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PRELUDIUM BIS 5 call results

43 projects worth a total of nearly 26 million zlotys will be funded under the fifth PRELUDIUM BIS call.

PRELUDIUM BIS 5 is targeted at doctoral schools; its objective is to support the education of PhD students and fund research projects they carry out as part of their doctoral dissertations. The call also promotes international mobility, as each grant holder is required to complete a foreign fellowship of 3 to 6 months, which is funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).

Under a PRELUDIUM BIS project, the research supervisor is the PI and the PhD students are chosen in an open call procedure. In this edition, the NCN waived the requirement for the PhD student working on the grant to earn their PhD as a condition for final project completion.

PRELUDIUM BIS projects may be planned over 36 or 48 months. PhD students are paid monthly scholarships of PLN 5,000 until the midterm assessment, after which the sum is increased to PLN 6,000 per month. The budget of the project may go toward funding the PI’s salary, materials and small equipment, outsourcing, business trips, visits, consultations, and compensation for collective investigators.

The fifth PRELUDIUM BIS call attracted 229 proposals with a total budget of more than 134 million zlotys, out of which the NCN selected 43, worth a total of nearly 26 million, for a final success rate of 18.78%.

Quality of life in the modern world in PRELUDIUM BIS grants

Some of the projects recommended for funding in this round address the factors and phenomena that affect our world today and our quality of life.

In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr hab. Katarzyna Andrejuk from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences will carry out a project in migration studies. Her project will centre on work offered via online platforms that publish e.g. offers of meal delivery or transport services, which has become increasingly important economically in recent years. As work of this kind is easily available and does not require any professional experience, it is often the first choice for refugees and economic migrants, or those who arrive in the country to pursue a degree or to reunite with their families and seek employment. Together with her PhD student, Andrejuk will look at the phenomenon from different angles; for instance, she will study how it affects the integration of immigrants into the host society.

In Physical Sciences and Engineering, funding will go to a project by Dr hab. Mikołaj Piniewski from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, devoted to elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations and their impact on future hydrological projections. Across the globe, researchers simulate hydrological processes with the aid of models of varying complexity and rely on different factors to create future scenarios, but the issue of elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations and their impact on plant growth has not yet been adequately studied. Dr hab. Mikołaj Piniewski plans to carry out his modelling research in small river basins located in different climate zones.

In Life Sciences, Prof. Dr hab. inż. Ewa Kaczorek from the Poznań University of Technology will study the impact of microplastics on the biosphere. In recent years, we have been learning more and more about the dangers related to the presence of microplastics in our environment and their impact on animals and people. As emphasized by Kaczorek, microplastic particles do not occur in the environment on their own, but together with other contaminants. Particularly alarming are their interactions with antibiotics, which may potentially contribute to the development and spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG). In her PRELUDIUM BIS project, Prof. Kaczorek will aim to describe the role of microplastics as carriers of antibiotic contaminants in the environment and determine the interaction between microplastic-related contaminants and environmental microorganisms.

PRELUDIUM BIS was first launched in 2019. In all its iterations, the NCN has funded 360 projects thus far.

New opportunities for Polish-American research cooperation. A joint programme by the NCN and the Polish-American Fulbright Committee

Fellows of the Fulbright Senior Award programme, organised by the Polish-American Fulbright Committee, will now be able to continue working with their US colleagues after their return to Poland thanks to NCN funding, as per an agreement reached between the two institutions.

“We have created this joint programme to facilitate cooperation between researchers working in Poland and their colleagues in the United States”, said Dr Marcin Liana, Deputy NCN Director.

The framework agreement was signed in December last year. Under its terms, the NCN and the Fulbright Committee have agreed to launch joint initiatives to support research and international cooperation and work hand in hand to internationalise and promote Polish science. The first tangible product of the programme is the Fulbright Senior Award, scheduled to begin taking in proposals on 8 February 2024.

The Fulbright Senior Award programme allows researchers employed at Polish academic and research institutions to pursue independent research or research and teaching projects at US institutions. It is open to PhD holders at all career levels and from any discipline. They may spend from three to ten months at their host institution in the US.

The 2025/2026 academic year selection board will consist of experts appointed by the NCN; fellows will also be eligible to receive NCN funding to continue their research cooperation with their American peers once they return to Poland.

Research grants will go to ten researchers whose projects fall within the domain of basic research. Funding must be devoted to research activities directly related to the project. The grant can go toward funding, e.g. materials and small equipment, seminar fees and two-way travel costs for researchers involved in the research component.

