Announcement of the multilateral Weave-UNISONO call launched within the framework of the Weave Programme in accordance with the Lead Agency Procedure

The Weave Programme builds on the multilateral international cooperation between the research funding agencies associated in Science Europe and aims at simplifying the submission and selection procedures of research proposals for joint multilateral international research projects. The Weave Programme is launched by the National Science Centre (“NCN”) pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure, jointly with the following partner institutions 

• Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) from Austria,
• Grantová agentura České Republiky (GAČR) from the Czech Republic,
• Javna agencija za znanstvenoraziskovalno in inovacijsko dejavnost Republike Slovenije (ARIS) from Slovenia,
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) from Switzerland,
• German Research Foundation – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) from Germany,
• Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) from Luxembourg, and
• Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) from Belgium–Flanders.

The Weave-UNISONO call for proposals is addressed at Polish research teams that will, jointly with partner research teams from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium–Flanders, apply for funding of a research projects to the NCN or one (in the case of bilateral projects) or two (in the case of trilateral projects) of their respective partner institution(s), i.e. the FWF, GAČR, ARIS, DFG, SNSF, FNR or FWO.

Under Weave-UNISONO, funding will also be awarded to trilateral research projects submitted by foreign research teams applying to the lead agency, i.e. to FWF, GAČR, ARIS, DFG, SNSF, FNR or FWO, to be carried out jointly with the Polish research team applying to the NCN and with the participation of another foreign research team applying for funding under the Weave Programme to its respective institution cooperating with the lead agency. 

Therefore, cooperation may be sought with research teams from:

• Belgium – Wallonia (funded by the F.R.S.-FNRS – Fund for Scientific Research – Wallonia-Brussels), in the case of a trilateral research project (with the participation of Polish research teams) submitted to the SNSF (Switzerland), acting as the lead agency;
• Croatia (funded by the HRZZ – Croatian Science Foundation), in the case of a trilateral research project (with the participation of Polish research teams) submitted to the SNSF (Switzerland) or the ARI (Slovenia), DFG (Germany) and GACR (the Czech Republic) as the lead agency
• Sweden (funded by the FORMAS – Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development) in the case of a trilateral research project (with the participation of Polish research teams) submitted to the SNSF (Switzerland) or FNR (Luxembourg), FWO (Belgium-Flanders) as lead agency

Acceptable 2022 and 2023 cooperation options are described in Table 1 of the Guidelines for Polish research teams.

Partner research teams involved in a project apply for parallel funding of their projects to one (in the case of bilateral projects) or two (in the case of trilateral projects) respective research funding (partner/ cooperating) institutions participating in the Weave Programme.

Joint research projects must be carried out in close cooperation between the Polish research team and partner research team(s). Each research team must specify its principal investigator in the proposal. Joint projects must include a coherent research program with the added value of the international cooperation clearly defined. Partners are expected to significantly contribute to the joint project, including assuming organisational duties.

The Lead Agency Procedure is a new standard used to evaluate proposals applied by the European research-funding agencies. It is to facilitate international research teams applying for funds for joint research projects and to simplify the evaluation of proposals by research-funding agencies.

The key principles of the procedure include:

• the use of domestic calls carried out by partner institutions to perform merit-based evaluation not only of domestic proposals, but also international bilateral and multilateral ones, which compete with domestic proposals on an equal footing;
• trust in the quality of peer-review among institutions undertaking such cooperation.

Thus, projects involving two or more research groups from different countries are only evaluated by the lead agency relevant for one of the teams participating in a project in the call that constitutes a permanent element of such agency's offer. Other partner institutions approve the results of merit-based evaluation performed by the lead agency and award funding to research projects recommended for funding in the course of such evaluation.

Under the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals, a partner institution relevant for the coordinating applicant (FWF, GAČR, ARIS, DFG, SNSF, FNR or FWO) will act as the lead agency.

The research teams involved in the scientific cooperation (co-applicants) identify their coordinating applicant, i.e. a foreign research team from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg or Belgium-Flanders to perform the organisational and coordinating duties and to submit the joint proposal to the lead agency, i.e. the FWF, GAČR, ARIS, DFG, SNSF, FNR or FWO.

