Support for climate and polar research - summary of the conference promoting the Basic Research program

Mon, 10/17/2022 - 11:46
Kod CSS i JS

The conference promoting the Basic Research program financed under the third edition of the EEA and Norway Grants was held in Gdańsk on Thursday, October 6, at the Olivia Business Center. This year's event was devoted to polar and climate research. During the conference, project teams and individual scientists from Polish academic institutions implementing projects under calls GRIEG, POLS and IDEALAB had possibility to present their projects and research results obtained so far. Assumptions of a pre-defined project CRIOS, financed from the EEA Grants, were presented. The project aims to modernize and expand an automated monitoring network focused on the cryosphere of Spitsbergen. All measurement stations will operate following the standardized measurement protocols developed as part of joint workshops and training sessions of the Polish and Norwegian project partners. Data transfer to the open repositories will occur in real-time.

The meeting allowed for the exchange of experiences between participants in the field of polar and climate research. The speakers also had the opportunity to present the results of their work obtained so far. The National Science Center was represented by the Deputy Director of the National Science Center, the discipline coordinator (The Physical Sciences and Engineering Unit) and the EEA and Norway Grants team. Among the invited guests there were representatives a.o. the Research Council of Norway, the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the National Center for Research and Development.People concerned had the opportunity to watch the conference streaming. The recording is available on our YouTube channel.

The Research Programme aims to improve the results of Polish research, both basic research and research designed to fuel the development of a knowledge-based economy and society. Under the third edition of the EEA and Norway Grants, the Basic Research Programme is operated by the National Science Centre. On the Norwegian side, the Programme is partnered by the Research Council of Norway.


 


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The best young researchers of 2022

Wed, 10/12/2022 - 20:32
Kod CSS i JS

Karolina Safarzyńska, Michał Bogdziewicz and Piotr Wcisło win NCN Award 2022. The awards ceremony for the most prestigious award given to early-stage researchers working in Poland was held on 12 October at the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art in Sukiennice. This year, the award was handed out for the tenth time in its history.

As many as 59 candidates vied for the award this year (there were 71 nominations in total, but some candidates were nominated by more than one person). The award is given out in three discipline panels. Dr hab. Karolina Safarzyńska, economist from the University of Warsaw, walked away with the award in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. In Life Sciences, the award went to a forest ecologist, dr hab. Michał Bogdziewicz, professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and member of the Polish Young Academy, PAS. A physicist, dr hab. Piotr Wcisło, professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, carried off the award in Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Important and urgent research

Karolina Safarzyńska, fot. archiwum prywatneKarolina Safarzyńska, fot. archiwum prywatne Dr hab. Karolina Safarzyńska, professor at the University of Warsaw, is an interdisciplinary researcher working in complexity economics, behavioural economics, and experimental economics, as well as climate change. She is affiliated with the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Warsaw.

She won the NCN Award for her innovative theoretical models allowing to study the impact of limited rationality, preference diversity, and social interactions on climate policies.

Traditional macroeconomic models rest on a simplistic premise that people are always rational and do not interact with one another, and that “all” decisions in an economic system are optimized. “My models are a little bit more complicated than that. In complex systems such as the economy, many factors cross-influence one another. You cannot have simple policies to solve urgent problems”, says Safarzyńska.

The scientist creates theoretical models to study how a combination of policies, such as behavioural interventions and macroeconomic policies, can be effectively used to combat climate change. “If we assume that the economy is practically never in equilibrium, while people enter into a variety of social interactions and their actions are not always rational, we can influence their behaviour not only with financial incentives, but also by shaping their social networks and appealing to their emotions”, she adds.

Her research is urgent and important today. In many papers published in international journals, Safarzyńska showed, for instance, that the network effect may increase the probability of financial crises as a result of climate policies, while the diversity of consumer preferences crucially affects carbon tax levels (social interactions raise the tax, because by imitating others, we consume more, thus increasing the emissions that need to be counterbalanced).

Professor Safarzyńska earned her PhD degree at the Free University in Amsterdam and then completed research visits at institutions such as WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, Oxford INET, Santa Fe Institute, as well as internships at the UN, WTO, and the World Bank. Before starting off on a research career, she worked in several NGOs and international organizations.

She has previously won a scholarship of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists. She is also a winner of three NCN grants. The purpose of her current project is to develop new macro-evolutionary models for the analysis of the circular economy.

The Winner of NCN Award 2022 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – movie

A generation that fills the gap

Michał Bogdziewicz, fot. Adrian WykrotaMichał Bogdziewicz, fot. Adrian Wykrota “We know a lot about how different trees grow and how they die, but very little about how they are born. This kind of data is very difficult to collect”, says Professor Michał Bogdziewicz from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He studies forest ecology, focusing on the biology of mast years, i.e. the years in which trees produce a particularly large quantity of seeds, and the impact of climate change on their reproduction.

If you want to see how a tree grows under different conditions and how it’s affected by climate change, you can drill its core and measure how it was growing one or two hundred years ago. But to see how a tree produces seeds, you need to visit the same place year after year for a few decades. For logistical reasons, the problem of tree reproduction was not taken up in forest ecology for a long time. “It was taken for a fact that the seeds were just out there”, says Bogdziewicz. They only began to be monitored around thirty or forty years ago.

Professor Bogdziewicz belongs to the first generation of scientists trying to fill that gap in forest ecology. He has authored several dozen papers devoted to the complex processes involved in mast years and the impact of climate change on tree reproduction. He has described, for instance, the way in which global warming changes the patterns of seed production in the common beech, showing that more and more seeds are now destroyed by insects or fail to be pollinated at all, which may endanger the natural processes of forest regeneration. The common beech is one of the most important forest-forming species, of key importance to ecosystems and the forest economy.

Despite his relatively short career (he earned his PhD degree in 2017 and his habilitation in 2020), Bogdziewicz is already a scientist of international renown and has published several dozen articles in top research journals (e.g. PNAS, Nature Plants, Current Biology, Ecology Letters).

He is a winner of a Starting Grant of the European Research Council and five NCN grants, and scholarships from the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). He has completed a number of foreign research fellowships. He is also a winner of the Poznań Research Award. In the spring of 2022, he became the first Polish researcher to receive the Tansley Medal for outstanding researchers in the early stages of their career, one of the world’s most prestigious awards warded to biologists who study plants. He was nominated for the NCN Award by five different scientists.

The Winner of NCN Award 2022 in Life Sciences – movie

The right path

Piotr Wcisło, fot. Daniel LisakPiotr Wcisło, fot. Daniel Lisak When he found out he won, Professor Piotr Wcisło did “what any physicist would do” – he looked at the statistics. “In Poland, we have a really strong community of young scientists. Formally, it is twice as easy to win an ERC grant as an NCN Award. And what’s more, you can’t even apply for the latter yourself”, he says. And then he adds that awards are important in any research career. “Our work often involves wading through the morass of intellectual failure, lost grants, and organizational pitfalls, but awards like this remind us that we have chosen the right path”.

He 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. “The standard school curriculum does not even cover the basics of quantum physics, so what I do may seem rather abstract to most audiences”, the winner says.

