In order to fund grants that allow Spanish public universities to improve the quality of education, research, and the conditions of teaching and research staff, the Ministry of Universities and Pompeu Fabra University have jointly issued an announcement, endowed with a subsidy from the state authority to UPF of 5.4 million euros over the period 2021 to 2023, and implies a minimum of 50 grants, across its three categories.

Pablo Pareja: “The call is an excellent means to attract talent to complement, strengthen and open new lines of research at UPF through the ‘María Zambrano’ modality

The three modalities into which the call for requalification is organized are: María Zambrano grants to attract international talent, Margarita Salas grants for the training of young doctors, and grants for the requalification of certain categories of UPF teaching staff, with for each of them at least 15, 30 and 5 grants, respectively.

The deadline for submitting applications for the last two categories is 28 July, while the period for submitting applications for the first modality ends on 4 August. In mid-September 2021 the University will publish the provisional list of those admitted and excluded, indicating the reasons for exclusion.

Pablo Pareja, vice-rector for Teaching Staff and Community Relations, says that “the call is a very good opportunity for researchers and young researchers who only recently completed their doctoral degree at UPF and wish to continue training at other Spanish and foreign universities and research centres. It also provides a good option for lecturers who are slightly more advanced in their professional careers who wish to do a research stay outside UPF. And it is, above all, an excellent means to attract talent to complement, strengthen and open new lines of research at UPF through the ‘María Zambrano’ modality”. 

Three types of grants to attract talent and boost the research careers of teaching staff

With the María Zambrano grants to attract international talent, the University aims to attract teaching and research staff with a postdoctoral track record gained at foreign universities or research centres. These grants have a maximum duration of two years, continuously and in person on site, and do not entail a commitment to stabilization.

At the time of applying, applicants wishing to participate in the call must be conducting research projects, and/or teaching at universities, research centres or agencies located outside Spain, with the requirement to reside in the country where the university or research centre of origin is located.

The Margarita Salas grants for the training of young doctors have a duration of two years and do not entail a commitment to stabilization. With this modality, UPF aims to train its young doctors through training stays in a Spanish public university or, in their first year, in universities and research centres abroad, as well as in Spanish public research institutions, provided the second year takes place in a Spanish public university.

Finally, grants for the requalification of university teaching staff materialize through academic stays at other universities or research centres, during which beneficiaries will maintain their employment relationship with UPF. For associate professors and tenured university lecturers, who must not exceed ten years of service in the position held at the time of application, these grants will have a duration of one year, and for junior lecturers, the grants will have a duration of two years.

The UPF selection committee will consist of sixteen members, with equal numbers of lecturers and researchers linked to UPF and to other Spanish and foreign universities and research institutions. To assess the candidates, the committee will consider, among others, their track record and the quality of their research and transfer activities.

Grants with national and European coverage

These subsidies are part of the call to requalify the Spanish university system for the period 2021-2023, published in the Official Spanish Gazette last April in the form of a Royal Decree, in order to train and prepare teaching and research staff. It is open to all public universities in Spain and has a total budget of 361.56 million euros.

To implement the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism approved last February by the European Parliament and the Council, the Ministry of Universities has defined several reforms and investments to digitize and modernize the education system. One of them corresponds to this call for requalification, as part of the “Recovery, Resilience and Transformation Plan” promoted by the Ministry.