SONATA 20

Proposals may be submitted to the call by entities specified in the Act on the National Science Centre, i.e.:

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);
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 2020, item 2098)
   • 5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network;
6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences;
7. other institutions 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 2022, item 498);
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 2020, item 1796);
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 2022, item 2474);
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 another organisational form than laid down in sections 1-13.

Researchers with a PhD degree conferred within 2 to 7 years before the proposal submission year (i.e., between 1.01.2017 and 31.12.2022) are eligible to act as a principal investigator in a project submitted to a SONATA call. In specific cases, this period can be extended (by long-term (in excess of 90 days) documented sick leaves or physiotherapy leaves granted on account of being unfit to work. In addition, this period may be extended by the number of months of a childcare leave granted pursuant to the Labour Code and in the case of women, by 18 months for every child born or adopted child, whichever manner of accounting for career breaks is preferable).

The scientific track record of the principal investigator must include at least one paper published or accepted for publication. For research in art, the principal investigator must have at least one paper published or accepted for publication or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.

The scientific track record must be presented from a period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (starting from 2014). In specific cases, this period may be extended.

The principal investigator for the Polish research team must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution for the project. The foregoing obligation does not apply to evidenced project-related business trips or holiday, time off work and other absence from work governed by the applicable laws.

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

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

One can act as the principal investigator of a project submitted to SONATA only once.

A researcher can be named as the principal investigator in only one proposal which means that in the present edition of NCN calls, a researcher can be named as the principal investigator in a SONATA or OPUS or OPUS LAP proposal only once.

Proposals covering research tasks overlapping tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier may only be submitted after the NCN Director’s decision to refuse funding has become final, subject to §22.

An NCN Council member must not be named as the principal investigator or research team member or mentor in a proposal submitted during their term of office as the NCN Council member. A researcher who no longer sits on the NCN Council can be named as the principal investigator in a proposal at least 4 months* after the date of their ceasing to act as the Council member.

*This condition must be met on the end date of the call for proposals.

The total number of NCN projects managed by a researcher and proposals submitted to the NCN pending evaluation or recommended for funding in which that researcher is named as the principal investigator, must not be more than two, or three if the researcher manages at least one project funded under an international NCN call or has submitted at least one proposal to an international NCN call. The foregoing limits do not apply to the projects or proposals under PRELUDIUM BIS and/or DIOSCURI.

The table below illustrates the eligible funding requests.

Explanation:

¹ Project management applies to the period from the date of signing the funding agreement under NCN calls until the date of submitting the final report on the project performance.

² The limit applies to proposals pending evaluation or recommended for funding.

³ Research projects or proposals under NCN calls: OPUS, PRELUDIUM, SONATINA, SONATA, SONATA BIS, MAESTRO and research projects under HARMONIA, SYMFONIA, Covid 19.

⁴ The calls launched by the NCN in collaboration with foreign research-funding agencies include:

• calls launched under EU-funded programmes, e.g., ERA-Net and European Partnerships (UNISONO, POLONEZ, POLONEZ BIS);
• non-EU-funded calls launched by the networks of research-funding institutions, including within the framework of LAP cooperation (OPUS LAP/ WEAVE, WEAVE UNISONO, IMPRESS-U);
• bilateral calls of the NCN and foreign partner institutions (GRIEG, POLS, IDEALAB, BEETHOVEN, BEETHOVEN CLASSIC BEETHOVEN LIFE, CEUS, MOZART, ALPHORN, DAINA, SHENG).

Basic research proposals may be submitted to the call in any of 26 NCN panels within three areas:

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

Proposals are reviewed within the panels to which they have been submitted (e.g., HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. The panel cannot be changed once the proposal has been submitted. If an incorrect panel is selected, proposals may be rejected.

Under the call, projects can be carried out over the period of:

• 12 months,
• 24 months,
• 36 months.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of research team members.

Apart from the principal investigators, research tasks in the projects may also be performed by co-investigators, including students, PhD students and post-docs. Senior researchers must not be involved in research projects covered by SONATA proposals.

