The University of Murcia announces twenty predoctoral contracts for the 2027 academic year

The University of Murcia has announced twenty grants for the training of predoctoral research personnel (R1) for the 2027 fiscal year: fifteen intended for contracts within the institution itself and five for industrial doctorates in companies. The call is formalized by the Rector’s Resolution R-1447/2026, dated November 4, which approves the regulatory bases and the call, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Region of Murcia number 258, dated November 7, 2026, with the reference A-071126-5453. The resolution takes effect from the day of its full publication in the gazette and is signed by the Rector, J. Samuel Baixauli Soler.

The call is one of the actions planned in the Research Promotion Plan of the University of Murcia and, according to the published text, complements calls of an analogous nature from the General State Administration and the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. It is processed as an early-processing expenditure file, and its resolution is conditional upon the existence of adequate and sufficient credit in the university budget for 2027 and subsequent years.

The criteria were proposed by the Research Commission in the session of September 18, 2026, in accordance with Article 84 of the Statutes of the University of Murcia approved by Decree 7/2026, dated February 19, and were favorably reported by the university’s Governing Council on September 25, 2026.

Two modalities and twenty contracts

The distribution of the twenty grants, under the regime of Article 21 of Law 14/2011, of June 1, is as follows:

• Fifteen contracts of modality A, for predoctoral research personnel in training in any scientific, technical, humanistic, or artistic field.
• Five grants of modality B, aimed at companies and entities that develop an industrial research or experimental development project and that hire doctoral students to obtain the “Industrial Doctorate” mention.
• The contracts will have a maximum duration of four years, extendable to six in the case of persons with disabilities.
• The remuneration may not be lower than 56% of the salary of the equivalent categories of the II Collective Agreement for contracted teaching and research staff during the first two years, 60% in the third, and 75% in the fourth, and in no case below the minimum interprofessional wage.
• The dedication regime is full-time, and teaching collaborations of up to 60 hours per year are authorized.

In modality B, co-financing by the requesting entity of at least 30% of the total cost of the employment contract is required throughout the entire period. The call also covers the payment of public enrollment fees for thesis supervision and allows for the request of a travel grant in accordance with Resolution R-606/2021, of May 11.

Reservation by branches of knowledge and selection in two phases

Modality A reserves one newly awarded contract for each of the five branches of knowledge—Sciences, Health Sciences, Art and Humanities, Social and Legal Sciences, and Engineering and Architecture—among the applicants with the 25 best final scores, awarding it to the person with the highest score of the underrepresented gender in each branch at the University of Murcia. The remaining contracts are assigned through general open access.

The selection process for modality A has two phases. In the first, the hiring commission selects the fifty applicants with the best weighted average grades from their academic record. In the second, the scale in Annex I is applied: the weighted average grade accounts for 75% of the total score, with a maximum of 7.5 points; the quality and potential of the curriculum vitae and its suitability for the thesis project, 15%, with a maximum of 1.5 points; and the evaluation of the research director’s curriculum vitae and the training project report, the remaining 10%.

The hiring commission is chaired by the person holding the presidency of the Research and Transfer Commission, with the director of the International Doctoral School (EIDUM) as vice-president, and is completed by internal and external members and representation from the works council.

Twenty-business-day deadline and electronic submission

Applications shall be submitted through the CONVOCUM PI web application, accessible at https://convocum.um.es, and the deadline shall be twenty business days from the day following the publication of the call in the BORM. Only one application per person is permitted, referring to one of the two modalities.

Admissibility requirements include:

• Being admitted or eligible for admission to a doctoral program at the university for the 2026/2027 academic year.
• Not holding a doctoral degree.
• Having the acceptance of a thesis director who participates in a current research project or agreement for an amount equal to or greater than 5,000 euros.
• Not having been a beneficiary of another public predoctoral training grant during the maximum period of four years.

No doctor may endorse more than one application. Failure to enroll in the doctoral program will prevent the signing of the contract, and the research activity will be evaluated each year by the program’s academic commission, with the possibility of contract termination if it is not successfully passed.

The impact of this call is twofold: it offers a stable four-year funding route for graduates wishing to begin a thesis and strengthens the talent acquisition of research groups in the Region of Murcia, in a context where the public university competes with state and regional programs for the same personnel in training.

Source: Official Gazette of the Region of Murcia, number 258, of November 7, 2026, section I. Autonomous Community, page 27150 (official reference: A-071126-5453).