NCN grant holders winning ERC calls, lots of support for young scientists, grants for Ukrainian researchers, a survey about men and women in science and the NCN Gender Equality Plan, NCN Days in Białystok and the QuantERA conference in Kraków – these are but some of the events we have lived and breathed in recent months. Here’s a rundown of 2022 at the NCN.

JANUARY

The European Research Council (ERC) announced the winners of its Starting Grants 2021, including eight researchers affiliated with Polish research institutions. In February and March, StG 2021 grants were awarded to two more Polish researchers. The results of yet another ERC call followed in November. Winners of StG 2022 include four researchers from Poland, who are also NCN holders.

The NCN joined the ranks of institutions that abide by a special code of conduct to prevent the exportation of unethical research practices to low and middle income countries. NCN applicants are now required to plan their research in accordance with the provisions of the Global Code of Conduct.

We organise calls targeted at scientists at all career levels. For many young researchers, NCN grants are an opportunity to quickly gain research independence. A report published by the Analysis and Evaluation Team in January indicates that, over the past six years, the NCN has awarded more than 3.75 million zlotys in funding for researchers without a PhD or those who have earned their PhD within the previous 7 years, which represents a whopping 46% of its total funding budget in that period.

FEBRUARY

We published the findings of our survey about men and women in science. The survey indicates that men and women apply for research funding for very similar reasons. However, women are much more likely to doubt their chances of success in securing research funds. Women’s careers are also hindered by an unequal division of responsibilities within the household. The survey also shows that many more women than men have experienced gender discrimination and gender inequality in their research facility and academic environment. The questionnaire was answered by nearly 6,000 respondents: more than 3,7000 female and nearly 2,100 male researchers at different career levels. For the NCN, the report will serve as a point of departure for designing further measures to level the playing field for men and women in science.

We published the results of MAESTRO 13 and SONATA BIS 11, announced in June 2021. MAESTRO is targeted at experienced researchers, while SONATA is open to those who would like to set up a new research team. 93 projects were qualified for funding.

Five projects that involve Polish research teams were selected for funding in an international call focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social life, organised by the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (T-AP).

MARCH

We launched a special program for Ukrainian researchers and encouraged NCN grant winners to hire researchers who have fled the war in their ongoing projects. Several months later, we also announced a scholarship programme for Ukrainian students and entry-level researchers, from the EEA and Norway Grants. In total, NCN initiatives helped 111 Ukrainians who found refuge in Poland after the Russian invasion.

Two NCN call winners also won ERC Consolidator Grants, which are available to researchers within 7 to 12 years after their PhD defence. The winners were Prof. UW Dr hab. Marta Bucholc and Dr hab. Jarosław Wilczyński. In July, this prestigious group was joined by Dr hab. Dawid Pinkowicz, prof. UJ, winner of the NCN Award for 2019.

APRIL

M-ERA.NET 3, a network that funds research in materials science and engineering, announced the results of the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2021. A total of 69.9 million euro in funding was split between 70 projects, 19 of which include Polish researchers. 13 of these teams will be funded by the NCBR and the remaining six by the NCN.

We adopted our Gender Equality Plan for 2022-2025. The document presents a diagnosis of the status quo and lists gender equality measures that the NCN intends take in the future. It analyses the NCN in its twofold capacity as an employer and a research-funding agency. NCN Days in Bialystok, fot. Tomasz Hodun

MAY

The town of Białystok welcomed NCN Days 2022. The purpose of NCN Days is to present the activities of the NCN, encourage researchers at all career levels and from different centres to take part in its calls for proposals, and to support them in grant applications. This year, the event was co-organised by various academic and research institutions from the region of Podlasie.

26 teams won grants under the CHANSE call entitled “Transformations: Social and Cultural Dynamics in The Digital Age”. They will study the changes in social relations brought about by the digitisation of households, the dissemination of health-related knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries and work safety challenges in an era of digital transformation. Polish researchers will be part of almost half of these projects. Coordinated by the NCN, the CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) network brings together 27 research-funding agencies and non-academic institutions from 24 different European countries.

