Announcement of the OPUS 21 call for proposals

Please note that the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects have been updated as follows:

1. A senior researcher may be employed. A senior researcher position is a full-time employment position co-financed by the host institution employing the senior researcher and scheduled by the principal investigator for a person who has been conferred a PhD degree at least 7 years before the proposal submission date, has completed a foreign fellowship(s) and has the expertise, unique competencies and experience necessary to perform the tasks in the project. Remuneration of 60,000 PLN per annum may be planned under the project and will be co-financed by the host institution in the amount of at least 60,000 PLN per annum from its funds.
2. Conditions to be met by persons to be employed as post-docs (Point 2 (1) (1) of the Regulations) have been changed. At present, persons to be employed as post-docs must also meet the following conditions:

• persons to be employed as post-docs did not have the principal investigator as their research supervisor or auxiliary supervisor of their PhD dissertation;
• their PhD degree has been awarded by another institution than the one planned to employ them at this post or they 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.

3. Provisions specifying the amount of indirect costs have been amended as follows: “Indirect costs are costs that are related indirectly to the research project and essential for it to be implemented. Indirect costs include:

• indirect costs of open access of up to 2% of direct costs that may be spent on open access to publications and research data;
• other indirect costs of 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;
• the cost of open access cannot be financed as a direct cost. If the costs of open access are planned as a direct costs, the proposal will be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

4. New proposal evaluation criteria forms have been introduced:

• information that the examined period is 10 years must be entered in the field: “principal investigator’s participation in research projects not funded from the Polish budget, selected in a call procedure under EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation (ERC, 7th Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe);
• merit-based evaluation of other projects performed by the principal investigator, previously funded by the NCN or from other sources.

5. The host institution does not have to employ, pursuant to at least a part-time employment contract, a principal investigator who receives a pension: § 11 of the Regulations. The principal investigator must be a person employed at the host institution for the project for the entire project duration period pursuant to at least a part-time employment contract. The foregoing does not apply to the PRELUDIUM BIS and PRELUDIUM calls and/or persons receiving a pension under the social insurance scheme.
6. Provisions concerning the residence of the principal investigator in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period have been clarified: § 12 of the Regulations. The principal investigator must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution. This period includes evidenced project-related business trips and holiday governed by labour law.

Proposals in the call may be submitted by any entity defined in the Act on the National Science Centre (NCN), 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 2019, item 1183, as amended);
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1350, as amended);
5. international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating 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 2019, item 534, as amended);

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 within the meaning of the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1350, as amended);
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences within the meaning of the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1183, as amended);
11. scientific libraries;
12. companies operating as R&D centres within the meaning of the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovative Activity of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1402, as amended);
13. legal entities with their registered office in Poland;
14. natural persons; and
15. companies conducting research in another organisational form than laid down in sections 1-13.

A person whose publication track record includes at least one research paper published or accepted for publication may act as the principal investigator. In the case of research in the arts, the principal investigator should have at least one paper published or accepted for publication or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art completed. Papers and/or artistic achievements included in the proposal should cover the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (as of 2011). In specific cases, this period can be extended (§7 (6) (a) of the Resolution on the terms of the OPUS call).

In the OPUS call, the principal investigator does not have to be a PhD holder.

PLEASE NOTE: The principal investigator must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution. This period includes evidenced project-related business trips and holiday governed by labour law.

Furthermore, the principal investigator must be a person employed at the host institution for the entire project duration period pursuant to at least a part-time employment contract. The foregoing does not apply to persons receiving a pension under the social insurance scheme.

Restrictions on submitting proposals are described in detail in Chapter III of the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects.

In a specific edition of calls, the same person may be named as the principal investigator in one proposal only, i.e. in this edition of NCN calls, the same person may be named as the principal investigator only in an OPUS proposal or PRELUDIUM proposal.

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

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

Proposals are reviewed within the panels (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. If an incorrect panel is selected, proposals may be rejected.

Under the call, funding may be requested for research projects to be carried out over the period of:

• 12 months,
• 24 months,
• 36 months or
• 48 months.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of research team members. In research projects, in addition to the principal investigator, research tasks may be carried out by co-investigators, including students, PhD students, post-docs and/or senior researchers. Only one person may be employed as a senior researcher in a research team.

