In late October 2026, the European Partnership Resilient Cultural Heritage will announce its first call for international research projects entitled Foundations for climate-resilient cultural heritage: Assessing and managing impact and risk, dealing with damage and loss.
28 funding organisations from 25 countries have agreed to launch the first Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2027 for collaborative, innovative research projects to build societal resilience through cultural heritage in Europe and beyond. This first Joint Call is intentionally broad in terms of the range of issues addressed.
The following sub-themes are included:
Risk and impact assessment and cultural heritage risk preparedness and management
Managing the loss and damage of cultural heritage impacted by climate change-induced natural hazards
Traditional, local and Indigenous knowledge systems and practices as resources and frameworks for societal resilience in the context of climate change
Sustainable governance of the cultural heritage sector
Deadline for pre-proposal submissions: January 11th, 2027 (indicative).
International consortia consisting of at least three research teams from at least three participating countries will be eligible to apply for funding. Applicants must comply with national formal requirements specified by the funding organizations participating in the call.
The National Science Centre is pleased to invite proposals for funding of Research Components in projects funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (“NAWA”).
Proposals will be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system available at https://osf.opi.org.pl pursuant to the proposal submission procedure. By submitting proposals, the Applicants accept the General Terms of the Funding Agreement for a Research Component in projects funded under the TOP200 Weigl NAWA Programme.
The continuous call for proposals will be open from the date the funding decision is issued by NAWA under its TOP200 Weigl Programme until the last proposal is submitted to NCN that contains a Research Component and has been recommended for funding by NAWA under the Programme.
The Council of the National Science Centre has decided to allocate PLN 4,000,000 for Research Components pursued under the TOP200 Weigl Programme.
Please read the documents provided in this Call Text.
Funding proposals for Research Components (hereinafter: “Proposal” or “Proposals”) can be submitted by the following entities identified in Article 7 (1) (1), Article 7 (1) (2) and Article 7 (1) (4) – (7) of the Act on Higher Education and Science of 20 July 2018 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2025, item 1571, as amended) for which funding does not constitute state aid:
universities,
federations of science and HE entities,
research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2020, item 1796),
research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2022, item 498),
international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating in the Republic of Poland,
the Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2020, item 2098),
institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network, and
Research components can only be carried out by the principal investigators in the TOP200 Weigl call who have been awarded funds for research projects containing such components by NAWA. A project team may also be involved in a project if it has been covered by a proposal submitted to NAWA.
A Research Component covered by a proposal submitted to NAWA and rejected by its Evaluation Team will not be recommended for NCN funding and must not be submitted to the Call even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been awarded funding under the Programme.
Proposals must only be submitted by institutions awarded funding under the TOP200 Weigl Programme for their research projects containing a Research Component;
Proposals must not be submitted if a Research Component covered by a project submitted to NAWA has not been recommended for funding by the NAWA Evaluation Team, even if a part of the project funded by NAWA has been recommended by the Evaluation Team.
The Call is open to basic research proposals in any of 26 NCN panels within three major areas: Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST) and Life Sciences (NZ).
The topic of a Research Component submitted to the Call must be the same as the Research Component covered by the proposal funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme.
Research components will be carried out over the first 18 months of performance of the projects funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme.
A Research Component start date must be the same as the start date of the project funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme. If the date on which a Research Component funding decision issued by the NCN Director becomes final is later than the project start date, the Research Component start date is the date the funding decision of the NCN Director becomes final.
In the Planowane koszty [Planned Costs] tab in the OSF submission system, enter the budget of the Research Component onlywhich must be the same as the costs covered by the project funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme.
The budget must be in line with the recommendations of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the TOP200 Weigl Programme. Proposals disregarding such recommendations will be rejected on the grounds that they do not meet the eligibility criteria.
For more information on the budget, please refer to the “Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre”.
The funding requested for a Research Component must not exceed PLN 400,000 for the entire Research Component performance period.
Proposals are only subject to an eligibility check comprising:
verification of a proposal for completeness,
verification of proposal’s compliance with the Call Text;
verification of whether information provided in the proposal submitted to the NCN complies with information provided in the proposal submitted to the NAWA under its TOP200 Weigl Programme; and
The budget of a Research Component submitted to the NCN must incorporate the instructions of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the TOP200 Weigl Programme.