Three new Dioscuri centres will be opened at the Jagiellonian University. Dioscuri is an initiative of the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, MPG), coordinated in cooperation with the NCN, which aims to create new Centres of Scientific Excellence in Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, five centres opened their doors in Warsaw. In July, Dioscuri centre leaders took part in a research-funding and young researcher training workshop, which was held at the MPG in Munich.

We announced the results of the first POLONEZ BIS call. POLONEZ BIS is a programme co-funded by the European Commission and the National Science Centre under the COFUND Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant. In three successive rounds, the NCN will recruit 120 experienced researchers, who will then move to Poland for 24 months to carry out their basic research projects at various public and private institutions. The results of the second round were announced in December and the proposals submitted to the third are currently under review.

An event promoting initiatives for Ukraine

JUNE

We published the first results of OPUS 22 + LAP/Weave, under which researchers at all career levels can apply for funding for bilateral projects conducted in international cooperation within the framework of the Weave programme. Experts selected 8 Polish-Slovenian projects with a total budget of nearly 13 million zlotys. In July, the list grew to include 5 Polish-Swiss projects and twenty two more, which involve bilateral cooperation with Austria and the Czech Republic, or trilateral cooperation with Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

JULY

Under the auspices of the President of Poland, we held a special event to present NCN initiatives for Ukrainian researchers.

We published the results of SONATINA 6. 32 researchers from all over Poland, who have only recently earned their PhD, will get a total of 22 million zlotys in funding for research and fellowships at prestigious international research centres.

AUGUST

We announced the first results of the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals submitted in 2022. Weave-UNISONO is the result of multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies gathered under the umbrella of Science Europe. Weave-UNISONO aims to simplify submission and selection procedures for research proposals that bring together researchers from two or three different European countries in any discipline of science. Proposals are taken in on a rolling basis. One more round of winners was announced in November. Conference organized by the QuantERA network

SEPTEMBER

Scientists and representatives of the European quantum industry and agencies that fund quantum technology research came together in Kraków at a conference organised by the QuantERA network. Coordinated by the NCN, QuantERA promotes ambitious research on cutting-edge quantum technology engineering solutions, supports cooperation between scientists and research-funding agencies, monitors public quantum technology policies and strategies, and drafts responsible research guidelines.

OCTOBER

Gdańsk provided the venue for a conference promoting the Basic Research programme funded from the 3rd round of the EEA and Norway Grants. The event was dedicated to polar and climate research.

Karolina Safarzyńska, Michał Bogdziewicz and Piotr Wcisło won the NCN Award for 2022, a prestigious distinction given to young researchers working in Poland. The awards ceremony was held on 12 October at the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art in the Sukiennice. This year, the awards were given out for the tenth time in history. In December, winners talked about their research in lectures organized by the NCN and the Copernicus Centre. The talks are available online.

The NCN held the EOSC festival – the National Tripartite Event Poland under the banner of “Open Science for Better Science” (in live and online format). The purpose of the festival was to present the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and strengthen cooperation and dialogue between key EOSC stakeholders. EOSC Festival, fot. Michał Łepecki

“Nature” published an article co-authored by Dr Mateusz Tałanda from the University of Warsaw, which sheds new light on the evolution of lizards in the era of the dinosaurs. This was Tałanda’s second publication in the journal.

“Research under pressure. How research institutions and funding organisations react to crises” was the title of the 3rd Polish-German Scientific Meeting held in Berlin, attended by representatives of embassies and 17 research and research-funding institutions from both countries.

NOVEMBER

We announced the results of the MINIATURA 6 call for preliminary and pilot research, library research, research fellowships and study and consultation trips. One of the objectives of MINIATURA is to expand the ranks of NCN winners, encourage researchers working in smaller centres to apply, and to increase equality between regions. Under the sixth edition, funding was awarded to 502 proposals.

Four projects that involve Polish research teams were awarded funding under a call organised by the JPND network: Understanding the Mechanisms for Non-Pharmacological Interventions. Two of these are coordinated by Polish PIs. The objective of the projects selected under the call is to better understand the biology and mechanisms of non-pharmacological therapies in neurodegenerative diseases.

