NCN together with the ForestValue Research Programme is launching a transnational call for proposals for research, development and innovation in the forest-based sector. The co-funded joint transnational call addresses the whole forest-based value chain in two areas:

• Innovative sustainable management of multifunctional forests;
• Innovative industrial production and processing technologies, products, concepts and services.

Applicants are encouraged to make best use of interdisciplinary systems approaches, and to take a look at improving the impact and integration of social research and economics in this sector.

Polish part of the research project submitted within the call must involve basic research (TLR 1-4). 

Applicants:

Applications may be put forward by international consortia composed of a minimum of three partners from at least 3 countries participating the call. The overall project coordinator must submit one proposal in English on behalf of all the research teams in all countries.

Project duration:

24-36 months

Countries participating in the call:

Argentina, Austria, Czech  Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Jordan, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom

Timeline of the call:

• Deadline for submitting pre-proposals: January 23^rd, 2018, 13:00 CET
• Invitation to submit a full proposal: May 2018
• Deadline for submitting full proposals: August 14th, 2018, 13:00 CEST
• Call results: October 2018
• Start of funded projects: end of 2018/early 2019

Networking Webinar

On the 15^th of November 2017 a networking webinar will be organised to give researchers the chance to interlink with each other and enlarge consortia. To sign up for this, applicants need to express their interest by sending three PPT slides including project idea, existing partners/experience and missing profiles by email to Carina Lemke (c.lemke@fnr.de) at the Call Office until the 9^th of November 2017. A link to the webinar will be sent to registered participants on the 13^th of November 2017.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CALL: https://forestvalue.org/joint-calls/joint-call-2017-jc-2017/

Information for Polish applicants:

1. On the pre-proposal stage Polish applicants must not send any additional documents to the NCN. On the full proposal stage they must register their applications in the OSF submission system (UNISONO application). The application includes the following budget table: http://ncn.gov.pl/sites/default/files/pliki/UNISONO_budget_table.xlsx.
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, s. 5-12).
3. Projects including Polish teams may last 24 or 36 months.
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). Please note that Polish consortia have higher limits on the remuneration.  
5. On the full proposal stage budget of the Polish part of the research project in the OSF system should be given in PLN: 1 EUR= 4,4232 PLN.

Contact:

Magdalena Łopuszańska Rusek, magdalena.lopuszanska-rusek@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9164

Marlena Wosiak, marlena.wosiak@ncn.gov.pl, tel. + 48 12 341 9093

The National Science Centre in Poland and the Foundation for Polish Science are pleased to invite you to information meeting “Funding opportunities for researchers in Poland”.

The event is a unique occasion to get acquainted with opportunities that Poland offers to outstanding researchers. Why Poland? The best answer is the one given by people who have already chosen this country and successfully conduct high-level research in the heart of Europe. They will be there. Come, listen and talk.

When? 14 November 2017

Where? Centre Scientifique de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences à Paris: 74, rue Lauriston - 75116 Paris

Who? See the agenda below.

How to register? Please send a short confirmation e-mail with your personal data to promocja@ncn.gov.pl ‘till November 10^th to make sure you’re in. There is no registration fee.

Any other questions? Please contact Marcin Liana (NCN) at marcin.liana@ncn.gov.pl

The National Science Centre (NCN) is a government agency set up in 2011 to support basic research in Poland. With a budget of over € 250 M a year NCN funds projects in arts, humanities and social sciences, life sciences and physical sciences and engineering. It offers 16 types of funding schemes dedicated to researchers at different stages of their career. Together with German Max Planck Society, the NCN soon opens Dioscuri program to establish Centres of Scientific Excellence in Poland.

The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) is an non-governmental, non-political, non-profit institution which pursues the mission of supporting science. It is the largest source of science funding in Poland outside of the state budget. Under EU funds, FNP implements grant programmes aimed at the collaboration between science and business. The Foundation realizes its statutory purposes through:

• Support for distinguished scholars and research teams in all fields of inquiry,
• Assisting innovative ventures and commercialization of scientific discoveries and inventions.

