In 2023, the state subsidy for the NCN will amount to 1.392 billion zlotys. “This represents yet another year of stagnation in NCN funding”, comments Professor Błocki.
In 2015, the subsidy for NCN’s research-funding operations equalled 871 million zlotys. Three years later, it went up to 1.226 billion. This year, it stands at 1.392 billion and will remain the same next year. This means that between 2015 and 2018, the domestic budget of the agency grew by more than 40%, but only increased by a meagre 13% between 2018 and 2023.
The Director of the National Science Centre discussed the repercussions of this situation with the Polish Press Agency. The dispatch was released on 5 December.
“If the budget of the NCN is not increased, our success rate, that is, the proportion of applicants who win grants, will continue to fall. At 15%, it is already unacceptably low, and shows a marked decreasing trend”, Professor Błocki said.
The Director emphasised that the research policy of the state should prioritise investment in people. He pointed out that the NCN lends significant support to young researchers. “In the highly hierarchical environment of our universities, our agency allows the playing field to be levelled for a competition between young and more experienced researchers. If the best among the young don’t have the opportunities for growth that the NCN affords them, they will just leave Poland and look for greener pastures elsewhere”, he warned.
In his interview with the PAP, Professor Błocki also mentioned that in Poland, too many resources in the previous years have been slated for infrastructure and direct investment subsidies, even though it is basic research that really provides the strongest impulse for innovation.
The NCN budget was also discussed in an article published in “Forum Akademickie” by the President of the NCN Council , Professor Jacek Kuźnicki, in November.
“When it comes to research funding, the National Science Centre may be the most transparent institution in Poland. This is evident throughout proposal review. Applicants enjoy access to information at every stage of the process; they can also consult peer reviews and panel opinions”, said Professor Zbigniew Błocki in an interview with the Polish Press Agency. The NCN Director was responding to the words of Deputy Minister Włodzimierz Bernacki, who, earlier in November, announced the introduction of new measures meant to ensure “the end-to-end transparency of call procedures at the National Science Centre”.
The Minister also announced the establishment of a special committee of appeals for applicants who, for one reason or another, have been denied an NCN grant. Professor Błocki responded by pointing out that such a committee already exists; it is the Appeals Committee of the NCN Council, which looks into more than a hundred cases every year. “I just want to point out that the right of appeal against an unfavourable decision is not even a standard in foreign research agencies. By definition, it is a competitive procedure, where decisions are taken by experts...The selection is made based on merit”, Professor Błocki said.
The dispatch of the Polish Press Agency was released on 1 December. The interview also touched on the issues of transparency in expert teams set up to evaluate call proposals and the involvement of foreign experts in the peer review process. The changes announced by the Ministry of Science and Education were also the focus of an article by Professor Jacek Kuźnicki, the President of the NCN Council, published in “Forum Akademickie” on 25 November 2022. Among other issues, Professor Kuźnicki also addressed the plan to reveal the identity of experts who evaluate call proposals. “First, most experts and peer reviewers will refuse to take part in such procedures, dismissing them as yet another Polish anomaly. This will make it hard to find enough competent experts. Second, those who will, after all, agree to sit on such a panel, will be working under extreme pressure from applicants, with the result that the transparency called for by the Minister will turn into a lobbying campaign rather than diligent merit-based review”, he warned.
The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) has announced the results of the second NAWA Chair Programme.
The second NAWA Chair Programme was addressed to universities and research institutions that carry out research in the fields of natural sciences, engineering and technology, medical and health sciences, and agricultural sciences
Under the 2023 Programme, three outstanding scientists will perform research at the Polish universities that respond to contemporary challenges to our civilisation. An important aspect of their work is the research component funded by the National Science Centre. The visiting scientists will establish project groups and actively apply for prestigious Polish and foreign research grants.
In the first half of January 2023, the National Science Centre will invite funding proposals for research components as part of projects funded by the NAWA under the same call. Proposals will be submitted via the OSF submission system.
Karolina Safarzyńska, Piotr Wcisło and Michał Bogdziewicz will talk about their research in the “Science at the Centre” series. The winners of the 2022 NCN Award will deliver their lectures on 7, 15 and 21 December 2022.