NCN proposals  may be submitted by entities referred to in Article 27 (1) (1), Article 27 (1) (24), Article 27 (1) (5), Article 27 (1) (7) and Article 27 (1) (8) of the NCN Act, hereinafter referred to as the “applicants”, for which project funding will not constitute state aid, 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 2019, item 1183, as amended);
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1350, as amended);
5. international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating in the Republic of Poland:

5a. the Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 534);

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;

7a. President of the Central Office of Measures

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. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences as defined in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796);
10. scientific libraries;
11. legal entities established with registered office in Poland; and
12. natural persons.

There are no restrictions as to the subject of proposals submitted to the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals. Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of the 26 NCN panels according to the scope specified by the lead agency.

Projects may be planned for a period of 24, 36 or 48 months (if possible, the same or as similar as possible for all research teams involved in the project).

PLEASE NOTE: In the case of research projects involving partner research teams from the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Luxemburg that apply for research funding to the GAČR, DFG, ARIS or FNR projects may be planned for a period of no longer than 36 months.

The duration of a project carried out by the Polish and partner research teams may be changed on the terms and conditions of the NCN and relevant partner/cooperating institutions involved in a project.

The Weave-UNISONO call for proposals is addressed at researchers at any stage of their academic career. Projects may involve research in all academic disciplines.

Each research team involved in a project must name its principal investigator, whereas the Polish part of the project must be managed by the principal investigator of the Polish research team. A researcher at any stage of his/her academic career may act as the principal investigator of the Polish research team. The principal investigator of the research team must meet the requirements of the respective research-funding agency.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of Polish research team members. Apart from the principal investigator, research tasks in the project may also be performed by co-investigators, including students and PhD students as well as post-docs. 

Please note that:

• NCN scholarship recipients or post-docs employed in the project and remunerated from the NCN budget must be selected in an open call procedure;
• post-doc regulations are laid down in the Annex (“Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure”): Regulations in force until 31 December 2023, Regulations in force since 1 January 2024.

The qualifications and tasks of particular research team members must be described in the NCN proposals and joint proposals. PLEASE NOTE: information in the NCN proposal must be consistent with information in the joint proposal. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

PLEASE NOTE: Information in the NCN proposal relevant for the merit-based evaluation (e.g. composition and remuneration of the research team or costs) must be included in the joint proposal to assess the relevance of the costs as well as the feasibility of the project. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

The rationale of involvement of Polish research team members in the project is subject to merit-based evaluation of the lead agency. More on the budget for salaries can be found in the “Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre”:

Regulations in force until 31 December 2023

Regulations in force since 1 January 2024

The terms of awarding funding for research tasks funded by the NCN under the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals are laid down in the LAP Regulations.

Regulations in force until 31 December 2023

PLEASE NOTE: As of 1 January 2024, the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure shall apply to the Weave-UNISONO call.

Under the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals, the Polish research team may receive funds for salaries of the research team, scholarships and remuneration for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software and for other costs crucial to the research project that comply with the “Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre”.

The budget specified in the joint proposal  for research tasks to be performed by the partner research teams must comply with the cost eligibility criteria of the partner or cooperating institution of a respective research team.

The budget of the Polish part of the project specified in the NCN proposal and joint proposal must be drafted pursuant to the Regulations (Regulations in force until 31 December 2023, Regulations in force since 1 January 2024) and calculated at the following exchange rates:

• 1 EUR= 4.7244 PLN in the case of joint proposals, for which NCN proposals will be created in and submitted via the OSF submission system until 31 December 2023;
• 1 EUR= 4.5940 PLN in the case of joint proposals, for which NCN proposals will be created in and submitted via the OSF submission system after 1 January 2024.

NCN scholarships are awarded pursuant to the Regulations on awarding scholarships.

