The National Science Centre has concluded the SONATA 13, SONATA BIS 7, MAESTRO 9 and HARMONIA 9 calls for proposals. A total of € 75,717,281 has been awarded to researchers at the beginning of their career as independent scholars, as well as to researchers forming research teams and to those who work on groundbreaking projects.

The calls have seen submissions of 1,234 research projects, of which 301 have been recommended for funding. The success rate for SONATA, SONATA BIS and HARMONIA has been 25%. Selection under the MAESTRO call was more restrictive, with funding granted to 13% of the submitted projects.

MAESTRO 9, SONATA 13, SONATA BIS 7 and HARMONIA 9 are the first funding opportunities to which cost eligibility modifications shall apply.

We want to meet the needs of the research community and gradually introduce improvements in the process of implementing research projects. That is why, starting from the calls concluded today, the costs incurred in the project will qualify as eligible from the day the funding decision becomes fully valid, in contrast to the former arrangement where eligibility started from the day the funding agreement was signed, said prof. Zbigniew Błocki, director of the NCN.Since we continuously seek to create a fully modern grant system, we have adopted a number of other changes facilitating the procedure of submitting proposals and the implementation of projects.

SONATA 13 is a funding opportunity for holders of a doctorate degree awarded within 2 to 7 years of applying. Its objective is to support researchers embarking on an independent research career in conducting innovative research using state-of-the-art equipment and original methodologies. Under the recent edition, 607 projects have been submitted, of which 151 have been selected for funding. The projects will receive a total sum of nearly € 21.57 million. One of the awarded projects is a study by dr Ireneusz Sadowski of the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. Titled Three Generations of Poland’s Transformation and supported with funding of € 92,770, the project will analyse social transformations using a cohort perspective.

SONATA BIS 7 is a call for research projects seeking to establish new research teams. Eligible principal investigators of the newly established groups are those who have been awarded a doctorate within 5 to 12 years before the year of grant application. Funding of more than € 35.9 million will be distributed among 86 of the 388 submitted projects. One of the new teams established under the SONATA BIS 7 scheme will be headed by dr Monika Dering of the Institute of Dendrology, Polish Academy of Sciences. The researchers will attempt a reconstruction of the evolutionary history of forests in the Caucasus. The project, which will include a comparative phylogeographic study of six tree species, will receive € 324,698.

MAESTRO 9 is addressed to advanced researchers willing to carry out groundbreaking research, surpassing the current state of the art. A principal investigator in a MAESTRO project may be a researcher with publications in quality scientific journals, having served as principal investigator to other research projects financed on a competitive basis, who is active in the research community, e.g. in scientific committees of international conferences or international associations. In the 9^th edition of the call, funding has been awarded to 11 out of the 87 submitted projects. The budget will exceed € 9 million. Among the eminent researchers awarded in MAESTRO is dr hab. Marcin Nowotny of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. His structural investigations of the mechanism of bacterial DNA repair will be supported with nearly € 1 million.

Proposals submitted under the HARMONIA 9 call have provided for research projects carried out in international cooperation: in direct collaboration with a partner from abroad as well as under international programmes for bi- and multilateral endeavours; also eligible were projects carried out by Polish research teams using large-scale international research infrastructure. HARMONIA’s ninth edition has seen the submission of 202 projects, of which 53 will be granted funding worth almost € 9.28 million. The winning proposals include a project by a team led by dr Mikołaj Winiewski of the University of Warsaw. The Polish researchers will join forces with their German colleagues at the Bielefeld University, investigating the sources of negative stereotypes of groups perceived as hostile. The study will feature a comparison of Polish and German anti-Roma and anti-Semitic prejudices. The research will have the budget of ca € 232 thousand.

Ranking lists of all projects recommended for funding under the SONATA 13, SONATA BIS 7, MAESTRO 9 and HARMONIA 9 calls are available on the National Science Centre’s website.

The launch of the projects funded within the QuantERA Call 2017 will be officially celebrated at the Projects’ Launch Event in Bucharest, Romania.

The event will take place on:

• 24^th April – OPEN DAY (registration required)
• 25^th April – Parties involved in the QuantERA Programme only

The first day of the event (Tuesday, 24^th April) will be open to all interested parties, including the QuantERA Strategic Advisory Board, representatives of the European Commission, Research Funding Agencies and other stakeholders. It will be an excellent opportunity to meet the Coordinators of the QuantERA-funded projects, learn about their research goals and activities, take part in two panel discussions, networking and much more!

