In cooperation with the European Biodiversity Partnership Biodiversa+ we have launched a call for transnational and interdisciplinary research projects in the field of biodiversity conservation science. A total of 1 million EUR is allocated for all Polish research teams. 

The call fosters innovative research contributing to the sustainable, resilient, and integrated restoration efforts for ecosystems and habitats, from community-based to global initiatives. The initiative aims to advance knowledge and practical solutions that support effective biodiversity restoration, while incorporating ecological, socio-economic, and cultural perspectives.

Proposals should address one or more of the 3 following topics:

• Novel ecosystem functioning: Understanding the functioning of novel ecosystems and their links to socio-cultural and socio-economic dynamics.
• Pathways to novel ecosystems: Studying pathways to novel ecosystems and associated socio-ecological dynamics under uncertainty and changing conditions.
• Biodiversity benefits and equity in the context of novel ecosystems: Exploring how biodiversity benefits, costs and trade-offs are shared across contexts, communities and generations.

Funding may be requested by international consortia comprising at least 3 research teams from at least 3 countries participating in the call. The principal investigator of the Polish team must be at least a PhD holder.

Countries participating in the call: 

Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy (Province of Bolzano), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom.

Countries whose participation is yet to be confirmed: Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Türkiye

Under the BIODIVERSA+ Partnership’s call, funding may be awarded for remuneration of research team members, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, and for other costs crucial to the research project.

Call timeline

The call procedure is divided into two stages. In Stage I, joint pre-proposals are submitted with a foreign partner and the best research teams are invited to submit their joint full proposals in Stage II of the call.

• Stage I: joint pre-proposal submission to the EPSS submission system: 10 November 2026, 12.00 noon CET
• Stage II: 
  • joint full proposals submission in the EPSS submission system: 16 April 2027 (12:00 noon CEST).
  • submission of NCN proposals in the OSF system: 23 April 2027, 11:59 p.m. CEST.
• Call results: November 2027
• Projects start date: 1 December 2027 – 1 April 2028

Look for a partner or a project to join: Partner Search Tool

NCN will participate in the 35th Economic Forum in Karpacz which will start on 8 September 2026. It is one of the largest gathering of representatives from science, economy and politics in Central and Eastern Europe.

We will take part in the panel discussion on the role of research in strengthening the country’s defence and security capabilities, which will be held under the patronage of NCN on 9 September at 5 p.m., in the Polish Science Sphere organised by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The panel discussion will be hosted by the NCN Director Krzysztof Jóźwiak and will feature:

• Henryk Fiedorowicz, Military University of Technology, NCN Council Member 
• Jerzy Małachowski, Director of the National Centre of Research and Development 
• Marcin Górka, Director of the Department of Innovation, Ministry of National Defence  

The main focus will be the role of research in strengthening the country’s defence and security capabilities.

Director Krzysztof Jóźwiak will also take part in two other panel discussions.

One of them (“Can Europe Close the Technology Gap With the US?”) will be held between 11:10 and 12:10 in the University of Warsaw Sphere (Room 6.31). It will be hosted by Tomasz Pilewicz from the Warsaw School of Economics, and will feature:

• Šarūnas Genys, Head of the Manufacturing Sector Team, Invest Lithuania  
• Julia Kołodko, Strategic Advisor for Behavioural Science and AI, Onion Brains
• Artur Popko, CEO, Budimex SA 

The attendees will discuss technology gaps between Europe and the US, particularly in areas such as AI and semi-conductors, as well as the conditions for European technological sovereignty.

Between 14:55 and 15:55, the NCN Director will join the panel discussion “Democracy Needs Science – How to Defend Rational Public Debate?” in the University of Warsaw Sphere (Room 6.31), featuring:

• Antonin Cohen, President of the Executive Board of Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme (FMSH, France) 
• Dorota Olko, Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland 
• Piotr Bromber, Lecturer at the University of Zielona Góra  
• Marek Kisilowski, Deputy Chairman of the National Science Section of NSZZ “Solidarność"

The attendees will address critical thinking, the ability to distinguish facts from opinions, and the role of researchers, mass media and public institutions in developing knowledge-based debate.

An international research team involving researchers from the University of Wrocław received an Ig Nobel Prize for research into why babies smell better than teenagers. 

