The Ministry of Education and Science decided to give the nod to our agency and its work and approve our 2022 Report. Previously, the document had also received a positive review from the Main Council of Science and Higher Education and the Research Policy Committee.
The National Science Centre is an agency whose main role is to support basic research. It regularly announces new calls for proposals, offers doctoral scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships, cooperates with leading foreign research-funding institutions and develops links of multilateral cooperation in Europe.
The 2022 NCN Report and the Activity Evaluation Report were drawn up in February and approved by the NCN Council in March this year, followed by their approval by the Main Council of Science and Higher Education. In a document dated 24 August, the report was addressed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education; Professor Przemysław Czarnek emphasised that the NCN correctly carried out its basic mission.
The review of the Minister of Education and Science reads: “The National Science Centre strives with great dynamism to achieve the goals of Polish research policy, launching programmes for young, talented researchers and getting involved in international research cooperation … In developing its calls, the NCN has always lent an ear and responded to the voices and suggestions of the research community and continually expanded its grant portfolio, adjusting its rules and call procedures accordingly”. The Minister also took a positive view of the large proportion of foreign researchers among NCN reviewers and the impact of extensive international cooperation on the internationalisation of Polish research. He also applauded, e.g., the NCN’s information policy and its consistent communications, including those concerning its calls for proposals, call results and active cooperation with beneficiaries.
Year 2022 in figures
“For the past 12 years, the National Science Centre has introduced many positive changes to improve the quality of Polish research. A key challenge for the future is to maintain and further develop the institution so that it can continue to serve our researchers”, says Professor Zbigniew Błocki, NCN Director, “An independent, transparent grant agency of this kind, which adheres to international standards, is an indispensable element of a modern research-funding scheme in any developed country today”, he adds.
NCN calls that ended in 2022 attracted more than 10.5 thousand proposals: nearly 10 thousand qualified for merit-based evaluation. 2056 of these were awarded grants, including 176 within the framework of international initiatives.
The NCN cooperated with more than 2.1 thousand experts (researchers) who sat on Expert Teams evaluating proposals under 25 discipline panels (disciplines or groups of disciplines). At the second stage of evaluation, proposals were reviewed by nearly 10 thousand external peer reviewers (96%).
Based on agreements signed with NCN call winners, nearly 10,200 research projects, fellowships, scholarships and research activities were completed in 2022.
Almost all (99.9%) of the designated subsidy (1.392 billion zlotys) from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education went directly to researchers in 2022.
Their projects are hosted by universities and research centres all over Poland.
54% of the total funding awarded by the NCN in 2022 went to early-stage researchers. “NCN projects give them a chance to strike out on their own, build new research teams and move around in often excessively hierarchical Polish research environments”, comments Prof. Zbigniew Błocki.
International cooperation is another important part of the NCN’s mission. We are a trusted partner of many foreign research institutions, including prestigious centres such as the Max Planck Society, with which we collaborate on the Dioscuri programme. We are also active members of Science Europe and the Global Research Council, as well as coordinators of two European networks: QuantERA (Quantum Technologies) and CHANSE (Humanities and Social Sciences).
Low budgets
At the moment, the NCN faces an uncertain future and struggles with a low budget that only allows it to fund a small proportion of submitted projects.
Over the past five years, between 2018 and 2023, the annual designated subsidy for the NCN has increased by only c. 13% and now fails to meet the demands of the research community. Today, the NCN is able to fund only as little as 13% of submitted projects.
In his introduction to the 2022 NCN Report, the Director wrote: “...the recent precarious position of the NCN within the research-funding system in Poland, including serious problems with inadequate subsidies, has increased our uncertainty as to the future and continuity of this institution. Importantly, however, despite all odds, the NCN continues to work and uphold the best practices developed since its founding”.