With the aim of strengthening transparency, traceability and visibility of public funding for scientific research, the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) is assigning unique and permanent identifiers (DOI - Digital Object Identifier) to the national public funding it awards and manages.

This initiative contributes to FCT’s ongoing efforts to promote open access to scientific information, contributing to the structured, efficient and accessible availability of data related to awarded funding. A DOI is a permanent digital identifier that enables unequivocal referencing, locating and citation of a digital resource, whether it being a scientific article, dataset or, in this case, awarded funding.

DOI assignment is carried out in the context of the national scientific funding register, integrated into the SciPROJ infrastructure - a national platform that congregates records of both national and international funding. Through its recent integration into the OECD’s international Fundstat infrastructure, SciPROJ supports the interoperability of research funding data.

This initiative aims to ensure a clear, consistent and traceable connection between awarded funding and its associated researchers, institutions and scientific results, reinforcing trust in national scientific production while also promoting its integration into international frameworks.

Since January 2024, the DOI assignment process has entered Phase II, during which both newly contracted funding and older awards with continued potential for scientific output are being gradually and autonomously registered by FCT.