The National Science Centre invites Polish research institutions to declare commitment as potential Host Institutions to Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence. Applications for establishing Dioscuri Centres may come from basic organisational units and research centres of higher education institutions, research units of the Polish Academy of Sciences, research institutes, international research institutes established on the territory of Poland, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, other research institutions established on the territory of Poland.

The deadline for submissions expires on 5^th November 2018.

Submissions meeting the formal requirements will be published alongside the Dioscuri call announcement, thus helping researchers find the right research institution in Poland.

Researchers will be able to choose an institution from beyond the published list, provided that the institution meets the formal requirements and will commit to satisfy the basic conditions specified in the announcement.

Dioscuri is an initiative by the Max Planck Society (MPG), intended to establish Centres of Scientific Excellence in Central and Eastern Europe. The Centres will enable outstanding researchers to carry out top level research at research institutions in this part of Europe.

For details of the Dioscuri programme and all formal requirements, see the Dioscuri web-page.

Contact:

Marcin Liana, tel. 12 341 9161

Małgorzata Jacobs, tel. 12 341 9173

The results of the first Dioscuri call will be announced in September 2018.

3^rd Polish-German BEETHOVEN call coming up in September 2018.

Following up on its two successful rounds the National Science Centre (NCN) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) are extending the funding initiative to cover new disciplines.

The BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3  call will be a continuation of the BEETHOVEN 2 call with a joint peer review and selection process. It is open to research in the humanities, social sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics and material sciences. This corresponds to the subject areas covered by

• the DFG review boards/Fachkollegien
• 101-113,
• 301-312,
• 406
• proposals in the subject areas 317-02, 410-01 are accepted if they have a clear humanities and social sciences focus
• and NCN panels
• HS1- HS6
• ST1.1-1.14, ST1.16-1.17,
• ST2.1-2.9, ST2.11-2.12, ST2.14-2.18,
• ST3.1-3.18,
• ST4.1-4.17,
• ST5.1-5.24,
• ST9.1.-9.18.

A new joint call titled BEETHOVEN LIFE 1 will be announced for research in the life science disciplines. This corresponds to the subject areas covered by

• DFG review boards 201-207
• and NCN panels NZ1-NZ9.

In this call, DFG will act as the lead agency, i.e. assessment of all applications will be made by the DFG according to its rules for the individual research grants programme.

The aims of the BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3 and BEETHOVEN LIFE 1 calls are:

• to support research in the above-named disciplines carried out by Polish-German teams;
• to strengthen cooperation between Polish and German researchers in basic (knowledge-oriented) research.

Proposals for research projects in the above-listed disciplines must be written in English and submitted by joint Polish-German research teams. The duration of the projects must be either 24 or 36 months.

The National Science Centre (NCN) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) will launch BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3 and BEETHOVEN LIFE 1 on 14 September 2018.

The submission deadline for proposals under the two calls will be 17 December 2018. Further information will be made available on 14 September 2018 on the websites of both agencies.

Contact persons at NCN:

BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3   

Humanities and Social Sciences:

• Dr Małgorzata Jacobs, phone: +48 12 341 9173, malgorzata.jacobs@ncn.gov.pl

Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Material Science:

• Dr. Eng. Tomasz Szumełda, phone: +48 12 341 9174, tomasz.szumelda@ncn.gov.pl

BEETHOVEN LIFE 1

• Dr Anna Wiktor, phone: +48 12 341 9166, anna.wiktor@ncn.gov.pl

General inquiries:

• Dr Magdalena Godowska, phone: +48 12 341 9016, Magdalena.godowska@ncn.gov.pl

• Dr Aneta Pazik, phone: +48 12 341 9017, Aneta.pazik@ncn.gov.pl

Contact persons at DFG:

BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences:

• Dr. Tanja Kollei, phone: +49 228 885-2972, tanja.kollei@dfg.de

Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Material Science:

• Dr. Ilka Paulus, phone: +49 228 885-2021, ilka.paulus@dfg.de

BEETHOVEN LIFE 1

• Dr. Katharina Hartmann, phone: +49 228 885-2342, k.hartmann@dfg.de

General inquiries on cooperation with Poland:

Dr. Annina Lottermann, International Affairs, phone: +49 228 885-2802, annina.lottermann@dfg.de

Starting on 25 May 2018 the General Personal Data Protection Regulation will directly apply in Poland. GDPR is a comprehensive regulation that unifies data protection laws across the EU member states. To comply with the GDPR requirements, we have prepared information about how we process personal data at the NCN.

