Announcement of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals carried out as multilateral cooperation under the CEUS programme pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure

The call is addressed at Polish research teams that will apply for funding of research projects jointly with research teams from one or two other countries involved in the CEUS programme (Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia). Under the call for proposals, funding will be awarded to the research projects, for which cooperation between the teams is essential (see the call documents: Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals).

Grants that are considered state aid will not be offered (see the call documents: State aid).

The principal investigator must be a person who holds at least a PhD degree and manages the work of the Polish research team (see the call documents: Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals).

There are no restrictions on the number of research team members.

NCN cannot act as the lead agency under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals. FWF, GAČR or ARRS can act as the lead agency under this call for proposals.

The call for proposals at the NCN acting as the lead agency under the OPUS 20 call shall be open between 15 15 September and 15 December 2020.

More on LAP

The contribution of particular research teams to the entire project costs planned in the joint proposal is the main criterion for choosing the lead agency**. In the case of research projects carried out jointly by research teams from two countries, the lead agency must cover at least 40% of the entire project costs planned in the joint proposal, whilst in the case of research projects carried out jointly by research teams from three countries – at least 25% ** (see the call documents: Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals and Guidelines for the Polish research teams).

If a proposal is submitted to NCN acting as the lead agency, the call for proposals under the OPUS 20 call between 15 September and 15 December shall only be open to research projects involving Polish research teams applying to the NCN for at least 40% of the entire project costs (in the event of bilateral projects) or at least 25% of the entire project costs (in the event of trilateral projects).

**Does not apply to research projects to be carried out jointly by research teams from Poland and Austria, with the participation of research teams from Germany or Switzerland or Luxembourg that apply for funding of such research to their competent foreign research funding institutions, i.e. German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) or Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) or Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) under bilateral or multilateral programmes launched by the FWF in cooperation therewith pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure and in the case of which joint proposals submitted to the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) acting as the lead agency under the Stand-Alone Projects programme, concern research covered by the FWF Urgent Funding for Research Into Humanitarian Crises like Epidemics and Pandemics. 

The terms of awarding funding for research tasks funded by the NCN under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals are laid down in the LAP Regulations (see the call documents). The CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals is open to NCN proposals in which the requested funding for the entire duration of the Polish part of the research project is no less than PLN 150,000. The budget of the Polish research team must be included in the appropriate budget tabs in ZSUN/OSF (see the call documents).

Information on the budget of the Polish research team (i.e. amounts and justification of expenses) in ZSUN/OSF, Comparative CEUS cost sheet*** and appropriate section of the joint proposal, must be consistent. 

The EUR budget of the Polish part of the project (i.e. in the Comparative CEUS cost sheet*** and appropriate section of the joint proposal) shall be calculated based on the following exchange rate: EUR 1 = PLN 4.2344 (see the Call documents, Guidelines for Polish research teams).

PLEASE NOTE: NCN proposals processed in the ZSUN/OSF system from 30 September 2020 inclusive may include research projects carried out by Polish research teams from 2020 onwards. If the funding decision by the NCN Director is taken in 2021, the applicants may incur pre-financing costs from their own resources before the funding agreement is executed by the NCN, the applicant and the principal investigator. Such pre-financing costs shall be deemed eligible from the date the funding decision by the NCN Director becomes final until the date the research project is completed.

Furthermore, from the commencement of the work on the NCN proposal in ZSUN/OSF, the Polish research team shall have 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and send it to the NCN, after which date the proposal shall be disabled for editing. In this case, if the Polish research team has not sent its proposal to the NCN, a new proposal must be drafted and completed in ZSUN/OSF (whereas, for such NCN proposals, the Polish research teams may plan their research projects in the ZSUN/OSF submission system starting from 2022).

**Does not apply to research projects to be carried out jointly by research teams from Poland and Austria, with the participation of research teams from Germany or Switzerland or Luxembourg that apply for funding of such research to their competent foreign research funding institutions, i.e. German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) or Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) or Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) under bilateral or multilateral programmes launched by the FWF in cooperation therewith pursuant to the lead agency procedure and in the case of which joint proposals submitted to the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) acting as the lead agency under the Stand-Alone Projects programme, concern research covered by the FWF Urgent Funding for Research Into Humanitarian Crises like Epidemics and Pandemics. 