Wcisło developed a new experimental method of searching for dark matter, which uses high-precision laser spectroscopy based on optical atomic clock technology. He also encouraged other centres that have such clocks to create a global network of these detectors. In cooperation with partners from the USA, France and Japan, the global observatory has already conducted its first observations.

As stated in his nomination, Professor Piotr Wcisło “has boldly stepped beyond the traditional approaches to testing the standard model and searching for a new physics”. “I use cutting-edge laser systems and other instruments, e.g. vacuum and cryogenic technologies, to test quantum theory. By relying on the capabilities of modern lasers, we can make high-precision observations of molecular and atomic structure”, he explains. His lab has been creating a brand new laser system, in which current spectroscopy techniques will are used at deep cryogenic temperatures, which may dramatically improve the accuracy of measurements of the structure of a hydrogen molecule.

Wcisło has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the American Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics; he has also been a Fulbright fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. He has won multiple awards and prizes, such as e.g. the Prime Minister’s Award for his PhD dissertation, the award of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for research achievements, the scholarship of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young researchers, and an award for outstanding research of the Polish Academy of Science. He has served as a principal investigator under five NCN grants, MNiSW and NAWA projects. He has also held a FNP scholarship.

The Winner of NCN Award 2022 in Physical Sciences and Engineering – movie

In 2022, the NCN Awards were given out for the tenth time in their history.

The NCN Award is given to researchers under the age of 40 with a substantial record in the field of basic research, as documented by publications affiliated with Polish research centres. The main criterion in the selection process is scientific excellence and international recognition in the field.

Candidates may be former winners of NCN grants, as well as people who have never run a project funded by the agency.

Only those born in 1981 and later were eligible for a nomination this year. Each winner will receive a prize of 50,000 zlotys. The nomination and selection procedure was described in Coming up: NCN Award 2022.

The NCN Award was given out under the patronage of Nauka w Polsce PAP and Forum Akademickie.

In November and December, the winners will deliver a series of popular science lectures, which will also be streamed live as part of the "Nauka w Centrum" [“Science in the Centre”] series on the YouTube channel of the Copernicus Centre for Interdisciplinary Research. The 2020 and 2021 lectures were watched by 70,000 viewers.

Winners of scholarships for young researchers from Ukraine

Mon, 10/10/2022 - 12:23
Kod CSS i JS

22 students and entry-level researchers will now continue their studies and research projects in Poland. We have selected the winners of a programme targeted at students and PhD students looking for refuge in Poland, which is funded from the EEA and Norway Grants.

The scholarships will go to fifteen female and seven male entry-level researchers. Before the war, most studied or did their research in Kyiv and Kharkiv. They will now continue their studies, write their MA theses and work on their PhD dissertations in cities such as Warsaw, Poznań, Lublin, Rzeszów, Szczecin and Olsztyn.

Przemysław Makarowicz and Olga Zaitseva, private photoPrzemysław Makarowicz and Olga Zaitseva, private photo The largest group among the recent winners is interested in the past: history, archaeology, ethnology and cultural anthropology (HS3 panel). Olga Zaitseva is an archaeologist from the Borys Hrinchenko Kyiv University. Before the war, she was working on a PhD dissertation about the evolution of pottery in the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. She previously took part in an excavation carried out within the framework of an NCN project entitled “Continuity and change. Barrow culture communities in the Upper Dniester River Basin in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE in the light of multidisciplinary research”, led by Professor Przemysław Makarowicz from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. “Last year, we carried out non-invasive research and excavations at a barrow burial site in Volitsa, in the Ternopil oblast”, Makarowicz explains. When the war broke out, his team drove to the Ukrainian-Romanian border to collect Olga Zaitseva and her children. Thanks to the NCN scholarship, Zaitseva will now be able to continue working on her PhD and study cutting-edge non-invasive investigation techniques, which she will later introduce at her home institution. The Faculty of Archaeology of the Adam Mickiewicz University is equipped with advanced non-invasive research devices, such as magnetometers, a georadar, drones, a total station and a lab with a set of microscopes. Training in the use of this equipment is provided by Professor Makarowicz’s team. “Non-invasive methods are still rarely used in Ukrainian archaeology, so I hope to draw on what I learn here to promote their use in archaeological research in my country”, says Zaitseva. She stays in touch with her home university. “We hold regular online meetings to discuss ideas and create future research and teaching strategies for our faculty”, she adds.

Iryna Miedviedieva, private photoIryna Miedviedieva, private photo Before the war, Iryna Miedviedieva worked at the Institute of Carpathian Ecology in Lviv, writing a PhD dissertation about the parasites that live on spruce trees. At the same time, she was involved in a variety of environmental projects and educational campaigns in the field of bird conservation. She is a birdwatcher focused on wetland ecosystems, as well as a professional nature photographer. “Her activities take on a special importance in an era that has witnessed a mass extinction of species due to environmental changes fuelled by growing human population pressure”, says Professor Ewa Węgrzyn from the University of Rzeszów. In June, Miedviedieva completed an unpaid internship with a team of ornithologists led by Węgrzyn, during which she took part in lab and field work. “Thanks to the team’s experience, I can learn about different research methods used to study bird song and plumage colouring. I will carry these skills over to my future research on Ukrainian avian fauna”, says the winner of the NCN scholarship.

The young researcher also made a lot of connections with Ukrainian zoologists, which allowed the team at the University of Rzeszów to collect updated information. “We are working with Iryna on a joint research paper devoted to the impact of the Russian aggression on the precious Ukrainian fauna, which includes many rare and protected animal species”, explains Professor Węgrzyn. In winter, Miedviedieva will join the Polish team in another bird research project in the field. “We hope this will lead to more joint publications”, adds the research project advisor.

Besides all this, Miedviedieva continues working on her PhD dissertation about the parasites of the spruce tree. “I had collected my data in Ukraine before the war broke out and before I moved to Poland”, she says. In her free time, she is also working on an atlas of birds living in the area around Rzeszów.

Olga Dushna, private photoOlga Dushna, private photo Olga Dushna will divide her time between the University of Warsaw and her home institution, the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. In Warsaw, she will do research under the mentorship of Professor Ewa Bulska, Director of the Biological and Chemical Research Centre. The two universities, Polish and Ukrainian, have already worked together for a long time. In July, invited by Professor Bulska, Dushna attended a summer school in analytical chemistry, metrology and accreditation in Chęciny. She will now take part in a pilot study entitled The diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 using the chemical analysis of dried blood spots by means of the LA-ICM-MS technique. “As a chemical scientist, I want to learn new sampling methods, such as dried spot sampling and LA-ICP-MS analysis. As a researcher, I wish to contribute to science, especially medicine, and in particular to the advancement of SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics”, says Dushna.

Scientists suspect that the body’s immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination or infection may alter the metabolism of certain biologically essential elements, such as iron, selenium, zinc, and copper. “We have collected a large set of dried blood spots from antibody screening tests and we want to see how strongly the concentration of these elements in the blood correlates with SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels. To do so, we will use the laser ablation micro-sampling technique”, explains Professor Bulska. Researchers will then turn to advanced statistical tools to determine any correlations between the blood levels of selected elements and SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, i.e. the body’s immune response to the coronavirus. “If we find any such correlations, we might be able to determine a patient’s immune response based on the chemical elements in their blood”, she adds.