The „Science at the Centre” is a series of meeting with scientists launched by the National Science Centre in cooperation with the Copernicus Centre Foundation. The online lectures are delivered online and viewed on the YouTube channel of the Copernicus Centre. The first lectures featured winners of the 2020 and 2021 NCN Award. Karolina Safarzyńska, Piotr Wcisło and Michał Bogdziewicz, winners of this year’s NCN Award for early-stage researchers, will talk about their research in December 2022.
Piotr Wcisło, winner of the NCN Award in Physical Sciences and Engineering will discuss his research on 7 December.
Piotr Wcisło is a physicist and professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń who carried won the NCN Award for developing a new method of searching for dark matter, using optical atomic clocks and relying on high-precision laser spectroscopy to test quantum theory and look for a new physics beyond the standard model. He has served as a principal investigator under five NCN grants. In November 2022, he won a Starting Grant of the European Research Council for a project aimed at studying the structure of a hydrogen molecule with an improved accuracy of measurement.
Karolina Safarzyńska and Michała Bogdziewicza will deliver their lectures on 15 and 21 December 2022, respectively. Researchers may be asked questions during the meetings. All meetings will start at 6 p.m.. The footage will be available online.
Polish research team to carry out an international research project on antibiotic resistance with nearly 1 million PLN awarded for that purpose.
A research team managed by Prof. Dr Hab. Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa from the University of Wrocław was awarded in the 14th JPIAMR call: Disrupting drug Resistance Using Innovative Design (DRUID). Polish researchers will coordinate research tasks in collaboration with research teams from Belgium, France, Germany and Israel. In the project: Design and implementation of effective cOmbination of Phages and Antibiotics for improved TheRApy protocols against KLEbsiella pneumoniae, they will develop a method for treating patients infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae (considered a new priority pathogen, WHO priority 1).
The KLEOPATRA consortium will apply a ‘One Health’ approach to support research on antimicrobial therapy by way of improving the efficiency, distinctiveness and methods of delivering, combining or repurposing drugs or pesticides to treat bacterial or fungal infections. As part of the project, research teams will analyse the most common strains of K. pneumoniae in human and animal reservoirs and environmental ecosystems.
14th JPIAMR call
Thirteen projects involving 72 partners from 15 countries were recommended for funding in the 14th international JPIAMR call: Disrupting drug Resistance Using Innovative Design (DRUID). The total amount of 15.4 mln EUR will be awarded for that purpose.
For more details on the call, please visit the website of JPIAMR
Following the decision of three applicants not to carry out their projects funded under POLONEZ BIS 1 Call, the National Science Centre launched the procedure to fund proposals placed on the waiting lists. The funding decision was issued to two projects representing the domain of Physical Sciences and Engineering and to one project representing Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Dr. Laura Florentino Madiedo will work at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology on upgrading of H2 production by bio-oil steam reforming through the development of catalyst based on rhenium. Dr. Alexander Serzhikovich Ayriyan will carry out the project entitled "Bayesian analysis of the equation of state of dense nuclear matter" at the University of Wrocław. The third of the shortlisted projects will be based at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw. Its Principal Investigator, Dr Mari Yamasaki, will focus on the perception of underwater spaces by ancient communities living along the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.
The waiting lists under the POLONEZ BIS 1 Call were approved by the Expert Teams and include proposals which were awarded at least 70 points, but fell outside the limit funds allocated by the Council for research projects within specific groups of disciplines. The Centre refused to grant funds to implement the proposals placed on the waiting lists, with a reservation that a project placed on the waiting list may receive funding if another applicant resigns.
The European Research Council has just published the winners of Starting Grants 2022. Four Poland-based researchers, who also head NCN-funded projects, will be able to start out on their research.
The winners of this round of Starting Grants include: Dr. hab Katharina Boguslawski and Dr. hab. Piotr Wcisło, from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Dr inż. Rafał Kucharski from the Jagiellonian University and Dr Adam Kłosin from the Marceli Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, PAS. Grants were awarded to several Polish scientists working abroad. In total, the ERC will fund 408 projects.
