ForestValue2 2023

Proposals in the call may be submitted by any entity specified in the Act on the National Science Centre (NCN), i.e.:

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 2020, item 1383, as amended);
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 company),
9. scientific and industrial centres laid down in the Act on Research Centres (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383, as amended),
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 2021, item 706),
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures

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

If a research project is carried out by at least two Polish partners applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities (see item 8 above) and as such submit NCN proposals. NCN proposals are submitted by a leader specified in the research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities. An entity employing the principal investigator acts 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 are not eligible to apply for NCN funding of a joint research project.

Template agreement on the formation of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of a research project

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Restrictions on submitting NCN proposals are laid down in Chapter IV 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.

Proposals covering “Resilient sustainable forest systems and management” must include research, the outcome of which will contribute to increasing sustainability of forest management: mitigating climate change, increasing biodiversity and more efficient development of forest resources. Proposals are expected to include their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals strategy and carbon neutrality to be introduced by the EU Member States by 2050.

Proposals covering “Sustainable timber building systems” are expected to focus on innovative wood based construction systems, systems replacing existing high energy materials or on the assessment of the environmental, social and economic impacts of wood based materials.

More information on the topics covered by the call can be found in the call text of ForestValue2 Call 2023.

Please note: Polish researchers may apply for NCN funding of their basic research projects for the purposes of Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act.

NCN proposals comprising research tasks overlapping with research tasks to be carried out in another proposal that has been already submitted in any NCN call or with respect to which an appeal has been initiated, may only be submitted once the funding decision has become final.

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

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

A post-doc type post is a full-time post designated by the principal investigator for a person who has been awarded a PhD degree within 7 years before joining 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 type post can be occupied by a person who has been conferred a PhD degree by another entity than the one planning to employ him/her at this post or has completed a continuous and evidenced post-doctoral fellowship of at least 10 months in another entity than the participating entity and in another country than the one in which he/she has been conferred a PhD degree. A prospective post-doc must be selected in an open call.

A PhD student who will receive an NCN scholarship must be selected in an open call.

The rationale for involvement of individual members of the research team in a project is evaluated by an international expert team. Proposals must include the description of competencies and tasks to be performed by individual members of the research team. To find out more on the budget for salaries and scholarships, please read 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.

Names of PhD students and post-docs must not be disclosed in either joint or NCN proposals.

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research, based on calculations and must specify the expenditures to be covered by the NCN (the so-called eligible costs).

The terms of the call do not specify the minimum or maximum value of funds that may be requested.

The budget in NCN proposals must 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 must be calculated according to the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4.6478 PLN.

The project budget (eligible costs) includes direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

1. remuneration for the principal investigator
2. employment for investigators in the project:

• full-time employment for post-doc(s);
• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students;
• the so-called additional remuneration for members of the research team. If the principal investigator does not plan to be employed full time in the project, his/her remuneration is paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;

3. purchase of research equipment, devices and software;
4. purchase of materials and small equipment;
5. outsourcing;
6. business trips, visits and consultations;
7. compensation for collective investigators;
8. other costs crucial to the project that comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Please note: The costs of publication of monographs resulting from research projects (as defined in §10 of the Regulation on evaluation of the quality of research activity by the Minister of Science and Higher Education on 22 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 392)) may only be incurred following a positive review by the NCN.

Indirect costs include:

• indirect cost of Open Access (up to 2% of direct costs) that may be designated only for the cost of open access to publications or research data;
• other indirect costs (up to 20% of direct costs) that may be spent on costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data.

Please note: The cost of open access to publications may only be incurred as indirect costs. The cost of open access planned as direct costs will be regarded as a formal error.

If an unreasonable budget is planned, a proposal may be rejected in the course of merit-based evaluation.

For more information, please go to the Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Please note: We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project with the NCN. Send the budget table in .xlsx format to alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl by 15 August 2023.

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted its Open Access Policy pursuant to which all research results stemming from NCN-funded research projects must be made available in 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), as long as the Version of Record (VoR) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;
3. publication in transformative 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).

More on open access publication can be found here .

Proposals in the call may include an application for state aid. For more information, please go to the State aid section.

Joint proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other participants and Secretariat of ForestValue2 Call 2023.

Joint proposals successfully evaluated during the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation carried out by an international expert team pursuant to the call text .

NCN proposals are subject solely to an NCN eligibility check carried out by the scientific coordinators.

The eligibility check of NCN proposals involves verification of proposal for completeness, compliance with all the terms of the call documents and Resolution No 32/2023 of the NCN Council of 16 March 2023, including compliance of the budget with the Annex thereto (Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

NCN proposals must be consistent with joint proposals.

Proposals approved as eligible are subject to merit-based evaluation performed by members of the international expert teams created by the research-funding agencies participating in the call.

At the last stage of merit-based evaluation, based on full proposals and reviews, a ranking list of projects recommended for funding is compiled by the expert team.

Only joint proposals are subject to merit-based evaluation which is performed by an international expert team created by the research-funding agencies participating in the call. To find out more on the evaluation of proposals, please read the call text available on the website of the ForestValue2 network.

The ForestValue2 Call 2023 call will be concluded in December 2023. Firstly, project coordinators will be informed about the outcome. 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.

For more information on the call, please go to the website of the ForestValue2 network. The terms of and regulations on NCN funding awarded in the call are laid down in an Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 32/2023 of 16 March 2023.

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

• Alicja Dyląg

(contact by phone between 9:00 and 12:00 noon)

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• Lidia Trocha (before calling, make an e-mail appointment)

If you are intending to submit a proposal to ForestValue Call 2023:

1. read the call documents, in particular:

• call text of ForestValue2 Call 2023 on the website of the ForestValue 2 network;
• terms of 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.

Before submitting an NCN proposal to the NCN at national level:

1. collect data from the applicant required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (project costs, procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal); if a group of Polish entities applies, an agreement on collaboration for the purposes of completion of the requested research project is required,
2. 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;
3. make sure that all tabs have been completed in the correct language;
4. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN; and
5. download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the institution.

Once the proposal has been 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.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

1. the evaluation of proposals will be carried out;
2. if the proposal is recommended for funding, a funding agreement will be entered into;
3. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement 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 .

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.