The nineth edition of the NCN Days is now over. The two May days were filled with inspiring lectures, vivid discussions, and interesting workshops.

Wrocław University of Science and Technology Congress Centre, fot. Łukasz Bera for NCN The NCN Days are held on an annual basis, each time in a different academic city in Poland. This spring, the representatives of the NCN Council and Office visited Wrocław at the invitation of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and thanks to the cooperation with the College of Vice-Rectors for Science of Wrocław and Opole (KRUWiO). The purpose of the event is to present the operation of the National Science Centre to the local researchers and exchange experiences and views on the NCN’s operation and portfolio.

“Wrocław is a strong academic centre, and our universities and institutions have confirmed high quality research, even during the last evaluation. The NCN Days allow us to present the achievements of outstanding researchers who have successfully applied for NCN funding; on the other hand, researchers and officers supporting the application procedure will be able to gain knowledge and improve their competences in this area," said Prof. Andrzej Ożyhar, Vice-Rector for Science at the University of Wrocław.

Dialogue with the Academic Environment

“We are here for you! This is a unique opportunity to discuss your needs and problems with the call regulations, grant implementation and our operation at large,” said Prof. Robert Hasterok, President of the NCN Council. “We want our call portfolio to address the real needs of the scientific community. This is why we will listen to any comments and suggestions you may have,” he added.

The local scientific community could express their views at the Council meeting with the participation of the heads of the local research institutions and at the “We Can Do It” meeting. The main purpose of the meetings was to discuss the grant system and challenges related to the current state of science and research work in Poland. The topics for the discussions collected via, inter alia, an application form included project budgeting, post-doc employment and scholarships allocation, evaluation of interdisciplinary projects and open access to research data.

Participants of the meeting of the NCN Council with the participation of the management and representatives of the scientific community of the region, fot. Łukasz Bera for NCN Another important point of discussions in Wrocław was underfunding of the National Science Centre, an institution which has supported basic research in the Polish research institutions for the last 12 years. Based on the European Research Council, the National Science Centre has maintained the highest standards of peer-review and efficiently fostered Polish researchers by allocating over one billion PLN to the best research projects each year. Between 2015 and 2018, the NCN budget increased by 40%. For the next five years, the budget increased by only 13%. In 2023, the budget is the same as in 2022.

“At this point, out budget for research is not expanding to meet the growing needs: project costs, researchers’ needs and inflation. In order to continue our mission, it is imperative for our grant budget to grow, something we have been urging for a very long time,” says Zbigniew Błocki, acting Director of the National Science.

From its very beginning, the National Science has been apolitical, transparent, prioritised early-stage researchers, and promoted scientific excellence and internationalisation of research. Over 28,000 projects have been funded so far, with a value of nearly 14.4 billion PLN. 

INFORMATION ON LOWER SILESIA AND OPOLE

dr hab. Grzegorz Soboń, prof. PWr, fot. Łukasz Bera for NCN Why and how to do good science?

The event included presentations by the Wrocław-based NCN call winners who have achieved significant research results due to the NCN support. Prof. Grzegorz Soboń from the Faculty of Electronics, Photonics and Microsystems at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, who studies laser technology, talked about finding one’s research path, choices that can take us to (or away from) our goals, and casual lift conversations or seminar participations that can change one’s career.

The NCN Days also comprise a very practical part. Administrative staff of the research institutions discussed the proposal processing procedures. Participants of the proposal evaluation workshops played the part of experts who evaluate proposals in NCN calls. Before the meeting, they were requested to review two real proposals drafted by the experts participating in the workshops who agreed that they be used for training purposes. Furthermore, a mock expert team meeting was held during the workshop.

“Workshop participants who draft reviews will be able to see the proposal development process from a different perspective, from an expert’s perspective. One gets the best insight into one’s academic work when evaluating somebody else’s funding proposal,” says Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska, NCN Coordinator.

During a meeting on open access to research data held at the end of the NCN Days, researchers found out about NCN’s Open Access Policy, publication routes compliant with the Policy, significance of open access and open access in NCN proposals.