It was the Fulbright Committee that came forward with the offer. “It can often be a challenge to maintain and develop Trans-Atlantic cooperation. Thanks to our programme with the NCN, many of our fellows will get the tools they need to continue working with their American partners”, stressed Justyna Janiszewska, Executive Director at the Polish-American Fulbright Committee.

The maximum budget the NCN has set aside for the programme is two million zlotys. Projects can take up to one year and a half from the moment the NCN signs a relevant agreement with the host institution. The maximum amount that can be awarded to any single project is 200 thousand zlotys.

“For the NCN, this programme is important, because it supports the international activities of Polish researchers. We already have projects with our American counterpart, i.e. the National Science Foundation, and the joint programme with the Fulbright Committee further reinforces our cooperation with the US”, added Dr Marcin Liana.

The intake of proposals under the Fulbright Senior Award programme will start on February 2024 and continue until 5 June. The results will be announced in January 2025.

The detailed terms and conditions of the programme will be published on the official website of the Polish-American Fulbright Committee.

The ecology of ponds in the context of human activity and geography

Principal Investigator :
Dr hab. Szymon Śniegula
The Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences

Panel: NZ8

Funding scheme : GRIEG
announced on 17 June 2019

Cities worldwide are experiencing dynamic growth and development. Urbanization poses various challenges to wild organisms, contributing to the loss of biodiversity through the introduction of invasive species, and expanding cites are stealing natural landscapes from native animals. Small water bodies, such as rural and urban ponds, often serve as reservoirs of biodiversity in areas under human pressure. Unfortunately, their value is frequently underestimated. Moreover, research on changes in biodiversity often has a local focus or is concentrated on individual species, making it challenging to draw conclusions on a broader scale. In the ongoing climate and ecological crisis, understanding the mechanisms of biodiversity loss in ponds on a broader geographical and environmental scale is crucial for effective habitat management.

Dr hab. Szymon Śniegula, photo by Michał Łepecki The ECOPOND project collects information on biodiversity in ponds from five European regions, with the added aspect of also considering different levels of urbanization in the respective areas. When applying this sampling setup, we obtain a higher comprehensive picture of the condition and changes in biodiversity of these ponds, checking for any alarming trends. Using modern analytical techniques, we identify species diversity using environmental DNA and RNA (eDNA, eRNA) filtered from pond water. We have demonstrated that the eRNA method is more effective for algae, while eDNA recognizes a larger part of fungi. We have also found that geographic region and sampling period (spring or fall) influence the results. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that species diversity decreases with increasing geographical latitude, particularly when comparing eDNA samples collected in the first half of the growing season (spring). The results are highly significant for planning effective pond biomonitoring, tracking species biogeography, and assessing the condition of freshwater organisms.

Ecological harm caused by invasive species can be enormous, leading to the elimination of native species or affecting them in other ways. An example is the parasitic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), originating from Africa, which can have a catastrophic impact on amphibians. Using eDNA in water samples and swabs taken from amphibian skin, we have shown that the pathogenic Bd is already present in northern areas of Europe, attacking protected herpetofauna species. As the fungi likely only have been present in the north for a short time, the amount of infection has yet to be observed in negative population trends, if the fungus poses negative effects in the north. Our research also investigates the skin microbiome of amphibians, which is crucial for their health. For this, we examine both the common toad and the smooth newt found in both urban and suburban ponds. These results underscore the importance of the applied methods as tools for early detection of invasive pathogens and their impact on the health of amphibians in Europe.

In further research on herpetofauna, we detected dangerous infections with the RaHV3 herpesvirus in Norway, which can manifest as severe skin disease. We were also the first to discover scientifically that the virus are infecting frogs already at the larval stage from wild tadpoles as the virus have yet to be grown in the laboratory. With the virus only discovered in 2021 there are no data on mortality in wild populations, but we have reasons to believe there are costs associated to being infected.

Dr hab. Szymon Śniegula, photo by Michał Łepecki Threats from transmittable diseases may be particularly significant for toads and newts, as we have not identified genetic diversity between urban and suburban populations, suggesting high migration between populations (gene flow). This may facilitate the spread of both native and foreign pathogens, resulting in potential decline in the condition and abundance of amphibians, not only locally but also on larger scales.

Important threats also concern the blue-tailed damselfly, an insect that regulates, among other things, the number of biting mosquitoes. Research on the impact of the invasive spiny-cheek crayfish, combined with urban "heat waves", on damselfly larvae indicates a significant influence of these stressors. Specifically, urban and rural damselflies responded differently in growth rate and body size (traits associated with reproductive success) to predator smell and elevated temperature. We have further demonstrated that northern and southern damselflies differ considerably in gene expression for the examined traits. This signifies an impact of urbanization and geographical origin on the survival strategies of organisms.