If you are interested in joining us during the QuantERA Projects’ Launch Event please fill in the registration form available here. The registration will be open until the end of February. Your participation will be subject to place availability and will be confirmed by the organizers.

Please note that the second day of the event will be dedicated exclusively to parties directly involved in the QuantERA programme, and is not open to general public.

The agenda of the first day of the event

Contact:

• Sylwia Kostka, e-mail: sylwia.kostka@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9018
• dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska, e-mail: ewelina.szymanska-skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9155
• Marlena Wosiak, e-mail: marlena.wosiak@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9018

In response to the demands voiced by the research community, the National Science Centre has decided to unify some of its terms and conditions regarding implementing research projects, regardless of the call edition in which a given project has been approved for funding. We are presenting a detailed explanation of the improvements that have been introduced.Letter of explanation

The institutions hosting projects will receive letters explaining the scope and conditions of the eligible modifications to grant agreements. These will be sent to their ePUAP accounts or by regular mail. Principal investigators will be notified of same by email.

Introducing modifications to the implementation of projects in the manner described in the letter is possible from 1^st February 2018.

We are pleased to announce that the V-Morph project, involving researchers from Poland, has been awarded funding within the 3^rd ERA-CAPS Call for proposals. The Polish team, led by prof. Dorota Monika Kwiatkowska from the Faculty of Biology and Environment Protection of the University of Silesia in Katowice, will cooperate with researchers from France and Germany. The project will be coordinated by prof. Arezki Boudaoud from École normale supérieure de Lyon (France).

The V-Morph project aims to:

• analyse spatial and temporal variability in sepal morphogenesis at all scales, considering growth and its effectors,
• identify and characterise genes that regulate variability, by performing a directed screen among mutants affecting the cell wall, plant hydraulics, and mechanosensing,
• integrate the corresponding mechanisms in mechanical models of growth and test these models experimentally, notably by local mechanical and genetic perturbations to sepals.

The 3^rd ERA-CAPS Call granted funding to 12 transnational projects involving 50 research teams (5 of which are self-funded) from 10 different countries:

List of projects recommended for funding in the 3^rd ERA-CAPS Call

Contact:

• Dr Anna Wiktor, anna.wiktor@ncn.gov.pl, +48 12 341 91 66
• Marlena Wosiak, marlena.wosiak@ncn.gov.pl, + 48 12 341 9093

On January 31st the National Science Centre (NCN) and the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) signed an agreement of cooperation with a view to harnessing the potential of Poland’s scientific community, so that achievements by Polish researchers can play an ever larger role in the country’s economic and social growth.

– In cooperation with the entire academic community, we have designed a reform that will unleash the full potential of the science work carried out in Poland, offering more opportunities for the results of the researchers’ work to be employed for Poland’s social and economic benefit. At the same time, we have already been using all means available to provide the best conditions for research, both basic and applied. The agreement signed today by the NCBR and the NCN is another step towards the improvement of the public funding mechanisms that benefit Polish science and the economy, said Jarosław Gowin, minister of science and higher education.

Where theory meets practice

The NCBR and the NCN are executive agencies for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education that address targets related to economic and social development using the results of research. The NCN’s mission is to support endeavours in basic research, i.e. experimental or theoretical work, whereas the NCBR’s task is to assist Polish research units and businesses in practical applications of their research. While the two agencies have already collaborated with each other, among others on the TANGO programme, the agreement signed on Wednesday will further stimulate the cooperation, thanks, in particular, to joint funding instruments and support in implementing common research projects.

Objectives of the TANGO programme

The TANGO programme builds a bridge towards linking basic research with applied and industrial research, thus generating new opportunities for the practical use of scientists’ results. It is free from thematic bias, which enables the operators to choose the best projects from various domains.

In the two TANGO funding opportunities concluded to date (editions in 2013 and 2015), 76 projects have received funding worth more than € 14.84 million. The programme’s third edition will be announced towards the end of March 2018. Its budget will exceed € 9.27 million, and the funding of up to € 46,385 will be available to research units, research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as universities and individual researchers. The funding may amount to 100 per cent of a project’s cost.

