SHENG: Pre-announcement of the fifth call for Polish-Chinese research projects

The National Science Centre (NCN), in cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), plans to launch the fifth edition of the call for research projects carried out by Polish and Chinese research teams.

Under the SHENG 5 call, proposals may be submitted for funding of research projects in selected scientific disciplines:

PLANNED CALL TIMELINE:

• Call announcement: 15 December 2026
• Proposal submission deadline in the OSF system: 15 March 2027
• Proposal submission deadline to NSFC: 15 March 2027
• Announcement of the call results: November 2027
• Earliest project start date: January 2028

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:

• Proposals must involve basic research and include joint Polish–Chinese research plan. Research equipment or networking activities can only be funded within projects with a basic research focus. Projects consisting solely of the purchase or development of equipment or solely of activities within scientific networks do not meet the funding criteria and will be rejected.
• State aid can be applied for under SHENG 5.
• A person may be indicated as the Principal Investigator in only one proposal submitted in the given edition of the call.
• Under SHENG 5, research projects may be planned for a period of 36 months.
• Entities eligible to apply for NCN funding for the Polish part of the research project must be those specified in Article 27(1) of the Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2026, item 101).
• At the time of submission, the Polish Principal Investigator must be at least PhD holder.
• Project budgets must comply with the cost eligibility rules applicable at NCN and NSFC, respectively.
• A budget limit of PLN 1,000,000 is planned to be introduced for the Polish part of the project.
• The budget of the Chinese part of the project may not exceed RMB 1,500,000.

• In proposals submitted under the SHENG 5 call, no collaboration may be planned between Polish entities and the following Chinese institutions belonging to the group of Seven Sons of National Defence:

  • Beijing Institute of Technology;
  • Harbin Institute of Technology;
  • Beihang University formally known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics;
  • Northwestern Polytechnical University;
  • Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics;
  • Nanjing University of Science and Technology;
  • Harbin Engineering University.

  Any planned collaboration with the above-mentioned institutions will result in the proposal being rejected on formal grounds.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION RULES:

• The core application document will be a Joint Project Description (JPD) prepared in English, which must be submitted in identical versions to both funding agencies.
• Significant differences between the joint Polish-Chinese funding proposals submitted to NCN and NSFC may be rejected on the grounds of ineligibility.

PROPOSAL EVALUATION PROCEDURES:

• Eligibility checks and merit-based evaluations under the SHENG 5 call will be carried out in parallel by NCN and NSFC.
• Only proposals that successfully pass the eligibility check conducted by both NCN and NSFC will be admitted to the merit-based evaluation stage.
• At NCN, proposals admitted to the merit-based evaluation stage will be evaluated in accordance with NCN's evaluation procedures and criteria.
• At NSFC, proposals admitted to the merit-based evaluation stage will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation procedures and criteria applicable at NSFC.
• Only proposals receiving a positive funding recommendation from both NCN and NSFC will be recommended for funding.

This announcement is for information purposes only. Detailed conditions will be set out in the official call text.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Polish side: NCN

Coordinators:

• Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences: Magdalena Sobas, PhD
• Physical Sciences and Engineering: Joanna Baran PhD

General enquiries:
Jadwiga Spyrka, PhD

Chinese side: NSFC

Mulong DU, PhD