Guatemala Fonacyt ProCienciaGT 2026 (Convocatoria 04-2026): Up to GTQ 1,000,000 for Scientific Research Projects

The official source identifies this opportunity as ProCienciaGT, Convocatoria 04-2026, a scientific-research call of Guatemala’s Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Fonacyt). The call was published by the Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Senacyt) for the national science and technology system. Its funds are competitive and non-repayable. The application window opened on 22 June 2026 and closed on 31 July 2026 at 23:59 Guatemala time.

This page is now a historical reference. The deadline has passed, and the official Senacyt open- and closed-call listings checked for this update do not announce a later ProCienciaGT cycle. Do not rely on this entry as evidence that submissions are currently being accepted. It remains useful for planning because it records the published 04-2026 lines, eligibility rules, budget restrictions and application documents; confirm any future round against a new official Senacyt notice before preparing a submission.

Who Runs the Programme

Senacyt is the organisation named on the verified official source and the operational contact for the call. It publishes Fonacyt opportunities, provides the application platform and lists the people responsible for application questions. Concyt, the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, is the national council associated with the fund and science-and-technology system. Fonacyt is the Fondo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología through which the support is offered.

The practical distinction matters. A researcher should use the Senacyt call page and services platform for the application record, forms and notices. The proposal is not an informal request to a general innovation programme: it is a formal, competitive research application tied to a particular ProCienciaGT funding line. Any future call may change its forms or requirements, so the documents below describe 04-2026 rather than promising that a later call will use the same numbers.

Key Details at a Glance

The Five Funding Lines

ProCienciaGT is not one undifferentiated grant but five research lines. The applicant had to choose the line that matched the research design, institutional arrangement and intended result. Each line had its own ceiling and maximum execution period.

GeneraCyT — generation of scientific knowledge. Up to GTQ 1,000,000 over 36 months. This funds basic research: experimental or theoretical work carried out primarily to obtain new knowledge, without a specific application in view. If your project is genuinely curiosity-driven and its output is knowledge rather than a product, this is your line. The bases explicitly ask for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work in priority areas across the academic, public and private sectors.

Gestiona I+D — management of acquired knowledge. Up to GTQ 1,000,000 over 36 months. This is the applied research line. It funds R&D programmes proposing innovative solutions or technologies aimed at reducing cycle time and cost, or at developing products of better quality and performance. If your project takes existing knowledge and turns it into something a sector can use, apply here rather than to GeneraCyT.

InterCTi — international strategic projects. Up to GTQ 600,000 over 24 months. This line supports basic research, applied research or technological development responding to a public international funding call, as a national counterpart for entities in the Sistema Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Sincyt). It is not a standalone research grant. Applicants to InterCTi had to add the international call, proof or endorsement that the international financing or project had been obtained, the project submitted internationally and the information needed to explain its execution in Guatemala.

SinerCyT — consortia for knowledge generation. Up to GTQ 600,000 over 24 months. This supports interinstitutional coordination among Sincyt members: basic, applied, technological and experimental research carried out as a consortium. It is the line for a project whose central structure is collaboration across entities and sectors, including public, private and academic participants.

SocialInvest — socioeconomic research. Up to GTQ 500,000 over 24 months. This funds research and socioeconomic studies in the social, humanistic and economic sciences with a scientific-technological framing, aimed at identifying deficiencies, needs and problems in the social field.

The 50% Counterpart Is Not Optional

Every line required a contrapartida of at least 50% of total project cost. That is 50% of the total, not 50% of the Fonacyt request. A project requesting GTQ 1,000,000 from Fonacyt therefore had to describe a project with at least GTQ 2,000,000 in total value.

The counterpart may be monetary or in kind — movable property, person-hours, equipment, machinery, use of facilities and other resources the project genuinely requires. It may draw on other national or international funding sources. Two rules bind you: the counterpart amount must be stated in the institutional endorsement letter your beneficiary organisation submits, and the beneficiary is solely responsible for those resources. Senacyt’s award creates no legal obligation toward third parties.

Budget for the bond as well. The bases provide for a fianza of between 1% and 10% of the total assigned amount, set according to the project.

Priority Areas in 04-2026

Senacyt gave priority to scientific research aligned with four strategic government axes:

1. Combating undernutrition and malnutrition — social determinants of nutrition, evaluation of nutritional interventions and public policy, food security innovations, nutritional education, maternal and infant health, diet and health, health biomarkers, and cancer in relation to malnutrition.
2. Reducing the digital divide through technology and innovation — equitable ICT access in rural and marginalised urban communities with a gender focus, inclusive digital education, accessible and sustainable digital infrastructure, the role of digitalisation in inclusive economic development, and health technology.
3. Conservation and care of the environment — biodiversity protection, sustainable management of water, soil and forests, climate change mitigation and adaptation for vulnerable communities, environmental education, green technologies, and health in relation to climate.
4. Energy — bioenergy and biofuels, carbon capture, utilisation and storage, integration of solar systems into the electrical grid, electrochemical energy storage, data science applied to non-fossil energy research, and energy efficiency.

The official bases also state that proposals may be submitted in any area or field of scientific knowledge when they are oriented toward concrete problems and preferably linked to the strategic axes. A proposal outside those topics was not automatically excluded, but it still needed a clear problem, research rationale and credible contribution to national development.