The programme will admit only proposals drawing on the results of research projects that have been under way for at least a year or ones that have been completed, and funded under one of the NCN’s own funding schemes: OPUS, PRELUDIUM, SONATINA, SONATA, SONATA BIS, HARMONIA, MAESTRO, SYMFONIA or POLONEZ.

This year’s edition of the call introduces a new feature, allowing for submissions on a continuous basis, starting from the publication of the call.

Projects supported

Owing to the ministerial agencies’ support, scientists carry out research into, among others, the following: the technology of printing organic electroluminescent diodes, the introduction of cryopreservation of sperm to programmes improving the farming of fish of the salmonidae family, the use of Adaptive Impact Absorption (AIA) for aviation and space engineering, the technology of biotisation for commercial ecological berry breeding, the introduction of the hydrological hazard early warning system HydroProg, the delta-type parallel manipulator with pneumatic artificial muscles, and the innovative technology of purifying aquatic environments. The cooperation of research units on the implementation and commercialisation of their results is among the chief objectives in the reform prepared by the Ministry, whose tenets have been presented by minister Jarosław Gowin in the Constitution for Science document.

JPI Urban Europe network, whose aim is to finance international, interdisciplinary research projects that respond to the challenges of modern cities and urban areas, together with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) invite all possible applicants to the info webinars referring to the call Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas.

The call will be presented by representatives from the call secretariat and the participating funding agencies. At the end there will be a Q&A session and the opportunity for applicants to present and pitch their idea for a project.

• February 13, 10:00 – 11:30 CET, click to join the webinar.
• March 6, 9:00 – 10:30 CET, click to join the webinar.

More information about the call

Researchers and institutions looking for partners in the JPI AMR Call 2018 on antimicrobial resistance are kindly invited to register in the Partner Search Tool and complete an online form. The expressions of interest registered in the tool will be available on the same website.

More information about the Call: on the NCN website and on the JPI AMR website.

Contact:

• dr Jerzy Frączek, jerzy.fraczek@ncn.gov.pl, tel. 12 341 9165
• Jolanta Palowska, jolanta.palowska@ncn.gov.pl, tel. 12 341 9139

NCN together with JPI Urban Europe network and Chinese funding agency NSFC is pleased to announce a new call on Sustainable Urbanisation in the Context of Economic Transformation and Climate Change: Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas.

Call topics

1. Climate change and new urban economies
2. Transformation of energy systems and strengthen urban circular economies
3. Urban public administration and services innovation
4. Urban data management

Funding is available for international research projects that involve at least two research teams from two different European eligible countries and two (and maximum three) Chinese partners.

Countries participating in the call:

Austria, Belgium, China, France, Latvia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, UK

Call timetable:

• 12 April 2018 – deadline for pre-registration
• 20 June 2018 – deadline for full proposals
• December 2018 – call results

One joint proposal document (in English, and following the provided template) shall be prepared by the project participants of a joint transnational proposal, and must be submitted to the Call Secretariat by the coordinator.

Call documentation

• Call announcement
• Guidelines for applicants
• Pre-registration form
• Proposal application form

More information: https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/calls/sustainable-urbanisation-china-europe/

Information for Polish applicants:

1. On the full proposal stage Polish applicants must register their applications in the OSF submission system (UNISONO application). This application includes the following budget table.
2. We strongly encourage all applicants to read information on eligible costs included in the Annex to NCN Council’s Resolution on funding granted within calls for proposals for international research projects (UNISONO, p. 5-12).
3. If one international project includes partners from two different Polish Host Institutions, these institutions must apply as a consortium. Each Host Institution comprising the consortium has a separate budget, but the limit on the remuneration applies to the consortium as a whole (UNISONO, p. 8-9: item 2.1.2 a) and b)).
4. Budget of the Polish part of the research project in the OSF system should be given in PLN (1 EUR= 4,2308 PLN).

Contact:

• Dr Kinga Sekerdej, tel. 12 341 9172
• Joanna Komperda, tel. 12 341 9138

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Higher Education, Jarosław Gowin, was invited to join a meeting of the Council of the National Science Centre on January 18th in Jaroszowice near Wadowice. The discussion focused on the role of the NCN in the system of financing science, the main directions of the Centre’s activities in the coming years and planned changes in science and higher education.