The scholarships for Ukrainian students and entry-level researchers are funded from the EEA and Norway Grants under the Bilateral Cooperation Fund. Their total budget is 1.2 million zlotys. The terms and conditions of the programme have been approved by the donors: the programme’s partner, the Research Council of Norway and the Joint Committee for Bilateral Fund (JCBF).

New scholarship winners hail from 14 different universities and research centres. They will be hosted by 16 Polish institutions.

Full list of institutions

Winners will receive their scholarships for 6 to 12 months. The maximum level of monthly funding candidates could apply for was 5,000 PLN per one student or researcher.

This is not the first NCN initiative targeted at the Ukrainian academic and research community. As many as 111 experienced researchers have already benefited from our previous programmes.

Invitation to the EOSC Festival – the National Tripartite Event Poland

Fri, 10/07/2022 - 08:20
Kod CSS i JS

The National Science Centre invites to the EOSC Festival – the National Tripartite Event Poland, which will be held under the theme Open Science for Better Science in Cracow and online, 24-26 October 2022.

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is an environment for hosting and processing research data to support EU science. The NCN acts as a Polish mandated organisation for the EOSC Association.

Registration for participants


The EOSC Festival is intended to:

  • introduce the EOSC Partnership
  • enhance the national coordination and dialogue between key EOSC stakeholders;
  • engage with researchers, service providers, policy-makers, science clusters and the projects included on the Polish Map of Research Infrastructures;
  • increase EOSC’s visibility in the country;
  • inform the national research community about the EOSC projects and their outcomes that serve the better science;
  • collect and communicate the EOSC-relevant best practice examples in the area of infrastructures, services and tools and skills and competences.

Overview of the agenda:

Monday, 24th October: EOSC and Open Science Policy // 10:00-16.25 CEST // hybrid

RECORDING OF THE LIVE STREAM

  • Welcome and introduction
  • The Tripartite EOSC collaboration from the perspective of each Party
  • EOSC and Open Science Policy Development in Poland: objectives and challenges
  • Implementation of Open Science in Poland in the context of EOSC development in Europe – Panel discussion

Tuesday, 25th October: EOSC and Open Science in Practice // 10:00-15.00 CEST // online

RECORDING OF THE LIVE STREAM

  • Welcome and introduction to the second day
  • Funding for Open Science
  • Infrastructures

Wednesday, 26th October: EOSC and Open Science in Practice// 10:00-15.00 CEST // online

LIVE STREAM

  • Welcome and introduction to the third day
  • Skills and competencies
  • Tools and services

POLONEZ BIS 2 – decisions after the first stage of evaluation

Fri, 10/07/2022 - 07:50
Kod CSS i JS

Decisions for the POLONEZ BIS 2 proposals that have not been qualified for the second stage of evaluation were sent out on 7 October 2022.

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@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@ncn.gov.pl.

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

More than 1.1 million zlotys in funding for a Polish research team

Wed, 10/05/2022 - 15:00
Kod CSS i JS

A Polish research team is among the winners of a call organized by CHIST-Era European Coordinated Research on Long-term Challenges in Information and Communication Sciences & Technologies. The scientists will receive more than 1.1 million zlotys in funding for their international project, entitled Interventions against Polarisation in Society for TRUSTworthy Social Media: from Diagnosis to Therapy, headed and coordinated by Dr hab. Katarzyna Budzyńska from the Warsaw University of Technology.

The CHIST-ERA CALL 2021 covered the following research areas:

  1. Nano-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems for ICT (NOEMS);
  2. Foundations for Misbehaviour Detection and Mitigation Strategies in Online Social Networks and Media (OSNEM).

All the international research projects funded under the scheme are scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The purpose of CHIST-ERA is to support research in Information and Communication Science and Technologies (ICST). Thus far, the network has launched 12 international calls for proposals bringing together teams from different member countries. The National Science Centre joined the consortium in 2013.

A new call, CHIST-ERA ORD, is currently taking in proposals for international research projects related to open and re-usable research data and software (CHIST-ERA Call Open & Re-usable Research Data & Software). Funding is available to international consortia composed of at least three research teams from a minimum of three different countries. The principal investigator in the Polish team must hold a PhD degree. The deadline is 14 December. More details can be found in the official call announcement.

In November, CHIST-ERA is planning to announce yet another call, CHIST-ERA Call 2022, devoted to the following issues:

  • Security and Privacy in Decentralised and Distributed Systems (SPiDDS);
  • Machine Learning-based Communication Systems, towards Wireless AI (WAI).

Coming up: NCN Award 2022

Thu, 09/29/2022 - 14:20
Kod CSS i JS

The winners of NCN Award 2022 will be announced on 12 October. The award is the most prestigious distinction conferred on young researchers working in Polish research centres.

The NCN Award is given to researchers under the age of 40 with a substantial record in the field of basic research, documented by publications affiliated with Polish research centres. The award is given in three groups of disciplines: Art, Humanities, and Social Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST), and Life Sciences (NZ), and the main criterion in the selection process is scientific excellence and international recognition.

10th NCN Award

The award has been given out annually since 2013. “This is one of our most important projects. Thanks to the consolidated position that the NCN enjoys in Polish science, the award  comes with a lot of prestige, the competition is strong, and the distinction really goes to very good researchers”, says professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Center.

Past winners include eight researchers who have previously won grants from the European Research Council (ERC). For the first time in 2021, the NCN Award also went to two foreign researchers working in Poland, professor Sebastian Glatt from the Jagiellonian University and Professor Jonatan Gutman from the Institute of Mathematics, PAS. “Getting the NCN Award was a great honour for me. I continue to research various problems in topological dynamics and ergodic theory and I hope that my new work will win similar recognition”, professor Gutman comments.

650 nominators, 59 candidates

The jury of the NCN Award is made up of NCN Council members and the NCN Director. This year, 650 people were eligible to submit their nominations. These included e.g. previous NCN Award winners, former NCN Council members, and other prominent researchers. Only those born in 1981 and later were eligible for a nomination. The list of nominees included 59 researchers (70 nominations in total were submitted, but some candidates were nominated by more than one person).

Each nominator may nominate one candidate only. An important condition is that the two have not cooperated, taken part in joint endeavours, or published a paper together in the past 5 years. They should not have any family or professional connections, and the candidate must not be a former PhD student or a PhD holder who earned the degree under the supervision of the nominator.

Equal opportunity

Thus far, most winners have been men. This has not escaped the attention of the NCN Director and the NCN Council. “With the past several years in mind, in the spirit of levelling the playing field for male and female researchers, we will be immensely grateful if you take that criterion into account when picking your candidate for the NCN Award”, wrote professor Jacek Kuźnicki, President of the NCN Council, in his letter to the scientists eligible to submit nominations.

The winners of this year’s award will be announced on 12 October in the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art in Sukiennice (branch of the National Museum in Kraków). In November and December, they will deliver a series of popular science lectures, which will also be streamed live.