See: Personal data processing at the National Science Centre

We have announced the results of the 14^th edition of our most popular calls, OPUS and PRELUDIUM. The researchers will receive a total of € 93 million to carry out their research projects.

OPUS and PRELUDIUM are the two flagship calls of the National Science Centre, and they continue to attract the greatest interest among all available funding opportunities. The expert panels of the 14^th edition have awarded a total of € 92,208,782 to the submitted research projects. In all, 3122 applications were received for both calls, 669 of which were recommended for funding, setting the success rate at 21%

The OPUS call does not put any threshold requirements of research seniority or academic degree. As a result, the 14^th edition welcomed as many as 1968 submissions, 394 of which qualified for funding. Their authors will jointly receive a total of more than € 81 million.

OPUS is our most important grant call and represents more than half of our total budget. It is targeted at young and experienced researchers alike. Statistics show that what really matters is not the academic title or degree, but research achievements and an interesting idea. We are glad that more and more resources today go toward funding doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships", said professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre, "PRELUDIUM, on the other hand, reaches out to pre-doctoral applicants, which on a global scale is exceptional. Thanks to their projects, young researchers have the chance to gain hands-on experience of the grant system at an earlier stage than anywhere else in the world.

PRELUDIUM 14 was specifically targeted at pre-doctoral applicants. This time, early stage researchers submitted 1154 applications, 275 of which will receive funding to the total amount of € 9.5 million.

PRELUDIUM 14 allowed applicants to declare higher indirect costs than in previous editions. Their maximum value was increased to 40% of direct costs, not including equipment. The maximum funding limit grew from € 14,000 to 16,000 for one-year projects, from € 28,000 to 32,000 for two-year projects, and from € 42,000 to 49,000 for three-year projects. Another novelty is that the funding will be transferred to the beneficiaries as a one-off payment, immediately upon signing of the grant agreement.

The ranking lists of all projects approved for funding under OPUS 14 and PRELUDIUM 14 are available on the official website of the National Science Centre.

Ranking lists of all projects recommended for funding.

More than 100 participants attended the QuantERA Projects’ Launch Event, which was organized in Bucharest on April 24th, 2018. The aim of the event was to gather the representatives of the 26 QuantERA-funded projects, European Commission, research funders and quantum community. The meeting was hosted by UEFISCDI (a research funding organisation from Romania) and the National Science Centre, Poland – the Coordinator of the QuantERA Programme.

During the event the participants could hear about the quantum technology research landscape in Europe and recent developments within the Quantum Flagship. Two panel discussions provided the audience with valuable insights into the topics of Fostering Industry Connections and Promoting Inclusiveness in the field of quantum technology research. The results of the discussions will lay the foundations for further activities of the QuantERA Programme.

All 26 QuantERA-funded projects were presented during the scientific and poster sessions which formed the key part of the event and provided ground for engaging discussions which exceeded the timeframe of the meeting. The abstracts of the projects can be found in the QuantERA Projects Catalogue.

On the second day of the event the participants focused on the topics of Responsible Research and Innovation in QT and clarified further proceedings within the QuantERA-funded projects.

A short movie from the QuantERA Projects' Launch can be found under the following link.

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

We would like to invite all researchers to participate in SHENG¹ – a new funding opportunity for joint Polish-Chinese research teams to be launched by the National Science Centre (NCN) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The programme aims to support research projects in all fields of the Natural, Engineering, Life and Management sciences.Polish applicants can submit proposals in all areas of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering and selected areas of Social Sciences (all subpanels of HS4, HS6_1, HS6_2, HS6_3, HS6_4, HS6_5, HS6_6, HS6_7, HS6_13, HS6_14).

Within the SHENG scheme, the NCN and NSFC will fund only projects involving basic research.

• Call announcement: 15th June 2018
• Call deadline: 17th September 2018
• Results: March 2019
• Start of joint research projects: June 2019 (Polish side), July 2019 (Chinese side)

A complete version of the call documents will be made available on the website in June 2018.

Eligibility

General requirements

• Only projects involving basic research will be funded.
• A Principal Investigator (PI) may submit only one proposal under the same call.
• Research project duration: 36 months.
• All costs must be eligible according to the national eligibility requirements.

