M-ERA.NET Call 2026

Proposals may be submitted by the following entities specified in the NCN Act:

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. 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,

5c. Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education operating pursuant to the Act on the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education of 13 September 2018 (Journal of Laws 2024, items 570 and 1897);

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 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 research projects are carried out by two or more Polish entities applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities (see point 8 above) and as such submit NCN proposals. NCN proposals are submitted by the 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.

Template research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting an NCN proposal. Additional restrictions are laid down in Chapter IV §§13-20 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 74/2025 of 11 September 2025.

Researchers intending to apply for funding under the call must focus on the chief goals of the M-ERA.NET programme when preparing their research plan. The main objectives of the programme include:

• supporting the European Green Deal by striving to develop technologies in the area of material engineering to be used for clean energy-related applications, energy generation and harvesting, energy storage, electrolysers and fuel cells;
• striving to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in particular SDG 7 (“Affordable and clean energy”) through fostering research on sustainable energy storage technology, SDG 9 (“Industrial innovation and infrastructure”) by upgrading the technological capabilities of industrial sectors, and SDG 12 (“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”) through an environmentally sound management of natural resources and reduced waste generation;
• socio-ecological benefits in the context of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Projects funded under M-ERA.NET 3 will aim at developing responsible research and innovation processes to systematically address socio-ecological, ethical and political dimensions of material research, development and use;
• supporting the innovation chain by making best use of the calls to facilitate the generation of knowledge along the innovation chain, from excellent science and research to innovative industrial applications; and
• strengthening interdisciplinarity through an integrative approach across disciplines and across application fields, enabling the development of attractive and efficient funding tools for projects that were unlikely to be realised before.

The call covers the following topics in the field of material science and material engineering::

• Materials for energy storage and distribution systems
• Materials for energy conversion
• Innovative surfaces, coatings and interfaces
• Innovative functional materials with defined architectures
• Materials addressing environmental challenges
• Next generation materials for electronics

The National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development are both members of the M-ERA.NET network. NCN funding can only be requested by Polish applicants for basic research projects (TRL 1-4). Involvement of an industrial partner from Poland is not required.

Researchers whose projects start from TRL 3-6 and achieve TRL 5-8 may apply for NCBR funding. Involvement of a Polish industrial partner is required.

NCN proposals covering research tasks that are overlapping with tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier under any other NCN call or for which an appeal procedure has been initiated, may be submitted only after the funding decision has become final.

Research projects may be planned for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

Applicants are required to develop an accurate project budget at the pre-proposal stage. The budget of the Polish part of the project should be developed according to the template below to ensure that the budgeted costs are in line with the Regulations and the Types of eligible costs.

Budget table of the Polish research team

Should you have any questions or queries concerning the budget, please contact us by e-mail at alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl or by phone at +48 532 086 494, +48 12 341 90 69.

Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims to identify and estimate the resources 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 and 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 is assessed by an international expert team. The proposal may be rejected if an unreasonable budget is planned and/or discrepancies are found between the costs of the project carried out by the Polish research teams in the NCN proposal and the joint proposal.

The budget in the NCN proposal should 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 = 4.2791 PLN.

Eligible costs in the project include direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

1. remuneration:

• full-time employment: funds for full-time employment of the principal investigator or post-doc(s);
• additional salaries for members of the research team, including principal investigator;
• 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.

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

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.

Research projects carried out by Polish research teams are funded by NCN as long as foreign partners are also allocated project funding.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of the research team members. To find out more on the cost of salaries and scholarships, please read the Types of costs in research projects funded by NCN and carried out as the multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

NCN scholarship recipients and/or post-docs in the project must be recruited in an open call procedure. Please read the Regulations for awarding scholarships in NCN-funded research projects.

The names of scholarship recipients and post-docs must not be revealed in either joint or NCN proposals.

Yes, they can. For more information, please refer to the State aid section.

• International level 

Joint pre-proposals and full proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by NCN, other members of the M.ERA.NET network and Secretariat of the M-ERA.NET Call 2026.

Joint proposals successfully evaluated during the eligibility check are subject to a merit-based evaluation. To find out more on the merit-based evaluation of proposals submitted to M-ERA.NET Call 2025, please refer to the M-ERA.NET Call 2026 Guide for Proposers.

• National level 

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

The eligibility check of NCN proposals involves verification of proposals for completeness, compliance with the call documents and annex to Resolution No 74/2025, including compliance of the budget with the Annex “Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO".

NCN proposals and joint full proposals must be consistent.

Pursuant to the Open Access Policy, the research results should (if possible) be made available in open access.

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 (in which the articles require payment of a subscription fee) and/or hybrid journals (in which some of the articles are open access and some require payment of a subscription fee); in the case of publishing in subscription-based model, it is advisable that Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM, i.e. the final manuscript version created by the author, including all the revisions introduced after the peer review, and accepted for publication in the journal; other terms: postprint or author’s accepted manuscript) or preprint, be made available in the repository listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR), if the AAM/preprint is not made available, it will not affect the acknowledgment of expenses or the settlement of the project;
3. publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements (which are available within limited time in accordance with the applicable agreements between national publishing consortia; journals covered by Polish transformative agreements are listed on the website of the Virtual Library of Science).

Manuscripts must be published under the following licences:

• Route 1: Creative Commons (CC) licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies;
• Route 2: Version of Record (VoR, i.e. manuscript version published in a journal with its own typeface and branding; other terms: published version or publisher’s pdf), AAM or preprint should be made available in the repository using CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies;
• Route 3: CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies.

Eligibility of Article Processing Charges (APC applicable to scientific articles):

The costs are eligible for each publication route and each CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open licence policies. NCN does not recommend incurring APC for articles published under Route 2, if the AAM or preprint can be made available in the repository at no charge.

The data underpinning scientific publications, whether in open or closed access, resulting from the project must be well-documented pursuant to the standards of the machine or manual findability, accessibility, interoperability or reusability (the so-called FAIR Data). Where possible, data must be made available in the repository using CC0 or CC BY 4.0 licence. Other licences can also be used as long as they ensure an equivalent level of data openness and reusability as CC0 or CC BY 4.0.

The term “data” is understood as data collected and unprocessed as well as data generated and analysed, other than scientific publications. The definition comprises all forms, both digital and non-digital.

The M-ERA.NET Call 2026 will be concluded by the time specified in the call documents (February 2027). Firstly, project coordinators will be notified of the outcome. Polish research teams will be notified by way of NCN Director’s decisions.

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

More information on the call can be found on the website of the M-ERA.NET network. The Terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call are laid down in NCN Council Resolution No 74/2025.

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

Alicja Dyląg 12 341 90 69; +48 532 086 494, (telephone contact: 9:00-12:00)

Weronika Antoł

For Secretariat of the M-ERA.NET call:

Project Coordinator: 

Dr. Roland Brandenburg

FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency

1090 Wien, Sensengasse 1, Austria

office@m-era.net

Call Secretariat:

call-secretariat@m-era.net

Before submitting an NCN proposal to NCN at the 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 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 NCN electronically via the OSF submission system.