On the initiative of the Ministry of Education and Science, the budget of the National Science Centre was increased this year by 30,000,000 PLN. The extra funds will be designated for research projects funded under the calls launched by the NCN.
The main goal of the National Science Centre is to support the most valuable research by funding research projects, scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships. Over ten years of its existence, the NCN has awarded nearly 23,000 grants for the best research in Poland. A few years ago, NCN’s budget allowed to fund nearly 25% of projects submitted to the calls. This percentage has now dropped to ca. 15%. The extra funds from the Ministry will allow us to fund more research projects this year. This is the first and yet important step towards a gradual increase in the funding for research through a competitive grant system.
The NCN Council has decided to designate the extra funds from the Ministry for, inter alia, the SONATINA and MINIATURA calls. SONATINA is a funding scheme addressed at researchers at the onset of their careers who have had their PhD degree conferred three years before the proposal submission. MINIATURA, on the other hand, is addressed at researchers who have never managed an NCN-funded research project or won a scholarship or post-doctoral fellowship.
SONATINA 5 was concluded at the beginning of August. The ongoing call for proposals under SONATINA 6 will start in mid-December. For more information, read the call timeline.
The MINIATURA call for proposals is carried out on an ongoing basis. The first results of the fifth edition of the call were published in mid-August.