PRELUDIUM BIS 4

Kod CSS i JS

The National Science Centre (the “NCN”) hereby launches the PRELUDIUM BIS 4 call for research projects addressed at institutions operating doctoral schools. The objective of the call is to support PhD student education in doctoral schools and fund research projects carried out by PhD students as part of their doctoral dissertations. The project budget under PRELUDIUM BIS 4 may cover funds for research up to 300,000 PLN, doctoral scholarships and indirect costs. Under the call, research projects carried out over a period of 36 or 48 months will be funded.

PRELUDIUM BIS 4 supports international mobility of PhD students through foreign fellowships carried out over a period of 3 to 6 months and funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange (the “NAWA”).

The call budget is 30,000,000 PLN.

Proposals may be submitted solely electronically via OSF, available at https://osf.opi.org.pl, in compliance with the proposal submission procedure.

The call for proposals in OSF is open until 15 December 2022, 4 p.m..

The call results will be announced by the end of May 2023.

Please read the call documents provided in this announcement.

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The most important changes to PRELUDIUM BIS

  1. A single stage merit-based evaluation.
  2. Call results announced within 5 months of the end date of the call for proposals.  
  3. Change of the project funding amount up to 300,000 PLN for the entire project performance period, with an exception of the doctoral scholarship costs.
  4. A PhD student carrying out the project may only be changed once.

Who may apply for funding?

Proposals in the call may be submitted by institutions operating doctoral schools laid down in Article 198 (3) and 198 (4) of the Act on Higher Education and Science of 20 July 2018 as well as institutions jointly operating doctoral schools pursuant to Article 198 (5) of the same Act, for which project funding will NOT constitute state aid. An entity that is under receivership, in liquidation or subject to bankruptcy proceedings cannot be an applicant.

Who may act as the principal investigator?

A person who meets the requirements of a research supervisor laid down in Article 190 of the Act on Higher Education and Science on the end date of the call for proposals and is the research supervisor of the PhD student operating the project may act as the principal investigator in a project submitted to the call.

One cannot be a principal investigator of more than two research projects funded under PRELUDIUM BIS at the same time.

Are there any restrictions on submitting proposals for research projects under NCN calls?

Restrictions on submitting proposals are detailed in Chapter III of the Regulations on awarding funding for the implementation of research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects.

In a given edition of the calls, the same person may be named as the principal investigator in one proposal only, i.e. in this edition of NCN calls, the same person may be named as the principal investigator only in an OPUS proposal, OPUS LAP proposal, PRELUDIUM BIS proposal or SONATA proposal.

Please note: A proposals covering research tasks overlapping tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier may only be submitted after the funding decision has become final.

What are the topics covered by the call?

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of 25 NCN panels comprising three groups:

  • HS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences;
  • ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering; and
  • NZ – Life Sciences.

Please note: Proposals are reviewed within panels to which they have been submitted (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. The panel cannot be changed once the proposal has been submitted. If an incorrect panel is selected, the proposal may be rejected.

What is the project duration period?

Under the call, funding may be requested for research projects to be carried out over the period of 36 months or 48 months.

Are there any restrictions on the size of the research team?

The research team includes the principal investigator (PhD student’s research supervisor) and the PhD student. Research projects under the PRELUDIUM BIS call will be carried out by PhD students selected in a call conducted by a committee formed by the head of the host institution for the project acting as the applicant. The call is open to all those who are not PhD holders and are not doctoral school students. PhD students participating in a PRELUDIUM BIS project must be awarded a PhD degree within 12 months of project completion.

A PRELUDIUM BIS 4 project must be carried out by PhD students as part of their doctoral dissertations.

Please note: A one-off change of a PhD student in the PRELUDIUM BIS project is allowed, provided that:

  1. he/she be elected in a call conducted by the end of the first year of project performance according to the above terms,
  1. the host institution ensure payment of the PRELUDIUM BIS doctoral scholarship for the entire period of PhD student’s education, in the amount and on terms and conditions laid down in the Regulations.

How should the project budget be planned?

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research and must be based on reasonable calculations.

The project budget includes direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

  1. scholarships for PhD students: 5,000 PLN per month (up to the month of the mid-term evaluation of PhD students at the doctoral school), 6,000 PLN (after the month of the mid-term evaluation of PhD students at the doctoral school);

PhD students receiving PRELUDIUM BIS doctoral scholarships must not receive scholarship support or other remuneration granted under the heading of direct costs from other NCN-funded research projects, with an exception of principal investigator’s salary under PRELUDIUM.

  1. funding for the principal investigator: up to 40,000 PLN for the project performance period (this amount may be designated for principal investigator’s salary and other project costs);
  2. purchase of materials and small equipment;
  3. outsourced services;
  4. business trips, visits and consultations;
  5. compensation for collective investigators and
  6. other costs crucial to the project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

Funding for research under PRELUDIUM BIS shall not exceed 300,000 PLN (including 40,000 PLN for the principal investigator). Furthermore, the project budget includes the cost of scholarships for PhD students and indirect costs.

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 implementation, the host institution will agree with the principal investigator the coverage of a minimum of 25% of the indirect costs.

Funds for the purchase or construction of research equipment, devices and software must not be planned in the project.

The mandatory foreign fellowships will be funded by the NAWA. PhD students funded under PRELUDIUM BIS 4  will have to submit foreign fellowship funding proposals to the NAWA no later than 6 months before the fellowship. For more information on the terms of foreign fellowship funding, go to Annex to the Cooperation Agreement between the NCN and the NAWA.

Please note: The costs of publication of monographs resulting from research projects (as defined in §10 of the Regulation on the 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) may be incurred following a positive review by the NCN.

When drafting the budget, one must comply with the rules concerning project costs, including costs of salaries and scholarships laid down in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

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

Open access publication of research results

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted an “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:

  1. publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
  2. 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;
  3. publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

For more on open access publication, go here

Proposal form

Information that must be provided in the proposal:

PLEASE NOTE: The following information must be provided in English!

  1. basic information on the proposal and host institution for the project (also in Polish)
  2. project description (up to 4,500 characters);
  3. details of the principal investigator, including information on his/her academic and research career and research experience as well as 1-10 papers published in the proposal submission year and over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year; for research in art, 1-10 most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art in the proposal submission year and over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year. This period may be extended in specific cases;
  4. description of research planned under the project carried out as part of doctoral dissertation, including the scientific goal, significance of the project, general concept and work plan, research methodology and project literature applicable to the subject of the project (no more than 5 pages, A4);
  5. information on the foreign fellowship of the PhD student, including place and date thereof as well as justification for choosing the research centre;
  6. work plan (also in Polish);
  7. abstract for the general public (also in Polish);
  8. information on the ethical aspects of the project, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the project pursuant to generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline;
  9. data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project; and
  10. project budget.

PRELUDIUM BIS PROPOSAL FORM

Can proposals in this call include an application for state aid?

Institutions for which funding would constitute state aid cannot participate in the PRELUDIUM BIS 4 call.

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation. Eligibility check is carried out by the scientific coordinators. Only complete proposals that meet all requirements of the call announcement are recommended for merit-based evaluation.

Proposals approved as eligible are subject to a SINGLE-STAGE merit-based evaluation.

