The National Science Centre (NCN) announces a call for applications as part of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 for increasing funding for the implementation of projects, which were allocated funding in the GRIEG or POLS calls and as part of the EEA Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 for increasing funding for the implementation of projects, which were allocated funding in the IdeaLab call.

Taking into account the current changes in the macroeconomic landscape caused by external occurrences that could not have been foreseen at the application submission stage, including the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the armed conflict in Ukraine and the rapid economic downturn, it is impossible to miss certain social and market-related consequences these events have on the execution of the project, e.g. increasing prices of materials and labour costs, supply chain breakdowns, shortages of raw materials, products and materials, currency market fluctuations, etc. The ongoing weakening of the Polish zloty against the euro, which has also been caused by the above circumstances, generates savings in the Basic Research Programme. These circumstances have also been noted by the Donors, who have notified about the possibility to allocate additional funds to already approved projects which have the potential for absorbing additional funds and scaling up results or whose costs have increased due to the exceptional price increases, even if such additional funding would not scale up results.

Call deadline

The call deadline was extended till 21 November 2022.

Results

The increase in funding shall be decided within 1 month of the closing date of the call for applications. In justified cases, the period may be extended up to 3 months. The period was extended till 31 January 2023.

Who may file applications

Applications can be submitted by applicants who are Project Promoters representing a partnership implementing a project within the GRIEG, POLS or IDEALAB calls (“Project Promoter”).

Conditions for submitting applications for increasing funding for the implementation of projects:

  1. The application can only be submitted if the project has the capacity to absorb additional funding, which is verified on the basis of a declaration made by a person authorised to represent the Project Promoter and the Principal Investigator that such additional funds will have been spent by the end of the implementation of the project; however, not later than by the end of the eligibility period (30 April 2024).
  2. The application can be submitted if all funds that could have been re-allocated as part of the existing budget have been spent or are planned to be spent, which is verified on the basis of a declaration made by a person authorised to represent the Project Promoter and the Principal Investigator that there are no funds in the project’s budget that could be re-allocated.
  3. The application can be submitted if there occurred circumstances that could not have been foreseen at the application submission stage, which affected the implementation of the project or if the additional funds contribute to achieving better results. The application should include a description of additional costs per each partner, with a justification for each such cost, indicating the circumstances mentioned in this section. In particular, the application can be submitted in the following situations:
  • Circumstance 1 – it has been demonstrated that there have been exceptional price increases beyond the control of the Principal Investigator and partners, which could not have been predicted at the time of the application’s submission. The application may take into account significant increases in the costs of labour (however, up to the limit specified in the call documentation), materials, equipment, subcontracting, services, including services related to sea and air freight, hospitality services, open access costs, etc. especially if the additional funding is the only way to secure achievement of the intended results (i.e., it will “save the project”) within the available time frame. Cost overruns resulting from, e.g., budgeting/planning errors should not be taken into account.

Lower-value transfers in NOK received by Norwegian partners as a consequence of the significant depreciation of PLN against NOK, e.g. as a consequence of the differences between the exchange rate as at the preparation of the financial statements and the exchange rate at the date of transfer, are treated as exchange rate losses and non-eligible costs.

  • Circumstance 2 – it has been demonstrated that exceptional circumstances have occurred (COVID, war, exceptional delays in supply of the necessary equipment, another significant change of social and economic circumstances), as a result of which it is necessary to extend the grant, the period of employing subcontractors, to increase the number of members of the research team or it is necessary to modify the project in another way, especially if the additional funding is the only way to secure achievement of the intended results (i.e., it will “save the project”) within the available time frame. Extensions of the project implementation period, increases of the number of research team members or other modifications of the project resulting from planning/budgeting errors should not be taken into account.
  • Circumstance 3 – it has been demonstrated that the additional funding will help to achieve better results and to improve or extend the research programme, however, the Principal Investigator can only make subject matter changes that do not affect the attainment of the effects of the research project implementation defined in Article 7 of the Contract. The application for funding of the research project and the schedule remain unchanged, while the existing research plan defined in the Contract is improved or enhanced.
  • Circumstance 3a – the increased funds will be used to hire a Ukrainian researcher. In such a case, the following conditions must be met:
    • The projects can employ individuals who, directly before the outbreak of the war, worked and conducted research at Ukrainian universities and other research institutions, and who, as a result of the military activities arrived in Poland on or after 24 February 2022. The reasons why the announcement is limited to these groups of individuals must be each time included in the job offer;
    • The requirement of transparency and openness is met by the Project Promoter or Partner if the job offer addressed to a researcher remains posted on the entity's site and on the EURAXESS site for at least a period of 7 days. We also encourage you to publish your offers on https://scienceforukraine.eu/table.html
    • The academic activities and interests of the hired researcher must be related to the topic of the research project. The above criterion should be verified by the Project Promoter or Partner based on the CV submitted by the researcher. Moreover, an important goal of the “Basic Research Programme” is to engage young researchers to support them in advancement of their career, in the development of their skills and to mentor them to ensure continuous professional development. The activities of such researchers also need to be related to the topics of the projects.
  1. The maximum increase that a project can apply for may not be higher than 10% of the total funding granted by the NCN.

How to prepare an application and what to include in it?

