Ramón Areces Foundation Grants for Doctoral Theses in Life and Material Sciences 2025

The fundamental objective of the Ramón Areces Foundation is to promote scientific and technical research of excellence in Spain through research grants, the training of young researchers, as well as the dissemination, promotion and development of education and scientific culture in general.

In fulfillment of these objectives, the Foundation aims to collaborate in the training of individuals beginning their careers as scientific researchers by funding contracts for the completion of doctoral theses in doctoral programs at Spanish universities and other research centers aimed at obtaining a PhD, starting in January 2026. These contracts will be regulated by Law 14/2011, of June 1, on Science, Technology and Innovation, and Royal Decree 103/2019 of March 1, which approves the Statute of predoctoral research personnel in training.

This call focuses on the following health priorities: Rare Diseases and Biomedicine.

Requirements

1. Be in possession of a bachelor's degree, engineer, architect or university graduate, with a degree of at least 240 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits, at the time of submitting the application. In this call, preference will be given to candidates who have obtained these qualifications between 2021 and 2025.
2. Be enrolled or admitted to an on-campus doctoral program at a university or research center headquartered in Spain or, if not enrolled or admitted to the doctoral program mentioned at the time of submitting the application, be eligible for admission prior to the date on which the grant regulatory agreement is formalized as stipulated in section II.4.
3. Not hold a doctoral degree or have previously held a predoctoral contract lasting more than six months.
4. Applicants must have an average grade in their academic record corresponding to the bachelor's degree, degree or equivalent title higher than 7,5 on a 0-10 scale. The average grade of the student's academic record will be the one stated on the diploma. If the student holds more than one bachelor's degree, licentiate, or equivalent qualification, the calculation must be made for each separately, and the one most closely related to the doctoral studies applied for will be taken into account, with the rest considered as additional merit.

Endowment

The total financial endowment of the grant will amount to €35.000 gross per year, which will be used to finance the cost of the successful bidder's contract during the duration of the grant, as well as the social security contributions borne by the university or research center, and any other mandatory additional expenses applicable in accordance with current regulations, including the three-year periods and the final termination of the contract.

To the previous allocation, two other contributions of a final nature will be added:

a) A grant of €4.000 per stay for stays at prestigious international research centers, upon request from the center where the doctoral thesis is being conducted, motivated by an invitation from the host university or center. A maximum of two stays will be funded over the life of the grant. Each stay must be for a minimum of three months.

b) A grant of 2.000 euros/annuity, which must be used to cover tuition fees, conference registration (and travel and accommodation expenses directly associated with the conference), databases, software, computer equipment, and other expenses, provided they are directly related to the research.

Deadline: October 2, 2025.