A post-doc type post is a full-time post, scheduled by the project’s principal investigator for a person who has been conferred a PhD degree within 12 years before employment in the project. This period may be extended pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

A post-doc must have been conferred a PhD degree by another institution than the one planned to employ them at this post or must 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. A prospective post-doc must be selected in an open call. As of this call edition, a prospective post-doc may have had the principal investigator as their research supervisor or auxiliary supervisor of their PhD dissertation (as long as the other terms of the Regulations are met).

PhD students/ students collecting NCN scholarships must be selected in an open call.

The rationale of involvement of individual members of the research teams in the project is evaluated by the Expert Team. The proposal must include the description of competencies and tasks of individual members of the research team. More on the costs of salaries and scholarships can be found in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

The project budget must be well-justified as regards the subject and scope of research, based on realistic calculations and must specify the expenditures to be covered by the NCN (eligible costs). The NCN has not specified the maximum or minimum amount of the project costs that can be requested under SONATA calls. If an unjustified budget is planned, the proposal may be rejected.

According to the Regulations, the project budget (eligible costs) includes direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include funds for:

1. remuneration for the principal investigator:

• PLN 160,000 per annum if the principal investigator is employed pursuant to a full-time employment contract;
• otherwise, the principal investigator may be paid up to PLN 2,000 per month;

1. remuneration for co-investigators in the project:

• full-time employment of post-doc(s): PLN 140,000 per annum (which may be increased in well-justified cases);
• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students (no more than PLN 5,000 per each month of project duration); Please note that remuneration and salaries for students and PhD students have recently been modified, whereby doctoral scholarships for PhD students at doctoral schools involved in the project may be increased after their mid-term evaluation. For more information, please go to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre);
• additional remuneration for members of the research team; if the principal investigator is not to be employed full-time in the project, their remuneration is paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;

3. costs of reduced obligatory teaching load: an institution that employs the principal investigator pursuant to a full-time employment contract may be provided with funds to cover the reduction by 50% of principal investigator’s obligatory teaching load;
4. purchase of research equipment, devices and software;
5. purchase of materials and small equipment;
6. outsourced services;
7. business trips, visits and consultations;
8. compensation for collective investigators and
9. other costs crucial to the project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

Monograph publication costs are non-eligible and as such shall not be admitted.

Indirect costs include:

• indirect costs of open access (OA) of up to 2% of direct costs that may only 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 the costs that are directly related to the project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data.

During the project implementation, the host institution must agree with the principal investigator the coverage of at least 25% of the indirect costs. Any expenditure made from that amount must meet the eligibility criteria laid down herein.

Pursuant to the Open Access Policy (adopted on 27 May 2020, as amended), all research results should be made available in full and immediate open access.

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

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, also referred to as post print) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;

On the call date (16 September 2024), publication route No 3 described in the NCN’s Open Access Policy shall not apply to Applicants submitting proposals to the current edition of the call as it only applies to papers accepted for publication or published before 31 December 2024. Information on publication route No 3 will be provided at a later date (before agreements with the Applicants funded under the call are signed).

Manuscripts must be published using the CC-BY licence. Where agreed with the NCN, the CC-BY-ND licence may also be used (regardless of the publication route selected).

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. The CC0 licence 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 with the OpenAIRE.

Information required in the proposals:

The information below must be provided in English:

1. details of the principal investigator, including:
   • information on their academic and research career and research experience as well as 1-10 publications; for research in art, 1-10 most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art;
   • information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls or other national or international calls;
   in the proposal submission year and over the period of 10 years before to the proposal submission year (including applicable breaks);
2. key information on the proposal and host institution for the project (also in Polish);
3. work plan (also in Polish);
4. information on the co-investigators’ work 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, project literature does not count towards the page limit);
8. full project description with bibliography (no more than 15 pages, A4, project literature does not count towards the page limit);
9. information on research projects carried out in international cooperation and benefits of such cooperation (required only if research is carried out in international cooperation);
10. information on ethics issues in research; and
11. information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project, as required by the proposal; and
12. project budget drafted pursuant to the Regulations.