To prepare an application, please download and fill in the application form for increasing the funding for your project along with the declarations. The application form must be completed in English. Present the scope of modifications, the justification of additional funding and the occurrence of one or more circumstances: Circumstance 1, Circumstance 2, Circumstance 3 or Circumstance 3a, as defined in section 3 above, both for the Project Promoter and for each of the partners, broken down by the budget breakdown items. In the case of partners and budget breakdown items for which no funding is sought, please enter “0” (zero). Indirect costs that are settled by a fixed percentage used during the implementation of the project, which accounts for 25%[1] of the value of direct eligible costs of the project, excluding subcontracting costs and the costs of resources made available by third parties, which are not used on the premises of the Project Promoter or Project Partner(s), as well as financial support for third parties, must be rounded to the nearest zloty. Completed forms should be accompanied by a declaration confirming that the project is capable of absorbing additional funding and by a declaration that funds cannot be re-allocated within the project’s existing budget.

For projects which add new subcontracting or equipment items or which increase the value of the existing subcontracting or equipment, or which introduce merit based changes related to subcontracting or equipment, please attach a list of subcontracting or equipment prepared in accordance with the template. Such a list should be complete, i.e., it should include both the changes and the unchanged items. Presenting only the changes will not be sufficient.

Please be reminded that in compliance with Article 8.2.4 of the Regulation, in the case of purchase of new or second hand equipment, only a portion of depreciation corresponding to the project’s duration and the rate of actual use for the project’s purposes may be considered eligible expenditure. The equipment where the entire purchase price by way of exception from the rule in Article 8.2.4 is eligible, has to be specified in the list. Please indicate in the table whether you are planning depreciation or if you are applying for the entire purchase price to be eligible.

PLEASE NOTE: Only complete applications accompanied by the obligatory attachments will undergo subject matter evaluation. As applications are completed outside the OSF system, please make sure that your application has been filled in completely before sending it.

PLEASE NOTE: The application and attachments must be signed by the person authorised to represent the Project Promoter and the Principal Investigator using a qualified electronic signature or an advanced electronic signature. The electronic signature must comply with the eIDAS Regulation, should contain a valid qualified certificate and an extension in PAdES format. Additionally, the application must be submitted in editable Excel file format.

Please send the application electronically to the Electronic Mail Box of the National Science Centre: /ncn/SkrytkaESP not later than on 15 November 2022.

What is the application assessment process?

Applications are subject to formal and subject matter assessment.

Formal assessment will be carried out by an employee of the Norway Grants Team. Each application will be assessed taking into account the following criteria:

  1. Has the application been sent on time?
  2. Has the application been completed in English?
  3. Have all the required attachments been added to the application?
  4. Has an editable Excel copy of the application been submitted?
  5. Is the equipment or subcontracting list complete?
  6. Have all the documents been signed as required?
  7. Have reasons for additional funding and circumstance(s) been provided with respect to all the items for which additional funds are sought?
  8. Has at least one premise been demonstrated that justifies the application for additional funds with respect to all the items for which additional funds are sought?
  9. Is the application free from any calculation errors as a result of which the limit of 10% would be exceeded?

Applications sent after the deadline will be rejected. In the case of other formal defects, the Project Promoter will be entitled to correct their application once, within 7 days from receiving the notification. Such correction may not increase the costs presented in the original application, unless it results from the rectification of an evident calculation error.

The subject matter assessment is carried out by the NCN Coordinators from the HS (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), NZ (Life Sciences) or ST (Physical Sciences and Engineering) Units. The subject matter assessment aims to confirm that for the costs presented, one or more circumstances have been met, thus providing the grounds for applying for the increase in funding for the project’s implementation, as well as the sufficiency of the justification for additional funding. The Coordinator may indicate one or more items in the Leader’s or Partners’ budget breakdown for which none of the circumstances have been met or for which insufficient justification has been presented, and reduce the requested amount by the value of the negatively assessed items, together with the corresponding indirect costs, and to correct calculation errors in the application, if any. A negative result for the subject matter assessment must be justified. In justified cases, the NCN Coordinator may consult a competent member of the NCN Council.

On the basis of assessments by NCN Coordinators, applications will be qualified to be included in the list of assessed applications. The list of assessed applications will include the project number, the project title, the name of the Project Promoter, the amount of direct and indirect costs by which the project budget may be increased and the total amount of the increase granted.

Conclusion of annexes to the Contract

The Project Promoter will be informed about the outcome of the assessment in a letter. Assessment results may not be appealed against. The Project Promoter is obliged to draw up an annex to the NCN contract, taking into account the result of the assessment of their application. First, the Project Promoter must create the budget breakdown annex, using the updates/changes/annexes/agreements module of the OSF, in accordance with the instructions available here. The additional costs must be included in each partner's budget, in the corresponding items of the budget breakdown. The costs may only be included in the budget breakdown for 2023. Second, the Project Promoter must prepare an annex with the consecutive number, in accordance with the template prepared by the Centre: template for the GRIEG call, template for the IdeaLab call and template for the POLS call.

The second annex prepared outside the OSF system can include changes in the attachments that contain the equipment and subcontracting list. The drafts of the annexes signed separately with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES standard by a person(s) representing the Project Promoter and the Principal Investigator must be sent electronically to the Electronic Mail Box of the National Science Centre: /ncn/SkrytkaESP.

Each change to the appendix requiring a form of the annex to the contract results in the necessity of enclosing an attachment to the proposed annex, the content of which is not limited solely to the proposed change but must include its full new wording. The Annex and the attachments must be submitted as a single .pdf document. The table templates for the equipment and subcontracting list can be found at: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/eeanorwaygrants/law-and-documents.

[1] It does not apply to the Norwegian research institutes that have wage costs approved by the Research Council of Norway (RCN).