Researchers from various research centres, NCN Council members and other NCN representatives gathered in Kraków to discuss the need to support basic research, increase the NCN budget and work out solutions to allow the agency to better respond to the needs of the academic community. The meeting was held on 4 June.
The NCN Director, as well as NCN Council members, participate in regular debates organised by research communities throughout Poland. This time, the NCN was the one to host a debate in its main offices. We invited 20 researchers from various centres and disciplines, who were joined by representatives of the NCN and the NCN Council, including discipline coordinators and office staff. “The NCN approaches social consultations with great openness”, comments Prof. Artur Obłuski, an archaeologist from the University of Warsaw, winner of NCN and ERC grants.
The debate brought together researchers from disciplines that rely on different methodologies and require different kinds of equipment. “A historian working with medieval manuscripts will have different needs and expectations than, say, a physicist heading a large research group. Another thing that differs from one discipline to the next is how we understand and approach the processes of proposal submission, grant assessment, and billing”, continues Prof. Obłuski, adding that meetings of this kind allow the NCN and the research community to get a more accurate picture of the grant system in Poland, along with its advantages and those elements that might still require some tweaking.
Meeting at the NCN headquarters, 4 June 2024
Our guests were individuals who had previously put forward various postulates concerning the operation of the NCN, as well as NCN, ERC and Dioscuri grant winners, researchers with an active interest in the agency, including those who had actively supported the NCN in its struggle to get its budget increased.
Among other things, panellists discussed the regulations of the MINIATURA call, a possible resumption of the recently suspended PRELUDIUM BIS, and the idea that PRELUDIUM should be organised twice a year. The conversation also touched on issues concerning grant use and billing, including aspects such as the internationalisation of research, the need for greater flexibility in how grant resources can be used, open science and grant-related employment and remuneration policies.
“The realities of research are changing and good communication with researchers is essential for us to be able to create the best call portfolio possible. The ideas and postulates put forward by the research community during the debate will continue to be discussed in the Council”, emphasises Prof. Alicja Kazek-Kęsik, NCN Council member.
Prof. Kinga Kamieniarz-Gdula from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań says that she would expect the NCN, like the ERC, to show more flexibility vis-a-vis principal investigators, especially when it comes to issues such as hiring research team members. “A decision to model the NCN on the top European grant agency was, to my mind, the key to its resounding success”, Kamieniarz-Gdula, who has won grants from both agencies, explains.
In the part of the debate that focused on funding, the participants expressed their concern that only the best experts and reviewers should be invited to assess proposals. Prof. Tomasz Dietl, NCN Council member, encouraged attendees to help the agency create a database of reviewers. He pointed out that they can contact the Council to submit information about outstanding researchers who could be hired for peer review at any time.
The last part of the meeting was devoted to general issues, such as the cooperation between the NCN and other institutions, including the National Centre for Research and Development and the Medical Research Agency, as well as the support of the research community in the struggle for regular increases in NCN subsidies. Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak, NCN Director, pointed out that the engagement of the academic community played a key role in securing a 200 million increase in this year’s budget for the agency. “NCN grant winners are a large group of more than 20 thousand people from centres all over Poland, with great lobbying potential”, he said. He mentioned the #NCNtotlen campaign on X earlier this year as an example of an important initiative that swayed the decision of the ministry
“I was particularly happy to see a broad consensus on the most essential issues. First, we all really appreciate what the NCN does. Second, we all agree that it should remain an elite agency but also ensure the mechanisms to allow new talented and hard-working individuals to enter the system. Third, we know that the level of funding for the NCN and for Polish science at large is glaringly at odds with our current economic standing in the world and without greater investment in research, we will be facing an imminent collapse”, comments Prof. Kamieniarz-Gdula, who initiated the #NCNtotlen campaign together with Prof. Artur Obłuski.
“If the budget of the NCN is not doubled, our country is bound to become a mere consumer of knowledge and goods produced by others. This would constitute an important breach of state security in many aspects. The NCN is a beacon that shines the light of top-quality science and it needs to be allowed to grow”, concludes Prof. Obłuski. The scientists underscore that what is needed is an increase not just in the specific subsidy for research funding, but also the earmarked subsidy for the daily functioning of the institution.
We will be publishing longer statements by our panellists, as well as a full report from the event, in the near future.
The meeting at the NCN offices brought together a group of researchers from Białowieża, Białystok, Katowice, Kraków, Lublin, Łódź, Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław, as well as representatives from the Young Scientists’ Council and the National Representation of PhD Students.
Similar meetings were organised in 2017 and 2019 and led, among other things, to the extension of the duration of OPUS projects from three to four years.