QuantERA Call 2023

Proposals in the call may be submitted by the following entities specified in the NCN Act:

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 2020, item 1796, as amended),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 498, as amended);
5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting 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 2020, item 2098, 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 laid down in the Act on Research Centres of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383, as amended),
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796, as amended),
11. scientific libraries,
12. companies operating as R&D centres laid down in the Act on certain forms of support for innovation activities of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 706, as amended),
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures,

14. natural persons and
15. companies conducting research in other organisational form than set forth in sections 1-13a.

If research projects are to be carried out by two or more Polish partners applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities and as such submit NCN proposals. An NCN proposal is submitted by a leader specified in the research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities. An entity employing the principal investigator acts as the leader of the group of entities.

If, pursuant to Article 27 (1) (2) of the NCN Act, Polish entities cannot set up groups of entities, they are not eligible to apply for NCN funding of a joint research project.

If an applicant is a natural person, the host institution for the project must not be a group of entities or entity for which project funding constitutes state aid.

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Additional restrictions are described in detail in Chapter IV of the Terms and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO, annexed to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022 of 2 March 2022.

The call covers the following topics in the field of quantum technologies::

• Quantum Phenomena and Resources
• Applied Quantum Science.

Both the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development (the “NCBR”) are members of the QuantERA network. Polish researchers may apply for NCN funding of their basic research projects for the purposes of Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act.

NCN proposals covering research tasks overlapping tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier under an NCN call or with respect to which an appeal has been initiated, may only be submitted after the funding decision has become final.

Research projects may be planned in the call for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project with the NCN. The budget table in .xlsx format should be sent to quantera@ncn.gov.pl by 1 May.

Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims at identifying the required resources and estimating the costs required to perform the research tasks. The project budget must be based on realistic calculations and must comply with the guidelines provided in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO. The maximum budget of the Polish research team is not pre-determined; however, the justification of the expenses versus the scope of tasks is assessed by an international expert team.

Polish research teams may receive funds to cover remuneration of the Polish research team members, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software and for other expenses crucial to the research project.

The proposal may be rejected if an unreasonable budget is planned and/or discrepancies occur between the costs of projects carried out by a Polish research team in the NCN proposal and the joint proposal.

When developing the budget, it is necessary to consider the following:

• the budget for the Polish research team in the joint proposal must be the same as the budget in the NCN proposal in the OSF submission system;
• the budget in the joint proposal must be specified in EUR and in the NCN proposal in the OSF submission system, in PLN, rounded down to total values;
• the budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal must be converted according to the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4.8468.

Indirect costs may not exceed 20% of direct costs. Additionally, indirect costs of up to 2% of direct costs may be spent on open access to publications and research data. When performing the project, the host institution must agree with the principal investigator the coverage of at least 25% of the indirect costs.

The NCN shall award funding for research projects carried out by the Polish research teams for which foreign partners also receive funding.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of the research team members. For more information on the costs of remuneration and scholarships, please read the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN and carried out as the multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Please note that persons employed as post-docs in the project must be recruited in an open call procedure.

Researchers to be recruited in an open call procedure, including post-docs, must not be named in either joint or NCN proposals. For more information on post-doc employment, please read the Costs in research projects funded by the NCN and carried out as the multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Yes, they can. For more information, please go to the State aid rules.

• International Level

Joint proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other members of the QuantERA network and the QuantERA Call 2023 Secretariat.

Joint proposals successfully evaluated during the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation carried out by an international expert team according to the rules laid down in the call procedures.

• National Level

NCN proposals are subject solely to an eligibility check carried out by the scientific coordinators. The eligibility check of NCN proposals involves verification of proposal for completeness, compliance with all terms set forth in the call documents and Resolution No 28/2022, including compliance of the budget with the Annex (Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration Unisono). The information provided in NCN proposals and in joint full proposals must be consistent and joint proposals annexed to NCN proposals must be the same as joint proposals submitted at international level.

Only joint proposals that are found eligible are subject to merit-based evaluation. Merit-based evaluation is performed by an international expert team formed by the QuantERA network according to the rules laid down in the call procedures . Proposals recommended for funding are subject to a thorough ethical review according to the guidelines provided in the call documents. Proposals are subject to a merit-based evaluation performed by the international expert team formed by the QuantERA network acting.

The results of QuantERA Call 2023 will be announced in December 2023. Firstly, the call results will be communicated to the coordinators of the projects. Polish research team will be notified of the results by way of the NCN Director’s decision.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements in the activities performed at the NCN, applicants may appeal against the NCN Director’s decisions with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.

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:

• publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);

• publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals), as long as the Version of Record (VoR2) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM3) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;

• 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).

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

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

Furthermore, please read the open access guidelines .

When submitting proposals to QuantERA Call 2023, the partners of the consortium identified in the proposal consent to have their personal data processed by the QuantERA network pursuant to General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679). The consent includes personal data transfer to third countries (outside the EU/EEA).

For more information on the call, please go to the website of the QuantERA network. For detailed terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call, please refer to the Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022 of 2 March 2022.

Should you have any questions, please contact us by e-mail or by phone:

• Scientific Coordinator: Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska, ewelina.szymanska-skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl
• Programme Coordinator: Sylwia Kostka, quantera@ncn.gov.pl

QuantERA Call Secretariat:

Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Francja

• Sergueï Fedortchenko, Ph.D.,Serguei.Fedortchenko@anr.fr, tel. +33 1 78 09 80 37

Before submitting an NCN proposal at national level:

1. make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Checking the proposal for completeness in OSF with the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information entered is correct and the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
3. download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the host institution; and
4. 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 OSF submission system.