The first NCN Days in 2013 were held in the Upper Silesia. Then, we have visited other academic cities, such as Lublin, Szczecin, Olsztyn, Kielce, Gdansk, Lodz, and in 2022, after a pandemic break, Bialystok. Next year, Bydgoszcz will host the NCN Days.

Galeria zdjęć

Together with the ForestValue2 network (HORIZON EUROPE Coordination and Support Action), we have just launched a call for international research projects aiming to produce knowledge to support the best possible use of forests and forest resources as well as to provide multiple benefits for society and the economy.

Research proposals must cover at least one of the following subjects: 

1. Resilient sustainable forest systems and management
2. Sustainable timber building systems

Proposals may be submitted by international consortia composed of at least three research teams from at least 3 countries participating in the call. The principal investigator of the Polish research team must be at least a PhD holder. Countries participating in the call include: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain.  

Under the ForestValue2 Call 2023, funds may be requested to cover remuneration for the research team members, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students,  purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and for other costs crucial for the project.

The National Science Centre has allocated a total of 500,000 EUR for research tasks performed under the call by the Polish research teams.

Call timeline:

Submission deadline for joint full proposals: 1 September 2023, 13:00 CEST

Submission deadline for proposals in the OSF submission system: 8 September 2023, 23:59 CEST

Call results: December 2023  

Join us for the first webinar this year on research data opening in academic disciplines. The first training will be dedicated to research data management in linguistics.

The training will be hosted by Dr Agnieszka Dziob-Zadworna and Dr Jan Wieczorek from the Department of Artificial Intelligence of the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology / CLARIN-PL.

It will be held on 5 May 2023, between 12:00 and 13:30, in Polish, on Clickmeeting.

During the webinar, participants will be lectured about research data management in linguistics and will acquire skills allowing them to develop and implement data management plans. The following issues will be discussed:

• Research data management significance for linguistics.
• Data characteristics in linguistics.
• FAIR principles.
• Research data opening principles.
• General information on data management plans.
• Description of data and available data acquisition or reuse.
• Data storage and back up.
• Legal requirements, codes of conduct.
• Data sharing and long-term storage.
• Data management-related tasks and resources.
• Implementation and reporting of data management plans.

The training is addressed at all those researching broadly understood linguistics, including researchers, PhD students as well as data stewards and administrative staff supporting researchers in data management-related issues in linguistics.

You can register until 4 May 2023 (subject to availability; a limit of 500 people applies) on the enrolment form. Your participation will be confirmed by e-mail. Please note that submission of an application does not confirm your participation. Participants will be admitted according to their profile and order of enrolment.

Consider your enrolment. If you decide not to take part in the webinar, let us know as soon as possible at: otwarta.nauka@ncn.gov.pl

 

We are pleased to inform that CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) consortium in collaboration with HERA (The Humanities in the European Research Area) and NORFACE (The New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe) Networks pre-announce calls for international research projects in the following themes:

• Crisis - Perspectives from the Humanities – organised jointly by CHANSE and HERA
• Enhancing well-being for the future – organised jointly by CHANSE and NORFACE

Information about the calls

Full calls topic description is available here:

Crisis - Perspectives from the Humanities – theme description

Enhancing well-being for the future – theme description

Project team: Composed of at least four and maximum six Principal Investigators, i.e. partners, eligible to receive funding from the CHANSE and HERA/NORFACE funding organisations from four or more different countries participating in the call.

Project duration: 24-36 months

Cap on funding for one international project: 1 500 000 EUR (across all partners)

Indicative timeline

Official calls announcement and launch of the submission system: May 26th, 2023

Deadline for outline proposals: September 21st, 2023, 14.00 CET

Deadline for invited full proposals: March 26th 2024, 14.00 CET

Call results: October/November 2024

Earliest funded project start: End of 2024/Beginning of 2025

Countries participating in the calls

Crisis - Perspectives from the Humanities: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia*, Denmark*, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

Enhancing well-being for the future: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia*, Estonia, Germany*, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

*The participation in the calls will be confirmed in the Call announcement on 26 May 2023. The participation of France will also be confirmed in the Call announcement.