In conclusion, our research reveals a series of challenges and pressure that urbanization exerts on biodiversity, both at the local and continental levels. The impact of invasive species, pathogens, and environmental changes on the health and abundance of aquatic organisms requires continuous monitoring and the development of effective protection strategies. Our results provide insight into the mechanisms occurring in nature, forming the foundation for further actions in conserving biological diversity in urban ecosystems.

Project title: The ecology of ponds in the context of human activity and geography - environmental DNA and beyond

Dr hab. Szymon Śniegula

The graduate of the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin and the University in Umeå, Sweden. Doctoral degree in biological sciences obtained at the Institute of Nature Conservation PAS; habilitation at the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS. Postdoctoral fellowships at Uppsala University in Sweden and KU Leuven in Belgium. Research interests: evolutionary ecology of life history and physiological traits, behaviour, and quantitative genetics of insects. Principal investigator and co-investigator of national and international projects, including NCN, Norway Grants. Member of scientific societies, including European Society for Evolutionary Biology, Worldwide Dragonfly Association, Polish Entomological Society. Author and co-author of over 40 scientific publications.

Across-domain Investigations in Multilingualism

Principal Investigator :
Dr hab. Magdalena Wrembel
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Panel: HS2

Funding scheme : GRIEG
announced on 7 June 2019

Multilingualism has been the norm in many parts of the world for years. Due to the globalized reality that we all live in, an increasing number of people find themselves in a situation where they acquire several languages across the lifespan. However, many issues related to the interaction of three (or more) languages in the same speaker are still poorly understood, therefore more in-depth research in this area is much needed.

Prof. Magdalena Wrembel, photo by Michał Łepecki The goal of the project is to investigate the complexity of third or additional language acquisition across different linguistic domains such as the sound system (phonology), grammar (syntax) and meaning (semantics). The project aims to explore the sources and directions of influence between language systems coexisting in multilingual speakers. The investigations compare learners acquiring their third/additional language in a naturalistic manner with those learning it formally in an instructed setting, taking into consideration varying levels of language proficiency (initial vs. advanced). Study participants include different groups of multilingual speakers who have Polish, English and Norwegian in their language repertoires and vary with respect to where and when they have learnt their non-native languages. A series of studies has been conducted in parallel in Poland and in Norway involving the participants’ all three languages. Experimental tasks include, among others, a range of production and perception tests, grammaticality judgment tests, sociophonetic interviews as well as online methods with the application of electroencephalography (EEG).

The results demonstrate to what extent the patterns of cross-linguistic influence in multilinguals occur holistically or are specific for a particular linguistic domain and how they are moderated by the investigated factors. We hope to gain a better understanding of multilingual processing through the application of a wide range of approaches and modern methods such as brain imaging (EEG). Ongoing empirical evidence will allow us to revise and reformulate selected theoretical models that have been recently proposed to explain the process of multilingual acquisition. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of multilingual speech, and its acquisition and processing in general. The speech patterns of Polish-Norwegian communities are documented in the collected multilingual speech corpus.

Prof. Magdalena Wrembel, photo by Michał Łepecki The project is innovative as it has an unprecedented broad scope, it is interdisciplinary and applies cutting-edge technologies alongside a range of more traditional research methods. It is based on a close international co-operation between active research groups from three renowned European universities (i.e., Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø and The Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim), with each partner institution specializing in one of the selected linguistic domains. The project provides comprehensive research on a complex topic that is currently very significant to the research community and to the general public. The project offers a research program and methodological design that may be further developed and extended by other researchers in the field. It broadens the current state of knowledge in this field which is relevant for policy-makers, educators, parents of multilingual children, and the society in general.

Project title: Across-domain Investigations in Multilingualism: Modeling L3 Acquisition in Diverse Settings (ADIM)

Dr hab. Magdalena Wrembel

Dr hab. Magdalena Wrembel is professor of English linguistics at the Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and head of Bilingualism Matters@Poznań. Her main research areas involve bilingualism and multilingualism, third language acquisition of phonetics and phonology, psycholinguistics, language awareness and novel approaches to teaching foreign language pronunciation. She has published extensively in edited collections and international journals and co-organised a number of prestigious conferences. With her research team at AMU, she has been actively involved in several international projects (as PI), with funding from Polish, Norwegian and German research agencies.

Prof. Magdalena Wrembel, photo by Michał Łepecki

Information webinars and online training courses for applicants in 2024

In 2024, join us for a new series of information webinars by NCN discipline coordinators, intended for researchers and PhD candidates planning to submit proposals under NCN calls.