The budget of tasks to be carried out by Polish research teams must be in line with the LAP Regulations (see the Call documents: LAP Regulations and Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure) concerning costs planned in the project, including costs of salaries and scholarships specified in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN included therein (see the call documents: LAP Regulations, Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure). The principles of awarding NCN scholarships are laid down in the Regulations on awarding scholarships (see the Call documents: Regulations on awarding scholarships).

The budget of tasks to be carried out by Polish research teams must be in line with the information in the Comparative CEUS cost sheet*** (see the call documents: Comparative CEUS cost sheet).

When drawing up the budget, emphasis should be put on determining the required resources and exact estimation of expenses . The budget must be well justified with regard to the subject and scope of the research, based on the calculations and itemized expenses to be covered from the NCN resources (so-called eligible costs). If the costs planned are unjustified and/or there are severe discrepancies between the costs of projects to be carried out by Polish research teams in the NCN proposal and the joint proposal, the proposal may be rejected or less funding may be awarded than planned in the NCN proposal (see the call documents: Guidelines for Polish research teams).

The maximum amount of indirect costs is 20% of the direct costs.

PLEASE NOTE: NCN proposals processed in the ZSUN/OSF system from 30 September 2020 inclusive may include research projects carried out by Polish research teams from 2020 onwards.  If the funding decision by the NCN Director is taken in 2021, the applicants may incur pre-financing costs from their own resources before the funding agreement is executed by the NCN, the applicant and the principal investigator. Such pre-financing costs shall be deemed eligible from the date the funding decision by the NCN Director becomes final until the date the research project is

***Does not apply to research projects to be carried out jointly by research teams from Poland and Austria, with the participation of research teams from Germany or Switzerland or Luxembourg that apply for funding of such research to their competent foreign research funding institutions, i.e. German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) or Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) or Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) under bilateral or multilateral programmes launched by the FWF in cooperation therewith pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure and in the case of which joint proposals submitted to the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) acting as the lead agency under the Stand-Alone Projects programme, concern research covered by the FWF Urgent Funding for Research Into Humanitarian Crises like Epidemics and Pandemics. 

All elements to be included in NCN proposals are set out in Point 2 (2) of the Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals (see the call documents: Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals ).

The NCN accepts only complete NCN proposals that meet all the requirements set forth in the call announcement. NCN proposals must include joint proposals identical with the proposal submitted to the lead agency and including all documents submitted via the electronic submission system of the lead agency and the Comparatvie CEUS cost sheet table (see the call documents: Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals, Guidelines for Polish research teams, NCN proposal form template).

Under the CEUS-UNISONO programme, NCN proposals must be submitted to the NCN electronically via ZSUN/OSF available at https://osf.opi.org.pl/. Hard copies are not required for the proposals to be submitted under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals. However, the partner agencies involved in the programme may apply different requirements concerning submission of proposals (see the call documents, Guidelines for submitting proposals and Guidelines for Polish research teams).

An NCN proposal is submitted to the NCN by the Polish research team as soon as possible following submission of the joint proposal to the lead agency (according to the call deadline of the lead agency), within 7 calendar days at the latest by 31 December, 4 p.m.

PLEASE NOTE: Proposals can be submitted to ARRS acting as a lead agency between 11 December 2020 and 31 December 2020. If, however, a joint proposal is submitted to ARRS as the lead agency, NCN proposals must be submitted to ZSUN by 31 December 2020, 4 p.m., after which date it will not be possible to submit proposals under the CEUS-UNISONO call to the NCN. [UPDATED 16.12.2020]

From the commencement of the work on the NCN proposal in ZSUN/OSF, the Polish research team shall have 45 calendar days to complete and send the proposal to the NCN, after which date the proposal shall be disabled for editing. If such is the case and the Polish research team has not sent its proposal to the NCN, it must draft a new proposal and complete it in ZSUN/OSF (call documents, Guidelines for Polish research teams).