PARTNER SEARCH TOOL

In order to facilitate the process of forming research consortia, we offer applicants a partner search tool available here. This tool can be used by projects looking for partners and partners looking for projects.

Zapowiedź tematów konkursów ma charakter informacyjny. Szczegółowe warunki zostaną określone w treści oficjalnych ogłoszeń.

Contact

Call Crisis - Perspectives from the Humanities:  crisis@ncn.gov.pl

Call Enhancing well-being for the future:  wellbeing@ncn.gov.pl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHANSE Programme has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101004509.

We now know the winning project recommended for funding under the ARTIQ call of the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development. The Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CE AI) will be created at the AGH University of Krakow and Ayan Seal, researcher from India will act as its leader. Since 2014, Ayan Seal has been an assistant professor at the Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing in Jabalpur. He will come to Krakow to research integration of application, learning, optimisation and interpretation to speed up commercialisation of intelligent new generation software systems.

CD AI leaders must be researchers who have earned their PhD within 8 years before the call start date and have international experience and achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, including accomplishments in commercialisation and business cooperation. Furthermore, they must have not lived, worked, studied or managed a grant in Poland within two years prior to the call end date. 

Artificial intelligence is considered one of the most important technologies of the future and actions in support of AI are one of European Union’s priorities. It is the objective of the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development to increase Poland’s potential in this area by creating the Excellence Centres in Artificial Intelligence in Poland. The National Science Centre will fund basic research covered by the winning project whilst the cost of applied research and formation of companies will be financed by the National Centre for Research and Development.

54% of funding awarded by the National Science Centre last year fostered the development of early-stage researchers. It was 3% more than in 2021 and 11% more than in 2016, when the measurements started.

In 2022, over PLN 875 million was awarded to early-stage researchers in national and international calls for proposals, for research projects, scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships. As of 2016, they have received funding of nearly PLN 10 billion (PLN 9.8 billion).

NCN funding allows early-stage researchers to carry out research projects, create their own research teams, benefit from scholarships at doctoral schools and employment at Polish research institutions as well as foreign fellowships at renowned research institutions, the latter due to collaboration between the NCN and the Polish Agency of Academic Exchange.

NCN support for early-stage researchers is discussed by our guests today: Prof. Joanna Golińska-Pilarek, NCN Council Member, Prof. Łukasz Okruszek from the Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences and NCN grant winner as well as Anna Strzebońska and Renata Mazurkiewicz from our Analysis and Evaluation Team. They are addressing the terms of NCN calls, funding awarded to early-stage researchers in particular years, as well as possible modifications of the terms of NCN calls as a result the budget freeze and their implications for early-stage researchers’ careers.

“The NCN is currently the best option for research development. As a community, we honestly hope that the current trend will change” says Prof. Łukasz Okruszek in view of NCN budget cuts.

The podcast is hosted by Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz.

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Researchers, culture and business stakeholders, as well as research-funding organisations in Humanities and Social Sciences will meet in Tallinn, Estonia at a conference organised by the CHANSE network.

Participants of projects funded under the CHANSE call (Transformations - Social and Cultural Dynamics in the Digital Age), representatives of the European Commission and agencies co-forming the network, as well as science, culture and business stakeholders will participate in the conference held in Tallin, on 1-2 June 2023. The conference will be opened by keynote speeches from Prof. Marju Lauristin from the University of Tartu and Dr Taras Fedirko from the University of Glasgow.

The purpose of the conference is to create a unique platform for international research teams, winners of the CHANCE Transformations call, to exchange research experience. The participants will have a chance to participate in the panel discussions on AI, and the role of humanities in the digital age, as well as in a workshop on knowledge exchange between researchers and non-academic stakeholder, such as representatives of business, culture and non-governmental organisations.

To find out more, please go here.