The webinars will work as modules, each devoted to one of the following themes:

the NCN call portfolio;
the proposal review process;
proposal structure;
final report assessment;
the MINIATURA submission process;
the call portfolio (English version).

You can find more information about the themes, dates and registration deadlines for each webinar here: Information webinars and training courses for applicants.

To take part, you need to register through Clickmeeting. A registration link will be made available as soon as the registration period starts; the exacts dates are listed online at Information webinars and training courses for applicants. The maximum number of participants is 500.

For more information, contact Dr Katarzyna Jarecka-Stępień, NCN Discipline Coordinator, at:

show number

or e-mail.

CHIST-ERA call announcement

In cooperation with the CHIST-ERA network, the NCN is launching an international call for proposals in information and communication technology. The NCN Council has set aside 500 thousand euro in funding for Polish teams.

The CHIST-ERA Call 2023 is open to international consortia preparing research projects in the following areas:

Multidimensional Geographic Information Systems (MultiGIS)
Smart Contracts for Digital Transformation Ecosystems (SmartC)

The research consortium can consist of 3 to 6 research teams from at least three different participating countries: Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Funding awarded under the CHIST-ERA Call 2023 can go toward covering the cost of research team salaries, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD candidates, research equipment and other necessary project expenses.

To apply for funding, the consortium must prepare and submit a joint proposal, which will undergo merit-based review by an international team of experts appointed jointly by the agencies that make up the CHIST-ERA network. The Polish team also needs to submit a domestic proposal; the NCN accepts proposals from teams working on basic research projects at Polish host institutions. The Polish PI needs to hold at least a PhD degree and the project can be planned over 24 or 36 months.

Joint proposals may be submitted until 10 April; the deadline for domestic proposals, submitted via the OSF system, is 17 April. Call results will be announced until October 2024 and projects can go ahead in December.

About CHIST-ERA

The NCN joined the CHIST-ERA consortium in 2013; since then, it has regularly supported Polish researchers in innovative, interdisciplinary research in information and communication technology. Call 2023 is the twelfth call in which it has participated. CHIST-ERA call winners thus far have included 23 projects conducted in cooperation with Polish researchers. In six of these, the Polish team coordinated the project as a whole.

CHIST-ERA Call announcement for Polish research teams

Call Announcement at the CHIST-ERA network website

Scientists from Warsaw and Poznań win grants in forest-related call

Three out of four projects selected under the ForestValue2 Call 2023 will involve Polish research teams. The scientists, who will receive more than 2.7 million zlotys in funding, will work on research problems concerning the use of forest resources for balanced social, economic, environmental and climate benefits.

ForestValue2 (HORIZON EUROPE Coordination and Support Action) is an initiative designed to support research related to the forest-based bioeconomy. Specifically, the ForestValue2 Call 2023 was open to international research consortia working on interdisciplinary projects in a transnational collaborative systems-approach aimed at producing knowledge to support the best possible use of forests and forest resources.

The call was organised by agencies from eleven countries; funding for successful Polish researchers will be provided by the National Science Centre. An expert panel appointed for this purpose carried out a merit-based review of 21 proposals, eight of which included Polish teams. In the end, funding was awarded to four international projects with a total budget of c. 6.8 million euro; three of these involve Polish scientists.

Dr Lidia Stępińska-Ustasiak from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – ITECH Institute of Innovation and Technology, in cooperation with researchers from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Poznań Institute of Technology, as well as Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Slovenia, will work on CRESTIMB, a project focused on innovative timber construction systems with a prolonged service life. Specifically, the scientists will aim to develop an innovative timber system suitable for multi-storey buildings with open spaces, which would have a longer service life than existing solutions and provide for the potential reuse of its elements. The budget of the Polish part of the project is more than 1.1 million zlotys. The project represents an important step towards more sustainable, resource-efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly construction.

A team led by Dr inż Jan Pełczyński from the Warsaw University of Technology will use its ForestValue2 Call 2023 grant to work on TiREX, a project aimed at a more effective reuse of existing buildings and their components. In cooperation with scientists from Finland, Norway, Latvia, Slovenia and Spain, the Polish team will develop a comprehensive condition assessment methodology for reclaimed timber, using non-destructive tests and automated data processing to evaluate whether the reuse of the material will be safe and effective. The project is meant as a step toward a European reclaimed timber certification system, which would boost its use, thus reducing the waste of valuable resources and cutting the emissions of noxious substances. The Polish team will receive nearly 1.3 million zlotys in funding.