A Research Component covered by a proposal submitted to NAWA and rejected by its Evaluation Team will not be recommended for NCN funding and must not be submitted to the Call even if a part of the project funded by NAWA has been awarded funding under the Programme.
acquire the required information from the applicant to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and performance of the Research Component;
draft and prepare:
proposal title equivalent to the title of the Project funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme;
Research Component start date equivalent to the start date of the Project funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme;
full proposal submitted to the NAWA under the TOP200 Weigl Programme in PDF format;
forecasted costs of the Research Component prepared in compliance with the Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre;
information on the ethical aspects, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to perform the Research Component in accordance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline, as required by the proposal;
in the case of a Research Component which includes clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials;
in the case of a Research Component to be performed in a host institution that does not receive any institutional core funding for research activities, information on research carried out over the last 2 years, together with a list of publications and information on research equipment and other instruments/facilities crucial to research; and
applicant’s declaration, as required by the proposal.
A proposal submitted to the OSF submission system must include the proposal (in PDF format) funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme. Information in the proposal form submitted to the OSF submission system must comply with information in the proposal submitted to the NAWA and incorporate the instructions (if any) of the Evaluation Team reviewing the budget of proposals submitted to the Call.
Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:
check if information in the proposal and annexes thereto are correct. The verification of the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
disable the final version of the proposal;
download the final version of the proposal, have it signed by the authorised representative of the applicant and submit the proposal with a signature to the OSF submission system; and
submit the proposal to the NCN via the OSF submission system.
The proposal must be submitted to NCN electronically via the OSF submission system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.
Proposals must be signed with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES format.
Once the proposal has been submitted to the NCN:
an eligibility check will be performed;
if a proposal does not meet the eligibility criteria, the applicant will be requested to amend it appropriately and re-submit it to the NCN for another eligibility check;
following the eligibility check, a Research Component funding decision will be issued by the NCN Director; and
if the date on which the Research Component funding decision by the NCN Director becomes final is later than the project start date, the date the decision becomes final will be the Research Component start date.
No agreement is concluded under the Call. Research Components are funded and performed pursuant to the General Terms of the Funding Agreement for a Research Component covered by the project funded under the TOP200 Weigl Programme. The Applicants are required to read the General Terms of the Funding Agreement. By submitting a proposal, the applicants accept the Agreement. In the event of a breach of the Call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council within 14 days of the effective service of the decision.
The English version of this documentdoes not constitute a sworn translation and has been prepared as an auxiliary document for your convenience. In the event of any doubts as to the interpretation of its provisions, the Polish version shall prevail.
The European Partnership on One Health Antimicrobial Resistance (EUP OHAMR) is pleased to pre-announce the Joint Transnational Call (JTC) 2027 – Understand, Model and Stop AMR Transmission, which will open on 18 November 2026. The call is co-funded by the European Union.
With an estimated total budget of €28 million, the EUP OHAMR Joint Transnational Call 2027 will bring together 33 funding organisations from 26 countries to support international research collaborations aimed at improving our understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) transmission and developing effective strategies to prevent its emergence and spread across the One Health spectrum.
The call will focus on preventing the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance, one of the most pressing global health challenges affecting humans, animals and the environment. Although significant efforts have been made and new technologies have emerged, current approaches remain insufficient to reduce the burden of AMR. A deeper understanding of transmission dynamics is essential to strengthen prevention and control strategies.
Novel and improved measures are urgently required to tackle AMR more effectively, informed by a deeper understanding of the mechanisms driving the emergence, evolution, selection, persistence and transmission of resistance within and between the One Health sectors.
To address these challenges, the JTC 2027 will fund transnational research projects within the following topics:
Topic 1: Model AMR transmission dynamics to predict the risk of AMR emergence and spread to support decision-making of public authorities.
Topic 2: Understand and characterise the role of host commensal micro-organisms (including fungi) in AMR dynamics and develop solutions aiming at selective decolonising of resistant organisms in the host (human and animals) to prevent transmission.