Prime Minister Gowin presented the main premises of the Higher Education Act 2.0, developed after extensive consultations with the scientific community (a draft of the Act was made public on January 22^nd). He emphasised that the National Science Centre has played an important part in the process of changing Polish science and has made a significant impact on improving the level of research carried out in Poland.

A part of the meeting was devoted to the improvements being introduced by the Centre in the process of applying for grants and their implementation. NCN Director prof. Zbigniew Błocki emphasised that the Centre has been aware of opinions that differences in the rules of individual calls for proposals make the administration of grants difficult. Therefore, the changes introduced by the Centre will apply retroactively, so that they can be applied to all ongoing projects.

- For me, the notion of deregulation is really well-founded. I listened with hope and appreciation to the solutions proposed by the NCN to make administrative processes less bureaucratic. Let us remember that the shape of the NCN calls, created by the scientists themselves, significantly affects the competitiveness of Polish science in the international arena - stressed Deputy Prime Minister Gowin.

One of the Council’s priorities in the near future is further internationalisation of the Centre’s actions, in particular, the development of new bilateral programmes and the alignment of the NCN proposal peer-review system with the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP). The Centre also plans to minimise changes introduced to the rules and regulations in subsequent editions of the calls.

- The National Science Centre was created by scientists for scientists. For years we have been listening to voices coming to us from the scientific community and I cannot imagine not taking them into account. When modifying our call regulations, we look at them from the perspective of the Polish scientists’ needs so as to create the optimal conditions for achieving scientific excellence - said prof. Janusz Janeczek, Chairman of the NCN Council.

 

The National Science Centre continues to improve the process of applying for and implementing grants. In December 2017 a round-table meeting took place at the Centre’s office. Representatives of both the research community and the NCN debated on how best to streamline the cooperation between the Centre and researchers. In the aftermath of the meeting the NCN will introduce a number of improvements.

Formal notifications will shortly be sent to host institutions involved in the implementation of the NCN research grants, informing them of the scope and dates of the improvements.

1. Costs will become eligible once the decision on funding has become final and binding (so far the practice has been to qualify the costs as eligible only upon signing the grant agreement). The change enters into force from the publication of MAESTRO 9, SONATA 13, SONATA BIS 7 and HARMONIA 9 calls.
2. Proposals with minor irregularities in the breakdown of project costs (ineligible costs) will not be rejected at the eligibility check stage. The change enters into force from the publication of the OPUS 14, PRELUDIUM 14 and DAINA 1 calls.
3. One will be able to propose the dates of commencement and end of one’s project by emailing or telephoning the project’s assistance officer at the NCN.
4. One will be able to move the project to another host institution not only – as has previously been the case – during its implementation (i.e. after signing the agreement), but also before signing the agreement, once the decision on funding has become final and binding.
5. From the publication of calls scheduled for 15th September 2018, the attachment of an additional form concerning state aid in the ZSUN/OSF system will no longer be required for every proposal.
6. For proposals submitted by natural persons the requirement of confirming the principal investigator’s employment by the host institution will be cancelled.
7. The short and full description of the project will constitute annexes to the proposal, so as to enable the applicants to work on the subject matter of the proposal until the date of deadline for submissions. Both annexes will be in English. Previously, the short description was in Polish, and both descriptions have constituted part of the proposal itself. The change enters into force from the publication of the OPUS 15 and PRELUDIUM 15 calls (March 2018).
8. One will be able to extend the project’s duration by 12 months without applying for a permit from the Centre (previously this period had been 6 months). This does not apply to projects carried out in bi- and multilateral cooperation.
9. The list of the equipment to be purchased in the project will not be deemed as final at the stage of the project’s implementation.
10. Additional funding from the host institution for investigators receiving their salaries from the grant will be allowed.

Changes regarding the implementation of grants will be applied RETROACTIVELY, i.e. they can be applied to projects already under way.

PLEASE NOTE:

The abovementioned modifications will have no effect in the case of projects funded under the POLONEZ programme, editions 1-3.

Modifications no 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9 do not apply to projects where state aid is involved (i.e. projects carried out by businesses or research consortia where the NCN funding constitutes state aid for at least one partner).