The NCN Award and the StG in one year
Katharina Boguslawski and Piotr Wcisło both work at the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science of the Nicolaus Copernicus University. Piotr Wcisło studies the simplest atomic and molecular systems, whose structure can be derived from the fundamental laws of quantum theory, and uses cutting-edge laser technologies to measure their properties with a high degree of precision. In October 2022, he won the NCN Award, the most prestigious distinction given out to young researchers in Poland, in recognition of his use of high-precision laser spectroscopy to test quantum theory and look for a new physics beyond the standard model.
The ERC now decided to fund his project, which aims to investigate the structure of a hydrogen molecule with a degree of precision thus far unheard of. Entitled “New Experimental Methods for Trapping Cold Molecular Hydrogen”, the project will be funded with 1.9 million euro over a period of 5 years. Molecular hydrogen is a very attractive object for study in fundamental physics, because it is the simplest molecule to be found anywhere in nature: it consists of just two protons and two electrons. Its properties can be very accurately calculated from quantum theory laws, but the molecule is difficult to measure experimentally on account of its very weak interactions with electromagnetic fields. “Nobody in the community is even talking of trapping molecular hydrogen. What our proposal shows is not only that there are no fundamental physical obstacles to doing so, but that we already know how to do it with the use of instruments such as, for instance, powerful lasers and superconducting coils”, the winner says.
Wcisło has served as a principal investigator in five NCN grants, some of which are still in progress. “The research group I have set up largely relies on NCN funding. If it wasn’t for the NCN, I would never be a researcher in Poland”, he says. He has won multiple awards and distinctions, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, USA and a Fulbright fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Revolutionary computing models
Katharina Boguslawski is a quantum chemist, whose research combines chemistry, physics, mathematics and applied computer science. She focuses on developing innovative computing methods that will allow us to model the properties of large chemical molecules without the need for experiments. The ERC awarded her with a grant of more than 1.2 million euro for a project entitled “Devising Reliable Electronic Structure Schemes through Eclectic Design”. Boguslawski sets out to revolutionise the methodology of creating new materials with enhanced properties without increasing simulation computing costs. “I want to overhaul the computational paradigms that are currently employed in organic electronics to design more efficient photovoltaics, for instance”, she says. Some of her findings may find industrial applications. The project also aims to develop a black box computing tool, which can be used to model materials with the use of quantum chemistry.
Prof. Boguslawski graduated from her MSc and PhD programmes at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, and went on to complete postdoctoral fellowships at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and McMaster University in Canada. She has won many prestigious awards. The research that laid the groundwork for her ERC proposal took ten years. Boguslawski is also a principal investigator under NCN’s SONATA grant. “I proposed new mathematical models for the study of heavy elements, e.g. compounds found in radioactive waste from nuclear power plants”, the scientist explains and adds that carrying out an NCN grant was “the first step on her way to the ERC”. “That was my first experience as a principal investigator and research team leader. Having experience of this kind is very important for the ERC.”
Urban games with AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is gradually outsmarting us in a variety of fields. It can already beat us at chess, or strategic and action games, and it has recently won a painting competition. AI enjoys an advantage because it has access to real-time data and computations that allow it to take faster and better decisions. Advanced algorithms are already used in education, medicine, defence, agriculture and building design. Rafał Kucharski will now try to determine what impact AI will have on urban mobility. Based at the Jagiellonian University, the transportation and machine learning expert won an ERC StG for his project “Playing Urban Mobility Games with Intelligent Machines. Framework to Discover and Mitigate Human-machine Conflicts”. “How cities work, where traffic jams form, which tram and bus lines are more crowded – all these depend on human interactions and decisions, such as when we leave the house, which route we take and by which means of transportation we travel. If these decisions are taken by AI machines or robots instead, they are likely to get an edge over us”, the scientist says. It may turn out that AI-equipped car owners will spend much less time stuck in traffic, while those without this technology will face greater costs, as scarce resources are used up by artificial intelligence. “In my project, I want to test whether this is indeed inevitable, explore how we can co-exist with machines and find a way to prevent negative scenarios”, Kucharski adds. The ERC awarded him 1.49 million euro in funding. The project will take five years to complete.
