Scientists from the Jagiellonian University have just won an IMPRESS-U research grant for a project looking into the properties of nuclear forces, which will be conducted in cooperation with researchers from the US and Ukraine. The budget for the Polish team is more than 800,000 zlotys.

International Multilateral Partnerships for Resilient Education and Science System in Ukraine (IMPRESS-U) is a programme that allows Polish scientists to fund their research cooperation with partners in Ukraine and the US, as well as, optionally, in the Baltic countries, i.e. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

The goal of the IMPRESS-U scheme is to support excellence in science and engineering, education and innovation through international collaboration, and to promote and catalyse integration of Ukrainian researchers in the global research community. The program was initiated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a US government agency that funds research and educational programmes.

IMPRESS-U follows a lead agency formula, which means that a joint proposal, drawn up by all the project partners, must be submitted to the NSF, where it undergoes a merit-based evaluation alongside all other proposals filed under the agency’s EAGER funding mechanism. Partner agencies (including the NCN) then award funding to their national teams based on NSF recommendations.

The call is open to 24-month projects headed by principal investigators with at least a PhD degree.

Nuclear interactions in focus

The ninth IMPRESS-U grant funded by the NCN will go to a research team headed by Prof. Jacek Golak from the M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics at the Jagiellonian University. Their project, entitled “Prądy dwuciałowe w rozpraszaniu elektronów i neutrin na tarczach kilkunukleonowych” /”Two-body currents in electron and neutrino scattering on few-nucleon targets”/, will receive more than 800 thousand zlotys in the next two years.

Prof. Jacek Golak, fot. archiwum prywatne Prof. Golak and his team at the Department of Theory of Nuclear Systems have studied the properties of the forces acting between the constituents of atomic nuclei, protons and neutrons, and other subatomic particles. These forces are responsible for the existence of atomic nuclei as we know them and determine the mechanisms of nuclear reactions and radioactive decay processes, including those crucial to nuclear power or cancer radiation therapy.

“What it means in practice is that we are building a whole sequence of computer software programs that take a given mathematical model of nuclear interactions and perform calculations that can be compared with the results of experiments carried out around the world. This comparison allows us to assess the quality of our theoretical model and further enhance it to ultimately improve our understanding of the phenomena inside atomic nuclei”, explains Prof. Jacek Golak.

In their IMPRESS-U project, the Polish team will collaborate with an US team, led by Prof. Wayne Polyzou from the University of Iowa, and a Ukrainian team, headed by Prof. Oleksandr Shebeko from the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology.

“We decided to submit a project under the IMPRESS-U scheme together with all our partners. We had known each other before, we had worked and published together, and we had met at international conferences; both professors had also visited us in Kraków. We really liked the formula of IMPRESS-U and the call provided an incentive for us to accelerate and cement our cooperation. An important aspect that also mattered to us was that we could use our project to support science and the academic community in Ukraine, which has been involved in a long, devastating war”, Prof. Golak adds.

The Polish, US and Ukrainian scientists will work together to explore the mechanisms of interaction at play between electrons and neutrinos and atomic nuclei. They will primarily focus on investigating and using relativistic interactions and associated nuclear currents (including two-nucleon currents) to scatter electrons and neutrinos off few-nucleon targets.

The US partner of the IMPRESS-U project is a recognised expert in relativistic quantum mechanics, while its Ukrainian partners are experienced in constructing nucleon-nucleon interaction models. The project will be supported by an external expert, Prof. Hiroyuki Kamada from the Japanese Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP) in Osaka, who performs calculations related to relativistic nuclear interactions.

The role of the Polish team will be to bring all these elements together and perform calculations related to electron and neutrino scattering off the lightest atomic nuclei. They will be putting the greatest emphasis on so-called two-nucleon currents, closely associated with the properties of nucleon-nucleon interactions. The scientists from the Jagiellonian University are very experienced in building relativistic nucleon-nucleon potentials, using polarized particles to analyse neutron properties, and studying the physics of few-nucleon systems. The mentor of the group and its member, Prof. Henryk Witała, has worked with these research problems since the 1980s; his achievements have earned him this year’s Faddeev Medal, an award established in 2016 by the Topical Group on Few-Body Systems & Multiparticle Dynamics (GFB) of the American Physical Society and the European Research Committee on Few-Body Problems in Physics.

The main product of this IMPRESS-U project will be a new model of nuclear interactions.

“We are hoping that our calculations will lay the groundwork for future experiments and experimental data analysis. The project will also be an important formative experience for our younger colleagues”, Prof. Golak emphasised.