Dr Szymon Świeżewski, prof. dr hab. Anna Brożek and dr hab. Adam Rycerz are the laureates of the 5^th edition of the National Science Centre Award.  The three researchers will receive the equivalent of nearly €12,000 each, in recognition of their accomplishments in basic research.

The National Science Centre Award is an annual initiative launched to promote eminent researchers who carry out basic research in Poland. Any researcher under 40, whose achievement comes as a result of experimental or theoretical work carried out with a view of gaining new knowledge, not directly commercial application-oriented, is eligible. Research work under scrutiny in the selection procedure must be done in projects carried out in Polish research institutions, documented with publications affiliated in Poland.

In the field of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Award was granted to prof. dr hab. Anna Brożek of the Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, for her original theory on the function of interrogative and imperative sentences and her contribution to the studies on the history of the Lvov-Warsaw school of logic, preceded by meticulous archival research.

One of logic’s practical uses is to minimise the risk of error inherent in three types of processes: knowledge acquisition, knowledge processing and knowledge transmission, explains professor Brożek. My research seeks to achieve this goal through logical analysis of questions and imperatives. These expressions play a significant role in cognitive processes, thinking and communication.

In the field of Life Sciences, the Award was conferred on dr Szymon Świeżewski of the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences. His nomination for the Award came in recognition of his work on functions of IncRNA in regulating the key stages of plant growth: sprouting and flowering.

I study the mechanisms behind dormancy time in seeds. At the same time, I try to use the merits of my research system for the discovery of new universal mechanisms of gene expression, says dr Świeżewski.

A laureate in the field of Physical Sciences and Engineering is dr hab. Adam Rycerz of the Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University. The physicist from Krakow received the 2017 Award for theoretical analysis of quantum charge transport in grapheme nanoparticle systems. The Award Committee found the description’s mechanism of valley polarisation control through electrostatic fields to be a particularly important achievement.

What fascinates me most about condensed-matter theory is that we can predict – at a relatively low cost and effort – entirely new physical phenomena, whose practical use is virtually within arm’s reach, says dr hab. Adam Rycerz. Although cases of this kind of research plan succeeding are rare (normally it is an experimental discovery that precedes the laborious process of developing theory), to give up on such endeavours would be tantamount to the end of our civilisation.

One purpose of the National Science Centre Award is to bring together the worlds of science and economy. The Award is funded by entrepreneurs, this year’s sponsors being: Grupa Adamed, Grupa Azoty, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa and PKN Orlen.

The sponsors, who gave the money checks to the laureates, had taken part in the work of the Award Committee. The Committee comprises representatives of the Council of the National Science Centre, the Centre’s Director and the sponsors. The three winners have been selected out of 42 candidatures submitted by eminent Polish scholars.

The award gala took place on 10^th October 2017 at the  19^th-century Polish Art Gallery – the Sukiennice. The sponsors’ representatives gave the laureates memorial statuettes. At the close of the ceremony, hosted by Grażyna Torbicka, Paweł Kaczmarczyk gave his piano recital.

Sponsors of 2017 NCN Award

On October 3^rd, the Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to three scientists involved in the work of the LIGO detector and gravitational waves. The laureates were: Reiner Weiss, Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne.

The existence of gravitational waves was predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916 on the basis of his theory of general relativity. Einstein’s theory has been proved thanks to the construction of the LIGO Observatory (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory), and the first time the gravitational waves were observed was on September 14^th 2015, when two American detectors – independently from each other  –  recorded the signals from colliding black holes.

This breakthrough was achieved thanks to the LIGO collaborative project involving over 1000 scientists from more than 20 countries, including Poland. The research, conducted by Polish group Virgo-POLAND led by prof. Andrzej Królak, has been funded by the NCN within the HARMONIA 6 funding opportunity. The research team involved scientists from the AGH University of Science and Technology, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, the National Centre for Nuclear Research, the University of Bialystok, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, the University of Warsaw, the University of Wrocław and the University of Zielona Góra.  The research performed by this team includes data analysis, modelling of the sources of gravitational waves, and contribution to the enhancement of the Virgo detector.

