The Gulbenkian New Talents grant closes on 30 September (your referees get another week)
Applications shut at 15:00 Lisbon time on 30 September, while recommendation letters are due on 6 October. The entry bar is a 16.5 average with no rounding.
Apply / Learn moreOne detail about the Gulbenkian New Talents scholarships rescues a good share of the late applications every year, and hardly anyone says it out loud. There are two deadlines, not one.
The applicant’s own form closes at 15:00 Lisbon time on 30 September. Recommendation letters work differently: the Foundation requests them directly from whoever you name in the references field, and they are not due until 15:00 on 6 October. So if you are putting off applying because you have not yet asked the lecturer who will vouch for you, you are putting it off for the wrong reason. Submit first. Ask afterwards.
Who qualifies
The programme looks for unusually strong undergraduates in Portuguese higher education, and the gate is a number. You need a 16.5 average or better, with no rounding, across the units you have already completed. You also need to be enrolled in 2026/27 in the second, third or fourth year of a licenciatura or integrated master’s, or in the first year of a master’s, at an institution in Portugal.
The fields are wide. Basic sciences on one side, meaning biology, geology, physics, mathematics and chemistry, and then any area of the humanities, the arts or the social sciences. You may apply to one of them, not two. International students are eligible if they are enrolled at a Portuguese institution and speak Portuguese, because the programme runs in that language. Students here on exchange are not.
What it pays
The scholarship runs for 12 months, usually starting in November and ending a year later at a public science event. The annual figure comes in three parts, and not everyone gets the third: 1,000 euros towards training and research costs tied to continuing study; 1,500 euros for talent enrichment, covering advanced training, conferences, summer schools, placements or lab materials, each signed off by the scientific committee; and 2,000 euros of supplementary social support, restricted to households with annual per-capita income up to 14,000 euros and evidenced by an application to the DGES social-action grant.
The money is not really the point. What comes with it is a tutor, a scientific committee of established academics, and retreats at the Foundation’s own premises that mix research work with a cultural programme. For an undergraduate, it is usually the first time anyone has treated them as a researcher.
Before you hit submit
The application is online and in Portuguese, and you have to create an account on the Foundation’s site first. Read the regulations before you start rather than after. You will need a screenshot of your university student platform with your name visible, not a certified declaration, which saves a trip to the registry office. Letters may be written in English and must come from university lecturers or researchers, never from secondary-school teachers.
If this is not your call, the Foundation keeps other lines open through the year, including the internationalisation grant that pays up to 5,000 euros to take your work abroad, which runs on very different rules.
Quick questions
Can I apply to two fields? No. One only, chosen on the form.
What if my average is 16.4? You are out. The regulations say explicitly that there is no rounding.
Do I need a social-action grant? Only for the 2,000-euro component, and then you must show your DGES application.
When do I hear back? The scholarship normally starts in November 2026, so the decision lands before then.
Image: Gabriel de Andrade Fernandes / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