The merit-based evaluation is be performed by the Expert Team set up by the NCN, based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto. Each proposal is evaluated by THREE members of the Expert Team acting independently. Proposals which are assigned at least one auxiliary review panel indicating disciplines from another NCN panels than the one to which they are submitted may be identified by the Chair of the Expert Team as requiring an additional individual review by a member of another the Expert Team (interdisciplinary proposals).

Then, based on the discussions of individual reviews, a ranking list of proposals identifying proposals recommended for funding is drafted by the Expert Team at the first meeting.

Additional information on the proposal evaluation procedure can be found in the Detailed procedure of evaluating proposals by Expert Teams.

Please note: Proposals are reviewed within panels to which they have been submitted (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. The panel cannot be changed once the proposal has been submitted. Auxiliary review panels support the selection of experts and reviewers for merit-based evaluation of proposals. In the case of interdisciplinary proposals, the Chair of the Expert Team may decide to seek a second review of an expert from another panel.

What is reviewed in the evaluation of proposals?

The evaluation of proposals shall focus in particular on:

  1. compliance with the criterion of basic research;
  2. the quality and innovative nature of the research or tasks to be performed;
  3. the impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
  4. assessment of the feasibility of the proposed project;
  5. the scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/journals;
  6. assessment of the results of other research projects conducted by the principal investigator, funded by the NCN or from other sources;
  7. the relevance of the costs to be incurred with regards to the subject and scope of the research and
  8. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements set forth in the call announcement.

The proposal evaluation criteria are available HERE.

Please note: Proposals with a zero score or “no” decision agreed by the Expert Team in any reviewed criterion cannot be recommended for funding. The foregoing does not apply to the data management evaluation criterion or ethics issues evaluation criterion.

Who performs the merit-based evaluation of proposals?

Proposals are reviewed within the panels (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). Experts are selected by the NCN Council from among outstanding Polish and foreign researchers, holding at least a PhD degree. Expert Teams are established for each call edition. The composition of the Expert Team is subject to the number and subjects of proposals submitted to each panel.

When and how will the results be announced?

The call results will be published on the NCN’s website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision by the NCN Director within 5 months of the proposal submission deadline, by May 2023 at the latest.

More information

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by email: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone:

Useful information

If you plan to submit a proposal in the PRELUDIUM BIS 4 call, please read:

  1. the documents included in the call announcement, in particular:
  2. obtain data from the host institution for the project that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (cost planned in the project, procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal); and
  3. prepare acceptance letters from publishers confirming that the work has been accepted for publication (when the publication track record section includes research papers accepted for publication that have not been published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

  1. make sure that all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. The verification of the proposal for completeness in OSF by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
  2. make sure that all tabs have been completed in the correct language;
  3. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
  4. download and sign the confirmation of submitting the proposal in the call – the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the institution; and
  5. attach the confirmation of submitting the proposal with a signature.

Once the proposal is completed and all the required annexes attached, use the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button to submit the proposal to the NCN electronically via the OSF system.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

  1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out;
  2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision by the NCN Director shall be delivered;
  3. if the proposal is qualified for funding, a funding agreement  will be entered into; and
  4. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on the implementation of research projects, fellowships and scholarships.

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 must be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision

NCN invites foreign researchers to Poland – the last POLONEZ BIS call is under way

Tue, 09/27/2022 - 08:25
Kod CSS i JS

For researchers, it is an opportunity to develop their careers, for host institutions  - to strengthen and internationalise their teams. This is the third invitation for  scientists living abroad to carry out 24-month long research projects in Polish host institutions under the POLONEZ BIS programme.

Co-funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND grant, the POLONEZ BIS programme is addressed to foreign researchers, regardless of their nationality, topic or research discipline. The call is addressed to researchers who hold a PhD degree or have at least 4 years of full-time equivalent research experience and who have not lived, studied or been employed in Poland for an uninterrupted period of over 12 months within 3 years prior to the call launch.  - Attracting talented scientists to come to Poland is one of the main goals of the programme - says Jolanta Palowska from the NCN International Cooperation Department.

The programme guarantees successful Fellows full time employment and social security funding with the monthly salary of € 4,465 (before payroll deductions) as well as an additional research grant up to € 100 000. – POLONEZ BIS is not an ordinary grant – emphasises Jolanta Palowska. – It is a comprehensive programme that integrates research, short-term secondments in non-academic institutions and soft skills training.

Proposals are submitted jointly by the applicants and selected host institution - their prospective employers in Poland. All legal entities with a registered office in Poland are eligible as fellowship host institutions. This includes: research centres, universities, scientific libraries, museums, NGOs, hospitals and enterprises. In addition to strengthening their teams, host institutions also receive a 20% lump sum to cover indirect project management costs.   

303 researchers from all continents applied in the first two calls of the POLONEZ BIS programme. The first call boasted the success rate of 33% and funded 50 research projects. The evaluation of proposals submitted in the second call is currently under way.

The first POLONEZ BIS Fellows have already arrived in Poland. Their projects will range from the use of microfibers for supervised bone regeneration, through the role of metaphors in shaping language and communication, to the study of  “Alien rule” i.e. the mechanisms used by ants to adapt to environmental conditions. The full list of all projects awarded  in the POLONEZ BIS Call 1 can be found on the National Science Centre website.

The deadline to submit proposals in the third and last POLONEZ BIS call is 15 December 2022. If you would like to learn more about the POLONEZ BIS offer, register for dedicated webinars: for host institutions on 11 October (in Polish) and for applicants on 18 October (in English).   

For more information on the POLONEZ BIS programme, visit the official website and social media profile

OPUS 24

Kod CSS i JS

15 September 2022

The National Science Centre (NCN) has launched the OPUS 24 call for research projects. OPUS 24 is open to proposals for research projects carried out in international bilateral or trilateral cooperation under the Weave Programme as well as projects carried out with the use of large international research equipment by the Polish research teams. The call is addressed at researchers at all stages of their academic careers, who are planning research projects:

The call budget is 350,000,000 PLN.

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system available at https://osf.opi.org.pl, in compliance with the proposal submission procedure.

Proposals may be submitted to the OSF submission system by 15 December 2022, 4 p.m. 

Please note: OPUS LAP proposals drafted by a Polish research team in cooperation with foreign research teams must be submitted to the NCN via the OSF submission system by 15 December 2022, at 4 p.m.. Each foreign research team involved in the project must also submit a funding proposal, including a set of required documents, to its respective research-funding agency, by the date and in accordance with the terms and conditions specified thereby. Proposals are submitted by:

  • research teams from Austria: to the FWF;
  • research teams the Czech Republic: to the GAČR;
  • research teams from Slovenia: to the ARRS;
  • research teams from Germany: to the DFG;
  • research teams from Switzerland: to the SNSF;
  • research teams from Luxembourg: to the FNR; and
  • research teams from Belgium-Flanders: to the FWO.

The call results will be announced as follows:

OPUS proposals OPUS LAP proposals

within 6 months of the proposal submission date

 

by the end of June 2023 at the latest

within 11 months of the proposal submission date, depending on the date the evaluation is approved by the partner institutions from other countries

 

by the end of November 2023 at the latest

Call timeline for OPUS LAP proposals:

  • with the participation of foreign research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders: end of July 2023
  • with the participation of foreign research teams from Germany: end of October 2023

Please, read the call documents provided in this announcement.