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

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

• the budget in the NCN proposal in the OSF submission system must be specified in PLN; in the joint proposal – in EUR, rounded down to the nearest integer;
• the budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal will be calculated at the following exchange rates:
  • 1 EUR= 4.7244 PLN in the case of joint proposals, for which NCN proposals will be created in and submitted via the OSF submission system until 31 December 2023;
  • 1 EUR= 4.5940 PLN in the case of joint proposals, for which NCN proposals will be created in and submitted via the OSF submission system after 1 January 2024.
• NCN proposals in the OSF submission system must specify the budget for tasks to be performed by the Polish research team and in the  joint proposal – for tasks to be performed by all research teams involved in the project;
• the budget planned for the Polish team in the joint proposal must be consistent with the budget in the NCN proposal in the OSF submission system, otherwise the proposal may be rejected as ineligible; and
• no minimum or maximum amount of funding has been specified (the costs must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research).

Polish research teams may plan research projects in the OSF submission system starting from 2024. NCN proposals processed in the OSF submission system after 1 October 2023 (inclusively) may include research projects that will be carried out by the Polish research teams from 2025 onwards.

More on the budget can be found in the “Guidelines for Polish research teams” (Budget for tasks to be performed by the Polish research teams).

PLEASE NOTE: The cost of open access publishing can only be planned as indirect costs, otherwise the proposal shall be deemed ineligible.

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; pursuant to an Order of the NCN Director, the Open Access Policy at the NCN was established with regard to publications resulting from research projects, scholarships and fellowships as well as research activities funded or co-funded by the National Science Centre; 
• 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.During the project implementation, the host institution will agree with the principal investigator the coverage of a minimum of 25% of the indirect costs.

NCN funds will be awarded to those research projects carried out by the Polish research teams for which the partner/cooperating institutions also award funds to the partner/cooperating research teams.

PLEASE NOTE: Read the guidelines of the respective lead agency concerning budgets of respective research teams included in the joint proposals and justifications of the costs planned for those research teams. 

PLEASE NOTE:The budget of the Polish research team in the OSF submission system must be planned in PLN and in the joint proposal, in EUR and must be converted at the following exchange rates: 1 EUR= 4.5315 PLN in the case of joint proposals, for which NCN proposals will be created in and submitted via the OSF submission system before 31.12.2023 and 1 EUR= 4.7244 PLN in the case of joint proposals, for which NCN proposals will be created in and submitted via the OSF submission system after 1 January 2024. The amounts requested from the NCN by the Polish research team and the detailed justification thereof, as provided in the OSF submission system, must be disclosed in the relevant section of the joint proposal. It is not enough to provide the justifications in the budget completed in the OSF submission system as the budget therein is not subject to merit-based evaluation of the lead agency.

The merit-based evaluation is performed by the lead agency pursuant to the joint proposal and comprises, inter alia, evaluation of the relevance of the costs planned for the Polish part of the research project as regards the subject and scope of the research, hence the justification of the costs planned for the Polish research team in the joint proposal must be comprehensive, detailed and consistent with the justification of the costs in the OSF submission system. If no detailed justification of the costs planned for the Polish research team is provided in the joint proposal, consistent with the justification of the costs in the OSF submission system, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

State aid cannot be applied for under the Weave-UNISONO call.

According to the NCN requirements, the Polish research team must submit an NCN proposal  to the OSF submission system and append it with the same joint proposal that has been submitted to the lead agency.

PLEASE NOTE: information in the NCN proposal must be consistent with information in the joint proposal. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

PLEASE NOTE: Information in the NCN proposal relevant for the merit-based evaluation (e.g. composition and remuneration of the research team or costs) must be included in the joint proposal to assess the relevance of the costs planned for as well as the feasibility of the project. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

A joint proposal  must be drafted by the co-applicants according to the requirements of the call launched by the lead agency for the purposes of the Weave Programme and must include all documents required thereby.

The terms of the call, requirements of drafting joint proposals and guidelines applicable to merit-based evaluation of the lead agency are laid down in the documents applicable to its domestic call launched for the purposes of the Weave Programme, i.e.:

• Principal Investigator Projects, and, in the case of clinical research: FWF Clinical Research Programme (if the FWF is the lead agency);
• Evaluation based on the lead agency Principle (LA Projects) (if the GAČR is the lead agency);
• National Research Projects (if the ARIS is the lead agency);
• Project Funding (if the SNSF is the lead agency); and
• Individual Research Grants Programme (if the DFG is the lead agency).
• CORE Programme (if the FNR is the lead agency) and
• Junior and Senior Research projects (if the FWO is the lead agency).

