government of Catalonia e-noticeboard and the date stipulated in the corresponding call.

Amount of the grant

The amount of the grant for the recruitment of researchers shall be 161,400.19 euros (one hundred and sixty-one thousand four hundred euros). This amount shall cover the cost of each research contract for the period of time provided for in this call for applications and shall include the remuneration to be received by researchers and the employer's Social Security contributions. The minimum remuneration to be paid to the researchers, which must be specified in each contract, shall be 36,480.00 euros gross per year (thirty-six thousand four hundred and eighty euros).

Grants are subject to the tax regime in force at the time of award. 

In addition, the fellowship shall also include a supplementary amount to cover the costs of compensation for termination of the contract due to expiry of the agreed time, with an amount equivalent to that provided for fixed-term contracts in Article 49 of the Consolidated Text of the Workers' Statute Law, up to a maximum of 3,648.00 euros (three thousand six hundred and forty-eight euros) per fellowship.

The supplementary amount shall be 12,000.00 euros (twelve thousand euros). This grant is exclusively aimed at the actions implemented by the candidate during the period of enjoyment and which must be managed by the beneficiary entity itself. This supplementary amount may include the following concepts:

a) Training activities, such as courses related to the scientific field and professional skills (management, organisation, entrepreneurship, dissemination and scientific communication, transversal skills, etc.).

b) Attendance and participation in conferences and congresses, carrying out field work or short-term research stays abroad.

c) Expenses directly related to the research activities carried out by the candidate, such as attendance at international meetings and gatherings, subscriptions to scientific associations, the purchase of bibliographic material or consumable office material and laboratory, specialised scientific and technical services that cannot be carried out within the host institution itself or the acquisition of specific software.

d) It can also include expenses related to the publication and deposit of results and data, including the technical services of review, translation and adaptation of these.

e) Expenses associated with intellectual property rights.

f) An IT device (personal computer or tablet) intended for the candidate's research and training activities during the grant lenght.

The expenses derived from the purchase of office equipment and scientific and technical equipment, including computers of all kinds except as specified in point f ), and the technical services of installation, maintenance or repair of office equipment and scientific-technical or IT equipment, must be assumed by the receiving entity and cannot constitute eligible costs of this complementary amount.

Call results

When is the answer received?

The legal deadline for the resolution is six months from the day after the date of publication of this call for applications in the DOGC. Upon termination of this deadline without an express resolution, the grant application shall be deemed rejected due to administrative silence.

Which answer is received?

Before awarding the grants, the examining body must decide upon the inadmissibility or rejection of applications, which shall be notified to the interested party by means of publication on the Government of Catalonia’s e-noticeboard.

The interested parties shall be notified of the award resolution by means of publication on the Government of Catalonia e-noticeboard.

Sending documents

The required documents will be send (with electronic signatures) by using one of the following electronic registers and in the following preference order.

Procedure Associated with an AGAUR file (contribution of documentation and other requests) Whith electronic personal signature. The number of the file must be correctly identified (year(space)BP(espace)file, i.e, 0000 BP 00000).
EACAT (if the beneficiary instituion is registerd to it).

Acceptance of grant

The acceptance of the grant must be formalised using a standardised form signed by the legal representative of the beneficiary entity, in which they must undertake to comply with the regulatory bases and the corresponding call.

In addition to the acceptance document, the following documentation must be provided:

a) A copy of the DNI, passport or NIE of the candidate. If the identifier number has changed compared to the one presented in the application, it will be necessary to present a copy of both the current one and the one that was included in the application.

b) A copy of the doctoral degree or the receipt of the application for the issuance of the doctoral degree of the candidate. If applicable, a document stating the date of the thesis defense.

c) If applicable, the documentation which certifies the following candidate's conditions: maternity leave or paternity leave; taking care of children under 6 years, or people with physical, mental or sensory disabilities, or older people over 65 years who are dependent on the candidate and who require special care; having suffered a serious illness or an accident that requires major surgery or treatment in a hospital and that causes temporary incapacity to carry out their regular employment or usual activity for a minimum continuous period of 6 months.

d) A letter certifying the postdoctoral stays carried out outside Spain, indicating the dates on which these stays were carried out.This certification must be signed by the responsible person who supervised the stay, or by a representative of the host organization, which can be the legal representative, the management or the human resources department.