Topic 3: Develop or improve tools and methods to reduce resistant bacteria, fungi, and resistance genes in environmental hotspots, and investigate the impact of these tools and methods on AMR transmission.
Piotr Achinger, Dawid Kobiałka and Paweł Sikorski are the winners of this year’s NCN Award. This most prestigious distinction for early-career researchers was presented at the Wawel Castle on 14 October.
The awarded researchers work in Warsaw and Łódź. Piotr Achinger is a Professor at the Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences, the biologist Paweł Sikorski is a Professor at the University of Warsaw, and the archaeologist Dr Dawid Kobiałka is based at the University of Lodz.
Fourteenth NCN Award and first ceremony at Wawel Castle
Since 2013, the NCN Award has been presented to researchers whose work pushes the boundaries of knowledge and makes a significant contribution to the world of science, in recognition of their outstanding basic research projects conducted at Polish research institutions. The winners are selected in three categories: Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST) and Life Sciences (NZ). This year, for the first time, the Award ceremony was held at the Wawel Castle, marking the fourteenth presentation of the award, and highlighting the celebrations of NCN’s fifteenth anniversary.
Tying strings in the realm of pure algebra
Piotr Achinger specialises in algebraic geometry. He received the NCN Award for his ground-braking research of algebraic varieties over fields of positive characteristic and non-Archimedean fields.
“My field of mathematics reveals surprising connections between seemingly unrelated areas, such as algebra and topology, or number theory and mathematical physics. I seek to describe the shapes of algebraic varieties and their surprising connections with number theory. Fundamental groups lie at the heart of my work. These mathematical objects describe how strings can be tied together in a given space. This is a challenging task because in the realm of pure algebra, strings do not exist, and the spaces we study often resemble clouds of cosmic dust,” he says.
Piotr Achinger has authored a series of eight papers that address classical problems in geometry in a new and more challenging setting. He has demonstrated that a broad class of geometrical objects has a surprisingly simple structure. Before, little was known about the structure of even very simple objects of this kind. His research refers to the so-called mirror symmetry and explores concepts studied by the Fields Medal Winners Peter Scholze and Pierre Deligne.
His research findings were published in leading research papers and attracted attention of the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. His award nomination provided that “the methods employed in his papers skilfully combine technical algebraic and topological concepts with deep geometrical insight.” Piotr Achinger emphasises that “the purpose of mathematics is not merely to produce theorems but to foster human understanding.”
Since 2025, Piotr Achinger has worked in Warsaw and at the same time at a newly established Department of Mathematics at Kyiv School of Economics.
He was conferred his PhD at the University of California, Berkley, and he earned his habilitation from the Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in France. On numerous occasions, he conducted research at renowned academic institutions in Austria, Germany, United States, Japan and Australia. He has also carried out research project funded by the National Science Centre and by the European Research Council.
New way of documenting difficult heritage
Dawid Kobiałka was awarded for his interdisciplinary archaeological studies of World War II mass-murder sites. His research studies include forensic archaeology, archaeology of crime, archaeology of the recent past and contemporary armed conflicts, as well as heritage studies, and public and community archaeology.
He is originally from Chojnice. As a child, he spent a lot of time with his friends at the site he now studies. During the war, it was called the Death Valley. “This site is a landscape of terror, where mass executions were conducted during World War II. Three decades later, I returned to the site as a doctoral researcher together with a group of researchers, volunteers, civic activists and IPN prosecutors, to locate the victims’ remains. The research enabled us to locate the remains of almost 700 victims, 700 Polish citizens, our parents, grandparents and great grandparents,” he says.
Archaeological research conducted in the Death Valley by Dawid Kobiałka’s team contributed to the location of mass graves of victims of crimes committed in 1939 and 1945.
In autumn of 1939, the victims of mass murders in the Gdańsk Pomerania region included people with mental illnesses. Most of their graves were burnt in 1944 during the so-called Aktion 1005. The grave discovered near Chojnice in 2024 was the only one that remained intact.
