BiodivNBS

Proposals in the call may be submitted by the following entities laid down in the Act on the National Science Centre:

1. universities;
2. federations of science and HE entities;
3. research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796, as amended);
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 498);
5. 5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland;

5a. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 2098);

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network;

6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences;
7. other entities involved in research independently on a continuous basis;
8. groups of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-7 or at least one institution as such together with at least one enterprise);
9. scientific and industrial centres laid down in the Act on Research Centres of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 498);
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796);
11. scientific libraries;
12. companies operating as R&D centres laid down in the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovation Activities of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 2474);
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland;

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures

14. natural persons;
15. companies conducting research in other organisational form than set forth in sections 1-13.

If a research projects is carried out by two or more Polish entities applying for NCN funding, they shall set up a group of entities (see point 8 above) and as such submit NCN proposals. An NCN proposal shall be submitted by the leader specified in the research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities. An entity employing the principal investigator shall act as the leader of the group of entities.

Please note:

If, pursuant to Article 27 (1) (2) of the NCN Act, Polish entities cannot set up a group of entities, they shall not be eligible to apply for NCN funding of a joint research project.

A template research project cooperation agreement concluded by a group of entities.

The principal investigator of the Polish research team shall hold at least a PhD degree when submitting an NCN proposal. Additional restrictions are described in detail in Chapter IV, §13-18 of the Terms and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO, annexed to NCN Council Resolution No 32/2023 of 16 March 2023.

The call shall address the following topics:

1. Synergies and trade-offs of Nature-Based solutions in the context of human well-being
2. Nature-Based solutions mitigating anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss
3. The contribution of Nature-Based solutions for just transformative change

Applicants shall be requested to submit proposals covering at least one aspect covered by the above-mentioned topics or combining aspects from several topics.

NCN proposals covering research tasks overlapping tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier to an NCN call shall only be submitted once the evaluation of the previous proposal or appeal procedure is completed otherwise than by awarding funding.

Research projects may be planned for a period of 36 months.

We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project with the NCN. To receive NCN feedback in time, please send the budget table in .xlsx format to anna.kotarba@ncn.gov.pl by 25 October 2023. Budget tables delivered after 25 October 2023 shall not be reviewed. The project acronym must be included in the file title.

Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims at identifying the required resources and estimating the costs required to perform the research tasks. The project budget must be based on realistic calculations and must comply with the guidelines laid down in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO. The maximum budget of the Polish research team is not pre-determined, however, the justification of the expenses versus the scope of tasks shall be assessed by an international expert team.

The budget in the NCN proposal shall be quoted in PLN, while the budget in the joint proposal, in EUR.

The EUR budget for the Polish part of the research project in the joint proposal shall be calculated according to the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4.7728 PLN.

Project costs include direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

1. remuneration:

• full-time employment: funds for full-time employment of a principal investigator or post-doc(s);
• additional salaries for members of the research team;
• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students;

2. purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software;
3. purchase of materials and small equipment;
4. outsourcing;
5. business trips, visits and consultations;
6. compensation for collective investigators; and
7. other costs crucial to the project.

Indirect costs include:

• indirect costs of Open Access of up to 2% of direct costs, which can only be spent on the costs of open access to publications or research data,
• other indirect costs of up to 20% of direct costs, which may be allocated to costs indirectly related to the project, including costs of open access to publications and research data. When the project is carried out, the host institution must arrange with the principal investigator for the distribution of at least 25% of the indirect costs’ value.

Remuneration of administrative staff and costs of conference organisation (rental of rooms, catering) may be financed solely as indirect expenses.

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

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

A post-doc type post is a full-time post, scheduled by the project’s principal investigator for a person who has been conferred a PhD degree within 7 years before employment in the project. This period may be extended pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

PLEASE NOTE: A post-doc must be a person who has been conferred a PhD degree by another institution than the one planning to employ them at this post or must have completed a continuous and evidenced post-doctoral fellowship of at least 10 months in another institution than the host institution for the project and in another country than the one in which they have been conferred a PhD degree. A prospective post-doc must be selected in an open call.