A team led by Prof. Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa from the University of Wrocław will carry out a project focused on antibiotic resistance, which was awarded under the 14th edition of a call announced by JPIAMR: Disrupting drug Resistance Using Innovative Design (DRUID). Polish researchers will coordinate research tasks in cooperation with teams from Belgium, France, Germany and Israel.

DECEMBER

Winners of the NCN Award, fot. Michał Łepecki 576 researchers won grants under OPUS 23, PRELUDIUM 21 and POLONEZ BIS 2.

Prof. Leszek Kaczmarek was appointed as a new member of the Scientific Board of the European Research Council, the most important body of the agency, made up of 22 outstanding researchers. Prof. Kaczmarek previously served as an NCN Council Member in 2010-2016.

We announced a bilateral SHENG call for Polish-Chinese research proposals, organised in cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

The Solar-driven Chemistry network announced the results of its call for research projects studying new applications of solar energy. Funding was awarded to a Polish project led by Prof. Joanna Kargul from the Centre of New Technologies of the University of Warsaw.

The Minister of Education and Science appointed 12 new members of the NCN Council.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a wonderful New Year!

 

In interviews with Prawo.pl and the Polish Press Agency, the Director of the National Science Centre talks about the budget situation, the new Council and the NCN’s plans for 2023.

– Financing is key for research and science. Expenditure on research should grow by 15% per year for us to start dreaming of reaching the European average. And in the case of NCN, which has proven itself as an institution, such expenditure should go up at an even faster pace – says Prof. Zbigniew Błocki in an interview with Prawo.pl's Monika Sewastianowicz.

The Director added that “in the world of science and academics, the NCN is considered a very respectable organisation, especially when it comes to the standards applied.” – Of course, being respected doesn’t mean that we would win any popularity contests. That would be difficult considering that only 15 percent of submitted projects receive grants. We think this is not enough, as the success rate should be at 25-30% but currently it can’t get any higher due to the restricted budget of the NCN.

The NCN Director was also asked about the assessment of applications at the NCN, international cooperation and his organisation's plans for 2023. Mr Błocki also discussed more general matters, including researcher mobility, evaluation of academic disciplines and investment financing by the State.

The interview was published on 23 December.

Full text of the interview (in Polish)

A day before, in a commentary for the Polish Press Agency, the NCN Director referred to the appointment of 12 new members of the NCN Council. – We are concerned to see that the appointment (…) was done in such a non-standard way. For the first time in our history the proposals of the candidate-nominating team have been completely disregarded. It is also extraordinary that none of the current members of the Council (a few persons who could serve on the Council in the next few years) have not been appointed – said Prof. Błocki.

– The Director pointed out that “there will be no balance between the representatives of different disciplines in the Council.” – One of the problems that will make functioning of this body much more difficult is that it will have no physicists onboard. And there is only one astrophysicist. 

Moreover, the Council will have no specialists in electronics, telecommunications, engineering sciences and Earth sciences.

Full text of the PAP message (in Polish)

The Minister of Education and Science has recently appointed twelve new members of the NCN Council, who will be in office from 15 December 2022 until 14 December 2026.

New NCN council members (2022-2026 term):

Dr hab. Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of Earth Sciences (art, humanities and social sciences);

Dr Diana Dajnowicz-Piesiecka, University of Białystok, Faculty of Law (art, humanities and social sciences);

Prof. Dr Stanisław Karpiński, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Department of Biology (life sciences);

Dr hab. inż. Alicja Kazek-Kęsik, Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry (physical sciences and engineering);

Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Kopiec, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Theology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Mariola Łaguna, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Social Sciences, (art, humanities and social sciences)

Dr hab. inż. Krystian Marszałek, Wacław Dąbrowski Institute of Agriculture and Food Biotechnology – State Research Institute (life sciences);

Dr hab. Bogusław Przywora, Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa, Faculty of Law and Economics (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Roszak, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Faculty of Theology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Skarżyński, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing (life sciences);

Dr hab. Bogumił Szady, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Adam Zając, Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Faculty of Physical Education (life sciences).