Please note that the requirements to be met by persons to be employed as post-docs have been changed and post-docs must now meet all of the following conditions:

• be recruited in an open call procedure, carried out by a recruitment committee appointed by the head of the host institution, composed of the project’s principal investigator as its chair and at least two other persons appointed by the principal investigator, who have the necessary scientific or professional qualifications. The assessment of the candidates is carried out pursuant to the criteria outlined in the call announcement and the results are made public by posting on the website of the project’s host institution;
• they did not have the principal investigator as their research supervisor or auxiliary supervisor of their PhD dissertation for a PhD degree;
• their PhD degree has been awarded by another institution than the one planned to employ them at this post or they 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;
• they will be employed for a period of at least 6 months;
• at the time of receiving remuneration, they will not be receiving any other remuneration paid from the funds granted to research projects under NCN calls under the heading of direct costs;
• in the period of receiving the remuneration they will be receiving no remuneration from another employer pursuant to an employment contract, including an employer with its registered office outside of Poland.

Under OPUS 21, full-time employment of a senior researcher is allowed for the first time. Senior researchers must meet all of the following conditions:

• they will be employed full-time for a period of at least 6 months and the host institution for the project will co-finance their remuneration in the amount of at least 60,000 PLN per annum from its funds;
• they have completed a post-doctoral fellowship(s) of at least 24 months in total in other institutions than the one to employ them in this capacity, including 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;
• in the period of receiving the remuneration they will be receiving no remuneration paid from the funds granted to research projects in NCN calls under the heading of direct costs;
• at the time of receiving remuneration, they will not be receiving any other remuneration from another employer pursuant to an employment contract, including an employer with its registered office outside of Poland; and
• they will be receiving no pension under the social insurance scheme.

NCN-scholarship grantees and post-docs in the project must be recruited in an open call procedure.

The proposal must include a description of the qualifications and tasks of particular members of the research team whose relevance for the project will be reviewed by the expert team.

PLEASE NOTE: The competences, track record and expertise of the person to be employed as a senior researcher as well as justification of the senior researcher position will be subject to an eligibility check. If the conditions are not met and justification is not substantive, a proposal may be rejected.

The budget for remuneration is described in detail in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.  

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research and must be based on reasonable calculations. The terms of the OPUS call do not specify the minimum or maximum amount of the project budget.

The project budget includes direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

1. full-time remuneration for the principal investigator: 150,000 PLN per annum if the principal investigator is employed full-time and additionally up to 3,000 PLN per month if the principal investigator is employed otherwise;
2. remuneration for co-investigators in the project:

• full-time remuneration for post-docs: 120,000 PLN per annum (which may be increased in well justified case),
• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students (up to 10,000 PLN per each month of project implementation),
• full-time remuneration for the senior researcher: 60,000 PLN per annum. PLEASE NOTE: The host institution for the project co-finances the senior researcher remuneration in the amount of at least 60,000 PLN per annum;
• the so-called additional remuneration for members of the research team; if the principal investigator is not to be employed full-time in the project, his/her remuneration is paid for from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;

3. purchase of research equipment, devices and software;
4. purchase of materials 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 NCN.

PLEASE NOTE: The cost of article publishing or making research data available in open access cannot be financed as direct costs. Such costs can only be financed as indirect costs (with the exception of services described in Point 2 (5) (2) of the Regulations). Pursuant to the Open Access Policy of the NCN, article processing charges in hybrid journals are not eligible (i.e. cannot be financed as either direct or indirect costs). If the cost of open access is planned as a direct cost, the proposal will be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

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 issued 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 are costs that are related indirectly to the research project and essential for it to be implemented. The maximum amount of indirect costs is:

• 2% of direct costs that may be spent on open access to publications and research data;
• 20% of direct costs that may be spent on the costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data.

The indirect costs are calculated on all direct costs, including research equipment, devices and software. During the project’s implementation, the host institution must agree coverage of at least 25% of the indirect costs with the principal investigator.

If unjustified costs are planned, a proposal may be rejected.

More on costs in NCN-funded research projects

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member of 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.

Please note that the cost of open access to publications and research data cannot be financed as direct costs.

Information to be provided in the proposal:

PLEASE NOTE: The following information must be provided in English:

1. details of the principal investigator, including information on his/her academic and research career and research experience as well as 1-10 papers published in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable breaks); for research in art, 1-10 of the most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year; information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls or under other national and international calls as well as information on participation in research projects not funded from the Polish budget, selected under EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable career breaks);
2. basic information on the proposal and host institution for the project (also in Polish);
3. work plan (also in Polish);
4. information on the scope of work carried out by the co-investigators in the project;
5. summary of the project;
6. abstract for the general public (also in Polish);
7. short project description with bibliography (no more than 5 pages, A4);
8. full project description with bibliography (no more than 15 pages, A4);
9. information on research projects carried out in international cooperation and advantages thereof (required only for projects involving research carried out in international cooperation);
10. information on the ethical aspects of the research;
11. information on the data management plan (DMP) concerning data generated or used in the course of the research project, as required by the proposal; and
12. project budget.