Traffic, image Marcin Wierzchowski
Rafał Kucharski took an interest in transportation when studying and working at the Krakow University of Technology, “La Sapienza” University of Rome, KIT Karlsruhe, the Technical University of Delft and various tech companies. He has designed traffic prediction algorithms, which have already been used in places such as Beijing, Dusseldorf, Abu-Dhabi and Turin, as well as transportation models used for strategic urban development in Krakow and Warsaw. In Delft, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in a project funded by the European Research Council. He is also a winner of an NCN OPUS grant, which is currently in progress at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Jagiellonian University and focuses on shared mobility during the pandemic. “The fact that I am currently conducting my own project and managing a research team of four was very well received by ERC reviewers”, Kucharski says.
A better insight into gene expression
Adam Kłosin is a cell biologist and geneticist studying the mechanisms of gene expression in eukaryotes. The purpose of his StG ERC project, entitled “The Spatial Organization of Gene Regulation in Embryonic Development”, is to study the processes that regulate the spatial organisation of gene expression during the embryonic development and stress response of the model organism, Caenorhabditis elegans. During embryonic development and stress response, transcription factors that regulate gene activity create local condensations in the cell nucleus. Research carried out over the last decade suggests that condensates of this kind form as a result of localised phase separation. Using high-resolution confocal microscopy, the project will investigate their properties, functions and regulation, and then develop new techniques for the study of interactions between transcription factors and genetic material found in the chromatin sampled from nematode cells. The project will contribute to a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of gene regulation during cell differentiation in normal development, as well as under conditions of environmental stress (e.g. at elevated temperatures).
Condensates formed by transcription factor HSF-1 in nuclei of an early C. elegans embryo during heat stress, photo A. Kłosin
Adam Kłosin studied at universities in Perugia and Dresden, earned his PhD at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics in Dresden. He is a winner of the “Polish Returns” programme, organised by the NAWA in 2022, within the framework of which he will carry out a research project funded by the NCN and entitled “Znaczenie wewnętrznie nieuporządkowanych domen białkowych w różnicowaniu komórek”/”The Role of Intrinsically Disordered Protein Domains in Cell Differentiation”.
Support from people and institutions
ERC 2022 winners emphasise that, throughout their application process, they were lucky to enjoy the support of many people and institutions, including their home universities, the Office of Excellence, PAS and KPK NCBR. They could discuss their proposals with specialists in their fields and, at the second stage of the call, took part in presentation delivery workshops and consultations with native speakers. “If you try to prepare an ERC proposal single-handedly, you are setting yourself up for failure, I think”, says Piotr Wcisło.
Starting Grants are available to researchers within 2 to 7 years of their PhD defence, for projects of up to 5 years; the ERC supports innovative ideas in all disciplines of science.
In total, this round of the call attracted 2932 calls; 408 of these won funding, for a success rate of c. 14%. Grant winners represent 46 nationalities and work in 26 different countries. Grants will also be carried out by six Polish researchers affiliated at foreign institutions.
In previous rounds, the European Research Council awarded 37 Starting Grants to researchers working in Poland. With 10 grant winners, 2021 was the most successful year for Poland thus far.
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:
Security and Privacy in Decentralised and Distributed Systems (SPiDDS)
Machine Learning-based Communication Systems, towards Wireless AI (WAI)
Funding proposals may be submitted by international consortia composed of at least three research teams from at least three countries participating in the call. The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree.
Participating countries:
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey and United Kingdom.
National level: NCN proposals concerning the Polish part of the project are drafted by the Polish research team and submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission systemwithin 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: 2 February 2023, 5 p.m. CET
Submission deadline for NCN proposals in OSF: 9 February 2023
Call results: July 2023
Project start date: October 2023
Under the CHIST-ERA 2022 Call, 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.
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 to be carried out by two or more 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.
Security and Privacy in Decentralised and Distributed Systems (SPiDDS)
Machine Learning-based Communication Systems, towards Wireless AI (WAI)
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.
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.
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 16 January 2023.
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 justification of the expenses versus the scope of tasks is assessed by an international expert team.
The budget in the NCN proposal should 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 = 4.7244 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 construction of research equipment, devices and software;
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.
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 as a formal error.
If unjustified costs are planned, a proposal may be rejected.
Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted its Open Access Policy pursuant to which all research results stemming from NCN-funded research projects must be made available in immediate open access.