Eligibility Requirements

The 04-2026 requirements applied to all five lines:

1. Be registered in the Directorio Nacional de Investigadores (DNI).
2. Be registered in the Directorio Nacional de Entidades (DNE).
3. Be current on the delivery of final reports for every Fonacyt funding line. This obligation applies from the entry into force of the Findecyt trust onward.
4. Hold no more than one active project or activity with the fund.
5. Submit the ProCienciaGT financial support application and the other documents available on the platform.
6. Submit the institutional endorsement (aval) and proof of institutional support.
7. The project’s researcher must be colegiado — a member of their professional association. The certificate of active membership is required at contract signature if the project is approved, not at application.
8. Where the research raises bioethics considerations, obtain an opinion from the relevant committee. Senacyt asks that you contact them in advance in these cases.
9. Use the forms belonging to the current call. Old forms are a formal defect.

Failure on any formal requirement could result in rejection or nullification of the application. Because the 04-2026 window is closed, these are planning notes for a future notice, not a checklist that can reopen this round.

What 04-2026 Could Fund — and What It Excluded

Eligible items are goods and services needed for the work and justified in the proposal. The bases list, among others: dissemination and information; printing, binding and reproduction; transport of persons (air tickets justified in the funding application); studies and research; training services; insurance premiums and bonds for equipment acquired under the project; food for persons and for animals; paper and cardboard products; chemical elements and compounds; fertilisers; insecticides and fumigants; medicinal and pharmaceutical products; dyes, paints and colourants; plastic, nylon, vinyl and PVC products; minor medical-surgical and laboratory supplies; medical-sanitary and laboratory equipment; educational, cultural and recreational equipment; and other machinery and equipment.

Ineligible items are specific and worth memorising before you build the budget: piece-rate payments (retribuciones a destajo), electricity, water consumption, maintenance and repair of buildings or installations, maintenance and repair of other works and installations, maintenance and repair of equipment not acquired under the project, land and terrain, purchase of real estate, fuel, and per diems (viáticos).

The stated ceilings were maxima. Senacyt could assign less depending on the project’s impact and the strength of the expense justification. The bases also warned applicants to include every required budget item, including the line associated with research incentives, in the submitted budget.

How Applications Were Submitted

For 04-2026, applicants registered the financial-support request through the Senacyt services platform at e.senacyt.gob.gt, reached through the Senacyt website’s “Convocatorias abiertas” section. The bases said that the application formats could be downloaded from the services platform during the application process. That instruction matters for a future round: do not recycle the forms below without checking the new official notice, because the form numbers and required attachments may change.

Documents that must be attached on the platform:

• F-046 — ProCienciaGT financial support application.
• F-013 — endorsement letter and record of other institutional funding sources. Projects submitted jointly by several institutions must each submit their own F-013 individually.
• F-038 — institutional commitment letter(s).
• F-301 — schedule of activities and disbursements.
• Curriculum vitae of the principal investigator and of the associated researchers directly linked to the research.
• Functions of the work team.

For 04-2026, an approved proposal was to be notified by email and through the Senacyt services platform. The applicant would then have to present the documents at Senacyt’s offices in original, duly signed form. That post-selection step is part of the programme process and is not a way to submit an application after the deadline.

How Proposals Were Judged

The technical evaluation weighs, among other things: the statement of the scientific problem; the statement of objectives, hypothesis, justification and theoretical framework; the statement of expected results and impact; coherence between objectives and protocol, between protocol and the time proposed for execution, between justification and impact, and between protocol and the resources proposed for funding; the importance of the scientific and technological area for national development; and the contribution to the country’s economic and social development.

The official material describes technical review of the scientific problem, objectives, hypothesis, justification, theoretical framework, expected results, impact, protocol, schedule, resources, the importance of the scientific or technological area and the contribution to Guatemala’s economic and social development. A proposal therefore needed more than a broad topic: the protocol, schedule and budget had to tell the same story.

What to Do After the Closed Cycle

There is no replacement ProCienciaGT deadline recorded here because the official pages checked for this update do not announce a new round. Researchers should monitor Senacyt’s official open-call page and the Fonacyt services platform. Before using this archive as a template, confirm the next call’s line names, ceilings, counterpart rule, forms, directory requirements, dates and any changed evaluation instructions. A later call may retain the same programme structure while changing its administrative details.

Contacts

For the 04-2026 ProCienciaGT application process, Senacyt listed:

• Antonio José Casasola Santisteban, Head of Research Projects — [email protected], (502) 2317-2600 ext. 129
• Belém María José González Onofre, Professional Services — [email protected], (502) 2317-2600 ext. 129

Office hours are 8:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday. The official source also lists Senacyt’s general address in Guatemala and directs applicants to the services platform for the application record. The innovation-programme contacts from a different call are intentionally not repeated here: ProCienciaGT applicants should use the research-project contacts above.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a private company apply? The 04-2026 lines referred to academic, public and private sectors, but eligibility was tied to the Sincyt directories and the formal requirements. A private organisation therefore needed to verify its DNE status and institutional role against the official call rather than assume that commercial status alone was enough.

Does applying guarantee an award? No. The funds are competitive and non-repayable, and a technically strong proposal is not the same as an approval. The call required the applicant to follow the notification and original-document process if selected.

Can I hold two Fonacyt projects at once? No. Having more than one active project or activity disqualifies you.

What if I am missing a document? For ProCienciaGT, the bases state that failure to meet a formal requirement may lead to rejection or nullification. Do not assume that a completion period from another Fonacyt programme applies to this call.

Is the 50% counterpart really required in full? Yes, on every line. It is the single most common reason otherwise sound proposals cannot proceed, and it must be documented in the endorsement letter rather than merely asserted.

Where do I verify the call? Use the official ProCienciaGT 04-2026 page under “Convocatorias abiertas” at fondo.senacyt.gob.gt and its linked bases. The official page and PDF are the controlling sources for any future correction to this archive entry.