PROPOSAL FORM

Proposals in the call may include an application for state aid, except where a natural person applies for funding. More information can be found in the State aid section.

In the case of research projects carried out in entities for which project funding will constitute state aid, funds for students and PhD students can only be planned in the form described as “salary for students and PhD students” in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

Please note: All documents concerning proposals for state aid must be signed with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES format.

Eligibility checks are carried out by the coordinators. Only complete proposals that comply with all the requirements set out in the call announcement can be accepted for merit-based evaluation.

Proposals approved in the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation performed in two stages:

1. qualification check performed by the expert team appointed by the NCN, based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description.

Each proposal is evaluated by two members of the expert team acting independently. Then, based on the discussions, a list of proposals recommended for the second stage of evaluation is drafted by the expert team at the first meeting.

2. specialist evaluation of proposals recommended for the second stage of evaluation. Proposals are addressed to at least two external reviewers and evaluated thereby based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description.

Based on the reviews drafted by the external reviewers, a ranking list of proposals recommended for funding is drafted by the expert team at the second meeting.

Additional information on the proposal evaluation procedure can be found in the Detailed procedure for evaluating proposals by the expert teams and in the tutorial video.

Please note: A proposal which contains at least one auxiliary NCN Review Panel other than the one to which the proposal was submitted, which has been specified by the chair as requiring an additional individual review shall be deemed an interdisciplinary proposal. In well-justified cases, interdisciplinary proposals shall be subject to an additional expert review at the first stage of evaluation.

The evaluation of proposals focuses in particular on:

1. compliance with the criteria of basic research laid down in Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act;
2. the quality and innovative nature of the research or tasks to be performed;
3. the impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
4. assessment of the feasibility of the proposed project;
5. the scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/journals as well as completion of other research projects;
6. assessment of the results of research projects conducted by the principal investigator, funded by the NCN or from other sources;
7. the principal investigator’s participation in research projects funded under the EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation;
8. the relevance of the costs to be incurred with regards to the subject and scope of the research and
9. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements set forth in the call announcement.

In addition, justification of employment of a senior researcher must be reviewed, as well as the qualifications and track record of the person to be employed as a senior researcher (if such employment is planned in the proposal).

Please note: The NEW detailed proposal evaluation criteria are now available.

Merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed by the expert team and reviewers. Experts are selected by the NCN Council from among outstanding Polish and foreign researchers who are at least PhD holders. Expert teams are established for each call edition. The composition of the expert team is subject to the number and subjects of proposals submitted to each panel. During the specialist evaluation, proposals recommended for the second stage of evaluation are reviewed by external reviewers.

The call results will be announced on the NCN’s website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision by the NCN Director within 6 months of the proposal submission deadline, by December 2021 at the latest.

Read the Information for applicants available on the NCN's website.

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

If you plan to submit a proposal in the OPUS 21 call:

1. read all call documents included in the call announcement, in particular:

1. terms of the OPUS 21 call;
2. proposal form template (OPUS 21 template), where you can find out about information and annexes needed to complete the electronic proposal form in ZSUN/OSF;
3. Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre;
4. proposal submission procedure.

2. obtain data from the host institution for the project that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (cost planned in the project, procedure for acquiring signature(s) or authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal); if the applicant is a group of Polish entities, a research project cooperation agreement must be drafted;
3. prepare acceptance letters from publishers confirming that the paper has been accepted for publication (when the scientific achievements section includes papers accepted for publication that have not been published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. make sure that all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Please note that the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button in ZSUN/OSF allows you to find out whether or not all sections of the proposal have been completed but does not provide a guarantee that all information entered is correct and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. make sure that all tabs have been completed in the correct language;
3. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
4. download the confirmation of proposal submission – to be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the host institution; and
5. 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 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. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision will be announced and delivered;
3. if the proposal is recommended for funding, a funding agreement will be entered into;
4. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on the implementation of research projects, fellowships and scholarships.

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.

Please read the rules according to which personal data are processed by the NCN.