JPND Call 2022

Proposals in the call may be submitted by entities specified in the Act on the National Science Centre, namely:

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),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws 2020, item 1383),
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 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 2020, item 1383),
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 2019, item 1183),
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 2021, item 706),
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,
14. natural persons and
15. companies conducting research in other organisational form than set forth in sections 1-13.

If research projects are to be carried out by two or more Polish partners applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities (see item 8 above) and as such submit NCN proposals. An NCN proposal is 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.

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

A template research project cooperation agreement

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Additional restrictions on submitting NCN proposals are described in detail 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 80/2021 of 9 September 2021.

The subjects of the call (Understanding the mechanisms of non-pharmacological interventions) covers research in the following areas:

• Determining biomolecular and/or physical underpinnings of effects of non-pharmacological interventions;
• Examining the mechanisms of effective non-pharmacological interventions on the molecular and cellular level by applying cutting-edge technologies;
• Identification of the mechanisms of non-pharmacological interventions within the brain, using brain imaging, electrophysiology and other equivalent state of the art techniques;
• Identification of biological, psychological and social health markers and their associations to allow the identification of modifiable risk factors amenable to non-pharmacological interventions and better predict and monitor the effects of these interventions for future large-scale clinical studies;
• Elaborating modified concepts of non-pharmacological interventions with enhanced efficacy based on a deeper understanding of the mechanisms;
• Identification of potential drug-target sites for a combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions;
• Finding (individual) factors that predict response to interventions

Proposals submitted to the call must focus on one or several of the following neurodegenerative diseases:

• Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,
• Parkinson’s disease and PD-related disorders,
• Prion diseases,
• Motor neuron disease,
• Huntington’s disease,
• Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA),
• Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

More information on the subject of the call can be found in the JPND Call 2022 announcement. 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 may be planned in the call for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

Apart from the principal investigator, research tasks may 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 prior to the year of employment in the project. This period may be extended pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

Please note: Persons employed as post-docs must have their PhD degree awarded by another institution than the one employing 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. Persons employed as post-docs in the project must be recruited in an open call procedure.

PhD students who are NCN-scholarship grantees must be recruited in an open call procedure.

The expert team will review the relevance of the involvement of particular members of the research team in the project. The competences and tasks to be performed by particular members of the research team must be described in the proposal. For more information 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.

Scholarship grantees and post-docs must not be named in either joint or NCN proposals.

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research and based on realistic calculations. The budget must include expenditures eligible for funding from NCN resources (the so-called eligible costs).

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

The budget in the NCN proposal 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 = 4.5987 PLN.

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

Direct costs include:

1. remuneration for the principal investigator;
2. remuneration for co-investigators in the project:

• full-time remuneration for post-docs,
• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students,
• the so-called additional remuneration for members of the research team. If the principal investigator is not employed full-time in the project, his/her remuneration is paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;

3. purchase or construction of research equipment, devices and software;
4. purchase of material and small equipment;
5. outsourced services;
6. business trips, visits and consultations;
7. compensation for collective investigators and
8. other costs crucial to the project which 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 (as defined in §10 of the Regulation on Evaluation of the Quality of Research Activity issued by the Minister of Science and Higher Education on 22 February 2019 (Journal of Laws 2019, item 392) resulting from research projects 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 costs 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.

Where unjustified costs are planned, the proposal may be rejected.

More information on the costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in 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. The budget table in .xlsx format should be sent to alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl by 15 February 2022.

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted an “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 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 information on Open Access publication can be found here

Yes. For more information, please read the State aid rules.

Joint proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other members of JPND network and the Secretariat of the JPND Call 2022.

Joint proposals successfully evaluated during the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation carried out by an international expert team according to the principles specified in the call announcement.

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 terms set forth in the call documents and Resolution No 80/2021 of the NCN Council of 9 September 2021, including compliance of the budget with the Annex thereto, i.e. “Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration Unisono”.

The information provided in NCN proposals and in joint proposals must be consistent and identical.

Only joint proposals are subject to merit-based evaluation. Merit-based evaluation is performed by an international expert team appointed by the JPND network. For more information on the evaluation of proposals, go to the call announcement available at the website of the JPND network.

The JPND Call 2022 will be concluded in October 2022. Firstly, project coordinators will be notified of 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 lodge an 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 JPND network. The terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call are laid down in the Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 80/2021.

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

• Alicja Dyląg,

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  (between 9 a.m. and 12 noon)
• Jadwiga Spyrka (before calling, make an e-mail appointment)

If you are intending to submit a proposal in the JPND Call 2022, please read:

1. all call documents, in particular:

1. JPND Call 2022 announcement published on the website of the JPND network;
2. 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.

National level: before an NCN proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. obtain data from the applicant required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and performance of the research project (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 for funding, prepare a research project cooperation agreement;
2. make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Checking the proposal for completeness in ZSUN/OSF 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 respective tabs are 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 host institution.

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 ZSUN/OSF system.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

1. 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 performed 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. The appeal must be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.