Over 708 million zlotys was awarded for basic research projects submitted to OPUS 28 and SONATA 20. Funding will go to 441 researchers.
OPUS is addressed to a wide range of researchers whose scientific achievements must include at least one research paper published or accepted for publication. Scientists are not required to have any specific academic degree or title or research experience. Proposals may cover domestic projects, projects involving foreign participation and use of international research equipment by the Polish research teams. Much like in the past, OPUS 28 is also open to funding proposals for projects involving international cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) under the Weave Programme, in collaboration with research teams from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg or Belgium-Flanders that apply to their respective research funding agencies under the Weave Programme.
2,039 proposals for a total of over 3.2 billion zlotys were submitted to OPUS 28+LAP/Weave, including 1,823 domestic proposals for a total of nearly 3 billion zlotys and 216 LAP proposals for over 320 million zlotys. The success rate of domestic proposals was ca. 12.8%.
The ranking list of OPUS 28 included 234 domestic projects recommended for funding for over 448 million zlotys. NCN expert teams also evaluated LAP proposals but their evaluation results must be approved by partner institutions form countries cooperating with the NCN under the Weave Programme. The ranking lists of LAP proposals will be published in the coming months (Call Timeline).
SONATA 20, another call for proposals that has been launched, is addressed to researchers with a PhD degree conferred within 2 to 7 years before the proposal submission year who are at the onset of their career in innovative research studies. 1,179 proposals were submitted to the call, for a total of over 1.3 billion zlotys, of which 207 projects (for a total of 260 million zlotys) were recommended for funding. SONATA 20 success rate was 17.6%.
The lists of projects recommended for funding under OPUS 28 and SONATA 20 as well as abstracts for the general public, are available on the website of the call results.
Ranking lists (.pdf): OPUS 28, SONATA 20
Prof. dr hab. Agnieszki Basty-Kaim from the Maj Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences is one of the winning applicants of OPUS 28. Funding will go towards her project on a new concept of inhibiting the progression of Alzheimer's disease based on the modification of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) properties by pro-resolving compounds. She will focus her research on finding new targets for potential drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative brain diseases. The proposed innovative and highly promising strategy has the potential to significantly slow down neurodegenerative processes. The researchers anticipate that the results of this approach will not only contribute to expanding basic knowledge about the effectiveness and mechanism of action of unique compounds on BBB properties but also open new horizons in the treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr Asha Thomas from the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology will lead a project funded under SONATA 20, concerning human-artificial intelligence interactions and redefining knowledge creation and sharing for sustainable human resource management. The project aims to understand, develop, and redefine Human Resource Management (HRM) by exploring the integration of human-AI ecosystems within knowledge-intensive organizations across India, Poland, the UK, Malaysia, and Italy for cross-country comparisons. She will study how counterproductive knowledge behaviours such as knowledge hoarding, hiding, and withholding manifest in knowledge-intensive, international organizations.
Service of decisions modified
Decisions by the NCN Director are served on the applicants only and are not communicated to the principal investigators, if entities described in Article 27 (1)-(7) and (9) of the NCN Act, apply. If individuals apply, decisions are not communicated to the participating entity. More on service of decisions.
Ranking Lists (.pdf): OPUS 28, SONATA 20