CONCYTEC (Peru’s National Council for Science, Technology and Technological Innovation): Funding Overview

CONCYTEC (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica) is Peru’s national governing body for science, technology, and innovation policy. It does not disburse most competitive research funding directly — that role belongs to its executing arm, PROCIENCIA. This guide explains how CONCYTEC and PROCIENCIA divide responsibilities, what funding instruments exist, who is eligible, and how the structure compares to national research funders elsewhere in Latin America.

Quick answer

• CONCYTEC (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica) is the ente rector — the governing/regulatory body — of Peru’s SINACYT (Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica), Peru’s national science, technology, and innovation system. It was established under Ley N° 28613, the Ley del CONCYTEC.
• CONCYTEC sets policy, regulates, and coordinates SINACYT; it does not itself run most competitive grant calls. Competitive research funding is administered by PROCIENCIA (Programa Nacional de Investigación Científica y Estudios Avanzados), created in 2021 by Decreto Supremo N° 051-2021-PCM on the institutional base of the former FONDECYT (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica).
• PROCIENCIA’s 2026 call calendar covers roughly 14 competitive funds spanning basic research, applied research, technological development, social-sciences research, postdoctoral incorporation, doctoral scholarships abroad, thesis funding, and international scientific cooperation, with reported total funding above S/ 73 million (Peruvian soles) for the year.
• CONCYTEC also administers RENACYT (the national registry that classifies and qualifies Peruvian researchers) through the CTI Vitae platform — a researcher CV/registry system comparable in function to Brazil’s Currículo Lattes. RENACYT registration is a common eligibility gate or scoring factor in PROCIENCIA calls.
• For a research administrator outside Peru, the practical distinction to keep straight is: CONCYTEC = policy and system governance, PROCIENCIA = the agency that actually issues calls, signs funding contracts, and disburses funds.

What CONCYTEC is and how it fits into Peru’s government structure

CONCYTEC was created and is regulated by Ley N° 28613, the Ley del Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica, which set out its goals and functions as Peru’s rectoring authority for science, technology, and innovation. Under this framework, CONCYTEC is the governing body of SINACYT, the national system that brings together the public and private institutions and individuals engaged in research, development, and technological innovation (R+D+i) in Peru. CONCYTEC’s role within that system is to regulate, direct, orient, promote, coordinate, supervise, and evaluate the State’s actions in science, technology, and technological innovation — a policy and oversight function, not primarily a direct-funding one.

This split — a policy-setting council paired with a separate operational funding agency — is structurally similar to how Chile separates policy coordination from Fondecyt’s grant administration under ANID, or how Spain’s AEI sits beneath a science ministry that sets policy while AEI executes the calls. In Peru’s case, CONCYTEC itself is the top-level council, and PROCIENCIA is the executing unit beneath it that actually runs competitive funding.

CONCYTEC vs. PROCIENCIA: governing body vs. funding agency

The distinction that most often confuses researchers and administrators outside Peru is that “CONCYTEC funding” in casual usage almost always means a PROCIENCIA call, because PROCIENCIA is the entity that publishes convocatorias (calls for proposals), signs funding contracts with awardees, and disburses money.

• CONCYTEC — sets national CTI (ciencia, tecnología e innovación) policy, administers researcher-classification systems (RENACYT/CTI Vitae), accredits research institutions, and coordinates SINACYT as a whole.
• PROCIENCIA (Programa Nacional de Investigación Científica y Estudios Avanzados) — the operational program that runs competitive funding calls, evaluates proposals, signs grant contracts, and manages disbursement and monitoring of awarded projects. PROCIENCIA was created by Decreto Supremo N° 051-2021-PCM (published in the official gazette El Peruano on 25 March 2021), absorbing the former FONDECYT, which had previously served as CONCYTEC’s fund-administration arm.

Because of this history, older documents, contracts, and CVs frequently reference “FONDECYT” funding for awards made before 2021; current and 2026 calls are issued under the PROCIENCIA name. When verifying a Peruvian collaborator’s funding history, expect to see either name depending on the award year, and treat FONDECYT-era awards as the direct institutional predecessor of a current PROCIENCIA award for citation and acknowledgment purposes.

Main funding programs and instruments

PROCIENCIA’s competitive calls are organized around the full research lifecycle rather than a single grant type. Based on the published 2026 call calendar, the main instrument families include:

• Basic research projects (Proyectos de Investigación Básica) — competitive project grants for fundamental research, reported at up to S/ 500,000 per project in the 2026 calendar.
• Applied research projects (Proyectos de Investigación Aplicada) — grants aimed at generating knowledge that addresses specific problems facing Peru’s productive sectors or society, also reported at up to S/ 500,000 per project for 2026.
• Social sciences research projects (Proyectos de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales) — a dedicated line for social-science research, reported at up to S/ 100,000 per project for 2026.
• Technological development projects (Proyectos de Desarrollo Tecnológico) — funding for multidisciplinary technology-development work bridging research and applied innovation.
• Postdoctoral incorporation and training — programs supporting postdoctoral researchers taking up positions at Peruvian institutions.
• Doctoral scholarships abroad and talent repatriation — funding lines supporting Peruvian researchers pursuing doctoral study internationally or returning to work in Peru.
• Undergraduate and graduate thesis funding — smaller grants supporting thesis research at the pregrado/postgrado level.
• International scientific cooperation — calls supporting collaborative projects with foreign partner institutions.
• RENACYT researcher subsidies — funding tied to a researcher’s RENACYT classification status.

