Abstract

Since 2020, the University of Coimbra (UC), with the support from the RMAs of the Strategic Research Areas Unit, has promoted SeedProjects@UC, an initiative to fund interdisciplinary research proposed by early- to mid-career researchers (i.e. up to ten years past phd defense), responding to complex scientific issues and societal challenges, and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

This initiative aims to provide initial funding for research proposed by young researchers (20,000 euros). The other aim is to foster scientific independence and leadership skills of researchers in the first stages of their careers. The source of funding is private.

SeedProjects@UC funds up to five projects annually, one in each strategic area of UC. These five strategic areas are aligned with Horizon Europe priorities. In addition to scientific excellence, projects are funded based on two central criteria: Interdisciplinarity and scientific independence of the Principal Investigator (PI). Interdisciplinarity demands that the project team be comprised of researchers from at least two UC research units, from different scientific areas. Scientific independence requests that proposals do not include the former supervision team of the PI.

This talk will discuss the impact of the past 4 editions of this initiative on the PIs’ scientific productivity and independence, as well as the impact on society, economy, SDGs, and institutional change, based on application data, and detailed reports submitted after the project has ended.

According to a preliminary analysis of the SeedProjects@UC data, a large share of applications (31–50%) has been submitted under the strategic area of health making it the most competitive panel. Funded projects in this area address neuroscience and pharmacology. This is a symptom of the urgent need for early career seed funding in this area. Following this strategic area, there is approximately the same share of applications (13–28%) for the areas of Heritage, Creativity and Inclusive Society (HCIS), and Natural Resources, Agrifood and Environment. In HCIS area, the majority of funded projects have been centred on addressing heritage research needs of the institution as UNESCO heritage. One example of such projects focused on the study of the sculptural heritage of the UC.

The interest of UC researchers in Seed Projects in areas of Climate, Energy and Mobility, and Digital, Industry and Space (DIS) has been considerably lower (<14%), and in some instances, the DIS panel has even chosen to award no funding in this area.

Data from the past 4 editions also demonstrates the potential for contribution of female researchers, with more than 52% as female PIs and more than 76% of teams comprised by more than half of female elements. In addition, more than 56% of the teams integrated more than 5 researchers, and more than 40% of the applications included collaboration with external partners.

In this talk, we will examine impact outcomes in detail and reflect on some remaining challenges such as how to motivate the researchers in the strategic areas with lower contributions, and further bootstrap impacts of this seed funding.