A research team comprising Prof. Ilona Croy from the University of Jena, Prof. Thomas Hummel from the TU Dresden, and Dr Tomasz Frąckowiak and Prof. Dr hab. Agnieszka Sorokowska from the Faculty of Psychology, University of Wrocław, received Ig Nobel Prize. They have been studying smell for years. 

Their collaboration resulted in the publication “Babies Smell Wonderful to Their Parents, Teenagers Do Not: an Exploratory Questionnaire Study on Children's Age and Personal Odor Ratings in a Polish Sample”. They studied whether parents perceived the odour of their children as pleasant or unpleasant. Their research included a questionnaire study, assessment of odour samples by parents and non-parents, as well as genetic and fMRI-based analyses. 

The research findings are clear-cut. Infant odours were rated as very pleasant, whereas the odours of teenagers, not as pleasant, and sometimes even difficult for their parents to tolerate. The divine scent of babies can then be considered as one of the “cute” features (Kindchenscheme), which increase parents’ motivation and promote caregiving behaviour.

The award-winning research shows that scent plays an important role not only in social relationships but also in underlying biological mechanisms. 

The National Science Centre has supported Prof. Sorokowska’s research for years, in the form of ETIUDA, PRELUDIUM, and two OPUS and SONATA grants. Prof. Sorokowska is currently working on a SONATA BIS grant on psychological effects of parenthood among couples. 

Ig Nobel

The Ig Nobel Prize is a humorous counterpart to the Nobel Prize, aimed at highlighting unusual aspects of scientific work and promoting science. The awards are given to research that may seem amusing at first glance, but above all encourages deeper reflection. Importantly, all awarded studies have genuine scientific value and are published in peer-reviewed, prestigious journals. This year, Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded, among others, to researchers for their studies on aerodynamics of the nose blowing, an attempt to make the definition of kissing, and on turning mosquito proboscises into 3D printing nozzles. 

The Ig Nobel Prize has been awarded since 1991 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. This year, for the first time, the award ceremony was moved to Europe, namely to Switzerland. Ig Nobel ceremony events are always unique, and the winners receive a custom trophy, this time in the shape of a human foot covered in mushrooms.

Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony 2026

Under the Weave-UNISONO call, researchers from AGH University of Krakow, in collaboration with German researchers, will leverage machine learning to develop more efficient, reliable and equitable Wi-Fi networks. 

The Polish research team headed by Prof. Dr hab. inż. Katarzyna Kosek-Szott from AGH University of Krakow, in collaboration with researchers from Technical University of Berlin, will carry out the project “ML4WiFi2: Machine learning-based Wi-Fi optimisation”. The researchers will explore solutions leveraging machine learning to optimise the performance of wireless networks, particularly in view of the growing number of connected devices and the development of new standards, such as Wi-Fi 7. The scientists will aim to ensure fair interoperation of modern algorithm-driven devices with older equipment. They will also explore how generative AI can enhance WiFi-based sensing, indoor localization, and improve data traffic management. The potential solution will help improve network efficiency and reliability, especially in crowded environments. The project findings may include new applications in, for example, smart homes, offices, and public spaces, and help operators in more efficient network management. The Polish budget of the project is over PLN 908,000. The project was evaluated by DFG, Germany and the evaluation results were approved by NCN under the Weave programme.

Weave-UNISONO and Lead Agency Procedure 

Weave-UNISONO is a result of multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies associated in Science Europe and aims at simplifying the submission and selection procedures in all academic disciplines, involving researchers from two or three European countries.

The winning applicants are selected pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure according to which one partner institution performs a complete merit-based evaluation of proposals, the results of which are subsequently approved by the other partners.

Under the Weave Programme, partner research teams apply for parallel funding to the Lead Agency and their respective institutions participating in the Programme. Joint research projects must include a coherent research program with the added value of the international cooperation clearly identified. 

Weave-UNISONO is carried out on an ongoing basis. Research teams intending to cooperate with partners from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are urged to read the call text and apply for funding.

Polish researchers from the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with researchers from the Czech Republic and Austria, have developed a method for detecting single-photon absorption by a single molecular ion. Their research findings have just been published in Nature.

Prof. Michał Tomza and Dr Marcin Gronowski from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw addressed the theoretical part of the research, while experiments were conducted by the research group headed by Prof. Philipp Schindler from the University in Innsbruck, with the participation of a researcher from the Palacký University Olomouc. The National Science Centre funded the Polish part of the research.