In January 1945, more than one hundred Polish prisoners were murdered by the Germans. The recovery of their remains in 2021 was the first such excavation in Poland conducted in accordance with archaeological standards. Some victims were identified.
Dawid Kobiałka’s international research team also studied other places. More remains were found in the Szpęgawski Forest and by the Lake Borówno. In total, the team found, documented and studied the remains of more than one thousand victims of the World War II murders.
The researchers also studied the Lamsdorf camp (Łambinowice), where 60 Italian prisoners died between 1943 and 1944. They were all identified by name. The researchers managed to reach some of their descendants and, at the request of some of them, the remains were transported to Italy.
Dawid Kobiałka’s research has social implications and allows to fully describe the history of land where mass murders were committed during the war and acknowledge the victims who have so far remained in the shadow of Auschwitz. Conversations with witnesses and residents of sites of mass murder combine archaeology with contemporary studies. “We develop the idea of archaeology of mass murders as a multidimensional, multilevel interdisciplinary approach which aims to offer a new way of addressing and documenting the difficult heritage of the World War II. This research has a social, cultural and humanitarian dimension. It is a mission we wish to pursue in the future,” he says.
Dawid Kobiałka’s research is funded by, among others, the National Science Centre and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Dawid Kobiałka was conferred his PhD in archaeology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He also worked at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences. As part of his PhD studies, he received a scholarship from the Swedish Institute at the Linnaeus University in Kalmar.
Understanding RNA’s unique language
Paweł Sikorski received the NCN Award for his research into how cells recognise double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and convert the signal into a precise biological response.
“RNA has been with me through my scientific career. In my research, I try to understand how cells recognise RNA and respond to it. In our laboratory, we study how cellular response is impacted by various features of RNA, such as structure, length, or chemical modifications. We are particularly interested in double-stranded RNA which can be generated during viral infections but can also be produced in our cells. What is important, cells do not respond to each such RNA in the same way. They can recognise RNA features and, on this basis, activate various immune responses. Hence, I try to understand RNA’s unique language and determine which molecular features dictate how cells respond to RNA,” he says.
Double-stranded RNA alarms cells by activating the innate immune system which is the body’s first line of defence. This response must be carefully regulated, as an overactive immune response can damage cells and contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases. Paweł Sikorski demonstrated that a cellular response depends on certain features of RNA molecules, such as their length, end structures, and chemical modifications. Components of the response can be activated independent of each other. For example, the inflammatory signal may be independent of the inhibition of protein production or RNA degradation. Paweł Sikorski also demonstrated that chemical modifications affect cellular RNA recognition and the activation of the immune response.
His research has potential practical application. RNA properties, such as stability, translation efficiency, and the ability to trigger an immune response, can be precisely controlled. This opens up the possibility of designing RNA molecules with predefined biological and therapeutical parameters. “The knowledge gained through our research not only enhances our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of cell biology, but also enables us to design RNA-based therapeutics more deliberately,” he underlines.
“What fascinates me most about science is the moment when experimental results make us look at a problem differently than we initially anticipated, when the most interesting questions arise,” he says.
Paweł Sikorski is a professor at the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw and head of the research group of the Laboratory of Epitranscriptomics at the Biological and Chemical Research Centre, University of Warsaw. In 2024, he received the Prime Minister’s Award for his research achievements, which formed the basis for his habilitation. He is a part of the NCN Generation comprising researchers whose careers were launched with NCN grant funding. He carried out his first research project before earning his PhD, and has led five NCN-funded research projects so far.
The Wawel Castle was the partner of this year’s NCN Award ceremony.
The 2026 NCN Award was held under the patronage of Science in Poland. In November and December, the Award winners will deliver a series of lectures for the general public, which will be streamed as part of the Science in the Centre series on the Copernicus Center channel.
On Wednesday, 14 October, the winners of the 2026 NCN Award will be announced during the ceremony at the Wawel Castle. The ceremony will be broadcast live on our YouTube channel, starting at 6:30 p.m.