A complete joint proposal must be submitted to the lead agency by the coordinating applicant affiliated in the lead agency’s country by the date set by the lead agency.

Furthermore, each research team involved in a project must submit a set of required documents to its respective research-funding (partner/cooperating) agency which is not the lead agency, including (if necessary) the joint proposal.

Restrictions to submitting NCN proposals  are laid down in Chapter III of the Regulations.

• Regulations in force until 31 December 2023;
• Regulations in force since 1 January 2024.

The Weave-UNISONO call is open to NCN proposals (submitted pursuant to the Regulations) to which joint proposals are attached:

• Regulations in force until 31 December 2023;
• Regulations in force since 1 January 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: Information in the NCN proposal must be consistent with information in the joint proposal. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

PLEASE NOTE: Information in the NCN proposal relevant for the merit-based evaluation (e.g. composition and remuneration of the research team or costs) must be included in the joint proposal to assess the relevance of the costs as well as the feasibility of the project. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

The documents and information to be included in NCN proposals are laid down in point 2 (2) of Resolution No 97/2022 on the terms of the international Weave-UNISONO call for research projects.

Make sure to include the following information and documents:

• title of the research project provided in the joint proposal (the title in the NCN proposal must be provided in Polish and in English; the title in the NCN proposal must be consistent with the title in the joint proposal);
• the joint proposal in PDF format, including all required documents according to the terms of the call launched by the lead agency consistent with the proposal submitted to the lead agency’s submission system, including:
  • joint project description according to the terms of the call launched by the lead agency (in English);
  • CVs with publication lists of the research team members involved in the project according to the terms of the call launched by the lead agency;
• the research project’s abstract for the general public (up to 1 standard page in Polish and up to 1 standard page in English);
• the research plan (in Polish and in English) presenting the research tasks to be carried out by the Polish research team;
• information on the required qualifications and scope of work planned by each Polish co-investigator in the research project (in English);
• the budget of the Polish part of the research project (in English) drafted pursuant to the Regulations:
  • Regulations in force until 31 December 2023;
  • Regulations in force since 1 January 2024;
• information on the international cooperation under the project, including cooperating foreign research institutions and a description of the related benefits (in English);
• information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of the Polish part of the research project, as required by the proposal (in English); and
• information on the ethical aspects of the project, including consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the project in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline, as required by the proposal (in English).

The NCN does not require any documents (agreements) confirming cooperation between Polish and partner research teams to be submitted nor signatures to be affixed by members of the partner research teams on NCN proposals or other documents annexed thereto.

PLEASE NOTE: More information on how to complete NCN proposals in the OSF submission system can be found in the Guidelines for Polish research teams (version valid until 31 December 2023; version valid since 1 January 2024) and Proposal Submission Procedure.

Under the Weave-UNISONO Call, NCN proposals must be submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system (https://osf.opi.org.pl/).

The NCN accepts only complete NCN proposals that meet all the requirements set forth in the call announcement.

The Polish research teams must ensure that their proposals submitted to the NCN are complete. An NCN proposal that has been submitted to the NCN via the OSF submission system cannot be amended and annexes thereto cannot be modified in the OSF submission system.

The principal investigators are recommended to verify that all parts of the joint proposal, including joint project descriptions and annexes, are properly completed. If any part of the joint proposal or NCN proposal is left blank, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check of any partner institution involved in the project.

Under the Weave-UNISONO Programme, NCN proposals must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system, as soon as possible following submission of the joint proposal to the lead agency, within 7 calendar days.

If on the day the joint proposal is submitted to the lead agency, an NCN proposal form is not available in the OSF submission system, it must be submitted to the NCN within 7 calendar days of the date the information is published on the NCN website (https://www.ncn.gov.pl/) and in the OSF submission system that the NCN proposal form is available in the OSF submission system.

Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the OSF submission system, the Polish research team has 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and submit it to the NCN. After that, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team that has not sent its proposal to the NCN must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system which may impact the budget for research tasks performed by the Polish research teams planned in the NCN proposal. For more information, please read the Guidelines for Polish research teams (“Budget for tasks to be performed by the Polish research teams”). 