The third and last project with Polish researchers funded under ForestValue2 Call 2023 is led by Dr Anna Wierzbicka from the Poznań University of Life Sciences in cooperation with scientists from Estonia, Finland and Slovenia. Entitled IFORPLAN, it aims to develop effective forest planning procedures, using spatial planning methods to best balance economic and environmental functions. The procedures developed in the project will be verified through a case study of hundreds of hectares of forest area in all the countries involved in the project. The project aims to enhance our understanding of multifunctional forest management and contribute to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals. The budget of the Polish team is almost 374 thousand zlotys.

Call results on the ForestValue2 website

Ranking list of projects qualified for funding with the participation of Polish teams

ForestValue2 Call 2023 announcement for Polish teams

CHIST-ERA Call 2023

Read more about CHIST-ERA Call 2023

16 January 2024

The National Science Centre (“NCN”), in cooperation with the CHIST-ERA network, hereby launches a call for international research projects in the following areas of:

Multidimensional Geographic Information Systems (MultiGIS)
Smart Contracts for Digital Transformation Ecosystems (SmartC)

Funding proposals may be submitted international consortia composed of at least three research teams from at least three participating countries. Standard consortium size: Three to six partners.

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree.

Participating countries:

Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom.

The application procedure:

International level: joint proposals are drafted by Polish research teams in cooperation with the foreign partners (in English) and submitted to the electronic submission system of the CHIST-ERA network (ESS)
National level: NCN proposals concerning the Polish part of the project are drafted by Polish research teams and submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system within 7 days of the date by which joint proposals must be submitted at international level.

PLEASE NOTE: This is a single-stage call which means that only full joint proposals are submitted at international level. More on the application procedure at international level can be found in the Call Text available on the website of the CHIST-ERA network.

Call Timeline:

Submission deadline for joint proposals in ESS: 10 April 2024, 17:00 CEST
Submission deadline for NCN proposals in OSF: 17 April 2024
Call results: October 2024
Project start date: December 2024

Under the CHIST-ERA Call 2023, funds can be applied for to cover salaries for members of the research team, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.

The total funding allocated by the NCN for research tasks to be performed by the Polish research teams under the call is 500 000 EUR.

Please read:

the call documents available at https://www.chistera.eu/ (for all applicants in the call);
information for applicants below and all annexes hereto (only for researchers applying for NCN funding).

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Who may apply for NCN funding?

Proposals in the call may be submitted by the following entities specified in the Act on the National Science Centre (NCN):

universities;
federations of science and HE entities;
research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796, as amended);
research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383, as amended);
international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland;

5a. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws 2020, item 2098);

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network;

Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences;
other entities involved in research independently on a continuous basis;
groups of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-7 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company);
scientific and industrial centres laid down in the Act on Research Centres of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383, as amended);
research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796);
scientific libraries;
companies operating as R&D centres laid down in the Act on certain forms of support for innovation activities of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 706);
legal entities with registered office in Poland;

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures;

natural persons and
companies conducting research in other organisational form than set forth in sections 1-13a.

If research projects are carried out by at least two Polish entities applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities (see item 8 above) and as such submit NCN proposals. An NCN proposal is submitted by a leader specified in the research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities. An entity employing the principal investigator acts as the leader of the group of entities.

If, pursuant to Article 27 (1) (2) of the NCN Act, Polish entities cannot set up groups of entities, they are not eligible to apply for NCN funding of a joint research project.

PLEASE NOTE: Under CHIST-ERA Call 2023, funding proposals may be submitted by applicants for which funding of a research project will not constitute state aid, see NCN Council Resolution No 113/2023 of 7 December 2023.

Who may act as a principal investigator?

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Additional restrictions on submitting NCN proposals are laid down in Chapter IV of the Terms and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO, annexed to NCN Council Resolution No 32/2023 of 16 March 2023.

What are the topics covered by the call?

The call covers the following subjects:

Multidimensional Geographic Information Systems (MultiGIS)
Smart Contracts for Digital Transformation Ecosystems (SmartC)

More information on the subject of the call can be found in the CHIST-ERA Call Text.

Polish researchers may apply for NCN funding of their basic research projects.

NCN proposals comprising research tasks overlapping with research tasks to be carried out in another proposal that has been already submitted in an NCN call may only be submitted once the evaluation or appeal concerning the earlier proposal has been concluded to the effect other than granting funding.

What is the project duration?

Research projects may be planned in the call for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

What are the positions for members of the research team?

Apart from the principal investigator, research tasks in research projects may be performed by co-investigators, including students and PhD students as well as post-docs.

