All waiting list projects get NCN grants

All 323 proposals that were put on waiting lists under OPUS 25, PRELUDIUM 22, MAESTRO 15 and SONATA BIS 13 will now be funded, swelling the ranks of winners from 452 to 774.

Additional research projects under OPUS 25, PRELUDIUM 22, MAESTRO 15 and SONATA BIS 13 can be funded thanks to the decision of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to increase the budget of the National Science Centre by 200 million zlotys in 2024.

• OPUS 25 and PRELUDIUM 22 ranking lists, .pdf: OPUS 25, PRELUDIUM 22
• Listy rankingowe MAESTRO 15 and SONATA BIS 13 ranking lists, .pdf: MAESTRO 15, SONATA BIS 13

OPUS offers research funding for researchers working on basic research projects. The call has a broad formula, open to everyone, regardless of age and research seniority. In PRELUDIUM, grants are available to researchers without a PhD degree, who are just starting out on their research careers. SONATA BIS funds projects that aim at establishing new research teams, while MAESTRO targets experienced researchers who work on pioneering research projects, often interdisciplinary in nature, which go beyond our current state of knowledge and are likely to bring about important scientific discoveries

In total, OPUS 25, PRELUDIUM 22, MAESTRO 15 and SONATA BIS 13 attracted more than 4.8 thousand proposals from all over Poland. Initially, a total of 4644.5 million zlotys in funding was awarded to 452 projects. Thanks to the waiting lists drawn up by expert teams in these four calls, funding will now go to a further 323 projects with a total budget of nearly 401.7 million zlotys. The final success rates rose to c. 13.5% for OPUS 25, 16.8% for PRELUDIUM 22, 33.93% for MAESTRO 15 and 24.05% for SONATA BIS 13.

First results, NCN budget and waiting lists

The first results of OPUS 25 and PRELUDIUM 22 were announced in November 2023. Only 176 out of 2184 proposals submitted under OPUS made it to the final ranking lists; the corresponding figure for PRELUDIUM was just 231 out of 2153. The total budget of successful projects was a little over 338 million zlotys. These were the lowest numbers in calls of this kind ever since the dawn of the NCN. Success rates plummeted to the record low of 8.06% for OPUS and 10.73% for PRELUDIUM. Since the NCN had already been actively campaigning for a budget increase, the NCN Council, upon consultation with the Director, passed a resolution that allowed expert teams to draw up waiting lists, which were to include proposals that had undergone a full assessment procedure, got high peer review ratings, and only failed to secure funding because the NCN did not have enough resources in its budget.

Waiting lists were also drawn up for SONATA BIS 13 and MAESTRO 15. The results of these two calls were announced in February 2024. In MAESTRO, only 7 out of 56 proposals won grants, for a success rate of just 12.5%. In SONATA BIS, 38 out of 420 proposals made the cut, meaning that the success rate, at just 9%, was the lowest in the history of the call.

All applicants whose projects were put on waiting lists were notified of the fact – they all received decisions issued by the NCN Director with a relevant annotation.

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education first signalled its intent to increase the budget of the NCN in February; In May, the decision was confirmed when the Minister accepted a modified 2024 financial plan for the National Science Centre. Subsequently, the NCN Council passed resolutions designed to increase the budgets of the calls for which NCN experts had drawn up waiting lists in previous months, which allowed the NCN to fund all the waiting list projects.

Thanks to the Council’s prompt decision, as the National Science Centre announced the results of OPUS 26 and SONATA 19  a little over a week later (24 May), it could immediately issue positive funding decisions not just for proposals included in the so-called basic lists, but also for those put on waiting lists in both these calls. And now, the remaining waiting lists proposals will receive positive funding decisions.

The extra 200 million zlotys added to the budget of the National Science Centre in 2024 were used to cover the costs planned for this budget year in the waiting list projects under OPUS 25 and 26, PRELUDIUM 22, SONATA 19, MAESTRO 15, and SONATA BIS 13. Project costs planned for subsequent years will be delivered to grant holders in annual instalments, in accordance with their official cost estimates.