PLEASE NOTE: The 45-day period applies only to the period during which NCN proposals may be edited in the OSF submission system. Under Weave-UNISONO, NCN proposals must be submitted to the NCN via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of joint proposals to the lead agency, within 7 calendar days at the latest. 

All NCN proposals processed in the OSF submission system in 2023, with the exchange rate of 1 EUR= 7.7244 PLN, must be submitted via OSF by 31 December 2023, 11:59:59 p.m., otherwise a new proposal will have to be processed, with the exchange rate of 1 EUR = 4.5940 PLN. If a joint proposal with the budget of the Polish part of the project calculated at a different EUR exchange rate is submitted to the lead agency at an earlier date, information in the NCN proposal will be inconsistent with information in the joint proposal and as a result the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

Proposal submission dates for joint proposals and announcement of the results of evaluation by the partner institutions acting as the lead agency 

More on the submission deadlines for proposals at partner institutions that are not lead agencies can be found in the Guidelines for Polish research teams (version valid until 31 December 2023; version valid since 1 January 2024).

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation. Proposals are evaluated pursuant to the Regulations (Regulations in force until 31 December 2023; Regulations in force since 1 January 2024 and lead agency's documents governing the merit-based evaluation of joint proposals.

Eligibility check of proposals at the NCN is carried out by the scientific coordinators pursuant to the eligibility criteria of the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals laid down in Chapter V of the Regulations (Regulations in force until 31 December 2023; Regulations in force since 1 January 2024).

PLEASE NOTE: Information in the NCN proposal must be consistent with information in the joint proposal. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

PLEASE NOTE: Information in the NCN proposal relevant for the merit-based evaluation (e.g. composition and remuneration of the research team or costs) must be included in the joint proposal to assess the relevance of the costs as well as the feasibility of the project. Otherwise, the proposal may be rejected as ineligible.

Joint proposals  are subject to merit-based evaluation. Only proposals that have been found eligible by all partner institutions performing the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation. The merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed by the lead agency according to the rules of its domestic call launched for the purposes of the Weave Programme, by comparing proposals against other proposals submitted to the call.

The terms of merit-based evaluation of the lead agency are laid down in the documents applicable to its domestic call launched for the purposes of the Weave Programme, i.e.:

• Principal Investigator Projects and, in the case of clinical research, FWF Clinical Research Programme (if FWF is the lead agency);
• Evaluation based on the lead agency principle (LA projects) (if GAČR is the lead agency);
• National Research Projects (if ARIS is the lead agency);
• SNSF Project Funding (if SNSF is the lead agency);
• Individual Research Grants Programme (if DFG is the lead agency);
• CORE Programme (if the FNR is the lead agency;
• Junior and Senior Research projects (if the FWO is the lead agency).

Following the merit-based evaluation, the lead agency provides the NCN and (in the case of projects carried out in trilateral cooperation) the other partner/cooperating institutions involved in the project with information on the results of the merit-based evaluation and the list of projects recommended for funding.

Then, the list is approved by the NCN Director and (in the case of projects carried out in trilateral cooperation) the partner/cooperating institutions relevant for the foreign research teams.

PLEASE NOTE: Proposals submitted to Weave-UNISONO may be subject to an auxiliary evaluation by the NCN in the cases laid down in § 37, § 39, § 44 and § 45 of the Regulations (Regulations in force until 31 December 2023; Regulations in force since 1 January 2024) in particular if:

• the NCN has any doubts as to the rationale of the costs planned for the Polish part of the research project specified in the joint proposal as regards the subject and scope of research;
• the NCN has doubts as to the ethical aspects of the Polish part of research to be carried out or a review of the ethical aspects is ambiguous;
• it is impossible to conclusively rank the projects evaluated in various groups of disciplines and on various ranking lists, and the total funds designated for the Polish part of the project carried out by the Polish research teams exceed the available funds designated for projects financed by the NCN, and the order of projects cannot be established according to the ratio obtained by dividing the project’s position (number) on the ranking list by the total number of all projects recommended for funding from that list; and
• the lead agency recommends the research projects for funding without ranking them according to quality, and the total funds planned for the Polish part of the project carried out by the Polish research teams exceed the available funds designated for research projects to be financed by the NCN.

