The general principles behind our analysis were:

• The annual income (before taxes) of the researchers is not altered.
• The costs associated with this change will be distributed by both the host institution and the researcher.

The full proposal (in Portuguese) can be downloaded here. A brief explanation in English is provided bellow.

Currently, research fellows are not recognized as regular workers. ANICT defends that research fellows that are not pursuing an academic degree should not be considered students and, therefore, must be considered regular workers. As such, they should be provided regular work contracts, instead of fellowships.

With a regular work contract (fixed term), researchers will be eligible to (among others):

• receive compensation at end of contract
• receive unemployment aid
• receive sickness leave
• receive maternity leave
• receive retirement fund

However, contrary to research fellows, Portuguese workers need to pay 11% of their salary to Social Security and a variable percentage as income tax (IRS). Therefore, an important question can be posed: by changing fellowships to contracts, who would be in charge of paying such taxes? Like any other worker, it seams acceptable to ANICT that the scientific worker needs to pay those contributions. Assuming that no change in salary is negotiated, this will result on a decrease in the real income of the worker. Of note, this change would also result in a increase in the hiring cost by the host institution, up to 10% of the current costs.

If you are a researcher in Portugal, ANICT is interested in knowing your opinion about this issue. We are now opening a nationwide survey until the 30th of September 2014. Click here to participate on the survey.