 

The NCN Council includes the following members whose term of office ends on 14 December 2024:

 

Prof. Dr hab. Krystyna Bartol, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Wojciech Dajczak, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Law and Administration (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Stefan Dziembowski, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics (physical sciences and engineering);

Dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Fic, Poznań University of Technology, Faculty of Chemical Technology (physical sciences and engineering);

Dr hab. Joanna Golińska-Pilarek, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Robert Hasterok, University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. inż. Monika Kaczmarek, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Olsztyn (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. Grzegorz Karch, University of Wrocław, Mathematical Institute (physical sciences and engineering);

Prof. Dr hab. inż. Barbara Klajnert-Maculewicz, University of Łódź, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. Bronisław Rudak, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomy Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Toruń (physical sciences and engineering);

Prof. Dr hab. Anetta Undas, Jagiellonian University, Collegium Medicum (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. Tomasz Zaleśkiewicz, SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology in Wrocław (art, humanities and social sciences)

The Council of the National Science Centre is a key authority that defines research disciplines and discipline groups for the purposes of NCN calls, sets funding budgets under individual disciplines or discipline groups, decides on the terms and conditions of individual calls, and appoints Expert Teams responsible for the merit-based review of submitted proposals from among prominent Polish and international researchers.

This year’s last lecture in the “Science in the Centre” series will be delivered by the forest ecologist Michał Bogdziewicz.

Bogdziewicz is a professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Last autumn, he won the NCN Award 2022 for top young scientists working in Poland. Last spring, he was also the first Polish researcher to win the Tansley Medal, one of the world’s most important distinctions given to young biologists who research plants.

He is carrying out an NCN grant, as well as ERC’s Starting Grant.

At 6 pm on 21 December, Bogdziewicz will give a talk entitled: “Hunger and Abundance: Tree Reproduction as an Unstable Foundation of Food Webs”. The session will be held within the framework of “Science in the Centre”, a series of talks organised by the NCN and the Nicolaus Copernicus Foundation, and will be livestreamed on the Foundation’s YouTube channel.

“There are years in which hundreds of thousands of trees all over a given region together produce tons of seeds and years in which no tree of a given species does that. For animals, that means alternating periods of abundance, which allows them to reproduce on a great scale, and hunger, which decimates their populations. This leads to cascading perturbations in forest ecosystems: abundant seeds invite large numbers of rodents and numerous rodents mean more birds of prey. A year later, the rodents are gone, while the birds of prey stay on, looking for other prey”, says Michał Bogdziewicz. In his talk, he will discuss these interrelationships in forest ecosystems and explain how they are affected by climate change.

During the session, you will also be able to ask him questions via chat.

You can rewatch previous lectures online.

More about the series.

We present a preliminary timeline for calls operated by the National Science Centre in the year 2023.

The call timeline does not include multilateral calls launched by the international networks of research funding agencies, including the NCN, which are announced and pre-announced on the NCN website all year round according to the decisions of the participating agencies.

2023 call timeline

TYPE OF CALL	CALL ANNOUNCEMENT	CALL DEADLINE	CALL RESULTS
WEAVE-UNISONO	continous call, in line with partner agencies call timelines		depend on the time of publishing results by partner agencies
MINIATURA 7	continuous call, open from 1 February to 31 July 2023
OPUS 25 PRELUDIUM 22	15 March	15 June	December 2023
SONATA BIS 13 MAESTRO 15	15 June	15 September	March 2024
OPUS 26 + LAP Weave PRELUDIUM BIS 5 SONATA 19	15 September	15 December	OPUS 26, SONATA 19 – June 2024 Weave – depends on the time of accepting evaluation results by partner agencies, November 2024 at latest PRELUDIUM BIS 5 – May 2024
SONATINA 8 DAINA 3	15 December	15 March 2023	SONATINA 8 – September 2024 DAINA 3 – November 2024

Download the NCN 2023 call timeline

The Solar-driven Chemistry network has just selected the winners of a call for research proposals on solar energy applications. A Polish project, headed by Professor Joanna Kargul from the Centre for New Technologies of the University of Warsaw, has made the list.

Professor Kargul will coordinate a consortium composed of Polish, French, German and Turkish research teams under the SUNCOCAT project (Rational design of efficient energy and charge transfer in biophotoelectrodes for direct conversion of CO2 into fuel).

