Democracy, Governance and Trust

NCN proposals may be submitted by the following entities specified in Article 27 (1) of the NCN Act (hereinafter: the “applicants”):

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 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);

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 2022, item 498),
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010,
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 2022, item 2474),
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures,

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

If research projects are carried out by two or more Polish partners applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities (see item 8 above) 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.

PLEASE NOTE: 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.

Template agreement on the formation of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of the research project.

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Restrictions on submitting NCN proposals 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 32/2023 of 16 March 2023.

The call is open to projects covering one or more of the following subjects:

Democracy, Governance and Trust

1. Concepts, understandings and models of democracy, governance and trust;
2. Education;
3. Media, information and communication;
4. Economies and economic systems;
5. Identities, discrimination, marginalization and inequalities;
6. Ecosystems and environments;
7. Epistemologies, knowledge and expertise;
8. History and culture;
9. Power, authority and conflict.

More information on the subject of the call can be found in the call text and call documents available on the website of the Trans-Atlantic Platform.

Researchers may apply for NCN funding of their basic research projects for the purposes of Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act.

NCN proposals comprising research tasks overlapping with research tasks to be carried out in another proposal that has been already submitted in any NCN call or with respect to which an appeal has been initiated, may only be submitted once the funding decision has become final.

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

In addition to the principal investigator, research project tasks may be carried out by co-investigators, including students, PhD students and post-docs.

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 7 years before the year of employment in the project. This period may be extended pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Please note: Researchers who have been conferred a PhD degree in another institution than the one planned to employ them at this post or 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, may be employed as post-docs. Post-docs in the project must be selected in an open call.

PhD students who are NCN-scholarship grantees must be selected in an open call.

The rationale for involvement of individual members of the research team in the project shall be evaluated by the Expert Team. The project must include the description of competencies and tasks performed by individual members of the research team. For more information on the budget for salaries and scholarships, go to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

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

Names of scholarship recipients and post docs must not be specified in full proposals or NCN proposals.

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research, based on realistic calculations and must comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls 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 subject to evaluation.

The budget in the NCN proposal should be quoted in PLN, while the budget in the joint proposal, in PLN and EUR.

The EUR budget for the Polish part of the research project in the joint proposal must be calculated according to the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4,5259 PLN.

The project budget (eligible costs) includes direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

1. remuneration for the principal investigator,
2. remuneration for co-investigators in the project,

• • full-time employment for post-docs,
• • salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students,
• • the so-called additional remuneration for members of the research team. If the principal investigator does not plan to be employed full time in the project, his/her remuneration is paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration,

3. purchase of research equipment, devices and software,
4. purchase of materials and small equipment,
5. outsourcing,
6. business trips, visits and consultations,
7. compensation for collective investigators,
8. other costs crucial to the project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Please note: The costs of publication of monographs (pursuant to §10 of the Regulation on Evaluation of the Quality of Research Activity by the Minister of Science and Higher Education of 22 February 2019 (Journal of Laws 2019, item 392)) resulting from research projects may be incurred following a positive review by the NC.

Indirect costs include:

• indirect cost of Open Access (up to 2% of direct costs) that may be designated only for the cost of open access to publications or research data;
• other indirect costs (up to 20% of direct costs) that may be spent on costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data.

Please note: The cost of open access to publications may only be incurred as indirect costs. The cost of open access planned as direct costs will be regarded as a formal error.

If an unreasonable budget is planned, a proposal may be rejected in the course of merit-based evaluation.

For more information, go to the Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Please note: We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project with the NCN. Send the budget table in .xlsx format to przemyslaw.puchala@ncn.gov.pl by 20 October 2023.

Proposals in the call may include an application for state aid. For more information, go to the State aid section.

Joint full proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the Call Secretariat and national funding agencies participating in the call of the Trans-Atlantic Platform.

Eligible proposals are first individually reviewed by the experts. Then, the Expert Panel(s) established by the Call Secretariat and national funding agencies participating in the call conducts a merit-based evaluation based on the proposals and expert’s individual reviews. Following the recommendations of the Expert Panel, the Funders Forum makes a list of proposals recommended for funding.

At the full proposal submission stage, the Polish applicants must submit their NCN proposals to the OSF submission system which are then subject solely to an NCN eligibility check carried out by the coordinators.

The eligibility check of NCN proposals involves verification of the proposal for completeness, compliance with all terms set forth in the call documents published by T-AP and Resolution No 32/2023 of 16 March 2023 by the NCN Council, including compliance of the budget with the Annex thereto (Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO).

Please note: NCN proposals must be consistent with joint proposals.

Only joint full proposals are subject to merit-based evaluation performed by the Expert Panel comprising experts selected by the research funding agencies participating in the DGT Call of the Trans-Atlantic Platform.

Together with other European research-funding agencies, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted its Open Access Policy pursuant to which all research results stemming from NCN-funded research projects must be made available in 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 (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;
• 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).

More on open access publication can be found here.

The DGT Call 2023 of the Trans-Atlantic Platform will be concluded between July and August 2024. The lead principal investigators will be the first ones to be informed of the outcome. Polish research teams will be notified by way of decisions of the NCN Director.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements related to actions performed by the NCN, the applicants may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council.

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the T-AP DGT Call 2023, read the call documents, in particular:

• call text of the T-AP DGT Call 2023 on the website of the Trans-Atlantic Platform;
• 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

Before submitting an NCN proposal to the NCN at national level:

1. collect data from the applicant required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (project costs, procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal); if a group of Polish entities applies, a research project cooperation agreement is required,
2. 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;
3. make sure that all tabs have been completed in the correct language;
4. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
5. download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the entity;
6. 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.

For more information on the call, go to the website of the Trans-Atlantic Platform.

For the terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call, refer to the Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 32/2023 of 16 March 2023.

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

• dr Magdalena Sobas, magdalena.sobas@ncn.gov.pl (before calling, make an appointment)
• Przemysław Puchała, przemyslaw.puchala@ncn.gov.pl,
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