Proposal submission dates in 2020 at the partner agencies acting as the lead agency:

Submission deadline for proposals to fund joint research projects at the partner institutions other than the lead agency:

Detailed instruction for completing NCN proposals in ZSUN/OSF are included in the Guidelines for Polish research teams and in Guidelines for submitting proposals (see the call documents: Guidelines for Polish research teams, NCN proposal submission procedure).

When submitting proposals for research projects under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals, the following restrictions should be noted in particular:

• the call is open to two (in the case of bilateral cooperation) or three (in the case of trilateral cooperation) research teams from countries involved in the CEUS programme, i.e. from Poland, Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic;
• research tasks covered by the proposal submitted under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals cannot be funded from any other sources.

The other restrictions to submitting NCN proposals are detailed in Chapter III of the LAP Regulations (see the call documents: LAP Regulations).

There are no restrictions on the subject of proposals submitted to the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals.

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of the 25 NCN panels within three areas:

• HS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences;
• ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering;
• NZ – Life Sciences.

The CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals is open to NCN proposals for the Polish part of the research project planned for a period of 24 or 36 months and in the case of research projects to be carried out jointly with research teams from Austria – also 48 months.

The duration of the project must be identical for all research teams involved in the project (see the call documents: Terms of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals ).

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation.

Eligibility check of proposals is carried out at the NCN by the scientific coordinators pursuant to the eligibility criteria of the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals.

Joint proposals are subject to merit-based evaluation. The merit-based evaluation is open only to proposals evaluated positively at the stage of the eligibility check by all partner agencies to which the joint proposal has been submitted.

Proposals are subject to merit-based evaluation carried out by the lead agency according to its rules.

The terms of merit-based evaluation of joint proposals are laid down in the documents of the following calls for proposals announced by the partner agencies:

More information on the proposal evaluation procedure at the partner agencies can be found in the Guidelines for Polish research teams (see the call documents: Guidelines for Polish research teams).

• Stand-Alone Projects, and, in the case of clinical research: FWF Clinical Research Programme (if FWF is the lead agency);
• Lead Agency Grants (if GAČR is the lead agency); and
• National Research Projects (if ARRS is the lead agency).

The NCN Director shall decide whether or not to award funding within 12 months of the date the NCN proposal is submitted.

The appeal procedure under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals is set forth in §46, §47 and §48 of the LAP Regulations (see the call documents: LAP Regulations) and Guidelines for appealing against the NCN Director’s decisions (see the call documents: Guidelines for appealing against the NCN Director’s decisions).

The detailed schedule of international calls and programmes for  2019 and 2020 as well as other news can be found on the NCN webpage.

For more information, see the CEUS-UNISONO call documents, in particular Guidelines for Polish research teams and should you have any more questions, contact the NCN officers.  

General affairs:

• Dr Magdalena Godowska

e-mail: magdalena.godowska@ncn.gov.pl

tel.: +48 12 341 90 16 (contact time: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.)

• Magdalena Dobrzańska-Bzowska

e-mail: Magdalena.Dobrzanska-Bzowska@ncn.gov.pl

tel.: +48 12 341 9094 (contact time: 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.)

Scientific coordinator – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences 

• Dr Małgorzata Jacobs

e-mail: malgorzata.jacobs@ncn.gov.pl

Scientific coordinator – Physical Sciences and Engineering

e-mail: monika.goral-kurbiel@ncn.gov.pl

Scientific coordinator – Life Sciences

Dr inż. Anna Fiust

e-mail: anna.fiust@ncn.gov.pl

CONTACT AT FWF:

• Dr Christoph Bärenreuter,

e-mail: christoph.baerenreuter@fwf.ac.at

tel. +431 505 67 40 – 8702

CONTACT AT GAČR:

• Kamila Pětrašová,

e-mail: kamila.petrasova@gacr.cz

tel . +420 227 088 863

CONTACT AT ARRS:

• e-mail:info@arrs.si