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Eligible applicants

Proposals in the call may be submitted by entities specified in the NCN Act, i.e.:

  1. universities;
  2. federations of science and HE entities;
  3. 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);
  4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383, as amended);
  5. international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating 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 of 2020, item 2098);

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network;

  1. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences;
  2. other institutions involved in research independently on a continuous basis;
  3. groups of entities comprising at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-9 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company;
  4. scientific and industrial centres within the meaning of the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383, as amended);
  5. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences within the meaning of the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796);
  6. scientific libraries;
  7. companies operating as R&D centres within the meaning of the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovative Activity of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 706);
  8. legal entities with registered office in Poland;

13a.President of the Central Office of Measures

  1. natural persons and
  2. companies conducting research in another organisational form than laid down in sections 1-13.

Which proposal should be submitted (OPUS or OPUS LAP)?

Who may act as a principal investigator?

A person (whether or not holding a PhD degree) whose scientific achievements include at least one research paper published or accepted for publication may act as a principal investigator. In the case of research in the arts, the principal investigator must have at least one paper published or accepted for publication or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art completed. The proposal should include artistic work and/or achievements covering the period of the last 10 years before the proposal submission year (as of 2012). In specific cases, this period can be extended.

In the case of OPUS LAP proposals, a principal investigator of each research team involved in the project must be specified, i.e., two principal investigators in the case of bilateral cooperation and three in the case of trilateral cooperation, including principal investigator for the Polish research team and principal investigator(s) for the foreign research team(s).

Please note: A narrative CV is available from this edition of the call. We recommend using the annexed (optional) template of the principal investigator’s academic and research track record.

Please note: The principal investigator for the Polish research team must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution for the project. The foregoing obligation does not apply to evidenced project-related business trips or holiday, time off work and other absence from work governed by the applicable laws.

Furthermore, the principal investigator for the Polish research team must be employed at the host institution for the Polish part of the research project for the entire project duration period pursuant to at least a part-time employment contract. The employment requirement does not apply to persons receiving pension under the social insurance scheme.

What is the Weave Programme?

The Weave Programme relies on multilateral cooperation between the research-funding institutions associated in Science Europe and is aimed at simplifying the proposal submission and evaluation procedure concerning multilateral international research projects. The Programme follows the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) which is a new proposal review standard adopted by European research-funding institutions, designed to make it easier for international research teams to seek funding for joint research projects, as well as to streamline the process of proposal review by research-funding institutions. The procedure rests on the following key principles:

  • the use of domestic calls carried out by partner agencies to perform merit-based evaluation of domestic as well as international bilateral and multilateral proposals, which compete on equal terms with national proposals;
  • a basis of trust in the quality of peer review among institutions undertaking such cooperation.

This allows for funding proposals for joint projects that involve at least two research teams from different countries to conduct joint research to be reviewed only at one institution, known as the lead agency, relevant to one of the teams, under a scheme from its regular call portfolio. The results of merit-based evaluation performed by the lead agency are approved by all the other institutions co-launching the call, which then award funding to research projects recommended for funding in the course of such evaluation.

In the case of OPUS 24, the LAP cooperation is possible under the Weave Programme cooperation between the NCN and:

  • FWF – Austrian Science Fund;
  • GAČR – Czech Science Foundation;
  • ARRS – Slovenian Research Agency;
  • DFG – German Research Foundation;
  • SNSF – Swiss National Science Foundation;
  • FNR - Luxembourg National Research Fund;
  • FWO - Research Foundation – Flanders.

The Polish research team is the coordinating applicant that submits OPUS LAP proposals to the NCN. The NCN as the lead agency under OPUS 24 will perform the merit-based evaluation of OPUS LAP funding proposals for research projects to be carried out by research teams from Poland, as well as the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders.

In the future, the NCN cooperation is to be extended by other research-funding institutions participating in the Weave Programme which has replaced NCN’s bilateral international cooperation programmes with Germany (BEETHOVEN), Austria (MOZART), Switzerland (ALPHORN) and multilateral cooperation programme (CEUS).

Please note: Proposals for research projects carried out in bilateral or trilateral cooperation between research teams from Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders in which the FWF, GAČR, DFG, ARRS, SNSF, FNR and FWO act as the lead agency can be submitted under the Weave-UNISONO call.

Please note: Under OPUS 24, international cooperation is not required and proposals involving cooperation with foreign partners will not be given preferential treatment over proposals that involve no such cooperation.

Are there any restrictions on submitting proposals for research projects under NCN calls?

Restrictions on submitting proposals are detailed in Chapter III of the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects.

One may be specified as the principal investigator in one proposal only which means that in the present edition of NCN calls, one may be specified as the principal investigator in an OPUS proposal, OPUS LAP proposal, PRELUDIUM BIS proposal or SONATA proposal only once.

Please note: Proposals covering research tasks overlapping tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier may only be submitted after the funding decision has become final.

What are the topics covered by the call?

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of 25 NCN panels within three areas:

  • HS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences;
  • ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering;
  • NZ – Life Sciences.

Please note: Proposals shall be reviewed within the panels to which they have been submitted (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator shall select the panel. The panel cannot be changed once the proposal has been submitted. If an incorrect panel is selected, proposals may be rejected.

What is the project’s duration?

Projects submitted to the call can be carried out over the period of:

OPUS proposals OPUS LAP proposals
  • 12 months
  • 24 months
  • 36 months
  • 48 months
  • cooperation with research partner from Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders:
    • 24 months
    • 36 months
    • 48 months
  • cooperation with research partners from Germany or the Czech Republic:
    • 24 months
    • 36 months

Please note:

  • No trilateral cooperation between Poland, the Czech Republic and Belgium.
  • Project duration must be the same (if possible) or as similar as possible for all research teams involved in the project.

 

What type of positions are held by the research team members?

Apart from the principal investigators, research tasks in the projects may also be performed by co-investigators, including students, PhD students, post-docs and senior researchers.

Please note: Senior researchers must not be involved in research projects covered by OPUS-LAP proposals.

A post-doc type post is a full-time post, scheduled by the project’s principal investigator for a person who has been conferred a PhD degree within 7 years before 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 person employed as a post-doc must have been conferred a PhD degree by another institution than the one planned to employ them at this post or must have completed a continuous and evidenced post-doctoral fellowship of at least 10 months in another institution than the host institution for the project and in another country than the one in which they have been conferred a PhD degree. A prospective post-doc must be selected in an open call.

PhD students collecting NCN scholarships must be selected in an open call.

A senior researcher position is a full-time employment position co-financed by the host institution to provide employment at this position and scheduled by the principal investigator for a person who has been conferred a PhD degree at least 7 years before the proposal submission date, has completed a foreign fellowship(s) and has expertise, unique competencies, and experience necessary to perform the tasks in the project. The terms that need to be met by a senior researcher are laid down in the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research project.