PROCIENCIA’s published 2026 calendar lists roughly 14 calls across these categories, with total competitive funding reported above S/ 73 million for the year — a level of investment reported as broadly comparable to 2025. Because call names, funding ceilings, and eligibility windows change from year to year, always confirm current terms against PROCIENCIA’s own published calendar (prociencia.gob.pe/calendario-de-concursos) rather than a secondary summary, including this guide.

RENACYT and CTI Vitae: the researcher registry behind eligibility

Many PROCIENCIA calls use RENACYT (Registro Nacional Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica) status — and the underlying CTI Vitae platform where researchers maintain their curriculum data — as an eligibility criterion, a scoring factor, or the basis of dedicated researcher-subsidy calls. CTI Vitae functions as Peru’s standardized researcher CV registry, analogous in purpose to Brazil’s Currículo Lattes (referenced in CASRAI’s CNPq Brazil funding guide) or a national CRIS-adjacent researcher-profile system. For an international collaborator or a research office evaluating a Peruvian PI’s track record, RENACYT classification level is a useful, CONCYTEC-verified signal of a researcher’s standing within Peru’s national system, separate from any specific grant they may hold.

How CONCYTEC and PROCIENCIA fit into Peru’s broader research administration landscape

For institutions and administrators outside Peru evaluating a collaboration, subaward, or a Peruvian PI’s funding history:

• A PROCIENCIA-funded principal investigator role indicates the individual passed a national competitive peer-review process administered under CONCYTEC’s regulatory framework.
• References to “CONCYTEC funding,” “FONDECYT funding,” and “PROCIENCIA funding” on a Peruvian collaborator’s CV may all refer to the same institutional lineage depending on the award year — CONCYTEC as the governing body, FONDECYT as the pre-2021 fund administrator, and PROCIENCIA as its current successor.
• Call codes and convocatoria years (e.g., a specific “2026-01” or “2026-02” call reference) are the correct identifiers to request when verifying a Peruvian partner’s funding source for a joint publication’s acknowledgments or a subaward file.
• RENACYT classification signals sustained standing within Peru’s national researcher system; it is not itself evidence that a specific project was funded, and should be checked separately from the funding award.

CONCYTEC in the Latin American national-funder landscape

CONCYTEC/PROCIENCIA’s split between a policy-governing council and a dedicated executing funding agency mirrors a pattern seen across several of the region’s national systems that CASRAI has covered separately:

• ANID Chile and Fondecyt — Chile’s national funding structure, with Fondecyt as the historic project-grant line under ANID.
• CNPq (Brazil) — Brazil’s national research council, funding overview for international researchers.
• FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) — a state-level (not federal) Brazilian funder with its own foreign-researcher grant lines.
• SECIHTI Mexico (formerly CONACYT/CONAHCYT) — Mexico’s restructured national science ministry.

Peru’s system is smaller in absolute funding terms than Brazil’s or Mexico’s, but follows the same broad institutional logic: a national council holds regulatory and system-governance authority, while a separate operational program executes competitive funding calls and manages awards.

Frequently asked questions

Is CONCYTEC the same as PROCIENCIA?

No. CONCYTEC is Peru’s governing body for science, technology, and innovation policy, established under Ley N° 28613. PROCIENCIA is the operational program, created in 2021, that actually runs competitive funding calls, signs contracts, and disburses funds. In everyday usage, “CONCYTEC funding” almost always refers to a PROCIENCIA-administered call.

What happened to FONDECYT?

FONDECYT (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica) was CONCYTEC’s original fund-administration arm. It was absorbed into the newly created PROCIENCIA (Programa Nacional de Investigación Científica y Estudios Avanzados) under Decreto Supremo N° 051-2021-PCM, published 25 March 2021. Awards made before that date are commonly still referenced by their FONDECYT name.

What is RENACYT and why does it matter for funding eligibility?

RENACYT is CONCYTEC’s national registry that classifies Peruvian researchers, maintained through the CTI Vitae researcher-profile platform. A number of PROCIENCIA funding lines use RENACYT status as an eligibility requirement, scoring criterion, or the direct basis of a subsidy call, making RENACYT registration a practical prerequisite for some Peru-based applicants.

Can foreign researchers or institutions receive CONCYTEC/PROCIENCIA funding?

PROCIENCIA’s international scientific cooperation calls, and several other funding lines, are specifically designed to support collaborative projects between Peruvian institutions and foreign partners. Direct, unaffiliated applications from researchers with no Peruvian host institution are generally not the standard pathway — most instruments are structured around a Peru-based lead institution, with foreign collaborators participating as co-investigators or partner-institution representatives. Eligibility details vary by call and should be confirmed against the specific convocatoria text.

Where can I find official, current CONCYTEC and PROCIENCIA funding calls?

PROCIENCIA publishes its live and closed calls (convocatorias) at prociencia.gob.pe, including a published calendar of the year’s planned calls. CONCYTEC’s institutional and regulatory information, including RENACYT/CTI Vitae, is published at gob.pe/concytec and the dedicated servicio-renacyt.concytec.gob.pe platform. Because budgets, deadlines, and eligibility rules change annually, always confirm current terms against the official call text rather than a secondary summary, including this guide.

Related CASRAI resources

• Grants Management & Research Funding pillar — the full cluster of research-administration guides this page belongs to.
• ANID Chile & Fondecyt — a comparable national funding-agency structure guide for Chile.
• CNPq (Brazil): A Funding Overview for International Researchers — another national research-council funding guide in the region.
• FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation) — a Brazilian state-level funder with foreign-researcher grant lines.
• SECIHTI Mexico — Mexico’s restructured national science ministry and funding programs.
• AEI Spain — a comparable policy-body/funding-agency structure outside Latin America.
• Principal investigator — role definition referenced throughout PROCIENCIA’s project-grant instruments.