Deadlines: 23 January 2025 (Incoming) & 18 February 2025 (Retaining)

“La Caixa” Foundation has launch its INPhINIT call, offering funding opportunities for PhD students through two distinct schemes. The Incoming scheme supports international students seeking to pursue their doctoral studies at Spanish or Portuguese top research centers, while the Retaining scheme is designed for those already in these countries who wish to continue their research at these institutions.

Candidates’ eligibility:

• Any nationality;
• Hold a higher education degree that makes them eligible to enroll in a doctoral programme in Spain/Portugal;
• Must be in the first four years of their research career;
• Advanced level of English;
• Not enrolled in a PhD programme prior to the 2025-2026 academic year.

Incoming (30 fellowships):

• Must have resided in the host country for less than 12 months in the last 3 years;
• STEM disciplines: life sciences and health, experimental sciences, physics, chemistry and mathematics.

Retaining (30 fellowships):

• Must have resided in the host country for more than 12 months in the last 3 years;
• All disciplines;
• Registered in a Doctoral official programme;
• PhD enrollment in a different university from where bachelor studies were pursued (no limitation regarding the master).

Funding:

The average payment amount is 161 200 € for four years which include:

• Labor costs: 35 800 €, per year;
• Research costs: 3 500 €, per year, for expenses directly related to the project including consumables, equipment, registration for conferences or courses, research visits and intellectual copyright costs, among others.
• Cost of the tuition fees (no limit)

Follow-up plan:

INPhINIT doctoral fellows will have a thesis director appointed by the destination Centre, who will accompany them in the development of their doctoral thesis. The fellows will submit annual follow-up reports detailing their main results and future goals in accordance with a professional career development plan. At the same time, there will be an annual review of ethical issues that may arise during the course of the PhD thesis.

In addition to the interdisciplinary training activities offered by the destination Research Centre, the scholarship contains a comprehensive complementary training programme that includes:

• Training in soft skills and the purpose of research: Sessions on scientific communication, writing and presenting scientific work, an overview of the research system, critical thinking and cognitive flexibility, etc.
• The doctoral student, their well-being and effectiveness: Sessions on well-being, mental health, self-awareness, self-confidence, personal development, decision-making, productivity and time management, interdisciplinarity, open science, etc.
• Preparing for the future: Sessions on career development, career paths within and outside the academic world, funding opportunities, leadership and teamwork, etc.

Moreover, each scholarship holder can request that they be assigned a mentor for the duration of the scholarship.

Previous calls

In last year’s call, 706 applications were received for the Incoming scheme and 798 applications for the Retaining scheme. Portugal received 4 awardees (from a total of 60 fellowships).

Supporting information

Additional information on each scheme and FAQs are available here.

If you are considering to apply, please get in touch with us (cesam-gesciencia@ua.pt).