Research Components under Polish Returns NAWA 2023

Eligible applicants referred to in Article 7 (1), Article 7 (2) and Article 7 (4) – (8) of the Act on Higher Education and Science of 20 July 2018 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2023, item 574, as amended) include:

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 2023, item 498),
5. international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating in the Republic of Poland,
6. the Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 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 may only be carried out by the Returning Scientists who are winners of the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 and have been awarded funds by the NAWA for research projects containing such components. A project team may also be involved in a project if it has been covered 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 to the Call even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been awarded funding under the Programme.

The following restrictions shall apply:

• Proposals must only be submitted by institutions awarded funding under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 for their research projects containing a Research Component;
• Proposals must not be submitted if a Research Component covered by a project submitted to the NAWA has not been recommended for funding by the NAWA Evaluation Team, even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been recommended by the Evaluation Team.

The Call is open to basic research proposals in any of 26 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 to the Call must comply with the Research Component covered by the proposal funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023.

A Research Component shall be carried out over the first 18 months of performance of the projects funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023.

A Research Component start date must be the same as the start date of the project funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023. If the date on which a Research Component funding decision is issued by the NCN Director becomes final is later than the project start date, the Research Component start date is the date the funding decision of the NCN Director becomes finale.

In the Planowane koszty [Planned Costs] tab in the OSF submission 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 Polish Returns NAWA 2023.

The budget must be in line with the recommendations of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 programme. Proposals disregarding such recommendations shall be rejected on the grounds that they do not meet the eligibility criteria.

For more information on the budget, please refer to the “Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre”.

The funding requested for a Research Component must not exceed 200,000 PLN for the entire Research Component performance period.

Together with other European cOAlition S agencies, the National Science Centre has drafted its Open Access Policy. In accordance with its vision of open access to research results and publications, the NCN requires that all research results should be made available in full and 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 in which some of the articles are open access and some require payment of a publication fee), as long as the Version of Record (VoR, i.e. a version of record published in a journal with its own typeface and branding. Other terms: published version or publisher’s pdf) or the 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: post print, author accepted manuscript) 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 that must be inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry) and in transformative journals (i.e. journals actively committed to transitioning from a subscription journal to a fully open access journal. The current list of transformative journals is available here). Transformative journals must meet the criteria laid down in the Guidelines on the Implementation of Plan S and must allow open access publication of original scientific articles.

This publication route applies to papers accepted for publication or published before 31 December 2024.

Manuscripts must be published using the CC-BY licence. In the case of transformative journals, the CC-BY-SA licence can also be used. The CC-BY-ND licence may also be used (regardless of the publication route selected).

More information on open access publication terms/instructions can be found here, as amended.

For more information, please refer to the Open Access Instructions.

Projects for which final reports are submitted to the NCN by 31 December 2025 may benefit from transitional provisions mitigating the NCN’s Open Access Policy (https://www.ncn.gov.pl/aktualnosci/2023-10-16-polityka-OA-zlagodzenie-przepisow). We recommend that you read the presentation of the Open Access Team addressing available publication routes and any modifications (Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJxI2qtpUMM, Presentation: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/sites/default/files/pliki/prezentacje/2023_10_30_zlagodzenie_polityki_oa_webinarium2.pdf).

In grant agreements concluded after 1 January 2021, the data underpinning the scientific publications resulting from the project funded by the NCN must be well-documented pursuant to the FAIR Principles standing for machine or manual Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability or Reusability (the so-called “FAIR Data”). Where possible, data must be made available in the repository, according to the Creative Commons Public Domain CC0 licence (that allows the distribution of data to public domain. Pursuant to the licence, authors can give up their right to data under the intellectual property rights to the extend allowed by domestic law; the licence does not affect patent rights, rights of publicity or privacy). The data citation principles laid down in the Declaration of Data Citation Principles by FORCE 11 and the TOP Guidelines must be complied with. Metadata describing the data sets must be in line with the OpenAIRE.

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 coordinators can be recommended for funding.
4. Applicants whose proposals do not meet the eligibility criteria can submit another proposals incorporating the instructions received from the NCN.

Proposals are only subject to an eligibility check comprising:

1. verification of a proposal for completeness,
2. verification of proposal’s compliance with the Call Text;
3. verification of whether information provided in the proposal submitted to the NCN complies with information provided in the proposal submitted to the NAWA under its Polish Returns NAWA 2023; and
4. verification of whether the forecasted costs are eligible pursuant to the Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre.

The budget of a Research Component submitted to the NCN must incorporate the instructions of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the Polish Returns NAWA 2023.

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 to the Call even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been awarded funding under the Programme.

The call results shall be communicated to the applicants in the form of a decision of the NCN Director and published on the NCN website.

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

Coordinator in charge of the Call:

Katarzyna Jarecka-Stępień

If you are intending to submit a proposal to our Call for Research Components:

1. read the documents included in the Call Text, in particular:
   1. terms and regulations of the Call for Research Components under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023;
   2. proposal form template;
   3. Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre
   4. proposal submission procedure;
2. acquire the required information from the applicant to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and performance of the Research Component;
3. draft and prepare:

• proposal title the same as the title of the Project that has been awarded funding under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023;
• Research Component start date the same as the start date of the Project that has been awarded funding under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023;
• full proposal submitted to the NAWA under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 in PDF format;
• forecasted costs of the Research Component prepared according to 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 accordance 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 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
• applicant’s declaration, as required by the proposal.

A proposal submitted to the OSF submission system must include the proposal (in PDF format) funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023. Information in the proposal form submitted to the OSF submission system must comply with information in the proposal submitted to the NAWA and must incorporate the instructions (if any) of the Evaluation Team reviewing the budget of proposals 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 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 proposal with a signature to the OSF submission system; and
4. submit the proposal to the NCN via the OSF submission system.

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

Proposals must 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 Research Component funding decision shall be issued by the NCN Director; and
4. if the date on which the Research Component funding decision of 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.

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 Polish Returns NAWA 2023. The applicants are required to read 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.