The National Science Centre announces four new calls for proposals. A total of PLN 527 million in research grants is up for grabs for researchers at all career levels, as well as foreigners who would like to work in Poland.
All the newly launched calls allow for funding basic research projects in any discipline conducted at a Polish host institution. NCN grants can be used to cover the necessary project costs such as salaries, scholarships, business trips, research equipment or other indispensable materials.
Depending on the call, proposals may be submitted by host institutions or physical persons. Grants are also available to foreigners, regardless of their citizenship, both those already resident in our country (OPUS 24, SONATA 18 and PRELUDIUM BIS 4) and those planning to relocate (POLONEZ BIS 3). The application deadline is 15 December.
For all researchers
OPUS 24 is open to a wide range of researchers who are planning to carry out projects with or without foreign partners. Research cooperation under OPUS 24 may involve the use of large research equipment and may be conducted within the framework of the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) under the Weave programme or in another form.
The Weave programme relies on multilateral cooperation between the research-funding institutions that make up the Science Europe association. It is designed to simplify the submission and selection procedures for research proposals (in all disciplines of science) that involve researchers from two or three European countries. LAP projects submitted in this round of the OPUS call will be evaluated at the NCN in its capacity as the lead agency.
OPUS 24 projects may take 1, 2, 3 or 4 years to complete. There is no upper funding limit for any single project and the total budget of the call is PLN 350 million.
Detailed information
For entry-level researchers
SONATA 18 is designed to support young researchers planning to conduct innovative studies with the aid of state-of-the-art equipment or an original methodology. The call is targeted at PhD holders who earned their degree 2 to 7 years prior to the application year.
Apart from the principal investigator, the project team may include students and PhD candidates, as well as postdoctoral fellows. The projects may take 1, 2 or 3 years. There is no upper funding limit for any single project and the total budget of the call equals PLN 120 million.
For PhD students
PRELUDIUM BIS 4 is only open to entities that run PhD schools. The objective of the call is to support the education of PhD candidates and fund the projects they conduct within the framework of their PhD dissertations.
The role of principal investigator under a PRELUDIUM BIS project falls to the PhD advisor. The budget may include research funds of up to PLN 300,000, PhD scholarships and indirect costs. Projects may take 3 or 4 years. PhD candidates who get scholarships under PRELUDIUM BIS will also complete a 3- to 6-month foreign research fellowship funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).
The budget of PRELUDIUM BIS 4 is PLN 30 million.
For foreign researchers
POLONEZ BIS is a programme funded from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and designed to support researcher mobility into Poland. It allows foreign researchers to carry out ambitious research projects at top Polish research centres.
POLONEZ BIS is open to applicants who hold a PhD degree or have at least 4 years of full-time research experience, and who have not lived, worked or studied in Poland for more than a total of 12 months in the three years prior to the call announcement, and have not led any research project at a Polish institution within that time frame.
A POLONEZ BIS grant guarantees a full-time employment contract in Poland for a period of 24 months and provides research funds for projects in any discipline. The programme will be supplemented by attractive training courses and cooperation with start-ups and NGOs.
The choice of subject matter and discipline is up to the applicants, who must submit their proposals in tandem with their host institutions in Poland, i.e. their future employers. Particularly welcome are applications from researchers whose life, freedom or academic career are at risk, as well as those who were displaced or forced to flee their country because of such circumstances.
The budget of POLONEZ BIS 3 is PLN 27 million.
Evaluation and results
Proposals submitted to the NCN will undergo peer review, divided into one or two stages, depending on the call. The criteria will include the academic quality of the project, its impact on the development of the discipline, project feasibility, the PI’s qualifications and research record, and cost justifiability.
The results will be announced in accordance with the following schedule: by June 2023 for OPUS, SONATA and POLONEZ BIS, by November 2023 (inclusive) for OPUS LAP and by May 2023 (inclusive) for PRELUDIUM BIS 4.