Light absorption is usually studied by measuring how much light is lost as it passes through a sample. It does not work with a single molecular ion because the signal is too weak. Instead of detecting the photon, the research team measured the small recoil—or momentum transfer—received by the molecule once a photon is absorbed. The recoil is too small to be measured directly. To detect it, the researchers trapped a molecular ion alongside a calcium atomic ion (Ca+). Their strong Coulomb interaction, i.e. the electrostatic force between charged particles, couples their motion, causing them to form collective modes of motion. The researchers then prepared the system in a non-classical quantum state, known as a Schrödinger cat state. When the molecular ion absorbs a photon, the resulting recoil shifts this state, greatly amplifying the signal. This makes it possible to detect the absorption event by precisely measuring the neighbouring calcium ion through its fluorescence. The method was demonstrated on the O–H stretching vibration in a CaOH+ molecular ion, excited by ultrashort femtosecond laser pulses in the mid-infrared range.

The published results represent an important step towards non-destructive measurements of complex polyatomic molecules and more advanced control of their quantum states. They open up new possibilities for both precision molecular spectroscopy and the development of molecule-based quantum technologies.

Marcin Gronowski and Michał from the University of Warsaw were responsible for the theoretical part of the project. They carried out advanced quantum-chemical calculations of the ion’s electronic structure, predicting an O–H bond vibrational frequency of 3783 cm⁻¹, which enabled the Insbruck team to precisely tune the laser pulses and interpret the experimental results. The calculations were carried out using the Polish PLGrid supercomputing infrastructure hosted at the Academic Computer Centre CYFRONET AGH. 

The two researchers are winners of multiple NCN calls for proposals. In 2020, Prof. Michał Tomza received the NCN Award in Physical Sciences and Engineering. This is yet another paper featuring Michał Tomza that has been published in Nature. In 2021, his research team together with an experimental team led by Professor Tobias Schaetz from the University of Freiburg, were the first to observe Feshbach resonances between a single ion and ultracold atoms.

Prof. Tomza discussed his research a few months ago in the #NCNGeneration series.

We have just launched the first round of the FLAMENCO call for researchers working in Poland who wish to collaborate with Spanish researchers. The call budget is PLN 15.6 million.

FLAMENCO is a joint initiative of the National Science Centre and the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI). Funding is available to researches at any stage of their career, who are interested in collaborating with Spanish research teams. The call is open to all research domains, as long as they fall within the scope of basic research.

Projects may be carried out over a period of 24, 36 or 48 months. The project budget may include funds for salaries of research team members (including post-docs), scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other cost crucial to the Polish part of the project. The maximum budget of a single project is not predetermined but the expenditures must be well-justified. 

Joint Polish and Spanish research projects must include a coherent research program with the added value of the international cooperation clearly identified. 

Call Timeline

• Submission of a joint proposal by the Polish and Spanish research team via the AEI’s electronic submission system: 24 November 2026 
• Submission of an NCN proposal by the Polish research team via the OSF submission system: as soon as possible following submission of the joint proposal to AEI, within 7 calendar days 
• Publication of call results: November 2027 
• Project start date: January2028  

Evaluation of proposals 

Proposals drafted jointly by Polish and Spanish research teams are evaluated by AEI as the lead agency according to its rules. NCN approves the evaluation results and awards funding to the Polish research teams accordingly.  

Polish and Spanish research cooperation 

The Polish and Spanish scientific communities have expressed interest in bilateral cooperation on ambitious research projects for years. FLAMENCO is the first tangible outcome of the Memorandum of Understanding signed at the beginning of July between the National Science Centre and Agencia Estatal de Investigación. The collaboration between the two institutions has provided researchers with two types of funding opportunities for their joint research projects: the bilateral FLAMENCO call with AEI acting as the lead agency and OPUS 32+LAP/Weave, with NCN responsible for the merit-based evaluation of funding proposals.

FLAMENCO Call Text for Polish research teams 

Call Text on the AEI website 

88 researchers have joint the winning applicants of MINIATURA 10. NCN grants totalling nearly PLN 3.3 million will enable them to conduct preliminary studies, library and archive searches or research visits. 

The call is addressed to researchers with a PhD who wish to enter the grant system. The funding of research activities will enable them to validate their research ideas, conduct preliminary studies, and establish new research contacts during research trips that may help them develop a comprehensive research project. They may also benefit from the support of experienced NCN mentors. 