Virgo-POLGRAW website

The second bilateral call of the National Science Centre (NCN), organised jointly with the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; DFG) has reached its conclusion. From among 155 research proposals submitted (72 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and 83 in selected disciplines of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics), the Polish-German panels of experts selected the top 38 projects (15 in  Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and 23 in selected disciplines of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics). The funding awarded under BEETHOVEN 2 equalled €  6,6 M.The call was open to research projects in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and  in selected disciplines of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics, carried out jointly by Polish-German research teams. Each of the awarded projects will have two Principal Investigators, for the Polish and German part of the project, respectively.

The projects were subject to a two-stage peer review, held jointly by the NCN and DFG: in its initial stage, the proposals were assessed by external Expert Reviewers recommended by the NCN and DFG; in the second stage, the panels of experts selected by the NCN and DFG convened to pass the final judgment.

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is a research grant organisation, financing basic research in all disciplines. It is an association, under private law, of German research universities, non-university research institutions, and scientific associations. It is financed chiefly from the funding supplied by German federal states and the Federal Government.

All Polish applicants will receive evaluation reports provided by Expert Panel Members as attachments to NCN Director’s decisions.

Ranking lists

The position of the proposal on NCN ranking list corresponds to the order of the proposals on DFG ranking list

NCN together with BiodivERsA and Belmont Forum networks is pleased to announce a new call on biodiversity and ecosystem "Scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services" targeting the following topics:

• Development and application of scenarios of biodiversity and ecosystem services across spatial scales of relevance to multiple types of decisions,
• Consideration of multiple dimensions of biodiversity and ecosystem services in biodiversity scenarios.

Funding is available for international research projects that involve at least three researchers from three different eligible countries.

Call timetable

1 December 2017 – deadline for pre-registration

9 March 2018 – deadline for full proposals

July 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.

Countries participating in the call

Argentina, Austria, Belgium (Wallonia-Brussels Federation), Brazil (State of Sao Paulo only), Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States of America

Applicants are invited to use the BiodivERsA Partner Search Tool, which facilitates matches between potential partners with similar ideas. It provides the opportunity to express interest either in joining a research proposal or to search for partner(s) for an existing proposal.

Call documentation

Information for Polish applicants

1. NCN eligibility criteria
2. 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.
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, p. 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 applies to the consortium as a whole (UNISONO, p. 8-9: item 2.1.2 a) and b)).
5. Budget of the Polish part of the research project in the OSF system should be given in PLN (1 EUR= 4,3162 PLN).
6. Projects including Polish teams may last 36 months.

Contact

Dr Marcin Liana, tel: +48 12 341 9161

Joanna Komperda, tel: +48 12 341 9138

The CHIST-ERA Network pre-announces its new call for proposals, to be published in October 2017, which will target research in the following topics:

• Object recognition and manipulation by robots: Data sharing and experiment reproducibility (ORMR)
• Big data and process modelling for smart industry (BDSI)

The call will  require  that  projects  are  submitted  by  international  consortia with  partners  from  at  least three participating countries: Austria*, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada (Québec), Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom*.

The national/regional eligibility criteria will be defined by each participating funding agency.

The anticipated deadline for pre-proposals is 11^th of January 2018. The projects will be selected in the second half of 2018.

For details please see the attached document and website.

Please note that this pre-announcement is for information purposes only. It does not create any obligation for the CHIST-ERA consortium nor for any of the participating funding organisations. The official call announcement, to be published later, shall prevail.

