The new Early Career Assistance program will integrate actions from the PRP and PRDU to support newly hired professors and researchers.

Currently, the University has two support programs aimed at this audience: the Career Start Assistance (AIC/FAEPEX) and the Incentive Program for New Professors/Researchers (PIND/PIN-PQ/PRDU), created in 2022 and implemented through calls for proposals.

The AIC grants up to R$ 15.000,00 (fifteen thousand reais) to professors and researchers who submit a research project to a funding agency or similar entity by the end of their first year of employment. Additionally, those whose projects are approved can benefit from a master's scholarship and an undergraduate research scholarship. The PIND/PIN-PQ program offers funding of up to R$ 75.000,00 (seventy-five thousand reais).

Although it is possible to submit proposals to both programs, the total amount received cannot exceed R$ 75.000,00 (seventy-five thousand reais). Analysis of those awarded funding under the PIND program indicated that 73% of them were also funded by the AIC program. Considering only faculty members who joined between 2015 and 2019, the overlap in funding increases to 88%.

Based on this data, and considering the positive effect of access to funding after hiring, the PRP and PRDU proposed unifying the two modalities, creating a more comprehensive continuous flow program capable of boosting the autonomous development of research, teaching, and extension projects conducted by new faculty members or new researchers.

Compliant FAEPEX Resolution 07/2025The new Career Start-up Grant is divided into four components, in which the annual quota value of the FAEPEX research line is used as the basis for calculation:

1. Submission assistance: X* annual quotas to encourage the submission of research projects to national or international funding institutions, before the end of the first year of the contract;
2. Incentives for University Extension: Y* annual quotas exclusively for carrying out extension projects. The analysis of the proposals will be coordinated and will follow the guidelines established by PROEEC;
3. Master's scholarship: R$ 72.000,00 (24 x R$ 3.000,00) (or up to 9 annual installments) to encourage the new employee's enrollment in a postgraduate program. The scholarship may be implemented up to two years after the signing of the FAEPEX grant agreement;
4. Institutional supplementationIf the submitted project is approved, FAEPEX may supplement the amount by a percentage to be defined, respecting the limit of W* annual quotas. This resource may be used flexibly, according to FAEPEX regulations (e.g., scholarships, per diem allowances, permanent materials, supplies, among others).

* The number of annual quotas (X, Y, W) will be defined after the budget analysis for 2026, and the total should not exceed the equivalent of 30 annual quotas. The current value of each quota is R$ 8.000,00 (eight thousand reais).

Tabela 1A comparison between the current funding scenario and the new proposal.

^a The current annual fee is R$ 8.000,00 (eight thousand reais).

The implementation of the New AIC is planned for early 2026, along with the launch of a new electronic proposal submission system, currently under development in partnership with DETIC.