This year’s Award will have new rules and a new venue. As always, it will be presented to the best early-stage researchers, whose names will be announced on 9 October. 

The NCN Award is the most prestigious distinction for early-stage researchers working at Polish research institutions. It is given in three groups of disciplines: Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST), and Life Sciences (NZ). The Award has been presented to 33 researchers since 2013, when it was conferred for the first time.

As of this year, the Award will be conferred on the new rules. The nominees will still be required to have significant research achievements evidenced by publications affiliated with Polish research institutions. The most significant modification concerns the age of potential nominees. Metrical age applied so far (candidates could not have been over 40 years of age) will be replaced by academic age (up to 12 years from the date of PhD award). The applicable period can be extended by career breaks owing to childcare or illness.

Former winners included 26 men and only 7 women. The amended terms account for the change in the research model, career breaks for family or health reasons or economic situation of researchers often forcing them to delay their research career.

Presentation of nominees and selection of winning candidates 

Nominees are selected by the Chapter composed of the NCN Director and NCN Council members. They will be presented by former winners of the NCN Award, members of the Expert Team from Poland evaluating proposals submitted to OPUS, SONATA, SONATA BIS and MAESTRO, principal investigators of projects funded under MAESTRO and SONATA BIS, as well as former NCN Council members and other eminent researchers.

Award ceremony

The winners will be announced on 9 October. This year for the first time, the Award ceremony will be held at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. So far, the ceremony has always been held at the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art in Sukiennice, except for the first time, when the awards were presented during the NCN Days in Silesia. The event will be streamed online.

The rules and profiles of former winners are available on our website under NCN Award.

In November and December, the NCN Award winners will deliver lectures on the Copernicus channel, in a programme launched by the NCN and the Copernicus Centre.

Media coverage:

95 researchers will have their research activities funded under MINIATURA 8. The fourth ranking list for proposals submitted in May is now available.

Under MINIATURA 8, researchers with a PhD degree who work for Polish research institutions could apply for funding of 5 to 50 thousand zlotys for their preliminary/ pilot studies, library and archive searchers, fellowships, research visits and/ or consultations.

25 winning applicants selected by the experts will perform their research activities in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Funding was awarded to projects involving, above all, sociology, socio-economic geography and town planning. Dr Joanna Popławska from the Warsaw School of Economics will perform pilot studies to analyse urban conversion of post-industrial areas for residential usage in Poland following Poland’s accession to the European Union in 2004. Dr Agata Trębacz-Ritter from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań will develop a research tool to assess phonological skills in pupils with speech sound disorder in the course of her research and fellowship.

In Physical Sciences and Engineering, 31 researchers were awarded. They will conduct, inter alia, research activities on material engineering and earth science. Dr inż. Mateusz Ilba from the Krakow University of Economics will perform preliminary research on machine learning used to discover architectural sites. Dr inż. Maria Ratajczak from the Poznań University of Technology will analyse the use of FTIR mapping to assess the compatibility of SBS-modified asphalt.

In Life Sciences, funding was awarded to 39 researchers to study, inter alia, cell biology and neurobiology as well as diseases of civilization and E&S risks to animals and people. Dr Kamila Soboska from the University of Lodz will develop an in vitro research model to analyse the effects of ketosis on the formation of new blood vessels within a tumour, while Dr Monika Michalak from the Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce will examine whether or not plant extracts promote wound healing by activating the MAPK and Akt signalling pathways. 

Research activities recommended for funding on MINIATURA 8 ranking list No 4

Ranking list No 4 in pdf format.

Funding per panel: 

• Art, Humanities and Social Sciences: 669,534 zlotys
• Physical Sciences and Engineering: 1,265,926 zlotys
• Life Sciences: 1,834,286 zlotys

MINIATURA 8

MINIATURA aims to support research activities for the purposes of future research projects the funding for which may be requested under NCN calls or other national or international calls. Under MINIATURA 8, 5,000 – 50,000 zlotys is up for grabs for research activities performed over a period of up to 12 months. 

The total budget for this call edition is 20 million zlotys divided in proportion to the number of months of the call for proposal. Proposals can only be eligible for funding if they fit into the pool of available funds for the month. 

Funding of preliminary/ pilot studies, library and archive searchers, fellowships, research visits and/ or consultations may be requested by researchers who have been conferred their PhD degree after 1 January 2012 and have never been principal investigators in NCN-funded projects. Their scientific achievements must include at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art. They must not be the winning applicants of an ETIUDA call for doctoral scholarships or a call for NCN-funded fellowships, or applicants, principal investigators or fellowship candidates under proposals submitted to or recommended for funding under any other NCN call.