Contact Person

monika.hunka@ncn.gov.pl; chanse@ncn.gov.pl

 

 

The call for proposals at the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) acting as lead agency ends on 20 April 2023, 14:00 (CET).

If a joint proposal is submitted to FNR as the lead agency, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to FNR, i.e., by 27 April 2023, 23:59 at the latest.

Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the OSF submission system, the Polish research team has 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and submit it to the NCN. After that, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team that has not sent its proposal to the NCN must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system.

The European Research Council (ERC) has just announced the winners of this year’s Advanced Grants. Two will go to researchers based in Poland: prof. Andrzej Dziembowski from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw and prof. Daniel Gryko from the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

They are the first life scientist and chemist, respectively, in the history of Polish science to win an ERC Advanced Grant. Both are previous NCN call winners.

prof. Andrzej Dziembowski (source: MIBMiK), prof. Daniel Gryko (source: IChO PAN)

The winners

Prof. Andrzej Dziembowski works at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw and the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw. The goal of his project is to uncover the mechanisms behind mRNA processing in human cells and the human body, which will help develop next-generation mRNA therapies. Entitled Principles of endogenous and therapeutic mRNA turnover in vivo (acronym: ViveRNA), the project will last 5 years and has a budget of nearly 2.5 million euro. More information can be found on the ERC website.

To date, prof. Dziembowski has completed as many as 5 research projects funded by the NCN under GRIEG, HARMONIA, OPUS, and two MAESTRO calls. He has also previously won a prestigious grant awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) to researchers embarking on promising research projects, as well as grants under the 6th and 7th EU Framework Program. In 2013, he received an NCN Award for outstanding young researchers. He is also a winner of two Prime Minister’s awards, an award of the Foundation for Polish Science, and the Knight’s Order of Polonia Restituta.

The other ERC Advanced Grant this year will go to prof. Daniel Gryko, Head of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, PAS, winner of many prestigious awards, e.g. from the Foundation for Polish Science.

Professor Gryko is the first Polish chemist to win the ERC Advanced Grant and will work on a project entitled ARCHIMEDES “Approaching 20% emission efficiency in the NIR-II region with radical chromophores”. His objective is to obtain near-infrared fluorophores. With a total budget of 2.5 million euro, the grant will be carried out at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, PAS, in 2023-2028.

Prof. Gryko has already completed 4 NCN-funded projects under calls such as MAESTRO, OPUS and two HARMONIA calls.

ERC Advanced Grant

These prestigious ERC grants support groundbreaking, high-risk high-gain research in different disciplines. The only criterion of project assessment is scientific excellence. This year, the European Research Council looked at 1650 submitted proposals to select 218 projects, which will receive Advanced Grants to the total amount of 544 million euro.

Advanced Grants are targeted at experienced researchers with a considerable research record. Winners are typically active in research and can demonstrate significant achievements within the last decade. The ERC gives them complete research independence, which means that the grant is awarded to specific researchers, and, if need be, follows them if they need to move to another research institution.

Advanced Grants may be awarded up to € 2.5 million for a period of max. 5 years. However, an additional € 1 million can be made available if the researcher needs to move outside the EU, purchase costly equipment, or access special research infrastructure. Last year, ERC awarded Advanced Grants to prof. Andrzej Indrzejczak from the University of Łódź and prof. Wojciech Knap from the Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Both are previous NCN grant holders.

Decisions for the POLONEZ BIS 3 proposals that have not been qualified for the second stage of evaluation were sent out on 29 March 2023.

Please note that decisions of the Director of the National Science Centre are served in the form of an electronic document sent to the e-mail address provided by the applicant in the proposal or their Electronic Correspondence Register (ESP ePUAP) address if it was specified.

Information was sent from the address: ncn.wnioski(at)ncn.gov.pl. and contains a link to download the decision of the Director of the National Science Centre.

The correspondence was generated automatically – please do not reply to the message you received. If you have any problems with access to the document, please contact the POLONEZ BIS Team polonez(at)ncn.gov.pl.

The status of your proposal is also displayed in the OSF system.