In the Oświadczenia administracyjne [Administrative declarations] tab, under Osoby wskazane we wniosku [Persons named in the proposal], enter the data of all persons who have been involved in the preparation of the proposal or will be involved in the project performance. At this point, enter the names of all persons whose data (name, affiliation) has been entered in other parts of the proposal. The applicant is required to notify such persons that their details have been disclosed in the proposal and will be processed by the NCN. This section is not subject to a review.

SONATA PROPOSAL FORM TEMPLATE

Proposals in the SONATA call may include application for state aid, except where funding is requested by an individual. For more information, please go to the State Aid Section.

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

The documents needed to apply for state aid must be signed with a qualified electronic signature in PAdES format.

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation. An eligibility check is carried out by the coordinators. Only complete proposals that comply with the requirements of the call text are eligible for a merit-based evaluation. A proposal may also be rejected as ineligible at the later stage of evaluation.

Proposals approved as eligible are subject to a merit-based evaluation performed in two stages:

Stage I: Evaluation by an Expert Team formed by the NCN Council, based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description. Individual reviews are drafted by two members of the Expert Team acting independently. In the case of a proposal which is assigned an auxiliary NCN Review Panel specifying disciplines covered by other NCN review panels than the one to which the proposal was submitted, the Chair of the Expert Team may decide to seek another review from a member of another Expert Team (interdisciplinary proposals).

Then, based on the discussions, a list of proposals recommended for stage II of evaluation is compiled by the Expert Team at the first meeting.

Stage II: Proposals are submitted to at least two reviewers who make individual reviews based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description. Then, based on the reviews of the reviewers and discussions at the second meeting, a ranking short list of proposals recommended for funding is compiled by the Expert Team at the second meeting.

To find out more on the proposal evaluation procedure, please read the Proposal evaluation procedure for the Expert Teams and watch our tutorial video.

Proposals are reviewed within the panels to which they have been submitted (e.g., HS1, ST1, NZ1). The panel is selected by the principal investigator. The panel must not be changed once the proposal has been submitted. Auxiliary NCN Review Panels allow to choose experts and reviewers to perform the merit-based evaluation of proposals. The Chair of the Expert Team may decide that interdisciplinary proposals be subject to another review by an expert from another panel.

The evaluation of proposals is particularly focused on:

1. compliance with the basic research criterion;
2. quality and innovative nature of research or tasks to be performed;
3. impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
4. assessment of the feasibility of the research;
5. scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals;
6. assessment of the results of research projects conducted by the principal investigator, funded by the NCN or from other sources;
7. relevance of the costs to be incurred with regards to the subject and scope of the research and
8. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements of the call text.

The proposal evaluation criteria are available here.

Proposals with a zero score or “no” decision agreed by the Expert Team in any reviewed criterion (except for the data management and ethics issues in research) must not be recommended for funding.

Proposals are evaluated in the review panels (e.g., HS1, ST1, NZ1). 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.

The call results are announced on the NCN website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision by the NCN Director, within 6 months of the proposal submission date, by the end of June 2025.

For more information on the call, please read the Information for applicants on the NCN website and Guidelines for applicants to complete SONATA 20 proposals.

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

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the SONATA 20 call:

1. read all call documents included in the call text, in particular:
   • terms of the SONATA 20 call
   • proposal form template where you can find out about information and annexes needed to complete the electronic proposal form in the OSF submission system;
   • Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre;
   • 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) of authorised representative(s) of the entity to confirm submission of the proposal);
3. if a group of Polish entities applies, a research project cooperation agreement must be drafted;
4. acceptance letters from publishers must be prepared to confirm 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. check that the 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 the information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. check if the tabs have been completed in the correct language;
3. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
4. download and sign the confirmation of proposal submission (principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the entity);
5. attach the confirmation of proposal submission with a signature.

Once the proposal is completed and relevant annexes attached, the proposal must be submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

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 by the NCN Director will be announced;
3. if a proposal is recommended for funding, a funding agreement for a research project will be entered into; and
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.