The NCN Award is the most prestigious distinction for early-career researchers in Poland. Every year, it is granted to three researchers for their outstanding basic research in three categories: Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences, Physical Sciences and Engineering and Life Sciences. This year, the Award will be presented for the fourteenth time. The Award Chapter composed of the NCN Director and NCN Council members selected the winners from among 102 nominees.
This year, the award will highlight the celebrations of NCN’s fifteenth anniversary and, for the first time, will be held at the Wawel Castle, which is an event partner. The event will be hosted by Dr Łukasz Lamża from the Copernicus Center.
The event will be held under the patronage of Science in Poland (Nauka w Polsce).
Under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to the SNSF as the lead agency by 1 October 2026, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to the SNSF, by 8 October 2026 at the latest.
Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the OSF submission system, the Polish research team has 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and submit it to the NCN. After that, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team that has not sent its proposal to the NCN must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system which may impact the budget for research tasks performed by the Polish research teams specified in the NCN proposal (see points 3 and 4 below).
The 45-day period applies only to the period during which NCN proposals may be edited in the OSF submission system. Under Weave-UNISONO, NCN proposals must be submitted to the NCN via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of joint proposals to the lead agency, within 7 calendar days at the latest.
NCN proposals processed in the OSF submission system:
by 30 September 2026 (inclusive), may include research projects that will be carried out by the Polish research teams from 2027 onwards.
The following years will be included in the project budget, depending on the project implementation period:
2027-2028 for two-year projects,
2027-2028-2029 for three-year projects and
2027-2028-2029-2030 for four-year projects;
from 1 October 2026 (inclusive), may include research projects that will be carried out by the Polish research teams from 2028 onwards.
The following years will be included in the project budget, depending on the project implementation period:
2028-2029 for two-year projects,
2028-2029-2030 for three-year projects and
2028-2029-2030-2031 for four-year projects.
In the case of joint proposals submitted to the lead agencies covering Polish team budgets from 2027 onwards, make sure that:
the work on NCN proposals in the OSF submission system starts before 30 September 2026 and
NCN proposals are submitted to the NCN within 45 days of the date that the work on the proposal has started in the OSF submission system.
If the work on NCN proposals in the OSF submission system starts before 30 September 2026, with project performance scheduled beginning in 2027, and the NCN proposal is not completed and submitted within 45 days of the date the work on the proposal has started in the OSF submission system, a new proposal must be created. A new NCN proposal (created after 1 October 2026) may cover research projects with a start date in 2028. If a joint proposal has already been submitted to the lead agency for a research project involving 2027 funding, information in the NCN proposal will be inconsistent with information in the joint proposal and may result in the proposal being rejected on the grounds that it does not meet the eligibility criteria.
The budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal should be calculated according to the following exchange rate:
In joint proposals, for which NCN proposals are processed and submitted via the OSF submission system by 31 December 2026: 1 EUR=4,2626;
In joint proposals, for which NCN proposals are processed and submitted via the OSF submission system from 1 January 2027 onwards: 1 EUR=4,3180 PLN;
NCN proposals processed in the OSF submission system in 2026, to which the exchange rate of 1 EUR=4,2626 PLN applies, must be completed and submitted via the OSF submission system by 31 December 2026, 23:59:59. Otherwise, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case the Polish research team must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system, to which the exchange rate 1 EUR=4,3180 PLN will apply. If a joint proposal has already been submitted to the lead agency, in which the budget of the Polish part of the project was calculated according to another exchange rate, information in the NCN proposal will be inconsistent with information in the joint proposal and may result in the proposal being rejected on the grounds that it does not meet the eligibility criteria.
The National Science Centre (NCN), in cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), plans to launch the fifth edition of the call for research projects carried out by Polish and Chinese research teams.
Under the SHENG 5 call, proposals may be submitted for funding of research projects in selected scientific disciplines:
NSFC Area
NCN Panel
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
ST1: Mathematics
ST2: Fundamental constituents of matter
ST3: Condensed matter physics
ST9: Astronomy and space science
Information Sciences
ST6: Computer science and informatics
ST7: Systems Engineering
Earth Sciences
ST10: Earth sciences
Management Sciences
HS4: Individuals, institutions, markets
PLANNED CALL TIMELINE:
Call announcement: 15 December 2026
Proposal submission deadline in the OSF system: 15 March 2027
Proposal submission deadline to NSFC: 15 March 2027
Announcement of the call results: November 2027
Earliest project start date: January 2028
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
Proposals must involve basic research and include joint Polish–Chinese research plan. Research equipment or networking activities can only be funded within projects with a basic research focus. Projects consisting solely of the purchase or development of equipment or solely of activities within scientific networks do not meet the funding criteria and will be rejected.
