Juan de la Cierva Contracts (Spain) Explained

Juan de la Cierva here means the Spanish postdoctoral funding programme, officially Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva, run by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI). It is not the aviation pioneer, the museum, or the schools and institutes that carry the same name. This guide explains what the programme funds, who applies, how the process works, and how researchers connect their identifiers to a record that evaluators read.

What Juan de la Cierva contracts are

The programme funds employment contracts that let recent doctorate holders complete their postdoctoral training at a Spanish R&D centre. The AEI call page for 2025 describes the aim as encouraging the incorporation of young researchers holding a doctorate so that they complete their postdoctoral research training in Spanish R&D centres.

Official name: Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva (the 2025 edition is titled Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva 2025). Earlier editions on ciencia.gob.es appear as Contratos Juan de la Cierva, and in 2019 as Juan de la Cierva-formación.
Operator: Agencia Estatal de Investigación, under the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades.
Country: Spain.
Framework: the 2025 call sits in the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2024-2027, within the State Human Resources Program and its subprogram for training, attraction and retention of research and innovative talent.

For the agency behind the programme, see our AEI Spain funding overview. For the separate AEI postdoctoral programme with its own rules, see Ramón y Cajal Programme (Spain).

Who should register and who applies

Individual researchers do not file the application themselves. The 2025 call page states that participation applications are presented by the R&D centres, which include the candidates in their applications for incorporation into research teams. In practice a candidate needs a host centre and a research team willing to take them, then completes the participant steps the call sets while the centre handles signature and submission.

Eligibility is defined by when the doctorate was obtained. In the 2025 call:

The general-access quota and the JDC-INIA-CCAA quota require a doctorate obtained between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025.
The quota for people with a disability of 33% or more starts the window earlier, at 1 January 2023.
The call allows exceptions for people who can document an interruption cause as defined in the call.

The 2021 call on ciencia.gob.es used a window of 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021, and required the training to take place at a Spanish R&D centre different from the one where the predoctoral work was done. Windows and conditions are reset in each call, so always read the call you intend to use.

How to register or search

Follow the steps the official call page lays out, using its own labels.

Find the call on the AEI announcements finder. The 2025 entry is titled Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva 2025 and is marked as closed.
Check the call’s eligibility rules and quota (general access, JDC-INIA-CCAA, or disability of 33% or more) against your doctorate date.
Agree the host R&D centre and research team, and identify the tutor researcher, because selection weighs the tutor’s record.
Complete the participant form during the window set in the call. For 2025 the page listed a provisional participant window of 25 November 2025 to 10 December 2025 at 14:00 (peninsular time).
The centre signs and submits the application. The 2025 page listed a provisional window for entities of 25 November 2025 to 17 December 2025 at 14:00 (peninsular time).

After the AEI migrated its systems, the call page says the new links to the application and to other applications are on the AEI page called Aplicaciones de Interés. Those dates describe the 2025 call only. For any later call, check the official site for the current dates and the full published call text.

What the award contains and how evaluation works

The 2025 call page describes the following package.

Item	2025 call
Duration	Three years
Annual aid	EUR 35,000 per year, to co-finance the salary and the employer social-security contribution
Additional aid	EUR 15,000 for expenses directly related to the research activity
Number of aids	Up to 500, of which 9 are reserved for disability of 33% or more and 9 for the JDC-INIA-CCAA quota
Budget	EUR 60,000,000

For comparison, the 2021 call page on ciencia.gob.es lists a two-year hire and a budget of EUR 32,400,000, and the 2019 Juan de la Cierva-formación page also describes two years. The programme therefore changes from call to call.

Selection is competitive. The 2025 page says it rests on the candidate’s curriculum merits and on the scientific and technical record of the research team they want to join, with particular weight on the merits of the tutor researcher. That is why the quality and traceability of a publication record matter: evaluators read a CV and a team history, and anything that makes those easy to verify helps.

Linking ORCID and Scopus to your application record

The call page does not make a persistent identifier a requirement, but identifiers are the practical way to keep a CV, a host team’s record and your publication list consistent.

ORCID: keep one ORCID iD, add your works, and set sources you trust to update it. Our guide to adding publications to ORCID covers the mechanics, and ORCID trust markers explains how assertions on a record are signalled.
Scopus Author ID: if a profile is split or missing, resolve it before you collect your outputs. See Scopus Author ID without a publication for how profiles are created and corrected.
Spanish CV format: Spain’s standardised CV is explained in our CVN (Currículo Vitae Normalizado) guide. Whether a given call asks for it is stated in that call’s own text, so confirm it there.

A simple routine is to export your ORCID works list, compare it against Scopus, and reconcile any differences before your host centre starts the submission.

Common problems

Applying as an individual. The centre files the application. A candidate who has not secured a host centre and tutor has nothing to submit.
Misreading the doctorate window. The window is defined in each call and differs by quota. Compare the date on your doctoral certificate with the call you are reading, not with an earlier edition.
Using a stale link. The call page notes that application links moved after the AEI system migration. Start from the AEI announcements finder or the Aplicaciones de Interés page.
Mixing up programmes. Juan de la Cierva and Ramón y Cajal have different targets and conditions.
Relying on summaries. Amounts, duration and numbers of aids are set per call. Treat summaries, including this one, as a guide to what to look for and check the official text.
Inconsistent publication records. Duplicate Scopus profiles or an empty ORCID record make a CV harder to verify.

Frequently asked questions

Is Juan de la Cierva a grant I can apply for directly?

No. According to the 2025 call page on the AEI site, participation applications are submitted by the R&D centres, which include the candidates in their applications for incorporation into research teams. Candidates complete a participant form, and the centre signs and submits.

How long is a Juan de la Cierva contract?

In the 2025 call the aid funds a three-year employment contract. The 2019 and 2021 calls described on ciencia.gob.es were two-year contracts, so the length depends on the call you are reading.

How much does a Juan de la Cierva contract pay?

The 2025 call page gives an annual aid of EUR 35,000 to co-finance the salary and the employer social-security contribution, plus a one-off additional EUR 15,000 for expenses directly tied to the research activity. Other calls can differ, so read the current call.

Who is eligible?

The 2025 call requires a doctorate obtained between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025 for the general-access and JDC-INIA-CCAA quotas. The quota for candidates with a disability of 33% or more opens the window at 1 January 2023, and the call allows for documented interruption causes. Each call sets its own window.

Is Juan de la Cierva the same as Ramón y Cajal?

No. They are separate AEI-managed postdoctoral programmes. The Juan de la Cierva contracts target recent doctorates completing postdoctoral training, while Ramón y Cajal is a distinct programme covered in our own guide.

Does the call say anything about ORCID or Scopus?

The 2025 call page describes selection on curriculum merits and the record of the research team, with particular weight on the tutor. It does not turn a persistent identifier into a requirement on that page, but a clean, current ORCID record and Scopus Author ID make a publication record easier to check and reuse.

Where do I find the current call?

Use the AEI announcements finder at aei.gob.es and the Aplicaciones de Interés page the call page points to. Opening and closing dates change every call, so check the official site rather than relying on a dated summary.

Sources

Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva 2025, announcements finder: https://www.aei.gob.es/en/announcements/announcements-finder/ayudas-contratos-juan-cierva-2025 (checked 2026-10-28).
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Contratos Juan de la Cierva 2021: https://www.ciencia.gob.es/en/Convocatorias/2021/JDC2021.html (checked 2026-10-28).
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Ayudas para contratos Juan de la Cierva-formación 2019: https://www.ciencia.gob.es/en/Convocatorias/2019/FJDC2019.html (checked 2026-10-28).