Portugal ABIC – Associação dos Bolseiros de Investigação Científica is the Portuguese Association of the grant-holding researchers. ABIC was established in 2003 and represents doctoral candidates, post-doc fellows, and other grant-holders researchers who are not included in these two groups. ABIC’s main activities have been aimed to:

1. persuade the improvement and the creation of scientific work in Portugal;
2. discuss with the funding agencies in Portugal such as Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) that the grant-holding researchers should have social benefits and pension schemes as recommended in the Charter and Code (European commission);
3. inform the scientific community about the grants and their rights and duties; 4) assist the grant-holders under difficult situations or with problems in their institutions.

http://abic-online.org/