The NCN Director shall decide whether or not to award funding within up to 12 months of the submission date of the NCN proposal.

The Polish research teams will be awarded funding for those research projects only, in the case of which the co-applicants are awarded parallel funding from their partner/ cooperating institutions.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements related to actions performed by the NCN, applicants may lodge an appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council within 14 days of the date the decision is served. The Committee of Appeals decides on the appeal within 3 months of the date on which the appeal was lodged. The appeal procedure applicable to Weave-UNISONO is governed by §49, §50 and §51 of the Regulations (Regulations in force until 31 December 2023; Regulations in force since 1 January 2024). 

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[1]), as long as the Version of Record (VoR[2]) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM[3]) 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, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

   Publication in transformative journals (TJ[4]); whereas 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 (3) only applies to articles accepted for publication or published before 31 December 2024.

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 can be used (regardless of the publication route selected).

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

Furthermore, please read the NCN’s Open Access Instructions.

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 licence (CC0[5] licence). 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.

In the case of research projects involving research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland, the following partner institutions are the joint controllers of personal data:

FWF: https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/privacy-policy/;

GAČR: https://gacr.cz/en/legislation/;

ARIS: http://www.aris.si/sl/index.asp ;

SNSF:http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/allg_reglement_16_e.pdf; http://www.snf.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/Annex_I_Ausfuehrungsreglement_Beitragsreglement_E.pdf

FNR: https://www.fnr.lu/fnr-privacy-statement/

FWO: https://www.fwo.be/en/the-fwo/organisation/processing-personal-data-privacy/privacy-statement/

INFORMATION about processing of personal data within the framework of the Multilateral Lead Agency Procedure under the Weave programme

In the case of research projects involving research teams from Germany, the DFG is the recipient of personal data: https://www.dfg.de/en/service/privacy_policy/.

Contact at the NCN

Should you have more queries on the NCN eligibility criteria having read the call announcement and call documents, contact the NCN officers.

General Affairs 

• Magdalena Dobrzańska-Bzowska

e-mail: Magdalena.Dobrzanska-Bzowska@ncn.gov.pl

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(office hours: 9:00-13:00)

• Magdalena Nowak

e-mail: Magdalena.Nowak@ncn.gov.pl

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(office hours: 9:00-13:00)

Coordinator for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

• Dr Katarzyna Bester

e-mail: katarzyna.bester@ncn.gov.pl

Before calling, make an e-mail appointment.

Coordinator for Physical Sciences and Engineering 

• Dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska

e-mail: ewelina.szymanska-skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl

Before calling, make an e-mail appointment.

Coordinator for Life Sciences

• Dr Magdalena Wyszkowska-Kolatko

e-mail: Magdalena.Wyszkowska-Kolatko@ncn.gov.pl

Before calling, make an e-mail appointment.

Contact at partner institutions 

For joint proposal related questions, contact the partner research team affiliated in the country of the lead agency or the lead agency.

CONTACT AT THE FWF:

• Dr. Christoph Bärenreuter

e-mail: christoph.baerenreuter@fwf.ac.at

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CONTACT AT THE GAČR:

• Kamila Pětrašová

e-mail: kamila.petrasova@gacr.cz

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• Petr Kujal

e-mail: petr.kujal@gacr.cz

tel.: +420 605 038 905

CONTACT AT THE ARIS:

• Aleksandra Panič

e-mail: aleksandra.panic@aris.si

Pokaż numer

CONTACT AT THE SNSF:

• Elisabeth Schenker

e-mail: elisabeth.schenker@snf.ch

CONTACT AT THE DFG:

e-mail: weave@dfg.de

CONTACT AT THE FNR:

• Dr Helena Burg

e-mail: helena.burg@fnr.lu

tel.: +352 691 36 28 12

• Josiane Staus

e-mail: josiane.staus@fnr.lu

tel.: +352 691 36 28 32

CONTACT AT THE FWO:

e-mail: weave@fwo.be