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After a campaign surrounded by controversy, António Rolo Duarte managed to raise 569 supporters and more than 25 thousand euros to pay for his doctorate in Portuguese History at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.
“I thank those who believed in me and those who felt interested or inspired to participate in this adventure that I want to tell you about,” reacted to JN, the 25-year-old student.
As justification for the launch of crowdfunding in early August, the researcher stated that the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) had postponed the contest “indefinitely”, where he is a candidate for one of the 1,350 scholarships, and that he needed to pay fees registration on August 31.
Before the campaign, the FCT quickly denied the young man, since the regulation establishes that the disclosure of the provisional results can occur until September 3. “The only postponement that occurred, and for the benefit of the candidates, was the extension of the application period for one month, which ended on April 28 due to the difficulties caused by the pandemic,” the entity justified, at that time, in responses sent to JN. .
Now that the campaign is over, and with 25,061 euros raised, Rolo Duarte admits that he could have been clearer in the message he wanted to send. However, it continues to deny that it was based on false premises. “My campaign has always been genuine and transparent. If I could have been more unequivocal in some way, maybe. If I have been misleading someone, absolutely not,” he told JN.
Even under fire, the 25-year-old continued with crowdfunding, which was even suspended by the GoGetFunding platform after several complaints.
It guarantees that it will reject the crowdfunding amount if it is awarded one of the 1,350 FCT scholarships (there are 3,797 candidates for the competition), the final results of which must be known between the end of October and the beginning of November. “If I come to receive the scholarship, obviously I will return all the money. If it passes, it is a process that will have its dynamics, but I think it will be possible to return it,” said the former political commentator.
Asked if he was on the table doing his doctorate in Portugal, Rolo Duarte explains: “I am not saying that it is not possible to do it here, but it has value to study something from outside, and especially in one of the best universities in the world,” he said. , recalling that his thesis will focus on the theme of Portuguese national identity in the period after April 25.
For the researcher, initiatives like the one he carried out still lack some “validation and acceptance” in Portugal. Even so, he assumes that there was “some envy, malice and a lot of misinformation” in the mix: “But also the opposite: people who contacted me to say good things to me. Something I never thought about, for example, was working in Advertising, But after this Campaign I received several messages from people saying that any company would hire me ”, he joked.
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