Description
The Science, Technology, and Innovation Act states that research personnelmay obtain an R3 certificate as an established researcher, which will be recognized in recruitment processes for new permanent staff conducted by universities, public research organizations, and other research organizations of the General State Administration, by research organizations of other public administrations, including centers within the National Health System or those affiliated with or under agreement with it, as well as biomedical research foundations and consortia, and public consortia and foundations in the public sector.
The R3 certificate will be taken into account for the purposes of evaluating it as research merits in these selection processes, and will be applied to the tests or evaluation phases assessing the résumés of research staff participating in these processes, such that it will result in an exemption from or compensation for part of the résumé evaluation tests or phases—or their equivalents—for all public administrations.
Purpose
The purpose of this initiative is to evaluate the careers of domestic and international researchers within the framework of a postdoctoral pathway for entry into the Spanish System of Science, Technology, and Innovation, thereby enabling the recognition of their research quality and independence and, in accordance with the established European researcher profile (R3), the attainment of R3 certification as established researcher.
Documentation
- Documents to be submitted with the application: CVA and a summary of the applicant’s research history.
- For an application to be certified, it must achieve a total score of 80 points or higher, as well as a score of 30 points or higher on criterion 2.
- The State Research Agency is the body responsible for evaluating the quality requirements for research output and scientific and technological activities established for the R3 certificate as an established researcher .
Deadlines
Applications must be submitted from May 19 to June 9, 2026, by 2:00 p.m. (Spanish peninsular time)
Requirements:
a) Have earned a doctoral degree prior to January 1, 2021.
b) Have had a prior contractual relationship of at least (meet one of the following requirements):
1. Two years under an access contract (Article 22 of Law 14/2011, of June 1, on Science, Technology, and Innovation).
2. Three years under any other employment arrangement within the framework of a postdoctoral program funded by a public funding agency of the Spanish System of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
3. Five years of postdoctoral employment following the award of a doctoral degree (including periods of postdoctoral employment abroad).
c) Have completed stays— including periods of employment, predoctoral, and/or postdoctoral work—at national and/or international R&D centers other than the one where they completed their predoctoral training, for a cumulative period, whether continuous or intermittent, of two years or more. (This requirement does not apply to individuals who have completed their entire doctoral program and obtained their doctoral degree at a foreign university, or to individuals with a recognized disability rating of 33% or higher.)
d) Not be a member of any of the university faculty civil service bodies at public universities, nor be a tenured research civil servant employed by the Public Research Organizations of the General State Administration, nor be employed by a Spanish public university as a tenured professor with a Ph.D. or a permanent faculty member (or in equivalent positions at regional agencies).
e) Not hold either the R3 certificate or the I3 certificate.
f) If the applicant applied for the R3 certificate during the AEI’s 2025 application cycle, obtained a score of 60 points or higher, without having been awarded the certificate or having had your application rejected due to falsification or similar circumstances in the documentation submitted for the evaluation process.
Contact Information:
The State Investigation Agency has created a single point of contact to handle inquiries, issues, and suggestions from the public.
From now on, to submit your inquiry or request, please use the following contact form.
Contact Form | State Investigation Agency