Minciencias — the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation) — is Colombia’s national governing body for science, technology, and innovation (CTeI) funding and policy. It runs the country’s major competitive research calls (convocatorias), administers Colombia’s principal science-funding trust, and serves as technical secretariat for the royalty-financed regional science fund. If you are a research administrator handling a Colombian subaward, advising a researcher on a bilateral mobility call, or trying to understand how a Colombian collaborator’s funding actually works, Minciencias is the agency behind nearly all of it.
What Minciencias Is
Minciencias governs Colombia’s Sistema Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SNCTI — National System of Science, Technology and Innovation): the network of universities, research groups, funding instruments, and policy bodies that make up the country’s research sector. It is a cabinet-level ministry, not a semi-autonomous council or foundation — a structural difference from agencies like the US National Science Foundation or the UK’s UKRI, both of which sit outside their national government’s ministerial cabinet.
The ministry is a comparatively recent institution. Its lineage runs back to 1968, when Colombia created the Fondo Colombiano de Investigaciones Científicas y Proyectos Especiales “Francisco José de Caldas”, later reorganized as Colciencias, the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación — an administrative department attached to the presidency, not a full ministry. Colombian Law 1951 of 2019 (Ley 1951 de 2019) first elevated Colciencias into the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación. Colombia’s Constitutional Court struck that law down in March 2021 on procedural grounds (a defect in how the bill was passed through Congress), but allowed the ministry to keep operating while Congress passed a replacement. That replacement, Law 2162 of 2021 (Ley 2162 de 2021, enacted 6 December 2021), re-established the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation on solid legal footing and formally merged Colciencias into it. For research administrators working with Colombian partners, the practical upshot is that Minciencias has operated continuously as the country’s science-funding authority since 2019–2020, under the Colciencias name before that, regardless of the intervening legislative correction.
Minciencias’ Main Funding Mechanisms
Minciencias does not fund research through a single grant mechanism the way a US federal agency issues R01s or standard grants. Instead, funding flows through several distinct channels, each with its own governance and call structure.
Fondo Francisco José de Caldas
The Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento para la Ciencia, la Tecnología y la Innovación, Fondo Francisco José de Caldas, is Minciencias’ principal financial instrument — the trust fund through which most of its national-level competitive calls are disbursed. It funds project grants, scholarships, and researcher-support instruments across the SNCTI, and its name (shared with the ministry’s 1968 predecessor institution) reflects a direct institutional lineage running back more than five decades.
The Sistema General de Regalías CTeI Fund
A second, structurally distinct channel is the Fondo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (FCTeI) of the Sistema General de Regalías (SGR — General Royalties System). Colombia earmarks a share of its mining and hydrocarbon royalty revenue for regional science and innovation projects, distributed through this fund. Minciencias does not control the FCTeI unilaterally: it serves as the Technical Secretariat of the Órgano Colegiado de Administración y Decisión (OCAD), the collegiate body that evaluates, prioritizes, and approves FCTeI-funded projects. The OCAD combines national government representation (Minciencias, several other ministries, and the National Planning Department, DNP), departmental government representation (a rotating group of governors), and university representation. This is a distinctive feature of the Colombian system worth understanding before assuming a Colombian regional research project is funded the same way a national Minciencias convocatoria is: FCTeI-SGR projects are approved regionally, by a body Minciencias supports rather than chairs alone.
Competitive Calls (Convocatorias)
Minciencias publishes its funding opportunities as convocatorias — open calls, listed and updated on its own site — rather than through a single standing application portal open year-round. Call types recur across cycles but are re-issued (and re-budgeted) individually, so exact terms, deadlines, and stipend amounts should always be confirmed against the live call text rather than a prior cycle’s. Recurring call categories include:
- Graduate scholarships (recent cycles have run under names such as “Becas para el Cambio”), funding master’s and doctoral study both at Colombian universities and, for a subset of doctoral awards, abroad. A recent cycle, for example, budgeted roughly COP 368 billion across some 830 awards, including at least 200 master’s places, at least 300 in-country doctorates, and at least 170 doctorates abroad — figures illustrative of that specific call’s scale rather than a fixed annual allocation.
- Jóvenes Investigadores e Innovadores (Young Researchers and Innovators), a fellowship-internship for recent graduates who join an established research group under a tutor’s supervision for a fixed term, typically stipended as a multiple of Colombia’s monthly minimum wage (SMLV) rather than a fixed sum — the multiple and duration are set per call.
- Regional research calls (Convocatorias Regionales), administered through Minciencias’ territorial-management function to build CTeI capacity in specific departments, distinct from the FCTeI-SGR royalty fund described above.
- International mobility and bilateral cooperation calls, run jointly with a partner country’s funding agency to support researcher exchange within joint projects — Minciencias has run such calls with, among others, French, German, and Turkish counterpart agencies.