The rationale of involvement of individual members of the research teams in the project shall be evaluated by the Expert Team. The proposal must include the description of competencies and tasks of individual members of the research team. Detailed information on the costs of salaries and scholarships can be found in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

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

How should the Polish project budget be planned?

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research and based on realistic calculations. In the OPUS call, the NCN has not set a maximum or minimum amount of the project budget. If an unjustified budget is planned, the proposal may be rejected.

Costs in the project include direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

  1. remuneration for the principal investigator: 170,000 PLN per annum if the principal investigator is employed pursuant to a full-time employment contract; otherwise, the principal investigator may be paid up to 3,000 PLN per month.
  2. remuneration for co-investigators in the project:
  • funds for full-time employment of post-doc(s): 140,000 PLN per annum (in well-justified cases this amount may be increased);
  • funds for senior researchers: 70,000 PLN per annum. Please note: Remuneration of a senior researcher must be co-funded by the host institution in the amount of at least 70,000 PLN per annum; no senior researcher position in OPUS LAP proposals,
  • salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students (up to 10,000 PLN per each month of project duration);
  • additional remuneration for members of the research team. If the principal investigator is not employed full-time in the project, his/her remuneration shall be paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;
  1. purchase of research equipment, devices and software;
  2. purchase of material and small equipment;
  3. outsourced services,
  4. business trips, visits and consultations (Please note: For OPUS LAP proposals: the costs of consultations and visits of co-investigators from research institutions that receive parallel project funding from FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG, SNSF, FNR or FWO are not eligible);
  5. compensation for collective investigators, and
  6. other costs crucial to the research project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

Please note: The costs of publication of monographs containing project results (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 costs of open access (OA) of up to 2% of direct costs that may only be spent on open access to publications and research data,
  • other indirect costs of up to 20% of direct costs that may be spent on the costs that are directly related to the project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data,
  • during the project implementation, the host institution shall agree with the principal investigator the coverage of at least 25% of the indirect costs.

If an unjustified budget is planned, the proposal may be rejected.

Please note: An OPUS LAP proposal must contain a budget table listing project costs of all foreign research teams involved in the project, drafted in accordance with the respective rules of the FWF, GAČR, DFG, ARRS, SNSF, FNR and FWO. Choose and complete a budget table section in Excel appropriate for the research team.

The budget must include the costs requested by foreign research teams from the FWF, GAČR, DFG, ARRS, SNSF, FNR and FWO identical with the costs specified in the NCN proposals submitted to the said institutions, as well as justifications for all amounts entered. Foreign project budgets in the budget table shall be subject to merit-based evaluation to verify whether the project costs are justified as regards the subject and scope of research. Please note: If the costs in the budget table are not justified, the proposal may be rejected.

The costs in the budget table must be entered in EUR (budgets of research teams from Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders) and in CZK (budgets of research teams from the Czech Republic) or in CHF (budgets of research teams from Switzerland), according to the following exchange rates:

1 EUR = 4.7244 PLN

1 CZK =0.1922 PLN

1 CHF = 4.8438 PLN

A completed budget table must be annexed to OPUS LAP proposals.

Please note: In the case of OPUS LAP proposals, research projects carried out by the Polish research teams as of 2024 may be planned in the OSF system.

Detailed information and examples of the budget table can be found in the Guidelines for Polish research teams submitting OPUS LAP proposals.

Open Access publication of research results

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted an “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:

  1. Publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
  2. 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;
  3. Publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry). 

More information on open access publication can be found here (as amended).

Proposal form

Information to be provided in the proposals:

Please note: The information below must be provided in English.

OPUS proposals OPUS LAP proposals

1. Information on the principal investigator, including:

  • information on his/her academic and research career and research experience, as well as 1-10 papers; for research in art, 1-10 most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art;
  • information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls or under other national and international calls;

in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable career breaks);

1. Information on the principal investigators (principal investigator for the Polish research team and principal investigator(s) for the foreign research team(s)), including:

  • information on his/her academic and research career and research experience, as well as 1-10 papers; for research in art, 1-10 most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art;
  • information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls or under other national and international calls;

    in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable career breaks);

2. key information on the proposal and host institution for the project (also in Polish);

2. key information on the proposal and host institutions for the project (information for Polish entities also in Polish);

3. work plan (also in Polish)m);

3. work plan including research tasks planned for the Polish research team (also in Polish) and for each foreign research team involved in the project;

4. information on the scope of work carried out by the co-investigators in the project;

4. information on the scope of work carried out by the co-investigators in the project;

5. summary of the project; 5. summary of the project;
6. abstract for the general public (also in Polish); 6. abstract for the general public (also in Polish);
7. short project description with bibliography (up to 5 pages, A4); 7. short project description with bibliography (up to 5 pages, A4);
8. full project description with bibliography (up to 15 pages, A4); 8. full project description with bibliography (up to 15 pages, A4);
9. information on research projects carried out in international cooperation and advantages thereof (required only for projects performed with the use of large international research equipment by the Polish research teams or in cooperation with foreign partners); 9. information on research projects carried out in international cooperation and advantages thereof (required only for projects performed pursuant to the LAP cooperation or with the use of large international research equipment by the Polish research teams or in cooperation with foreign partners);
Please note: The NCN does not require any documents (agreements) confirming the LAP cooperation between Polish and foreign research teams.
10. information on ethical aspects of research 10. information on ethical aspects of research
11. information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project, as required by the proposal; 11. information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project, as required by the proposal;
12. project budget drafted in accordance with the Regulations; 12. Polish project budget drafted in accordance with the Regulations and foreign project budget included in the budget table drafted in accordance with the respective rules of the FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG, SNSF, FNR and FWO.
OPUS PROPOSAL FORM OPUS LAP PROPOSAL FORM

Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?

Proposals in the call may include application for state aid, except where a natural person applies for funding. For more information, please go to the State aid section.

In the case of research projects carried out in a host institution for which project funding constitutes state aid, funds for students and PhD students can only be planned in the form described in the category “salary for students and PhD students” in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

Please note: All documents concerning proposals for state aid shall be signed with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES format.

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

Proposals shall be subject to an eligibility check and merit based-evaluation. Eligibility check shall be carried out by:

OPUS proposals OPUS LAP proposals

NCN coordinators

NCN coordinators and partner institutions, such as FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG, SNSF, FNR and FWO when proposals are submitted by the foreign research teams in accordance with their respective rules.

Only complete proposals that comply with all the requirements set out in the call announcement shall be accepted for merit-based evaluation.

Please note: Under OPUS 24, OPUS LAP proposals shall be evaluated together with other proposals submitted to the call.

Proposals approved as eligible shall be subject to merit-based evaluation performed in two stages:

Stage I: Evaluation by the Expert Team formed by the NCN, based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description. Individual reviews are drafted by two members of the Expert Team acting independently. In the case of a proposal which is assigned an auxiliary NCN Review Panel specifying disciplines covered by NCN review panels other than the one to which the proposal was submitted, the Chair of the Expert Team may decide to seek another opinion from a member of another Expert Team (interdisciplinary proposals).

Then, based on the discussions, a list of proposals recommended for stage II of evaluation is drafted by the Expert Team at the first meeting.

