339 researchers are joining the ranks of MINIATURA 8 grant holders. They will receive a total of more than 13.7 million zlotys in funding for their research tasks. Here are the results for the July batch of proposals and a final round-up of this year’s edition of the call.
MINIATURA is a call targeted at researchers who have earned their PhD degree in the previous 12 years and have never served as a PI under a call funded by the NCN or from any other resource. MINIATURA 8 offered grants ranging from 5K to 50K zlotys for research tasks planned for up to 12 months, including preliminary/ pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, research visits and/or consultations. This year, for the first time in the history of MINIATURA, applicants could plan to carry out their research in more than one of these forms, as long as they could justify their decision. To be eligible for funding under the call, applicants were required to demonstrate a record of at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.
Research tasks funded under MINIATURA are meant to enable researchers who are just starting out on their research career to get their first experience in the grant system. Working on a MINIATURA task can serve as a springboard to a full-fledged research project, which they can then submit for funding under NCN calls or other domestic and international calls for proposals.
In the sixth and last round of MINIATURA 8, funding was awarded to 339 projects with a total budget of 13,707,056 zlotys.
Ranking lists for research tasks recommended for funding under MINIATURA 8
MINIATURA 8 Ranking list No 6 (.pdf)
MINIATURA 8 statistics
In total, MINIATURA 8 attracted 1752 proposals: 617 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 518 in Physical Sciences and Engineering, and 617 in Life Sciences.
The list of MINIATURA 8 winners includes 723 researchers, who will carry out research tasks worth nearly 28.78 million zlotys. We were able to fund so many research tasks this year thanks to the decision of the NCN Council, which, at its November session, passed a resolution that increased the MINIATURA 8 research-funding budget by nearly 8.78 million zlotys, on top of the original 20 million zlotys. The final success rate in the call reached 41.27%.
| Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (HS) | Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST) | Life Sciences (NZ) | In total HS+ST+NZ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking list No | Number of proposals recommended for funding | Funds awarded | Number of proposals recommended for funding | Funds awarded | Number of proposals recommended for funding | Funds awarded | Number of proposals recommended for funding | Funds awarded |
| LR1 | 12 | 397 276 | 14 | 641 561 | 14 | 665 827 | 40 | 1 704 664 |
| LR2 | 18 | 435 998 | 20 | 901 120 | 15 | 687 812 | 53 | 2 024 930 |
| LR3 | 21 | 636 124 | 23 | 921 327 | 20 | 924 581 | 64 | 2 482 032 |
| LR4 | 25 | 669 534 | 31 | 1 265 926 | 39 | 1 834 286 | 95 | 3 769 746 |
| LR5 | 38 | 1 154 742 | 39 | 1 431 598 | 55 | 2 500 994 | 132 | 5 087 334 |
| LR6 | 82 | 2 497 008 | 123 | 5 053 504 | 134 | 6 156 544 | 339 | 13 707 056 |
| Total | 196 | 5 790 682 | 250 | 10 215 036 | 277 | 12 770 044 | 723 | 28 775 762 |
The bulk of research tasks recommended for funding this year will involve preliminary/pilot research. 83 researchers will go on research trips and 57 on consultations. Library and archive searchers account for 57 of funded tasks and fellowships for 46. Exactly 100 tasks will be carried out in more than one of these forms.
MINIATURA grants went to 150 research centres all over Poland. The greatest number were awarded to the Jagiellonian University (45), the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (35) and the University of Warsaw (32). The top ten also includes the University of Łódź (25), the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (23), the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (21), the University of Silesia in Katowice (21), the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (20) and the University of Wrocław (17).
Status of MINIATURA beneficiaries
- universities – 588
- research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences – 89
- research institutes – 18
- institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network – 17
- legal entities with registered office in Poland– 7
- Łukasiewicz Centre – 3
- international research institute – 1
Proposal intake and assessment
MINIATURA differs from other NCN calls in that it involves simplified proposal intake and assessment procedures. Proposals were accepted and evaluated at the NCN on a rolling basis from 1 February until 31 July.
Projects were assessed by members of the Expert Team established by the NCN Council specifically for the purposes of MINIATURA 8. The procedure consisted of a single stage and the final decision for each proposal was issued within 5 months of its submission. The first results were published in May and, from then on, the list of winners kept growing. The results announced today are the final ranking list for MINIATURA 8; it includes proposals that were submitted to the NCN in the last month of intake, i.e. in July 2024, and got positive reviews from our experts.
Mentoring under MINIATURA to start in 2025
In the next edition of MINIATURA, we will start a mentoring programme designed to provide grant winners with substantive assistance in preparing a grant proposal. In November, we launched our MINIATURA mentor database, which includes researchers who are experienced in managing research projects and would like to share their knowledge with junior colleagues. You can add your name to the database if you have served as a principal investigator under current or already completed projects funded under MAESTRO, OPUS, SONATA BIS and SONATA calls, international calls from the NCN portfolio, as well as calls of the European Research Council (ERC). The database already features 450 entries – don’t hesitate to sign up as well!
Service of decisions
On 25 November 2024, positive and negative decisions for proposals submitted to MINIATURA in July 2024 were served on the applicants. Grounds for the decisions are available in the OSF submission system where you should check the status of your proposal.
Decisions are served on the applicants in an electronic format to their Electronic Delivery Box (ESP (ePUAP)) address specified in the proposal. If you have not received the decision, make sure that your ESP (ePUAP) address is correct and if it is not, contact the NCN Program Officer named in the OSF submission system.