*only within the first topic of this call (ORMR)

Contact:

• Dr Jakub Gadek, tel. +48 12 341 9152
• Marlena Wosiak, tel. +48 12 341 9093

The National Science Centre has announced the 14^th edition of the OPUS and PRELUDIUM funding opportunities and the 1^st edition of the Polish-Lithuanian DAINA programme. Scholars carrying out basic research will compete for a total of € 83.4 million in funding.The new call for proposals, DAINA 1, is a joint initiative of the National Science Centre and the Research Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos mokslo taryba, LMT). Under the scheme, funding will be made available to Polish-Lithuanian research teams conducting research in all disciplines. Projects to be carried out may last 24 or 36 months, and the principal investigator of the Polish team in the project must at least hold a doctorate. The programme’s budget has been set at ca € 1.9 million.

DAINA is yet another step on the path toward taking Polish research to an international level, which is an important element of the National Science Centre’s mission, said professor Janusz Janeczek, chair of the Council of the National Science Centre. The new call will be organised along similar lines to the highly successful Polish-German BEETHOVEN call. We hope that the use of a proven formula will contribute to closer cooperation with another neighbouring country and will strengthen the potential of the Polish and Lithuanian research communities.

The PRELUDIUM 14 call is addressed to researchers beginning their career in research, who hold no doctorate. It gives doctoral candidates the opportunity to independently run a one-, two- or three-year research project of their own. This edition’s budget has been set at € 9.58 million.

The last of the newly open calls, OPUS 14, is addressed to a wide range of applicants. The scheme is open to all researchers, regardless of their experience and academic degree. The funding received may be used for establishing a research team and purchasing equipment required in the research. There is no cap on funding for individual projects. The total budget is close to € 72 million.

Proposals must be submitted via the ZSUN/OSF system (https://osf.opi.org.pl) by 15^th December 2017.

On the 6^th and 7^th September 2017 in Lubljana, a meeting took place involving representatives of funding agencies from five Central European countries: prof.  József Györkös, director of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), prof. Klement Tockner, president of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), dr Alice Valkárová, president of the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR), dr József Pálinkás, president of the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) and prof. Zbigniew Błocki, director of the National Science Centre.

The participants discussed the prospects for strengthening cooperation between the agencies in order to enable outstanding researchers to carry out top-quality research at research institutions in the region. The cooperation should result in facilitating grant opportunities and simplifying evaluation procedures.

In the future, the initiative is to involve funding institutions from other Central European countries.

  

NCN together with EU-India Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (EqUIP)  is pleased to announce a call for international research projects “Sustainability, equity, wellbeing and cultural connections”. Funders strongly encourage interdisciplinary approaches across the social sciences and humanities (SSH) to address the themes of this call.

Each project must involve at least one research team from India, eligible for funding by the participating Indian funding agencies, one of which has to be Indian Council for Social Science Research, and at least two research teams from different countries participating in the call.  Project duration may not exceed 36 months.

The overall project coordinator must submit one proposals on behalf of all the research teams in all countries via Je-S submission system by November 30^th, 2017, 16:00 (UTC + 1:00).

Applicants are invited to use the EqUIP partner search tool, which facilitates matches between potential partners with similar ideas. It provides the opportunity to express interest either in joining a research proposal or to search for partner(s) for an existing proposal.

Countries participating in the call:

Finland, France, India, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and United Kingdom

CALL TIMETABLE

• Application deadline (full proposals): November 30^th, 2017, 16:00 (UTC + 1:00)
• Call results: July 2018
• Project start: January 2019

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CALL

Information for Polish applicants:

1. On the full proposal stage Polish applicants must register their applications in the OSF submission system (UNISONO application). The application includes the following budget table: http://ncn.gov.pl/sites/default/files/pliki/UNISONO_budget_table.xlsx. Information provided in the submission system (budget, justification of basic research criterion) refers to the Polish part of the project.
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, s. 5-12).
3. Projects including Polish teams may last 24 or 36 months.
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). Please note that Polish consortia have higher limits on the remuneration.  
5. Budget of the Polish part of the research project in the OSF system should be given in PLN: 1 EUR= 4,3162 PLN.

Contact:

dr hab. Wojciech Sowa, tel. 12 341 9171, wojciech.sowa@ncn.gov.pl

dr Malwina Gębalska, tel: 0048 519 404 997, malwina.gebalska@ncn.gov.pl