Call announcement for Polish research institutions to submit proposals for the establishment of Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence

This announcement has been published with a view to receiving submissions from research institutions willing to establish, host and accommodate Dioscuri Centres. Submissions meeting the formal requirements will be published in the Dioscuri call announcement, thus helping researchers find the right research institution in Poland. Researchers will be able to choose a research institution from beyond the published list, provided that the institute on meets the formal requirements and commits to satisfying the basic conditions specified below.

Programme description

Dioscuri is an initiative by the Max Planck Society (MPG), intended to establish Centres of Scientific Excellence (hereinafter referred to as Dioscuri Centres) in Central and Eastern Europe. The Centres will enable outstanding researchers to carry out top level research at research institutions in this part of Europe.

With the participation of the National Science Centre (NCN), the programme shall start with the establishment of up to ten Dioscuri Centres in Poland, in all research domains. Each newly established Centre will cooperate with a German Mentor/Mentor Institution, to reinforce Polish-German cooperation in research, and funding will be provided by the NCN from the resources contributed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The Centres will be set up by researchers selected in international Dioscuri calls. The first call for proposals for the establishment of up to three Dioscuri Centres in Poland will be announced in October 2017 and concluded in 2018.

The call shall accept proposals from outstanding researchers with a PhD degree obtained within a period not exceeding fifteen years prior to the submission of their application to Dioscuri. Researchers shall submit proposals jointly with a Polish research institution, provided that they were not employed at the institution over 2 years preceding the date of submitting the proposal. Every call awardee shall establish and head a Dioscuri Centre, in which he or she will conduct innovative research at the world’s top level.

By submitting a joint proposal to the Dioscuri call, the Applicant (researcher) shall enter the call together with the Polish research institution. In the event of successful application under the Dioscuri call, the research institution acting as Host Institution to the Dioscuri Centre, shall receive annually the equivalent of € 300,000, to be spent exclusively on the Dioscuri Centre’s operations, provided that the institution satisfies the basic conditions specified below. The funding period for each Dioscuri Centre comprises five years and may be extended by another five years (provided that it passes all assessments and there is funding available).

The funding may be used to finance:

• remuneration for the head of the Dioscuri Centre (awardee of the Dioscuri call) to the sum of € 100,000 per year;
• salaries for members of the Dioscuri Centre’s research team and scholarships (scholarships may be granted solely in accordance with the NCN regulations);
• costs of research activities of the Dioscuri Centre (costs of materials, travel, publications and other research activities, etc.);
• costs of cooperation with the German Mentor/Mentor Institution;
• funding does not provide for overheads of the research institution, administrative and financial costs, and research equipment and infrastructure.

The full name of a Dioscuri Centre shall read:

Dioscuri Centre of Scientific Excellence. A programme initiated by the Max Planck Society, jointly managed by the National Science Centre in Poland, and mutually funded by MNiSW and BMBF

Addressees of the call

Research institutions specified in article 2 section 9 a-f and section 16a[1] of the act of 30^th April 2010 on the principles of funding science (Journal of Laws of 2010 no 96 section 615 as amended) hereinafter referred to as “research institution”.

Terms of submitting proposals

The research institution hereby commits to satisfy these basic conditions:

• offer full-time employment to the grantee of the Dioscuri call for the entire period of the Dioscuri Centre funding (also in the event of extending the funding period);
• offer employment to the members of the Dioscuri Centre’s research team, to be financed with the funding granted to the research institution under the Dioscuri budget (form of employment to be agreed between the call awardee and the team member: contract of employment, contract of mandate, contract of specified task, scholarship);
• provide additional funding placed at the disposal of the Dioscuri Centre to the sum of at least the equivalent of € 25,000 per year, for the entire period of the Dioscuri Centre funding (also in the event of extending the funding period);
• ensure the best possible conditions of research, including: laboratory or office facilities, research equipment/infrastructure as may be required by the type of research planned.
• ensure administrative and financial handling for the entire period of the Dioscuri Centre funding (also in the event of extending the funding period), with special regard to the initial stage of the Centre’s activity.
• ensure the services of an administrative employee (fluent in English) for the entire period of the Dioscuri Centre funding (also in the event of extending the funding period) employed full-time at the expense of the research institution, whose duties shall consist exclusively in services provided to the Dioscuri Centre.

The research institution may also offer to satisfy additional conditions to facilitate the Dioscuri Centre, among others:

• additional financial contribution for the Dioscuri Centre, allotted for research, personnel costs related to employing a member/members of the Dioscuri Centre’s research team, etc.;
• general support or other incentives to encourage the establishment of a Dioscuri Centre at the institution;
• others.

The National Science Centre reserves the right to verify whether an institution fulfils the conditions declared at any stage of the procedure through visits to the institution which aims to establish a Dioscuri Centre. Should a research institution fail to meet the declared conditions, the Dioscuri Centre may be established in another research institution.

Manner and dates of submitting proposals

Information required in the proposal submission has been specified in the Attachment to the hereby call announcement. All information must be provided in English.

• Submissions shall be accepted only as electronic proposals, i.e.:
  • a single PDF file with a qualified electronic signature by an authorised representative of the research institution

    as well as

  • a file in an editable format (e.g. doc), containing identical information; this file need not bear a qualified signature

  Submissions must be sent by 2^nd October 2017 to the address of the Electronic Correspondence Register ESP (ePUAP) of the National Science Centre: /ncn/SkrytkaESP. In the subject line of the message please enter: “Dioscuri Proposal”.

• The submission shall undergo an eligibility check by personnel from the NCN, and should it fulfil all requirements, it shall be published in the Dioscuri call announcement, listed among the research institutions capable of acting as a Host Institution to a Dioscuri Centre.
• Research institutions may submit more than one proposal, provided that each proposal be submitted under a different research discipline, as listed in section 5 of the Attachment.

Contact:

Marcin Liana, tel. +48 12 341 9161

Małgorzata Jacobs-Kozyra, tel. +48 12 341 9173