Program starts to select projects instead of institutions and has an average adjustment of 30% in values
The CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) will publish in April the public call for the new PCI (Institutional Training Program) – a type of scholarship aimed at researchers from the 16 research units of the MCTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation).
The call cycle will be 4 years, with a budget of R$ 120 million from the FNDCT (National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development).
The PCI restructuring includes an average adjustment of 30%, raising the floor to at least R$4,000. The most important change is in the form of competition: previous editions linked scholarships to institutions, which distributed them internally.
This edition establishes a broad competition regime based on projects, which will be proposed by public officials and may receive up to R$ 1.5 million, with up to 10% of this amount for costs, such as consumables, third-party services, tickets and daily allowances.
For this cycle, the same institution can now host several simultaneous research projects, submitted by different proponents and institutionally validated.
The accountability process will be annual. Fellows will now have explicit permission to work in technology-based companies (startups) located in innovation environments, such as incubators and technology parks.
Historically, the program ranges from technical to post-doctoral levels and is responsible for adding temporary human resources to institutions.
CNPq will carry out, after the launch of the notice, a webinars explanation to answer questions about the new rules and filling out proposals on the Carlos Chagas integrated platform.
This text was originally published by , on April 15, 2026, at 8:53 pm. The content is free for republication, the source is cited, and has been adapted to the standard of Poder360.
