The National Science Centre has just awarded basic research grants to scholars and researchers planning to build a new research team or wishing to complete a research fellowship at a foreign centre that carries out ERC grants.
As many as 476 proposals, with a total estimated cost of 1 billion PLN, were submitted to the calls in question; out of these, 90 qualified for funding. The total worth of grants awarded under the three schemes exceeds 210.5 million PLN. The success rate in the UWERTURA call was 50%, as compared to just 18% and nearly 19% in the SONATA BIS and the prestigious MAESTRO calls, respectively.
MAESTRO 11 was open to advanced researchers who wish to conduct pioneering research that goes beyond the current state of our knowledge. To qualify as a principal investigator in a MAESTRO project, applicants are expected to have published in reputable Polish and/or foreign scientific journals, supervised other research projects selected within domestic or international calls for proposals, and played an active part in the life of the research community, e.g. sat on the scientific boards of international conferences or belonged to international associations. 12 out of 64 proposals submitted to the eleventh edition of the call will receive a total of more than 44 million PLN in funding.
SONATA BIS is targeted at researchers with a doctoral degree earned 5 to 12 years prior to the submission of the proposal. The objective of the call is to support the establishment of new research teams; apart from the principal investigator, the teams in question must not include any researchers with a doctorate (habilitation title) [in Polish: Doktor habilitowany] or the title of professor [in Polish: Profesor doktor habilitowany].
Applicants to the SONATA BIS 9 call are expected to have published between 1 and 10 research publications in the previous 10 years; the first to third most important of these should be attached to the proposal. Projects conducted under the scheme can last 36, 48 or 60 months. A total funding of more than 166 million PLN was awarded to 74 out of the 404 submitted proposals.
UWERTURA 4 is a funding opportunity for researchers who have already carried out a grant and wish to complete a fellowship within foreign research teams carrying out projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC). The objective of the scheme is to support researchers in their successful future application for European funds. Thanks to an excellent opportunity to collaborate with outstanding scientists, Polish researchers’ chances of success in ERC-funded calls are boosted. UWERTURA 4 was open to doctoral researchers who have carried out or are carrying out, as Principal Investigators, different research projects funded by the NCN. In this edition of the call, 4 out 8 submitted proposals were awarded funding to the total amount of 290 thousand PLN. Once they return from their research fellowships, the researchers will have 18 months to draw up and submit their own ERC grant proposal.
Overall, the NCN received 90 proposals in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, out of which 14 were awarded total funding of nearly 27 million PLN. 152 proposals were submitted in the Life Sciences, out of which experts selected 26 to receive nearly 82.5 million PLN in total. Last but not least, in Physical Sciences and Engineering, 50 out of 234 proposals qualified for a total amount of more than 101 million in funding. The ranking lists of all successful projects submitted to SONATA BIS 9, MAESTRO 11 and UWERTURA 4 can be found on the official website of the National Science Centre