State aid can be applied for under SHENG 5.
A person may be indicated as the Principal Investigator in only one proposal submitted in the given edition of the call.
Under SHENG 5, research projects may be planned for a period of 36 months.
Entities eligible to apply for NCN funding for the Polish part of the research project must be those specified in Article 27(1) of the Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2026, item 101).
At the time of submission, the Polish Principal Investigator must be at least PhD holder.
Project budgets must comply with the cost eligibility rules applicable at NCN and NSFC, respectively.
A budget limit of PLN 1,000,000 is planned to be introduced for the Polish part of the project.
The budget of the Chinese part of the project may not exceed RMB 1,500,000.
In proposals submitted under the SHENG 5 call, no collaboration may be planned between Polish entities and the following Chinese institutions belonging to the group of Seven Sons of National Defence:
Beijing Institute of Technology;
Harbin Institute of Technology;
Beihang University formally known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics;
Northwestern Polytechnical University;
Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics;
Nanjing University of Science and Technology;
Harbin Engineering University.
Any planned collaboration with the above-mentioned institutions will result in the proposal being rejected on formal grounds.
PROPOSAL SUBMISSION RULES:
The core application document will be a Joint Project Description (JPD) prepared in English, which must be submitted in identical versions to both funding agencies.
Significant differences between the joint Polish-Chinese funding proposals submitted to NCN and NSFC may be rejected on the grounds of ineligibility.
PROPOSAL EVALUATION PROCEDURES:
Eligibility checks and merit-based evaluations under the SHENG 5 call will be carried out in parallel by NCN and NSFC.
Only proposals that successfully pass the eligibility check conducted by both NCN and NSFC will be admitted to the merit-based evaluation stage.
At NCN, proposals admitted to the merit-based evaluation stage will be evaluated in accordance with NCN's evaluation procedures and criteria.
At NSFC, proposals admitted to the merit-based evaluation stage will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation procedures and criteria applicable at NSFC.
Only proposals receiving a positive funding recommendation from both NCN and NSFC will be recommended for funding.
This announcement is for information purposes only. Detailed conditions will be set out in the official call text.
Returning scientists can now submit their funding proposals for research components under TOP200 NAWA call.
TOP200 NAWA call is an initiative of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) aimed to strengthen the potential of Polish science and higher education by attracting outstanding research talent to Poland from universities ranked among the world’s top 200 in the Academic Ranking of World Universities, QS World University Rankings or Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
Due to TOP200 grants, foreign researchers will have the opportunity to take up stable positions at Polish universities and research institutions for a period of 2 to 4 years, enabling them to establish their own research teams and pursue their research. 10 successful applicants were selected in the first pilot edition of the programme. Nine of them will carry out basic research components funded by the National Science Centre. The tenth component will be financed by the National Centre for Research and Development.
The NCN call for proposals is open to researchers who have received funding under NAWA TOP200 and whose projects include basic research components positively evaluated by the NAWA review panel.
Research components can be implemented over the first eighteen months of the project duration. The maximum funding of one research component is PLN 400 thousand. The NCN Council has allocated PLN 4 million for research components under NAWA TOP200.
Funding proposals must be submitted via the OSF submission system. NCN performs the eligibility check of proposals only, while NAWA is in charge of their merit-based evaluation.
The NCN Council has adopted the amended terms of participation in NCN grant calls announced in June, according to which the number of proposals that a principal investigator may submit in a single year is limited, and eligibility for subsequent OPUS grants is linked to participation in ERC calls.
Over the past few years, NCN has observed a steady increase in the number of proposals submitted: in the most popular OPUS and PRELUDIUM calls that number has doubled. Meanwhile, the success rate, measured as the percentage of proposals recommended for funding, has remained relatively low (10-20%).
