Announcement of the Call for Proposals for Research Components in Research Projects funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA)

Proposals in the call may be submitted by the following entities:

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 of 2020, item 1796),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383),
5. international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating in the Republic of Poland,
6. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws of 2020, item 2098),
7. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,
8. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and
9. other entities involved mainly in research independently on a continuous basis that have been awarded an academic category.

Research Components can only be carried out by the Returning Scientists who are winners of the 2021 Polish Returns Programme and have been awarded funds by the NAWA for research projects containing such Research Components. A project team may also be involved in a project if it has been comprised by a proposal submitted to the NAWA.

A Research Component covered by a proposal submitted to the NAWA and rejected by its Evaluation Team shall not be recommended for NCN funding and must not be submitted under the call even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been recommended for funding under the scheme.

Restrictions on submitting proposals to the Call:

• proposals may only be submitted by institutions awarded funding under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme for their research projects containing a Research Component;
• proposals must not be submitted if the NAWA Evaluation Team has not recommend a Research Component covered by a project submitted to the NAWA for funding which, even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA is recommended by the Evaluation Team. 

The call is open to basic research proposals in any of 25 NCN panels within three major areas: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST) and Life Sciences (NZ).

The subject of a Research Component submitted under to the call must comply with the Research Component covered by the proposal funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme.

A Research Component shall be carried out over the first eighteen months of performance of the projects funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA.

A Research Component start date must be the same as the start date of the project funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme. If the date on which the decision issued by the NCN Director to award funding for the Research Component becomes final is later than the project start date, the date the decision becomes final shall be the Research Component start date.

In the Planowane koszty [Planned Costs] tab in the OSF system, enter the budget of the Research Component only which must be consistent in its entirety with the costs planned in the project funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme.

PLEASE NOTE:

The budget must be in line with the recommendations of the Team evaluating the proposals submitted under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA. Proposals disregarding the recommendations shall be rejected on the grounds that they do not meet the eligibility criteria.

More information on the budget can be found in the Types of costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre.

No. Proposals in the call must not include application for state aid. For more information, please read the State aid section.

1. Proposals are subject to an eligibility check only.
2. An eligibility check is performed by the coordinators.
3. Only proposals approved as eligible by the coordinator are recommended for funding.
4. Applicants whose proposals do not meet the eligibility criteria can submit another proposals in line with the comments provided by the NCN.

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check only. The eligibility check includes:

1. verifying whether the proposal is complete;
2. verifying whether the proposal meets all requirements of the call announcement;
3. verifying whether information in the proposal submitted to the NCN complies with information in the proposal submitted to the NAWA under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme; and
4. verifying whether the costs planned comply with the costs laid down in the Types of costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre.

PLEASE NOTE:

The budget of the Research Component submitted to the NCN must be in line with the comments provided by the Team evaluating proposals submitted to the 2021 Polish Returns Programme.

A Research Component covered by a proposal submitted to the NAWA and rejected by the NAWA Evaluation Team shall not be recommended for NCN funding and must not be submitted to the call even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA is recommended for funding under the programme.

Together with other European research-funding agencies, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S and has drafted its open access policy pursuant to which all research results stemming from NCN-funded research projects must be made available in full and immediate open access. The open access policy does not apply to monographs, collective work chapters and peer-reviewed collected papers.

In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognises 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 and 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).

Papers may be published using the CC-BY licence (in the case of transformative journals, the CC-BY-ND licence can also be used). Furthermore, the CC-BY-SA licence may be used (regardless of the publication route chosen).

More information on Open Access publication can be found here.

The call results shall be communicated to the applicants by way of a decision of the NCN director and published on the NCN website.

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

Contact details (coordinator in charge of the call):

Dr Eng Klaudyna Śpiewak-Wojtyła

Email: klaudyna.spiewak@ncn.gov.pl

Read our Call Schedule and List of International Programmes for 2022 and follow us on our website at https://www.ncn.gov.pl/

If you are intending to submit a proposal under the call for Research Components:

1. read all the documents included in the Call Announcement, in particular:

• terms and regulations of the Call for Proposals for Research Components under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA;
• proposal form template;
• costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre; and
• proposal submission procedure;

2. 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 Component;
3. draw up:

• proposal title the same as the title of the Project funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA;
• Research Component start date the same as the start date of the Project funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA;
• full proposal submitted to the NAWA under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme in PDF format;
• costs of Research Component drafted in compliance with the Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre;
• general budget;
• information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of performance of the Research Component, as required by the proposal;
• information on the ethical aspects, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to perform the Research Component in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline, as required by the proposal;
• in the case of a Research Component which includes clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials;
• in the case of a Research Component covering research being performed or completed by the principal investigator or with respect to which the principal investigator applies for funding under other NCN calls or from other sources, the description of similar research tasks with reasons justifying the need to have them funded in the project,
• in the case of a Research Component to be performed in a host institution that does not receive any institutional core funding for research activities, information on research carried out over the last 2 years, together with a list of publications and information on research equipment and other instruments/facilities crucial to research; and
• declaration by the applicant, as required by the proposal.

PLEASE NOTE:

A proposal submitted to the ZSUN/OSF submission system must include the proposal (in PDF format) funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA. Information in the proposal form submitted to the ZSUN/OSF submission system must comply with the information in the proposal submitted to the NAWA and must be in line with the budget recommendations (if any) of the Team evaluating the submitted to the call.

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. check if information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. The verification of the proposal for completeness in the ZSUN/OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable 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 signed proposal to the ZSUN/OSF submission system; and
4. submit the proposal to the NCN via the ZSUN/OSF submission system.

The proposal shall be submitted to NCN electronically via the ZSUN/OSF submission system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

PLEASE NOTE:

The proposal shall be signed with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES format.

Once the proposal has been submitted to the NCN:

1. it shall be subject to an eligibility check;
2. if the proposal does not meet the eligibility criteria, the applicant shall be requested to amend it appropriately and re-submit it to the NCN for another eligibility check;
3. following the eligibility check, a decision to fund the Research Component shall be issued by the NCN Director;
4. if the date on which the decision to fund the Research Component issued by the NCN Director becomes final is later than the project start date, the date the decision becomes final shall be the Research Component start date.

PLEASE NOTE:

No agreement is concluded under the call. The Research Component is funded and performed pursuant to the General Terms of the Funding Agreement for a Research Component covered by the project funded under the 2021 Polish Returns Programme launched by the NAWA. The applicants must be familiar with the General Terms. By submitting a proposal, the applicants accept the agreement. 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.