The NCN Council has appealed to the Minister of Science for an increase in NCN funding by 300 million zlotys from 2025 onwards. “The Polish scientific community needs stable support to nurture their talents and develop ambitious research projects,” the NCN Council members wrote in their resolution. The increased funding would trigger, e.g., a higher success rate in NCN calls and discussions on how to make the salaries and scholarships for researchers more realistic.
In their appeal to the Minister of Science Dariusz Wieczorek, the Council members point out that the NCN is crucial for the development of science in Poland, while the increased funding would be an investment in the future that could be beneficial for the society at large and could contribute to Poland’s technological, economic and social development.
Between 2018 and 2023, the NCN budget was virtually frozen, with its grant-in-aid for research funding increasing by merely several percent, from 1.226 billion zlotys to 1.392 billion zlotys. This made the NCN unable to fund some very good projects. In 2023, only 11 percent of researchers applying to the NCN had their projects funded.
The situation improved earlier this year, with the Minister of Science deciding to increase the NCN budget by 200 million zlotys. This allowed us to fund 584 highly evaluated projects on our waiting lists. “Additional funds ware used as well as possible to fund the most valuable research projects in various scientific disciplines and research fields,” wrote the NCN Council members in their resolution. Funding was awarded to 322 projects on the waiting lists under OPUS 25, PRELUDIUM 22, MAESTRO 15 and SONATA BIS 13 and 262 projects under OPUS 26+LAP/Weave and SONATA 19.
The Council members emphasised that from 2025 onwards, the NCN budget should include the current increase in the grant-in-aid by 200 million zlotys and be additionally higher by 300 million zlotys. The Council members further held that this would allow us to fund more projects and resume discussions about the limited number of grants, how to make the salaries and scholarships more realistic, indirect costs, etc.
“If the funding of National Science Centre was increased, Polish researchers would be more competitive internationally and have better working environment which could result in an outflow of talented researchers from and inflow of outstanding researchers to Poland,” wrote the Council members.
The Council resolution was adopted on 5 July and send to the Ministry of Science.
The current budget of the National Science Centre, including the additional 200 million zlotys, amounts to 1.643 billion zlotys of which 1.583 billion zlotys will be used for research funding.
For more information on the NCN budget, please go to Facts and figures.