Furthermore, the increased number of proposals poses a significant organisational challenge for NCN, where the growing volume of proposals has not been accompanied by a commensurate increase in the budget available for grant processing, including the necessary recruitment of additional staff. The ever-growing organisational workload of NCN and the experts involved in the evaluation procedure poses a risk to both the quality and timely completion of the evaluation procedure.
The NCN Council’s rationale for the amendment is to maintain the high quality of NCN’s evaluation procedure, ensure that NCN grant opportunities remain available to researchers at all stages of their research careers, and encourage experienced researchers to make greater use of European research funding opportunities
From 2027 and 2028, respectively, the following amendments will come into effect:
Annual restriction in number of proposals
In a single calendar year, one person may be designated as the principal investigator in only one proposal submitted to NCN. Another proposal may be submitted in the same year, if at least one of the proposals is submitted to an OPUS LAP call or to a call launched by NCN in collaboration with foreign research-funding agencies, and they are not submitted to the same edition of the call. The new rule will apply to the calls with the proposal submission date falling on or after 1 January 2027.
Eligibility for subsequent OPUS grants linked to participation in ERC calls
A researcher who has received at least two OPUS grants over the past 10 years will be eligible to apply for another OPUS grant, provided they are an ERC grant winner or have submitted a grant proposal to ERC in the proposal submission year or over the past five years, which has been evaluated at least in stage 1. The amendments will apply to the calls with the submission date falling or on after 1 January 2028.
According to the NCN Council, the restrictions are temporary in nature and will be subject to review as NCN’s conditions, including the budgetary situation, evolve.
Under the Weave-UNISONO programme, researchers from the University of Silesia in Katowice alongside their research partners from the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) will study the properties of water trapped inside nanometer-wide pores under to explore the possibilities of using water for storage and recovery of currently wasted low-grade heat.
Under the SuperLow project, the Polish research team headed by Dr hab. Yaroslav Grosu from the University of Silesia in Katowice together with the German research team led by Prof. Dr Patrick Huber will explore the properties of water trapped inside small, about one nanometer wide, pores within hydrophobic materials, when it can enter a supercritical-like state at dramatically lower temperatures close to 100°C, whereas outside such nanometer-wide pores, significantly higher temperatures and pressure are needed. The researchers will investigate if water trapped inside such nanoporous materials can retain properties relevant to thermal energy storage. They will combine advanced high-pressure calorimetric measurements, neutron and X-ray techniques, and atomistic computer simulations. Their research will lay the scientific groundwork for the development of technologies that will enable the storage and reuse of low-temperature waste heat at temperatures close to 100°C. The research findings may be used in green chemistry, catalysis, and environmental technologies, such as the treatment of persistent pollutants. The Polish project budget is over PLN 1.7 million. The project was evaluated by DFG and the evaluation results were approved by NCN under the Weave programme.
Weave-UNISONO and Lead Agency Procedure
Weave-UNISONO is a result of multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies associated in Science Europe and aims at simplifying the submission and selection procedures in all academic disciplines, involving researchers from two or three European countries.
The winning applicants are selected pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure according to which one partner institution performs a complete merit-based evaluation of proposals, the results of which are subsequently approved by the other partners.
Under the Weave programme, partner research teams apply for parallel funding to the Lead Agency and their respective institutions participating in the programme. Joint research projects must include a coherent research program with the added value of the international cooperation clearly identified.
Weave-UNISONO is carried out on an ongoing basis. Research teams intending to cooperate with partners from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are urged to read the call text and apply for funding.
In late October 2026, the European Partnership Resilient Cultural Heritage will announce its first call for international research projects entitled Foundations for climate-resilient cultural heritage: Assessing and managing impact and risk, dealing with damage and loss.
Eligible applicants
Entities Eligible to Perform Research Components
Restrictions on Submitting Proposals to the Call
Topics Covered by the Call
Research Component Duration
Budget Planning
Application for State Aid
Proposal Evaluation Procedure
Eligibility Check
Call results
More information
Useful Information