In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognizes 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), as long as the Version of Record (VoR) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) 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).
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 to merit-based evaluation carried out by an international expert team pursuant to the call text.
NCNproposals are subject solely to an NCN eligibility check carried out by the coordinators.
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.
Only joint proposals are subject to merit-based evaluation. Merit-based evaluation 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.
The CHIST-ERA Call 2022 is expected to be concluded in July 2023.
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 Directorwith the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council.
For more information on the call, please go to the website of the CHIST-ERAnetwork. For the terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call, please refer to the Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022.
Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail or by phone:
Alicja Dyląg, alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl, 12 341 90 69, +48 532 086 494 (by phone, between 9:00 and 12:00)
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.
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)
The budget of the NCN has been practically frozen for the past few years and inflation has reduced the real value of NCN grants. If our budget is not increased next year, success rates, which are already rather low enough, will be pushed down even further.
“It would be a good idea to try and persuade decision-makers to grant the NCN an extra 150-200 million PLN in additional funding to buttress its budget for next year. This would increase the success rate for our calls to around 25%”, writes the President of the NCN Council in the latest issue of “Forum Akademickie”.
The President of the NCN Council also presented several possible scenarios that could be adopted by the NCN to stop the success rate from falling even in the absence of extra funding. The Council may, for instance, reduce the number of projects that can be conducted in a parallel fashion, introduce funding limits or cancel one of the calls.
At the same time, Professor Kuźnicki emphasised that research funding is the best form of investment; any changes of the kind described above would have an adverse impact on the conditions for research in Poland. “Supporting the rise of a young generation of researchers and creating the conditions for them to work in Poland will reduce the current brain drain and, in the long run, may even reverse it”, he writes.
Professor Kuźnicki points out that it would also be possible to boost NCN funding without further increasing the burden on the state budget; this could be achieved by transferring 10% of the NCBR budget to the NCN.
The full article by the President of the NCN Council can be found on the website of “Forum Akademickie”.
JPIAMR (Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance) will launch in 2023 an international call for projects within the framework of the ERA-NET JPIAMR-ACTION. The call Development of innovative strategies, tools, technologies, and methods for diagnostics and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance will involve 21 funders from 18 countries. The total estimated call budget is about 18,8 million Euro. The Polish research teams may claim up to 1 M euro allocated to the call by the Council of the National Science Centre.
Through this call, the ERA-NET JPIAMR-ACTION intends to create and reinforce the collaboration between research partners coming from different countries and different fields of expertise to promote research on antimicrobial resistance. The call is focused within the priority areas of diagnostics and surveillance.
The call will fund research projects supporting the development of new or improvement of existing strategies, tools, technologies, and methods to support the prudent and rational use of antimicrobials. Projects may focus on diagnosis of infections caused by resistant microorganisms, on detection of resistant microorganisms, and/or collection, analysis and use of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use (AMU) data .
In the scope of this call, antimicrobials include antibiotics, antifungals and disinfectants (biocides).
The following sub-topics are out of the scope of the call:
antiviral and antiparasitic agents,
proposals solely aiming to extend existing surveillance networks (e.g. GLASS, national surveillance programmes).
Timeline
The call Development of innovative strategies, tools, technologies, and methods for diagnostics and surveillance of antimicrobial resistance will follow a two-step evaluation procedure.
10 January 2023 – launch of the call and Partner Search Tool
7 March 2023 – deadline for pre-proposals
24 January 2023 – webinar for applicants
4 July 2023 – deadline for full proposals
11 July 2023 – deadline for submission of proposals to NCN (via OSF)
Please contact the call secretariat if you have any questions about the call: JPI.AMR@ncn.gov.pl
Please note that the information provided in the pre-announcement is not binding and that changes may occur without notice until the call opening on 10 January 2023.
Who may apply for NCN funding?
Who may act as a principal investigator?
What are the topics covered by the call?
What is the project duration?
What are the positions for members of the research team?
How should the budget be planned?
Open access publication of research results
Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?
What is the proposal evaluation procedure?
Who performs the merit-based evaluation of proposals?
When and how will the results be announced?
Where can additional information be found?
Useful information
