2025 Call for Seed Grant Proposals

The MIT Portugal Program is pleased to announce its 2025 call for seed grant proposals from MIT Principal Investigators from any of the Institute’s schools, departments, laboratories, or centers. The call is open now through June 6, 2025.

The MIT Portugal Program (MPP), recently renewed and now in its 4th phase through 2030, is a strategic international partnership between Portuguese universities, research institutions, government, industry partners, and MIT, with the goal of fostering collaborative research. The seed grants are designed to encourage such collaborations and to generate new ideas and advance research both in Portugal and at MIT. The Program has supported over 100 research projects during Phase III of the collaboration. A list of past awards can be found here.

For the 2025 call for proposals, new seed grants for one to two years will be considered, at a funding level up to $200,000 annually (including overhead). Proposals with a higher budget will be considered with appropriate justification.

For the 2025 call for proposals, the Program encourages both:

1. New applications for innovative projects, in collaboration with a Portuguese team, and
2. Renewal applications to allow for the continuation of research projects, with an active Portuguese collaborator, that were funded in 2024 and which grants have not yet expired.

Interested researchers at MIT are encouraged to submit proposals in the following two categories:

1. Research projects in one or more of the following areas:

New research areas in Phase IV:

1. Chips/Nanotechnology
2. Energy
3. AI
4. Space

Research areas continued from Phase III:

5. Climate Science & Climate Change
6. Earth Systems: Oceans to Near Space
7. Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
8. Sustainable Cities

2. Non-research projects to promote engagement and collaboration in topics and activities that may impact Portugal, such as developing a joint course between MIT and a Portuguese university or an Entrepreneurship & Innovation program. If you have questions on whether a non-research project is appropriate, you can raise these with mitportugal@mit.edu.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

Proposals will be accepted from MIT Principal Investigators from any school, department, laboratory, or center.

While this funding is exclusively for MIT Principal Investigators, proposals are expected to include collaboration with Portuguese faculty, students, industry, or other institutions in Portugal. A non-exhaustive overview of Portuguese universities and relevant departments for research areas 1 to 4, as well as Innovation & Entrepreneurship labs, can be found here. If you need help finding contact information, please reach out to mitportugal@mit.edu.

Renewal applications of existing research projects must demonstrate active and meaningful collaboration with Portuguese researchers, industry and/or students.

For all research project applications, proposals that consider hosting a visiting student or researcher from Portugal are strongly encouraged. The Program can help with visiting student slots, if needed, and help cover visiting fees.

Proposals that will collaborate with Portuguese research projects that are part of European initiatives are encouraged.

Budget Allocation

Funding may be used for, but is not limited to, MIT salaries (including summer salaries as well as RA, postdoc, and other salaries), tuition for MIT students, materials & supplies, services, equipment, travel & meeting costs to facilitate collaboration with Portuguese collaborators, and indirect costs. Funding should not be used for salaries for foreign collaborators.

MIT PI’s are strongly encouraged to host a visiting student or researcher from Portugal, as part of the research collaboration, and can apply for additional funding to cover visiting fees.

How to Apply

The deadline to submit proposals is June 6, 2025. Applicants will be informed of the results by end of July 2025. Funds for new projects will be available for use from August 1, 2025. Funds for renewal research projects will be available for use from the expiration date of the existing grant.

Applications must include a project proposal and a project budget, templates can be found here. Please submit the project proposal and project budget via the submission portal on the MIT Funding Opportunities page. Any proposal – or budget-related questions can be raised with mitportugal@mit.edu. The proposal and budget do not need to be routed via RAS or Kuali Coeus (KC).

At the end of the grant period, grantees will be required to submit a brief report to the MIT Portugal Program office highlighting the accomplishments and results of the project, active collaboration with Portuguese researchers, industry and/or students, any publications resulting from the project, as well as a final financial statement. The report could be 2 pages in length or less, and is ideally ready to be used on the MIT Portugal Program website.

Summary schedule:

Please check the FAQ section if you have questions about the seed grants or the process.