Prospective post-docs and scholarship recipients must be selected in an open call. More on post-doc employment can be found in Point 2(1)(1) of an Annex to NCN Council Resolution. Furthermore, please read the Regulations for awarding scholarships in NCN-funded research projects.

The rationale of involvement of individual members of the research teams in the project is evaluated by an international expert team. The proposal must include the description of competencies and tasks of individual members of the research team. More on the costs of salaries and scholarships can be found in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

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

Persons recruited in an open call procedure, including post-docs, must not be named in either joint proposals or NCN proposals.

Yes, they can. Pursuant to NCN Council Resolution No 67/2023, in the call "Nature-Based Solutions for biodiversity, human well-being and transformative change" it is possible to apply for state aid only for tasks planned within the framework of basic research..

Joint proposals shall be subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other research-funding agencies participating in the “Nature-Based Solutions for biodiversity, human well-being and transformative change” call and the Call Secretariat.

Joint proposals approved as eligible are subject to a merit-based evaluation performed by the international expert team according to the call procedure.

NCN proposals are subject solely to an eligibility check performed by the NCN Scientific Coordinators.

The eligibility check of NCN proposals includes verification of proposals for completeness and compliance with the terms and conditions set forth in the call documents and Resolution No 32/2023, including compliance of the expenses with the Annex: “Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO. Information in NCN proposals and in joint full proposals must be consistent.

Only joint proposals shall be subject to a merit-based evaluation performed by an international expert team formed by the research-funding agencies participating in the call acting jointly. For more information on the evaluation of proposals, please read the documents available on the website of the Biodiversa+ Partnership.

Together with other European cOAlition S agencies, the National Science Centre has drafted its Open Access Policy. In accordance with its vision of open access to research results and publications, the NCN requires that all research results should be made available in full and immediate open access. In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes as compliant with its open access policy:

1. publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
2. publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals[1]), as long as the Version of Record (VoR[2]) or Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM[3]) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;

3. publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

   Publication in transformative journals (TJ[4]); whereas transformative journals must meet the criteria laid down in the Guidelines on the Implementation of Plan S and must allow open access publication of original scientific articles. This publication route (3) only applies to articles accepted for publication or published before 31 December 2024.

Papers must be published using the CC-BY licence. In the case of transformative journals, the CC-BY-SA licence can also be used. Furthermore, the CC-BY-ND licence can be used (regardless of the publication route selected).

More information on open access publication terms / instructions can be found here, as amended.

We also recommend that you read our Open Access Instructions.

In grant agreements concluded after 1 January 2021, the data underpinning the scientific publications resulting from the project funded by the NCN must be well-documented pursuant to the FAIR Principles standing for machine or manual Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability or Reusability (“FAIR Data”). Where possible, data must be made available in the repository, according to the Creative Commons Public Domain licence (CC0[5]). The data citation principles laid down in the „Declaration of Data Citation Principles by FORCE 11” and the„TOP Guidelines”. must be complied with. Metadata describing the data sets must be in line with the OpenAIRE guidelines.

The call of the Biodiversa+ Partnership shall be concluded on the date laid down in the call documents (September/October 2024). Firstly, project coordinators shall be notified of the results of the call. Polish research teams will be notified by way of decisions of the NCN Director.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements related to actions performed by the NCN, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council.

Before submitting an NCN proposal at national level:

1. make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Checking the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system with the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information entered is correct and the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
3. download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the entity;
4. upload the signed confirmation of proposal submission.

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

For more information on the call, go to the BIODIVERSA+ Partnership website. The terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding can be found in NCN Council Resolution No 32/2023 of 16 March 2023.

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail or by phone:

• Mateusz Sobczyk,
• Anna Kotarba, tel.
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