A post-doc type post is a full-time post designated by the principal investigator for a person who has been awarded a PhD degree in the year of employment in the project or within 7 years before 1 January of the year of employment in the project. This period may be extended pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

PLEASE NOTE: A post-doc position may be occupied by a person who has been awarded a PhD degree by another entity than the one planning to employ him/her at this post or has completed a continuous and evidenced post-doctoral fellowship of at least 10 months in another entity than the participating entity and in another country than the one in which he/she have been awarded a PhD degree. A prospective post-doc must be selected in an open call.

PhD students receiving NCN scholarships for research must be selected in an open call.

Scholarship grantees and post-docs must not be named in joint proposals or NCN proposals.

The rationale for involvement of individual members of the research team in the project shall be evaluated by an international expert team. The project must include the description of competencies and tasks to be performed by individual members of the research team.

To find out more on the budget for salaries and scholarships, read the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of research team members.

How should the budget be planned?

We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project (see the Budget Table of the Polish research team) with the NCN. The budget table in .xlsx format should be sent to alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl by 29 March 2024.

Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims at identifying the required resources and estimating the costs required to perform the research tasks. The project budget must be based on realistic calculations and must comply with the guidelines laid down in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre within the multilateral collaboration UNISONO. The maximum budget of the Polish research team is not pre-determined; however, the rationale of expenses versus the scope of tasks is assessed by an international expert team.

The budget in NCN proposals must be quoted in PLN, while the budget in the joint proposal, in EUR.

The EUR budget for the Polish part of the research project in the joint proposal must be calculated according to the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4.5329 PLN.

The project budget (eligible costs) includes direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

remuneration:

full-time employment: funds for full-time employment of the principal investigator or post-doc(s);
additional remuneration for members of the research team. If the principal investigator is not intending to be employed full-time in the project, his/her remuneration is paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;
salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students;

purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software;
purchase of materials and small equipment;
outsourcing;
business trips, visits and consultations;
compensation for collective investigators;
other costs crucial to the project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

PLEASE NOTE: The costs of publication of monographs resulting from research projects, as defined in §10 of the Regulation on evaluation of the quality of research activity issued by the Minister of Science and Higher Education on 22 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 392) are not eligible until positively reviewed by the NCN.

Indirect costs include:

indirect cost of Open Access (up to 2% of direct costs) that may be designated only for the cost of open access to publications or research data;
other indirect costs (up to 20% of direct costs) that may be spent on costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data. During the project performance, the participating entity shall arrange with the principal investigator for the distribution of at least 25 per cent of the indirect costs’ value.

PLEASE NOTE: The cost of open access to publications may only be incurred as indirect costs. The cost of open access planned as direct costs will be regarded ineligible.

If unreasonable costs are planned, a proposal may be rejected.

Open access publication of research results

Together with other European cOAlition agencies, the National Science Centre has drafted its Open Access Policy. In accordance with its vision of open access to research results and publications, the NCN requires that all research results should be made available in immediate open access. In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognises the following publication routes as compliant with its open access policy:

publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals[1]), as long as the Version of Record (VoR[2]) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM[3]) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;
publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of the so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

Publication in transformative journals (TJ[4]). Transformative journals must meet the criteria laid down in the Guidelines on the Implementation of Plan S and must allow open access publication of original scientific articles. This publication route (3) only applies to articles accepted for publication or published before 31 December 2024.

Manuscripts must be published using the CC-BY licence (in the case of transformative journals, the CC-BY-SA licence can also be used). The CC-BY-ND licence may also be used (regardless of the publication route selected).

Please read the Open Access Instructions.

In grant agreements concluded after 1 January 2021, the data underpinning the scientific publications resulting from the project funded by the NCN must be well-documented pursuant to the FAIR Principles standing for machine or manual Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability or Reusability (the so-called “FAIR Data”). Where possible, data must be made available in the repository, according to the Creative Commons Public Domain (CC0 licence[5]). The data citation principles laid down in the Declaration of Data Citation Principles by FORCE 11 and the TOP Guidelines must be complied with. Metadata describing the data sets must be in line with the OpenAIRE.

[1] A hybrid journal is a subscription journal in which some of the articles are open access and some require payment of a publication fee.

[2] VoR is a version of record published in a journal with its own typeface and branding. Other terms: published version or publisher’s pdf.

[3] AAM is the final manuscript version created by the author, including all the revisions introduced after the peer review, and accepted for publication in the journal. Other terms: post print, accepted author manuscript.

[4] A transformative journal is a journal that is actively committed to transitioning from a subscription journal to a partially or fully Open Access journal. The current list of journals which have been afforded the Transformative Journal Status is available at https://www.coalition-s.org/plan-s-compliant-transformative-journals.

