RESEARCH COMPONENTS - POLISH RETURNS NAWA 2024

Funding proposals for Research Components (hereinafter: “Proposal” or “Proposals”) can be submitted by the following entities identified in Article 7 (1) (1), Article 7 (1) (2) and Article 7 (1) (4) – (7) of the Act on Higher Education and Science of 20 July 2018 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2024, item 1571, as amended) for which funding does not constitute state aid:

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 2022, 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, and
8. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Research components can be carried out by the Returning Scientists who are winners of the Polish Returns NAWA 2024 and have been awarded funds for research projects containing such components by the NAWA. 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 will 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 apply:

• Proposals must only be submitted by institutions awarded funding under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024 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: Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences(HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST) and Life Sciences (NZ).

The topic of a Research Component submitted to the Call must be the same as the Research Component covered by the proposal funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024.

Research components will be carried out over the first 18 months of performance of the projects funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024.

A Research Component start date must be the same as the start date of the project funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024. 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 final.

In the Planowane koszty [Planned Costs] tab in the OSF submission system, enter the budget of the Research Component only which must be the same as the costs covered by the project funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024.

The budget must be in line with the recommendations of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the Polish Returns NAWA 2024 Programme. Proposals disregarding such recommendations will 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 PLN 200,000 for the entire Research Component performance period.

Together with the applicable Open Access Policy, all research results must be made available in immediate open access.

The Policy does not apply to monographs, monograph chapters and peer-reviewed collected works.

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 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, otherwise known as published version or publisher’s pdf), Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM, i.e. the final manuscript version created by the author, including post peer-review revisions, and accepted for publication in the journal, otherwise known as post print or author accepted manuscript) or preprint (if VoR and AAM are embargoed), upon the article’s publication on the publisher’s website, will also be deposited in a repository registered in OpenDOAR database (for preprint: after the embargo period, AAM of the article must also be deposited in the repository);
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), as long as the paper has been accepted for publication or published by 31 December 2025 (Letter of the NCN Director of 15 December 2024, regarding extension of Route 3 for Transformative Agreement under NCN’s Open Access Policy).

Articles will be published under the following licences:

• Route 1: papers must be published under CC BY 4.0 licence,
• Route 2: preprints must be deposited in a repository under CC BY 4.0 licence upon the article’s publication on the publisher’s website (after the embargo period r, AAM of the article may be published in the repository under any licence),
• Route 3: the following licences are allowed: CC BY 4.0; CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0.

Eligibility of Article Processing Charges

• Route 1: costs are eligible when CC BY 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0 licences are used,
• Route 2: costs are not eligible and must not be paid from NCN resources;
• Route 3: costs are eligible if CC BY 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-ND 4.0 licences are used.

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 CC0 licence that allows the distribution of data to public domain or CC BY 4.0 licence. Other licences can also be used as long as they ensure the equivalent level of openness as CC0 or CC BY 4.0.

The term “data” means any data collected but not yet processed as well as data generated and analysed, other than scientific publications. The definition includes all formats, both digital and otherwise.

Proposals in the call must not include application for state aid. For more information, please go to 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 2024; 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 2024.

A Research Component covered by a proposal submitted to the NAWA and rejected by its Evaluation Team will 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 will 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

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 covered by projects funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024;
   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 equivalent to the title of the Project funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024;
• Research Component start date equivalent to the start date of the Project funded under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024;
• full proposal submitted to the NAWA under the Polish Returns NAWA 2024 in PDF format;
• forecasted costs of the Research Component prepared 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 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 2024. Information in the proposal form submitted to the OSF submission system must comply with information in the proposal submitted to the NAWA and 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 the proposal and annexes thereto 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 must 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. an eligibility check will be performed;
2. and the proposal does not meet the eligibility criteria, the Applicant will 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 will 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 will be the Research Component start date.

No agreement is concluded under the Call. Research Components are 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 2024. The Applicants must 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 within 14 days of the effective service of the decision.