To become a winning applicant, a researcher must hold a PhD awarded over the past 12 years, must have an academic track record including at least one paper published or accepted for publication and at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art, and must be employed by a Polish research institution. They must have no prior experience as a principal investigator in NCN-funded calls, and must not be prior winners of NCN scholarship or fellowship calls. 

Grants ranging between PLN 5,000 and 50,000 are awarded for research activities in the form of preliminary studies, library and archive searches or research visits. The duration of a research activity must not exceed 12 months. One may become a MINIATURA call winner only once.  

Topics pursued by successful applicants 

The topics selected by the winning applicants who submitted their proposals in May cover a wide range of aspects of human life in social, economic, and environmental contexts. 

In Humanities, Social Sciences and Life Sciences, recommended activities included preliminary studies and library and archive research scheduled by Dr Renata Pomerańska from The Jonh Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. She will address communication in the foster care system for children of incarcerated mothers, analysing triadic relationships and model conceptualization. Dr inż. Alicja Kozarzewska from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences will pursue preliminary studies on the determinants of ground-floor service selection. She will conduct a pilot comparative field study in Poland and Eastern Germany. Dr Piotr Bogacki from the Academy of Humanities and Economics in Łódź will study the impact of information obtained from unmanned aerial vehicles on the medical triage process in mass casualty incidents. 

The winning applicants in Physical Sciences and Engineering include Dr inż. Ada Orłowska from the Silesian University of Technology, who will work on sequential chemical etching of highly porous Ti6Al4V scaffolds manufactured by DMLS as a tool for controlling the surface and mechanical properties of bone implants. Dr Tetiana Manyk from the Military University of Technology will conduct preliminary studies on system engineering. She will perform an advanced theoretical analysis of avalanche photodiodes based on type-two superlattice (T2SL) InAs/InAsSb at high-temperature operation (HOT) for MWIR and LWIR detection. A MINIATURA grant will enable Dr inż. Dominik Niewieś from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology to complete preliminary studies on the role of microplastics in microwave-assisted extraction of humic-like substances from compost through modelling and multiparametric optimisation using response surface methodology.

The winning applicants in Life Sciences include Dr inż. Katarzyna Bobkowska, who will apply citizen science methodology in the analysis of urban heat island and light pollution during a research visit to the Ibercivis Foundation in Saragossa which will be possible thanks to the MINIATURA grant funding. Dr Jarosław Rachuna from the Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce will perform preliminary studies to asses the mutational profile of selected oncogenic genes in Hashimoto's thyroiditis and papillary thyroid cancer through. He will conduct a comparative analysis using targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS). A MINIATURA grant will enable Dr Katarzyna Jaśkiewicz from the Institute of Horticulture – National Research Institute to study the importance of pollen from wind-pollinated plants for bees. She will compare phenolic compound composition and antioxidant capacity of pollen of selected wind-pollinated and insect-pollinated plants. 

The topics of research activities recommended for funding under MINIATURA 10 are available on the ranking lists. 

MINIATURA 10 Ranking List No 4 (pdf) 

Funding per group:

• Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences (HS): 33 research activities with a total value of PLN 861,302
• Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST): 26 research activities with a total value of PLN 1,085,698
• Life Sciences (NZ): 29 research activities with a total value of PLN 1,317,306.

88 research activities with a value of PLN 3,264,306 will be funded. 

Peer review and results 

Proposals submitted to MINIATURA are reviewed on a monthly basis. The call budget is divided proportionally to the number of call months. Successful proposals are funded as long as they are within the pool of funds available for a month. Proposal evaluation procedure . 

RAMKA

We have already published three ranking lists of proposals recommended for funding under MINIATURA 10. The results for proposals submitted in February, March and April. 

The next researcher in the series, Maciej Grzybek, studies pathogens transmitted by ticks, mosquitoes, and rodents, and analyses how climate change is driving the spread of tropical diseases northwards.

The NCN Generation is made up of researchers whose work pushes back the frontiers of knowledge and changes our lives, improving health, protecting the environment, advancing technology and deepening our understanding of the world. 

Prof. Maciej Grzybek, parasitologist and epidemiologist from the Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Gdańsk, studies rodent-borne diseases and emerging infectious diseases. He is a member of the Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organisation. His project on urban rodent-borne pathogens is funded by the National Science Centre.