Stage II: Proposals are submitted to at least two external reviewers who make individual reviews based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description. Then, based on the reviews of the reviewers and discussions at the second meeting, a ranking short list of proposals recommended for funding is drafted by the Expert Team at the second meeting.

The Expert Team shall recommend only those OPUS LAP proposals for funding that are among 20% of proposals with the highest rank among all those submitted to the OPUS call under individual NCN review panels. Following the merit-based evaluation, the NCN shall provide the relevant partner institutions with information on the results thereof together with a list of research projects recommended for funding for their approval. The NCN Director shall award funding for research projects to be performed by the Polish research teams, provided that the partner institutions award funding to the foreign research teams.

For more information on the proposal evaluation procedure, please go to the Detailed procedure of evaluating proposals by expert teams and in the tutorial video.

Please note: Proposals shall be reviewed within the panels to which they have been submitted (e.g., HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator shall select the panel. The panel cannot be changed once the proposal has been submitted. Auxiliary NCN Review Panels allow to choose experts and reviewers to perform the merit-based evaluation of proposals. The Chair of the Expert Team may decide that interdisciplinary proposals be subject to another review by an expert from another panel.

What is reviewed in the evaluation of proposals?

The evaluation of proposals shall focus, in particular on:

  1. compliance with the criteria of basic research;
  2. quality and innovative nature of research or tasks to be performed;
  3. impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
  4. assessment of the feasibility of the proposed project;
  5. scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals;
  6. assessment of the results of research projects conducted by the principal investigator, funded by the NCN or from other sources;
  7. relevance of the costs to be incurred with regards to the subject and scope of the research and
  8. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements set forth in the call announcement.

The proposal evaluation criteria are available here.

In addition, in the case of OPUS LAP proposals, the following shall be evaluated:

  • a balanced and complementary contribution in the research project by all research teams. This is to say that the contribution of each team involved in the project must be significant and necessary and their respective tasks should complement one another to create a coherent joint research project,
  • academic and research career of foreign principal investigators and
  • completion of other research projects by the principal investigators of foreign research teams.

Please note: Scientific track record, unique competences and expertise of a prospective senior researcher as well as rationale of their employment in the OPUS proposal shall be subject to merit-based evaluation. If the foregoing terms are not met and/or justification is missing, the proposal may be rejected.

Please note: Proposals with a zero score or “no” decision agreed by the Expert Team in any reviewed criterion (except for the data management and ethics issues in research) shall not be recommended for funding.

Who performs the merit-based evaluation of proposals?

Proposals are evaluated in the review panels (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). Experts are selected by the NCN Council from among outstanding Polish and foreign researchers who are at least PhD holders. Expert teams are established for each call edition. The composition of the Expert Team is subject to the number and subjects of proposals submitted to each panel.

When and how will the results be announced?

The call results shall be announced on the NCN’s website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision by the NCN Director as follows:

  OPUS LAP proposals

within 6 months of the deadline for submission of proposals,

by June 2023 at the latest

with the participation of foreign research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders: end of July 2023,

Call timeline for OPUS LAP proposals:

  • with the participation of foreign research teams from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders: end of July 2023
  • with the participation of foreign research teams from Germany: end of October 2023.

Please note: Polish research teams must provide their partner teams involved in the project (co-applicants) with the documents on merit-based evaluation.

Detailed information

 

Please read the information on the NCN's website in the Guidelines for Polish research teams submitting OPUS LAP proposals.

Should you have any more questions, please contact us by e-mail: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone:

Useful information

If you are intending to submit a proposal in the OPUS 24 call:

  1. read all call documents included in the call announcement, in particular:
  1. obtain data from the host institution for the project that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (cost planned in the project, procedure for acquiring signature(s) or authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal);
  2. if the applicant is a group of Polish entities, a research project cooperation agreement must be drafted;
  3. prepare acceptance letters from publishers confirming that the paper has been accepted for publication (when the scientific achievements section includes papers accepted for publication that have not been published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

  1. check if all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. The verification of the proposal for completeness in OSF by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
  2. check if the tabs have been completed in the correct language;
  3. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
  4. download and sign the confirmation of submitting the proposal in the call (principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the entity);

Please note: In the case of OPUS LAP proposals, the NCN does not require any documents (agreements) confirming the LAP cooperation between Polish and foreign research teams, nor does it require OPUS LAP proposals or documents attached thereto to be signed by members of the foreign research teams.

  1. attach the confirmation of submitting the proposal with a signature.

Once the proposal is completed and relevant annexes attached, the proposal shall be submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

In addition, in the case of OPUS LAP proposals, each foreign research team involved in the project must submit a funding proposal, together with a set of required documents, to its respective research funding institution (FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG, SNSF, FNR and FWO) by the date and according to the rules specified thereby. If the partner institution requires applicants to submit a copy of the OPUS LAP proposals to its respective submission system, a complete English language version of the OPUS LAP proposal in PDF format must be generated following submission of the OPUS LAP proposal to the OSF system, and sent to the foreign research team.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

  1. evaluation of proposals shall be carried out;
  2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision by the NCN Director shall be announced;
  3. if the proposal is recommended for funding, an OPUS or OPUS LAP funding agreement shall be entered into;
  4. the project shall be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on the implementation of research projects, fellowships and scholarships. In the case of OPUS LAP proposals, research projects must be performed by the Polish and foreign research teams according to the rules of the NCN and respective partner institutions.

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.

Please read the rules of personal data processing by the NCN. In the case of OPUS LAP proposals, the following partner institutions are joint controllers of personal data:

Data processing information applicable to Weave is available here.

In the case of OPUS LAP proposals with the participation of research teams from Germany, DFG is the data recipient (www.dfg.de/en/service/privacy_policy).

Call documentation

  1. Terms of the OPUS call for proposals  
  2. Rules for research projects carried out under the LAP cooperation
  3. Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects
  4. NCN panels
  5. Regulations on awarding NCN scholarships in NCN-funded research projects
  6. Costs in research projects funded by NCN
  7. OPUS and OPUS LAP proposal form template
  8. Budget table / OPUS LAP proposals
  9. Research project cooperation agreement (compulsory for applicants that are groups of entities)
  10. State aid
  11. Guidelines for Polish research teams submitting OPUS LAP proposals
  12. Guidelines for applicants – how to complete proposals in the OSF submission system
  13. Guidelines for completing the data management plan for a research project
  14. Guidelines for applicants to complete the Ethics Issues form in the research project
  15. NCN Open Access Policy, as amended.
  16. Code of the National Science Centre on research integrity and applying for research funding
  17. Proposal submission procedure

Documents concerning evaluation of proposals:

  1. Proposal evaluation criteria
  2. Expert Teams of the National Science Centre – formation and appointing
  3. Detailed procedure for evaluating proposals by the expert teams
  4. Service of decisions of the NCN Director
  5. Appealing against the decisions of the NCN Director

Documents to be read before commencing NCN projects:

  1. OPUS and OPUS LAP agreement templates
  2. Order on the implementation of inspection procedure at the registered office of the institution
  3. Guidelines for entities auditing the implementation of research projects funded by the National Science Centre
  4. Rules for evaluating monographs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre