MINIATURA 9

1. A research activity may be carried out in more than one of the following forms: preliminary studies, library and archive searches or research visits, as long as it is well-justified.
2. A new list of review panels is in place.
3. Proposals may cover NCN MENTORING, whereby NCN mentors provide their guidance on drafting funding proposals submitted to NCN calls.
4. Publication costs are not eligible if claimed as direct costs.
5. A new proposal evaluation procedure.

Proposals may be submitted by:

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 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2020, item 1796);
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2024, items 534);
5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland;
6. scientific libraries;
7. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2024, item 925);
8. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network and
9. legal entities with registered office in Poland if they belong to the public finances sector.

Research activities must be carried out by researchers:

1. who have been awarded their PhD degree after 1 January 2013. This period may be extended by the time of long-term (in excess of 90 days) documented sick leave or rehabilitation leave granted on account of being unfit to work. This period may be additionally extended by the number of months of childcare leave granted pursuant to the Labour Code and in the case of women, by 18 months for every child born or adopted, whichever manner of accounting for career breaks is preferable. For multiple PhD holders, the reference date is the date of award of the first PhD;
2. whose scientific achievements include at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art;
3. who are employed by the applicant pursuant to an employment contract;
4. who are not identified as the authorised representative of the applicant;
5. who are not the principal investigators of projects funded by the NCN;
6. are not winning applicants of ETIUDA, FUGA or UWERTURA calls;
7. are neither applicants nor principal investigators in proposals submitted to or recommended for funding under NCN calls;
8. are not NCN Council members;
9. are not former NCN Council members if the Expert Team evaluating proposals in the MINIATURA call, to which the proposal has been submitted, was formed when they were in office.

Restrictions on submitting proposals are described in detail in Chapter V of the Regulations.

Investigators carrying out a research activity in a proposal submitted to the MINIATURA 9 call must not be applicants or principal investigators in a proposal submitted to or recommended for funding under an NCN call. This condition applies until the NCN Director’s decision regarding proposals reviewed under the MINIATURA 9 call, becomes final. Only one proposal may be submitted to a MINIATURA call, in which one is identified as the investigator performing a research activity, except as laid down in Chapter V §9 of the Regulations.

A research activity funded under MINIATURA can only be performed once.

Basic research proposals can be submitted to the call in any of 26 NCN panels comprising three groups: HS –Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences; ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering and NZ – Life Sciences.

Research activities can be carried out over a period of up to 12 months bearing in mind that the funding decision will be issued within 5 months of the proposal submission date.

The terms of funding under MINIATURA 9 differ from the rules applicable to NCN calls for research projects. Please read the Types of Costs in Research Activities.

Please find out which costs are not allowed under MINIATURA 9 (§2 of the Types of Costs in Research Activities) and which expenditures must not be financed as direct costs but can be financed as indirect costs (§5 of the Types of Costs in Research Activities).

The budget is an important aspect of proposals that is subject to an evaluation. The budget must be well-justified with regard to the subject and scope of the research activity, based on realistic calculations and must itemise expenses covered from the NCN resources, the so-called eligible costs. The expenditures must also be well-planned and calculated in line with the principle of advisability and frugality, on the basis of the actual expenses, and must be consistent with the applicable laws, including the internal regulations of the participating entity.

Proposals with an unjustified budget may be rejected.

NCN MENTORING is an initiative aimed at providing NCN Mentor’s guidance to investigators performing a research activity under MINIATURA, in the development of their future research projects submitted to NCN calls.

NCN MENTORING cost are eligible if claimed as direct costs and their total amount must be up to PLN 1,500 funded from the research activity budget, as set for in the NCN MENTORING Regulations.

NCN Mentors must be researchers who:

a) have been entered into the NCN Mentor database available on the NCN webpage,

b) have agreed to provide support to investigators performing a research activity in their development of a research project submitted to NCN calls,

c) are not employed by the applicant pursuant to an employment contract,

d) are not NCN Council members.

State aid is not allowed under MINIATURA 9. For more information, please go to the State Aid section.

1. Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation.
2. The eligibility check is carried out by the coordinators.
3. Only proposals approved as eligible by the coordinator can be accepted for merit-based evaluation.
4. A merit-based evaluation of proposals is conducted by the Expert Team members.
5. Proposals undergo a single-stage merit-based evaluation during which individual reviews are drafted by three Expert Team members.
6. A merit-based evaluation is performed based on the information specified in the proposal.
7. The Expert Team members may reject a proposal as ineligible at the stage of a merit-based evaluation.

To find out more, please read the Proposal evaluation procedure.

A merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed by the Expert Team members appointed by the NCN Council among outstanding researchers who are at least PhD holders.

The following aspects are reviewed in the course of evaluation of proposals:

1. compliance with the basic research criterion for the purposes of Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act;
2. scientific achievements of the investigator performing a research activity;
3. scientific quality, feasibility and potential impact of the research activity on the development of the discipline;
4. justification of the research activity in view of its potential impact on the scientific quality of the research project submitted to future NCN calls and/or other national or international calls;
5. justification of the project costs with regard to the subject and scope of the research activity; The budget is an important aspect of the proposal subject to an evaluation. It must be well justified with regard to the subject and scope of the research activity, based on realistic calculations and must itemise the expenses covered from the NCN resources, the so-called eligible costs; and
6. development of the proposal and compliance with the other requirements of the call text.

Proposals are evaluated pursuant to the Proposal evaluation procedure.

The call results will be published on the NCN website and delivered to the applicants by way of a decision of the NCN Director within 5 months of the proposal submission date.

Please read the Information for Applicants on the NCN website.

Should you have any questions or queries, please contact us by email at informacja@ncn.gov.pl

Read our 2025 Call Timeline and follow the news on our website: https://ncn.gov.pl/en

If you are intending to submit a proposal to MINIATURA 9:

1. read the call documents set out in the call text, in particular:
   • the Regulations,
   • the NCN MENTORING Initiative Regulations,
   • the Proposal Form Template,
   • the Types of Costs in the Research Activities, and
   • the Proposal Submission Procedure,
2. obtain the data from the applicant that are required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and the research activity,
3. draw up the following documents in Polish or in English:

a) proposal title related to the selected type of the research activity;

b) type of the research activity;

c) brief description of the research activity (no more than 1 page, A4);

d) description of the link between the research activity and research project submitted to NCN calls and/or other national or international calls as well as justification thereof in view of a potential research project (no more than 1 page, A4);

e) information on the scientific achievements of the person carrying out a research activity containing:

• one research paper in PDF format with justification for choosing it or the most important artistic achievement or achievement in research in art, with justification for choosing it;
• the most important information on career in research and research or artistic activity, or activity in research in art, including publication record, participation in research projects, research experience, lectures and presentations, awards and other significant achievements (no more than 6000 characters, with spaces);

f) research activity budget drafted pursuant to the document “Costs in research activities”;

g) information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of the research activity, as required by the proposal form;

h) information on the ethical aspects of the project, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the research activity in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline, as required by the proposal form;

i) in the case of research activities which include clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials; and

j) declarations by the applicant, as required by the proposal form.

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. check if all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Verification of the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable editing of the final version of the proposal;
3. download the final version of the proposal, have it signed by the authorised representative of the applicant and submit the proposal that has been signed to the OSF submission system; and
4. submit the proposal form to the NCN via the OSF submission system.

The proposal must be electronically submitted to the NCN via the OSF submission system, using the Wyślij do NCN [Submit to NCN] button.

Under MINIATURA 9, proposals must only be signed with an electronic signature in the PAdES format. If a proposal is signed by anyone other than the head of the institution, annex an authorisation to represent the institution in an electronic format or a scan of the document signed by hand.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

1. proposals will be evaluated;
2. after each stage of evaluation, an NCN Director’s funding decision will be delivered within 5 months of the proposal submission date;
3. if a proposal is recommended for funding, the research activity will start on the date the NCN Director’s decision becomes final.

An agreement is not signed under MINIATURA 9. Research activities are funded and carried out pursuant to the General terms of the funding agreement for a research activity that must be read and approved by the applicants when submitting proposals.

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