We now know the new winners of the OPUS 22 LAP, a call for researchers at any stage of their research career, organised within the framework of international cooperation under the WEAVE programme
A total of nearly 8 million PLN in funding was awarded to five Polish-Swiss projects. These include four projects in Physical Sciences and Engineering, which analyse the properties of various materials (polymers, composites and metals) and test the lifetime and degradation mechanisms of perovskite devices. The fifth project belongs to Life Sciences and examines the long-term impact of a large starch intake in early life on later rumen function.
Research tasks carried out by Polish teams will be funded by the National Science Centre, while those of Swiss teams will receive funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
Polish-Swiss projects were evaluated pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), with the NCN acting as the lead agency. This means that all projects had to undergo a review process together with other domestic proposals under the OPUS call and it was the results of that review that determined whether or not they were recommended for funding.
OPUS 22 + LAP/WEAVE ranking lists
OPUS 22 + LAP/Weave list for bilateral Polish-Swiss projects (pdf)
The results of OPUS 22 were announced on 23 May 2022; the call had attracted 1866 submissions, out of which 350 domestic proposals were selected for funding. In June, we learned the names of eight more OPUS winners, working with Slovenian partners, and now the group has grown to include 5 researchers cooperating with Swiss teams. The list is expected to grow even further, as it is supplemented by OPUS LAP projects that are now under review for approval by partner agencies in Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic. OPUS 22 + LAP ranking lists will be successively expanded.
The OPUS LAP funding decision schedule is as follows:
• for projects carried out in cooperation with foreign research teams from Austria and the Czech Republic – by the end of July 2022.
• for projects carried out in cooperation with foreign research teams from Germany – by the end of October 2022.
Lead Agency Procedure – LAP
The LAP procedure is a new proposal evaluation standard adopted by European research-funding institutions, designed to facilitate the funding application process for international research teams and streamline proposal review. Projects that involve research teams from two or three countries are only assessed at one partner institution, known as the lead agency, appropriate for one of the teams, within the framework of a domestic call from its portfolio. The other partner institutions agree to accept the results of this merit-based review and award funding for projects approved by the lead agency.
The LAP path under OPUS 22 allowed researchers to request funding:
• for projects carried out in cooperation with foreign teams from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany or Switzerland, which apply in parallel to their domestic research-funding agencies (FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG or SNSF) within the framework of the Weave programme, and
• in LAP cooperation under the Weave programme, with the participation of foreign partners who are not applying for funds under the Weave programme or for projects that use large research equipment.
Decision delivery
All the positive and negative decisions for OPUS 22 LAP proposals submitted in bilateral cooperation with Swiss partners were sent out on 1 July 2022. Please remember that the decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to the applicant electronically, to the address indicated in the proposal.
If the applicant is an entity mentioned in Article 27 (1)-(7) and (9) of the Act on the National Science, the decision will only be delivered to the Electronic Delivery Box (ESP ePUAP) provided in the proposal. If the applicant is a natural person and has listed an ePUAP address in the proposal, the decision will be sent to that address. Otherwise, a message will be sent to the applicant’s indicated e-mail account, containing a link from which the decision of the NCN Director can be downloaded.
The funding decisions of the Director of the National Science Centre are also communicated to the principal investigator and, if the applicant is a natural person, to the host institution indicated in the proposal.
If you do not receive a decision, please make sure that the address (ESP, ePUAP, e-mail) listed in your proposal is correct. If not, contact the person in charge of the proposal, as indicated in the ZSUN/OSF system.