Country specific requirements

Poland

• Eligible Host Institutions in Poland: academic or research organisations, research consortia, research networks and organisational units within institutions of higher education that do not constitute their basic organisational units, research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences, academic research centres shared by higher education institutions, scientific libraries, other legal entities established in the territory of the Republic of Poland.
• Grants that are considered state aid will not be offered.
• The Polish Principal Investigator (PI) must hold at least a PhD degree to submit a proposal.
• The budget of the Polish part of the project must be at least 250 000 PLN.

China

• Eligible Host Institutions in China – please refer to NSFC regulations.
• The budget of the Chinese part of the project must not exceed 2 000 000 RMB.

Application process

A complete proposal (consisting of the joint project description in English and the CVs of both PIs and Co-investigators in English) should be submitted by the Polish applicant via the ZSUN/OSF submission system which can be found at https://osf.opi.org.pl by September 17th, 2018, together with all necessary documents conforming to the formal requirements set out in the call documentation.

Chinese PIs should submit all documents (including the complete proposal consisting of the joint project description in English and the CVs of both PIs and Co-investigators in English) required by the NSFC via the NSFC electronic submission system by September 17th, 2018.

Proposal review and evaluation procedure

All proposals will be reviewed by both organisations separately. Proposals will be subject to an eligibility check and peer review.

Only proposals which have been declared eligible by the NCN and NSFC will be peer reviewed.

At the NCN, the eligibility check of proposals will be carried out by the NCN Coordinators. The peer review will be performed by NCN Expert Teams and by External Reviewers.

At the NCN, the peer review will be carried out in two stages:

• Stage I – a preliminary evaluation will take place on the basis of data provided in the proposal by the External Reviewers other than the members of the Expert Team.
• Stage II – a final evaluation will be carried out on the basis of data provided in the proposal and the external reviews by the Expert Team, selected by NCN Research Council.

The proposal evaluation will take into account in particular:

1. the research achievements of the Polish and Chinese PI, including their research portfolio,
2. the quality of the research or tasks to be performed,
3. the innovative nature of the project,
4. the impact of the research carried out on the development of the discipline,
5. the added value of bilateral cooperation,
6. justification of the costs requested,
7. the feasibility of the project.

Support will be granted for those proposals where both the NCN and NSFC recommend funding.

Allocation of funds

Funds for Polish research teams will be allocated on the basis of the decisions issued by the Director of the NCN. Funds for Chinese research teams will be allocated according to NSFC regulations.

Contact

Poland, NCN:

• dr Marta Buchalska, tel. +48 12 341 9158 (Physical Sciences and Engineering)
• dr Katarzyna Jarecka–Stępień, tel. + 48 12 341 9160 (Social Sciences)
• dr Jerzy Frączek, tel. + 48 12 341 9165 (Life Sciences)
• dr Magdalena Godowska, tel. +48 12 341 9016 (General inquiries)
• dr Aneta Pazik, tel. +48 12 341 9017 (General inquiries)

China, NSFC:

• Wencong Li, tel. 86 10 6232 7014

¹The sheng (also spelt as cheng in Encyclopedia Britannica) is a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes. It is a polyphonic instrument and enjoys increasing popularity as a solo instrument.

On the 5^th April 2018 in Prague prof. Zbigniew Błocki, director of the National Science Centre (NCN) and prof. Klement Tockner, President of Austrian Science Fund (FWF), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NCN and the FWF. This bilateral agreement lays the cornerstone of work on a future joint funding opportunity for Polish-Austrian research teams.

A new call for Polish-Austrian research projects to be announced in late 2018 will target researchers in all fields of science and the humanities. The FWF will act as a lead agency responsible for carrying out merit-based evaluation.

Signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the NCN and FWF is a step towards strengthening cooperation between funding agencies from Central European Countries (for more information please refer to: Towards a cooperation between funding agencies in Central Europe).

On 28th March in Beijing, the National Science Centre signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to establish a new bilateral funding opportunity for Polish-Chinese theoretical research projects. Managed jointly with the NSFC, the new funding initiative will be yet another bilateral programme of the National Science Centre. Grants will be awarded to Polish-Chinese projects in the field of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering, as well as selected disciplines in Social Sciences. Detailed terms and conditions of the call will be announced in June 2018.