[5] CC0 licence is a licence that allows the distribution of data to public domain. Pursuant to the licence, authors can give up their intellectual property rights to the extend allowed by domestic law; the licence does not affect patent rights, rights of publicity or privacy.

Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?

State aid must not be requested under CHIST-ERA Call 2023 .

For more information, please go to the State aid rules.

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

Joint proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other members of the CHIST-ERA network participating in the call and the CHIST-ERA Call Secretariat.

Joint proposals deemed eligible are subject a to merit-based evaluation carried out by an international expert team pursuant to the Call Text.

NCN proposals are subject solely to an NCN eligibility check carried out by the coordinators.

The eligibility check of NCN proposals includes verification of proposals for completeness, compliance with the call documents and Resolution No 32/2023 adopted by the NCN Council on 16 March 2023, including compliance of the budget with an Annex to the Resolution (“Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO”).

PLEASE NOTE: The information provided in NCN proposals and in joint proposals must be consistent and joint proposals annexed to NCN proposals must be the same as joint proposals submitted at international level.

Who performs the merit-based evaluation of proposals?

Only joint proposals are subject to a merit-based evaluation which is performed by an international expert team established jointly by the members of the CHIST-ERA network participating in the call. To find out more on the evaluation of proposals, please go to the call text available on the website of the CHIST-ERA network.

When and how will the results be announced?

The CHIST-ERA Call 2023 is expected to be concluded in October 2024.

Firstly, project coordinators will be notified of the outcome. Polish research teams will be notified by way of decisions of the NCN Director.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements related to actions performed by the NCN, applicants may lodge an appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council.

Where can additional information be found?

For more information on the call, please go to the website of the CHIST-ERA network. For the terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call, please refer to the Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 32/2023.

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail or by phone:

Alicja Dyląg, alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl,
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(by phone, between 9:00 and 12:00)
Anna Wieczorek, anna.wieczorek@ncn.gov.pl

Useful information

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the CHIST-ERA Call, please:

read all call documents, in particular:

Before submitting an NCN proposal to the NCN at national level:

collect the data from the applicant that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (project costs, procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal); if the proposal is submitted by a group of Polish entities, draw up a research project cooperation agreement,
make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Checking the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system with the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that the information entered is correct and the required annexes have been attached;
check if the tabs have been completed in the correct language;
disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN; and
download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the institution.

Once the proposal has been completed and required annexes have been attached, the proposal shall be submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

evaluation of proposals shall be carried out;
if the proposal is recommended for funding, a funding agreement shall be entered into;
the project shall be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council. The appeal shall be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.

Call documents

CHIST-ERA network:

The call documents applicable to all applicants are available on the website of the CHIST-ERA Network.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki:

Documents applicable to the evaluation of proposals:

Documents to be read before starting an NCN project:

Agreement template (Agreement template for winners of the previous Era-Net call launched by the NCN – draft version that may be amended when the agreement with the NCN is entered into)
Order establishing a procedure for auditing undertakings selected in the calls funded by the National Science Centre
Guidelines for entities auditing the implementation of research projects funded by the National Science Centre
Evaluation of monographs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre
Information on personal data processing

Stabilisation of lithium-metal anodes with porphyrin-based electrolyte additives

Principal Investigator :
Dr hab. Szymon Godlewski
Jagiellonian University

Panel: ST5

Funding scheme : M-ERA
announced on 16 March 2022

In our age and time, as the world searches for alternative energy sources and ways to expand their use, power collection and storage play an incredibly important role. One of the key areas of current research and technological development focuses on the construction and improvement of batteries, and lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are among the leading rechargeable battery technologies nowadays. However, they are now reaching the limits of their performance. One proposed solution to address their limitations is to replace lithium-carbon anodes used in LIBs with lithium-metal batteries (LMB). It is expected that the implementation of this technology would increase the anodic capacity more than tenfold and liberate volume within the battery to accommodate more cathode material (which is of key importance to battery performance). Unfortunately, the practical applications of LMBs are complicated by the fact that the high-performance liquid electrolytes used in LIBs do not prevent their degradation, i.e. the formation of Li-metal dendrites during repeated charge and discharge, which can lead to internal short circuits and potentially catastrophic battery failure.

Dr hab. Szymon Godlewski, photo by Michał Łepecki The goal of our project is to develop an effective solution to this problem, based on the addition of porphyrin derivatives to the electrolyte in Li-metal cells. It is expected that molecule application could help increase the battery cycle life, as the formation of dendrite structures is prevented by the incorporation of porphyrin derivatives into the solid-electrolyte-interface (SEI) layer.