The consortium will focus on the nanoscale engineering of electron and energy transfer pathways with a view to developing efficient bio photoelectrodes to better capture sunlight and convert it into renewable fuel. The objective is to achieve the highest possible energy conversion efficiency by integrating methodologies from different scientific disciplines: electrochemical research, electron transfer modelling by quantum/molecular mechanics, as well as genetic and biophysical methods. The project is scheduled to start in early 2023.

Solar-driven Chemistry is a network of European research-funding organisations, established in 2008 on the initiative of the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). It organises international calls for research proposals devoted to the photochemical processes associated with sunlight. The network brings together research-funding organisations from Finland (AKA), France (ANR), Germany (DFG), Poland (NCN), Switzerland (SNSF) and Turkey (TÜBİTAK).

We are announcing two calls for research proposals. 15 million zlotys are up for grabs under the SHENG 3 call for Polish teams involved in Polish-Chinese research projects, while young researchers have a chance to win a total of 20 million zlotys under SONATINA 7.

SONATINA 7 – supporting young researchers

The purpose of SONATINA 7 is to support entry-level researchers by providing them with full-time employment and research opportunities in Poland. In addition, SONATINA 7 also allows young scientists to complete a fellowship at a top foreign research centre of their choice. They can carry out basic or applied research projects of 2 or 3 years and the fellowships may last from 3 to 6 months.

The call is targeted at PhD holders who earned their degree after 31 December 2019 and PhD candidates who expect to earn their PhD by June 2023. It is also open to applicants who got their PhD degree earlier, but had career breaks related, e.g. to childbirth or adoption.

The budget of the call is 20 million zlotys.

SONATINA 7 ANNOUNCEMENT

Proposals may be submitted through the OSF system until 4 pm on 15 March 2023.

SHENG 3 – a call for Polish-Chinese research proposals

The international bilateral call for Polish-Chinese proposals, SHENG 3, is organised by the National Science Centre in cooperation with the Natural Science Foundation of China. The NCN and the NFSC carry out independent formal eligibility checks and merit-based reviews and funding is only awarded to projects recommended by both agencies.

The call is targeted at Polish research teams submitting proposals in tandem with Chinese partners.

Grants under SHENG 3 can go toward funding research tasks, salaries for research team members, scholarships for graduate students and PhD candidates, research equipment and other necessary costs of the Polish part of the joint research project.

The total budget of the SHENG 3 call available to Polish research teams involved in Polish-Chinese projects is 15 million zlotys.

The submission deadline for the Polish domestic proposals in the OSF system is 4 pm on 15 March 2023.

Meeting with the winner of the NCN award. Join us on 15 December at 6:00 PM for an online “Complexity Economics: the Future Is Now” lecture which will be delivered by Karolina Safarzyńska. Participants will be able to ask questions during the session. Karolina Safarzyńska is a professor at the University of Warsaw, specialising in complexity, behavioural and experimental economics and climate changes. In October she received the NCN Award which honours the best young researchers working in Poland. This and her other achievements had her ranked as one of Forbes Poland’s 100 most powerful women.

The streaming of the lecture will start at 6:00 PM. The meeting will be held as part of the “Science at the Centre” series of lectures organised by the National Science Centre and the Copernicus Centre Foundation. The lectures are streamed on YouTube Copernicus Center. The series was launched in 2021. The first lecture this year was delivered by Piotr Wcisło. The last one will be held on 21 December. The lecture will be given by Michal Bogdziewicz, a forest ecologist associated with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

 

More information about the series.

 

Recordings of previous lectures.

We would like to thank all the guests who participated in the first POLONEZ BIS Kick-off meeting on 12-13 December.

Fellows and Mentors whose research projects started this fall or will take off in January 2023 took part in the meeting. During the two-day event, the scientists got to know other Fellows, met institutional partners from the Startup Hub Poland Foundation and the Polish Women Scientists Network Foundation, and took part in the workshop on career development, conducted by POLONEZ BIS programme's third partner – CRAC-Vitae.

All presentations will be sent to Kick-off meeting’s participants via e-mail.