Flash Scholarship

Fab Lab Benfica awards three scholarships for Fab Academy 2027. Their aim is to encourage the participation of women and unemployed people in the programme, with priority given to women.

The scholarship cannot be exchanged for cash or transferred.

1. Open to women and/or unemployed people.
2. Applicants must be accepted into Fab Academy 2027 at the Fab Lab Benfica (Lisbon) node by the application deadline. This applies both to students already registered and accepted and to new applicants.
3. New applicants must register for Fab Academy selecting the Fab Lab Benfica (Lisbon) node, complete the local interview and be accepted before 16 November. We recommend registering by 13 November to guarantee an interview slot in time.

1. Applications open: Tuesday, 3 November 2026
2. Applications close: Monday, 16 November 2026, 23:59 (Lisbon time)
3. Results: Wednesday, 18 November 2026

1. Applications are submitted only by email to contact@fabacademy.pt, including:
   1. identification and contact details (used only to check eligibility);
   2. the eligibility condition(s) claimed (woman and/or unemployed) and, for unemployment, an official document from the competent authority (e.g., public employment service in the country of residence) proving it;
   3. an anonymous motivation letter, attached as a separate file.
2. The motivation letter has a maximum of 2,500 characters including spaces, may be written in Portuguese or English, and must cover:
   1. background;
   2. motivation for joining Fab Academy;
   3. a final project idea;
   4. the potential impact of that project.
3. The letter must not contain anything that identifies the applicant, such as names, contact details, names of companies, institutions or people, or links to portfolios or social media. Letters containing identifying information may be excluded.

1. Eligibility is checked by a team member who is not on the jury. This person assigns a code to each letter, and only coded letters are passed to the jury.
2. The jury is made up of the Fab Lab Benfica node’s instructors.
3. Each letter is scored from 0 to 20 on four equally weighted criteria (25% each):
   1. background and fit with the programme;
   2. motivation and commitment;
   3. clarity and feasibility of the final project idea;
   4. potential impact of the project.
4. Only applications scoring 10 or above are admitted to the final ranking.
5. After scoring, the final ranking applies the following priority criteria: 1st being a woman; 2nd being unemployed.
6. This creates three groups, ranked in this order: (i) unemployed women; (ii) women; (iii) unemployed people. Within each group, applications are ranked by score.
7. Ties within the same group are broken by the score on criterion d) of paragraph 3, then criterion c).

1. Results are emailed to all applicants on 18 November.
2. Recipients must confirm acceptance by 20 November. If they do not confirm or withdraw, the scholarship passes to the next applicant in the final ranking.
3. The jury may decide not to award one or more of the scholarships if applications lack sufficient merit.

1. The scholarship applies only to Fab Academy 2027 and lapses if the recipient withdraws before the programme starts.
2. Fab Academy is a demanding, intensive programme; the scholarship does not change its attendance, documentation or assessment requirements.
3. Personal data is processed solely for this process.
4. Any matters not covered here are decided by the Fab Lab Benfica node coordination.