Our project will analyse the impact of the organic material, such as porphyrin derivatives or phthalocyanines, known as tetrapyrrole macrocycles (TPMs) on the battery durability. So far, it has been shown that a modified SEI is significantly more effective at preventing the formation of dendrites in the long term. The successful implementation of this effect would be a game-changer in the development of high-capacity Li-based batteries.

To this end, we will experimentally study the structure and the formation process of a modified SEI formed by porphyrin derivatives as a basis for further electrolyte optimisation. In addition, we will develop computational models of the underlying structure, as well as the functional and mechanical properties of the modified SEI, to predict further optimisation pathways. Further, we are planning to optimise the composition of the electrolyte at the laboratory scale for future use in LMBs with a commercially available cathode material, and, at the last stage, fabricate a full cell demonstrator device and validate its performance. Our partners in Germany and Denmark will be responsible for constructing and optimising batteries for further practical applications. Our experience and research park will allow to study the lithium - molecule interface with truly atomic precision. Thanks to the use of scanning tunnelling microscopes (STM) and atomic force microscopes (AFM), which guarantee exceptional high-precision imaging, we will be able to get a deep insight into the atomic-scale architectural details of the interface. Moreover, we are planning to use the on-surface synthesis approach to create covalent molecular structures on highly reactive surfaces for the first time. In the past ten to twenty years, this innovative approach has allowed scientists to obtain new, hitherto unattainable molecular systems with atomic precision. This project will address the incredibly exciting, albeit difficult task of creating new chemical bonds between molecular structures on a highly reactive lithium surface. Our research will provide a new insight into the chemistry of molecular structures on anodic surfaces and help us enter a brand new research area of controlled reactions on chemically active surfaces.

3D image of the non-contact atomic force microscopy of undecacene generated through “on-surface synthesis” approach

M-ERA.NET 3 has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 685451.

Project title: Stabilization of Lithium Metal Anodes with Porphyrin-based Electrolyte Additives

Dr hab. Szymon Godlewski

Szymon Godlewski is a professor at the Jagiellonian University. He earned his PhD in 2011, followed by the degree of habilitated doctor in 2019. Ever since the early days of his career, his research interests have centred on constructing atomic and molecular systems. In the last few years, he has focused his attention on the so-called on-surface synthesis approach to initiate chemical reactions and create new organic structures directly on crystalline substrates. He has received several awards for his scientific activities, such as the scholarship of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young researchers and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) scholarships. He has conducted research projects funded by the National Science Centre (NCN) under the SONATA, SONATA BIS and OPUS schemes.

Prof. Szymon Godlewski,photo by Michał Łepecki

ERC PoC for Krzysztof Fic

Prof. Krzysztof Fic from the Poznań University of Technology, member of the NCN Council, has just won a Proof of Concept grant, awarded by the European Research Council. This is the 80th ERC grant for a researcher based in Poland.

Dr hab. inż Krzysztof Fic is a professor at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the Prof. Krzysztof Fic at the NCN Days 2022 in Białystok Poznań University of Technology. His research centres on electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems.

In 2017, he was the first Polish researcher affiliated with a technology university to win an ERC Starting Grant; his project was to develop a new type of high-power electrochemical capacitor, new concepts of electrolytes and a new operando technique for capacitor characterisation. The research project ended in 2023.

In the one that has now won the ERC PoC grant, Prof. Krzysztof Fic will work to convince the energy storage market of the attractiveness of this electrochemical capacitor with high specific power, energy and cycle durability. He will conduct his research with scientists from other European countries and Japan.

The Proof of Concept call is open to researchers who have previously completed an ERC grant and wish to commercialise its research results.

Prof. Krzysztof Fic has been a member of the NCN Council since 2020 and heads its international cooperation committee.

You can read more about his research in an article published online by “Forum Akademickie”: “It is basic research that serves as the flywheel of innovation”.

The European Research Council has thus far awarded a total of 80 grants to researchers working in Poland. The ERC funds projects under the following grant calls: Starting Grant (for entry-level researchers), Consolidator Grant (for researchers 7-12 years after their PhD), Advanced Grant (for advanced researchers), as well as ERC Synergy and Proof of Concept. The majority of ERC grant winners working at Polish institutions have worked on NCN grants.

The following researchers won ERC grants in 2023:

Starting Grant: Maciej Trusiak and Łukasz Sterczewski
Consolidator Grant: Ewa Szczurek, Szymon Toruńczyk, Paweł Caputa and Magdalena Wojcieszak. Click to read an interview with Prof. Ewa Szczurek about her research and her grants
Proof of Concept: Katarzyna Marciniak and Piotr Sankowski

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