Beneficiary status is obtained at the moment of accepting the grant. It is understood that entities that have not submitted the acceptance document and the rest of the documentation within the deadline and under the conditions provided for by the regulatory bases and the corresponding call, without the need for prior request, tacitly renounce the grant.

Incorporation of candidate

The beneficiary entities must hire the candidate and formalise the contract in accordance between the date of publication of the awarding of the grant and the date provided in the call.

Within two months from the day after the incorporation takes effect, the standardized document and the following documentation must be presented:

a) The copy of the signed contract, which includes the gross annual remuneration, the duration and dates of the contract and the place of provision of the candidate's research work.

b) If the research project includes any aspect that must be subjected to ethical assessment, a copy of the report of favorable results issued by the corresponding ethics committee and linked to the host institution. If this report is not available at the time of joining the organization, the candidate must declare that he/she has started the procedure and the expected date of obtaining it.

Payment of the grant

Payment of the grant will be made by bank transfer to the account indicated by the beneficiary entity.

1. Payment of 50% of the grant for the recruitment of the candidate and payment of 100% of the complementary ammount will be processed when the beneficiary institution certifies the incorporation of the hired researcher, within two months from the day after it becomes effective, through the documentation required in the call general terms (point 22)

2. The second payment is 30% of the grant for the recruitment of the candidate will be processed at the time the beneficiary institution presents the follow-up scientific and technical report to the AGAUR, in accordance with the call general termps (point 26).

3. The remaining payment of 20% of the grant for the recruitment of the candidate, and, if applicable, 100% of the end of work compensation will be made once the justification for the grant has been presented and reviewed, in accordance with the call general terms.

Monitoring the grant

To assess the achievement of the objectives contemplated in the application, the beneficiary institution must submit, one month before the end of the first 18 months of the contract, a scientific/technical report based on the approved form.

Final justification of the grant

Beneficiary entities must justify the effective execution of the projects and certify it during the two months following the end of the grant, regardless of the reasons that cause it.

The documentation that must be attached is the following:

a) Scientific and technical report explaining the fulfillment of the objectives of the grant, with an indication of the activities carried out and the results obtained, signed by the candidate and by the responsible researcher who coordinated the research activity. This memory must follow the standardized model. If applicable, it is necessary to fill in the section for updating the ethical implications and provide any related documentation. This report also includes a certificate from the responsible researcher, attesting to the work carried out and the dates, with the signature of the legal representative of the entity

b) A certification of the recruitment cost of the candidate during the grant period detailed monthly (salary expenditure and employer's fee), signed by the entity's legal representative. If required, the beneficiary entities must make available to the AGAUR the necessary documentation to be able to manage any incident regarding the recruitment.

c) Copy of the document from the General Treasury of the Social Security "Report of data for the contribution / Employees for the account of others" (IDC).

d) A classified report of the expenses incurred with the complementary ammount, signed by the legal representative, with identification of the concept, the creditor, the number of the invoice or document of equivalent probative value, the amount, the date of issue and, if applicable, the date of payment. This expense ratio must follow the standardized model. If a partial resignation occurs before having enjoyed at least 18 months of the aid, the maximum justifiable amount of the complementary grant will be reduced.

If applicable, a detailed list of other income or subsidies that have financed the subsidized activity, indicating the amount and source. When the supporting documents for expenses are partially attributed to other subsidies, the exact amount or percentage attributed to each must be indicated, with identification of the entities that have granted them. In the event that the final effective cost of the subsidized activity is lower than the initially budgeted cost, the amount of the grant awarded will be reduced in the same proportion.

Beatriu de Pinós 2024 postdoctoral grants