Diseases crossing climatic boundaries 

Pathogens do not respect state or climatic boundaries. Bacteria, viruses and parasites travel with the goods, travellers, and pets. This process is speeded up by climate change and human activity, therefore tropical diseases are now emerging in Europe and in Poland alone. The researcher points out that tick-borne diseases and mosquito-borne diseases pose two major threats to public health. He says that we may soon experience an outbreak of West Nile virus infection and dengue. He also mentions Lyme disease which has already emerged in Poland. Alongside these diseases, new vectors are emerging in Poland, including migrating ticks, that have not previously been found here. 

Virom of urban rats 

A research project carried out by Maciej Grzybka together with […] focuses on urban rat-borne pathogens. Urban rats have shared space with humans for generations, and their growing population in cities such as Krakow, Wrocław and Gdańsk provides valuable research material. The research team analyses their distribution and population density, as well as the bacteria and parasites they may carry. The starting point is the assumption that every city is a unique ecosystem, with different access to water, infrastructure, as well as different food sources for rats, which can affect the pathogens they carry. The project aims to create a map of their distribution and associated threats, enabling local and national measures to be taken to prevent the spread of zoonotic disease.

One Health approach and path from research to decisions 

In his research, Prof. Grzybek applies the One Health strategy according to which human health cannot be safeguarded without also protecting animal health and the environment. Biomonitoring, which is an observation of pathogens and their vectors in the environment allows us to acquire key knowledge to implement corrective and preventive measures. Prof. Maciej Grzybek emphasizes that basic research answers fundamental questions, such as what, where, how, and when. Their findings can then serve as a basis for applied or implementation research. He refers back to June 2023, when research teams from Gdańsk, Kraków and Helsinki detected that cats were infected with avian influenza virus and passed this information on to the sanitary and veterinary services. He believes that the effective transfer of knowledge among local authorities and public institutions is essential when developing measures to ensure public health security.

Selected excerpts

Pathogens without borders 

We certainly need to remember that parasites, bacteria, viruses, and fungi know no borders. They move. They move together with the goods we trade, together with travellers who go abroad and move from place to place, and also together with us, with our four-legged friends.

One Health approach 

I use the so-called One Health in my research and in my work in general. (…) If we know what microorganisms and pathogens are present, where they occur, what transmits them, and in which locations they occur, then, such knowledge would enable us to implement corrective or preventive measures. 

From basic research to application 

In basic research we always answer a very, perhaps not simple, but precisely fundamental question: what, where, how, and when. Our findings can then be implemented or applied.

Join us for an information webinar dedicated to the GRIEG BIS call and the upcoming LANGSPIL call, implemented under the Basic Research Programme within the fourth edition of the EEA and Norway Grants.

The webinar will take place on 3 September 2026 at 10:00 CEST via the ClickMeeting platform and will be held in Polish.

During the meeting, we will discuss the GRIEG BIS call, including the key participation rules and procedures for proposal preparation and submission. The most frequently asked questions will also be addressed.

The webinar will also feature a presentation of the matching tool, which supports cooperation with partners from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Participants will receive key information on the upcoming LANGSPIL call, dedicated to interdisciplinary basic research projects.

Prior registration is required to participate in the webinar. The number of participants is limited.

Registration form

The European Partnership for Resilient Cultural Heritage (RCH Partnership) is a new initiative aimed to preserve cultural heritage in the face of climate change and rapidly evolving social challenges. This international initiative, supported by the EU Commission between 2026-2036, brings together over 100 organisations from over 30 countries.

The main purpose of the RCH Partnership is to create a bridge between climate science, humanities, innovations and public policy, by striving to develop knowledge, skills and technologies necessary to preserve cultural heritage, artworks, and traditions, while leveraging heritage potential as a driving force for sustainable development and climate adaptation. The initiative involves a wide range of European and non-European entities, including universities and research institutes, research-funding agencies, museums, libraries, archives, public authorities and tech institutions. 

The Partnership will be built on strong financial support for the scientific community through calls for international research projects aimed at developing modern conservation technologies, environmental threat monitoring techniques, and digital solutions. 

Polish entities participating in the RCH Partnership include the National Science Centre (NCN) and the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Centre (PCSS). As the national coordinator, NCN funds international research projects carried out by Polish research teams under calls launched within the framework of the Partnership. PCSS is responsible for the technological aspect, including the development and management of digital platforms to support consultations and cooperation with the RCH Partnership’s partners and stakeholders.