We hope that the new Polish-Chinese programme will attract similar attention as our previous bilateral calls. The choice of partner was far from accidental. Cooperation with China, a country of vibrant economic and scientific activity, will no doubt benefit Polish academia, explains Professor Zbigniew Błocki, director of the National Science Centre.

The signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was held on 28th March at the NSFC office in Beijing. Poland was represented by Professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre, Professor Janusz Janeczek, Chairman of the NCN Council, and Justyna Woźniakowska and Magdalena Godowska, representatives of the International Cooperation Office. Professor Xie Xincheng, Vice-President for International Affairs, signed the MoU on behalf of the NSFC. The ceremony was also attended by Natalia Popczyk from the Polish Embassy in Beijing.

We are pleased to announce that three projects, involving researchers from Poland, have been awarded funding within the Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI) Food-Water-Energy Nexus call for proposals, organised by JPI Urban Europe and Belmont Forum.Polish researchers will be involved in 3 of 15 awarded projects and their total budget sums up to EUR 625 222:

• FEW-meter - an integrative model to measure and improve urban agriculture towards circular urban metabolism coordinated by dr Lidia Katarzyna Poniży (the leader of the international consortium); the Polish consortium was formed by Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poznań University of Life Sciences, City of Gorzow Wielkopolski, the Polish Allotment Gardeners Federation – Gorzow Wielkopolski Branch;
• CRUNCH Climate Resilient Urban Nexus Choices: operationalising the Food Water Energy Nexus, with the participation of dr Joanna Bach-Głowińska; Gdansk University of Technology and City of Gdansk;
• Creating Interfaces: Building capacity for integrated governance at the food-water-energy-nexus in cities on the water with the participation of dr Wojciech Goszczyński; Nicolaus Copernicus University and Sustainable Development Lab.

The SUGI projects will involve 134 researchers and project partners from business, public authorities and civil society in 20 countries. In addition to formal partners many projects will also involve extensive groups of local stakeholders.

The new call “Sustainable and Liveable Cities and Urban Areas” organized by JPI Urban Europe and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) was launched in January 2018. The call inviting interdisciplinary Sino-European consortia includes three thematic areas:

• Reduction of the adverse environmental impact of cities, paying special attention to the quality of air, water and soil, and municipal and other waste management;
• Access to safe, affordable, and sustainable housing, transportation and basic services; and
• Integrated policies towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change and resilience to disasters.

We would like to invite researchers to submit proposals under M-ERA.NET 2 call for proposals. The call targets research in the following topics:

• Multiscale modeling for materials engineering and processing (M3EP)
• Innovative surfaces, coatings and interfaces
• High performance composites
• Functional materials
• New strategies for advanced material-based technologies in health applications
• Materials for additive manufacturing

The timetable for applications is:

• Pre-proposals to be submitted: 12th of June 2018, 12:00 Central European Time,
• Shortlisted applicants to submit full proposals 8th of November 2018, 12:00 Central European Time.

Applications must be submitted by at least 3 partners from at least 2 different countries participating in the call.

Countries participating in the call

Both the National Science Centre (NCN) and the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) are members of the M-ERA network. Applicants whose projects meet basic research criterion (TRL 1-4) can apply to the NCN, and they do not have to involve an industrial partner. Researchers whose project start from TRL 3-6 and achieve TRL 5-8 can apply to the NCBR and the involvement of an industrial partner is mandatory.

Detailed information about M-ERA.NET 2 Call

Additional information for NCN applicants

1. According to UNISONO (please see pp. 2-3), the budget of the project is subject to evaluation at the pre-proposal stage. Therefore, the leaders of Polish research teams are requested to send the budget table of the Polish part of the project to: anna.kotarba@ncn.gov.pl, no later than June 12, 2018.
2. On the full proposal stage Polish applicants must register their applications in the ZSUN/OSF submission system (UNISONO application). The application includes the following budget table.
3. 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, s. 5-12).
4. 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, referred to in paragraph 2.1.2 of the above mentioned document, applies to the consortium as a whole [please see UNISONO, p. 8-9: 2.1.2 a) i b)]. Please note that Polish consortia have higher limits on the remuneration.
5. Budget of the Polish part of the research project in the ZSUN/OSF system should be given in PLN (1 EUR= 4,2024 PLN).
6. We invite all researchers who plan to submit applications within M-ERA.NET 2 call to contact the NCN.

Contact

Weronika Bieniasz, tel. 12 341 9156

Anna Kotarba, tel. 12 341 9091