ScienTI, CvLAC, and GrupLAC: The Prerequisite Infrastructure
Before a Colombian researcher or research group can apply to most Minciencias calls, they generally need to be registered in the ScienTI platform, Colombia’s national researcher and research-group information system. Two registries within it matter most for funding purposes: CvLAC (Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y del Caribe), an individual standardized researcher CV, and GrupLAC, the corresponding research-group registry. Minciencias uses these registries not just as application intake but as the basis for its periodic reconocimiento y medición de grupos de investigación (recognition and measurement of research groups) exercise, which classifies and ranks registered groups and feeds eligibility for many calls. For a research administrator coordinating with a Colombian partner institution, confirming the collaborating group’s current GrupLAC classification is a useful first step before assuming eligibility for a specific convocatoria — it functions as Colombia’s closest national analogue to a CRIS (current research information system), though it is government-run rather than institution-run.
How International Researchers Engage With Minciencias Funding
Minciencias funding is designed primarily for Colombian nationals, permanent residents, and Colombian-registered institutions, so a foreign researcher rarely applies to a Minciencias call directly and independently. In practice, international engagement happens through a small number of well-established routes:
- Co-investigator on a bilateral or joint-project call. The mobility and cooperation calls run with partner-country agencies are explicitly structured for a Colombian researcher and a counterpart abroad to collaborate, with each country’s funder covering its own side’s costs — the standard model for bilateral science-funding cooperation, not unique to Colombia.
- Host or co-supervisor for a Colombian doctoral scholarship recipient. Some Minciencias graduate-scholarship calls fund doctoral study abroad; the award follows the Colombian student, but typically requires an accepting foreign institution and supervisor, which is where the international side of research administration gets involved — admissions coordination, a research collaboration agreement or institutional MOU, and visa/immigration support fall to the host institution even though Minciencias is the funder of record.
- Affiliated or visiting researcher within a GrupLAC-registered group. International researchers who are formally affiliated with a Colombian institution’s registered research group can participate in that group’s funded projects, subject to the host institution’s own visiting-scholar and subaward arrangements rather than a direct relationship with Minciencias.
- Subrecipient on a foreign-prime award with a Colombian partner. Where a non-Colombian funder (a US federal agency, for instance) is the prime sponsor and a Colombian institution is a subrecipient, Minciencias is not directly involved at all — the Colombian institution’s own sponsored-programs office manages that relationship, and the administrative burden sits on the standard subaward and, where relevant, foreign subaward requirements of the prime sponsor rather than on Minciencias rules.
Because Minciencias does not maintain a single standing portal comparable to Grants.gov, and because call windows, eligibility rules, and required registrations change between cycles, the reliable practice is to check the current convocatoria text on Minciencias’ own site for any given call rather than relying on a prior cycle’s terms, and to confirm well ahead of a deadline whether CvLAC/GrupLAC registration is a prerequisite for a specific international-facing call.
Where Minciencias Fits Among National Funding Bodies
Within Latin America, Minciencias plays a role broadly comparable to Brazil’s CNPq or Mexico’s Conahcyt: a national ministry-level (or ministry-equivalent) body that both funds individual researchers and projects directly and sets national science policy, rather than research funding being left entirely to university or state-level bodies. Compared with the European national agencies covered elsewhere on this site — Portugal’s FCT, Spain’s Ramón y Cajal programme, or Italy’s MUR/PRIN system — Minciencias is distinctive in combining a conventional national competitive-grant fund (Fondo Francisco José de Caldas) with a second, royalty-revenue-financed regional fund (the FCTeI-SGR) governed jointly with departmental and university stakeholders rather than by the ministry alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Minciencias the same organization as Colciencias?
Effectively yes, in institutional lineage: Colciencias (formally the Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación) was converted into the Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación by Law 1951 of 2019 and, after that law was struck down and replaced, definitively merged into the ministry by Law 2162 of 2021. Older documents, older funding-agreement templates, and some legacy web pages still reference Colciencias; current agreements and calls use the Minciencias name.
Can a foreign national apply directly to a Minciencias convocatoria?
Most Minciencias calls are addressed to Colombian nationals, residents, or Colombian-registered institutions and research groups. Foreign researchers typically participate as named collaborators on a Colombian-led project, through a bilateral mobility call with their own country’s funding agency, or as a subrecipient partner rather than as the primary applicant. Eligibility varies by specific call, so always check the current convocatoria text.
What is CvLAC and do I need it to work with a Minciencias-funded project?
CvLAC (Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y del Caribe) is Colombia’s national standardized researcher CV registry, part of the ScienTI platform. Colombian researchers applying to most Minciencias calls need a current CvLAC profile, and their research group typically needs a GrupLAC registration. International collaborators are not usually required to register in CvLAC themselves unless they are formally affiliated with a Colombian institution.
What is the Fondo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (FCTeI) of the Sistema General de Regalías, and is it the same as Minciencias’ regular funding?
No. The FCTeI-SGR is financed from a share of Colombia’s mining and oil royalty revenue and is approved project-by-project by a regional decision-making body (the OCAD) on which Minciencias sits as technical secretariat alongside other national ministries, departmental governors, and universities. Minciencias’ own Fondo Francisco José de Caldas, by contrast, is the ministry’s direct national competitive-grant trust. A Colombian regional project may be funded by either, or neither, and the governance and application route differ between them.
Where can I find current Minciencias call deadlines and terms?
Minciencias publishes and updates its open calls directly at minciencias.gov.co/convocatorias. Because call terms, budgets, and eligibility rules are re-issued each cycle rather than standing indefinitely, always confirm current details against the live call rather than a previous year’s.