Service of Decisions

On 22 August 2024, positive and negative decisions for proposals submitted to MINIATURA in May 2024 were served on the applicants. Grounds for the decisions are available in the OSF submission system where the status of proposals can also be checked.

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.

We are pleased to present the results of the OPUS 26+LAP/Weave call for researchers at any stage of their research career who may request funding for their bilateral and trilateral research projects carried out in international collaboration under the Weave programme. The project was approved by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), having been evaluated and recommended for funding by the NCN experts. Nearly PLN 1.4 million will be awarded to Polish scientists for their project performed in bilateral cooperation with researchers from Luxembourg.

The team headed by Dr Andrzej Mizera from the research and development centre IDEAS NCBR, in collaboration with the team from Luxembourg, will develop a computational framework for the identification of effective and efficacious strategies for cellular reprogramming, which is a process in which one mature, specialised cell type is changed into another. It has a therapeutic potential for the most complex diseases by providing means of creating new cells to replace those whose death or damage causes disease symptoms, or by guiding cells from ‘unhealthy’ to the desired ‘healthy’ states. The research will advance the state-of-the-art in the field of cellular reprogramming. The project has been awarded funding in Physical Sciences and Engineering.

OPUS and OPUS LAP results

The National Science Centre received 1,737 proposals for a total of nearly PLN 2.6 billion under OPUS 26+LAP/Weave. In the first round, funding was awarded to 267 researchers whose projects, with a total budget of PLN 441 million, excluded international collaboration under the Weave programme. In July, funding under the Weave programme was awarded to another 29 international research projects with a total value of over PLN 42.34 million, of which 28 were performed in bilateral cooperation with researchers from Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Czechia and Switzerland and 1 in trilateral cooperation with researchers from Poland, Belgium (Flanders) and Switzerland. Today, the project recommended for funding by the research agency from Luxemburg was announced. LAP proposals performed in collaboration with Slovenian and German partners and recommended for funding by the NCN experts under OPUS 26+LAP/Weave, are yet to be approved.

Lead Agency Procedure

The Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) is a new proposal review standard adopted by European research-funding institutions, designed to make it easier for international research teams to seek funding for joint research projects, as well as to streamline the process of proposal review by research-funding institutions. LAP proposals submitted to the NCN undergo a comprehensive merit-based evaluation pursuant to the terms and criteria of the OPUS call. The academic and research career of principal investigators and completion of other research projects by the principal investigators are also reviewed, as well as balanced and complementary contribution in the research project by all research teams.

Foreign research teams apply for parallel funding of their projects to their relevant research-funding agencies under the Weave programme, however, according to the Lead Agency Procedure they no longer need to undergo a merit-based evaluation, but the result of review performed by the NCN experts must be approved by all partner agencies. 

The winning project will be funded by the National Science Centre as regards research performed by the Polish researchers and by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) in the part performed by the research team from Luxemburg.

In the new episode of the NCN podcast, professors Artur Obłuski and Piotr Sankowski, who have won grants from the European Research Council (ERC) and the National Science Centre, talk about their experiences in preparing research proposals and discuss the importance of perseverance in their quest for funding.

Artur Obłuski is an archaeologist at the helm of the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw; he has led excavations, e.g. in Old Dongola in what is now Sudan. Piotr Sankowski is the mastermind and the first president of an AI research centre known as IDEAS NCBR. He received the NCN Award in recognition of his foundational research in the field of graph algorithms. He is also the only Polish researcher to have won four ERC grants.

“Behind any proposal, there needs to be an idea, a question that you want to answer. This is what science is all about: it’s about asking questions”, says Artur Obłuski. Piotr Sankowski explains that preparing a successful research proposal is a process. “Before we applied to the ERC, we had submitted many proposals to the NCN, to the EU; some made the cut, some did not, and this is how we learned to write them really well”, he says. “It is part of the job description for a researcher to know how to write grant proposals; we just have to learn it, it’s part of our job”, he adds.

A competitive procedure

Between 2011 and 2023, nearly 56 thousand researchers submitted grant proposals to the NCN. We funded nearly 30 thousand projects, with more than 21 thousand winners, i.e. more than 21 thousand people who were able to pursue their research plans as PIs thanks to NCN funding (and that’s not counting all the research team members in their grants!).

The selection procedure at the NCN is very competitive. Most of those who ultimately win a grant have previously walked away empty-handed. People who have worked on more than one project and never failed to win a grant represent just two percent of all applicants. After an initial failure, some researchers never try again.

A consistent research record

In the NCN podcast, Artur Obłuski and Piotr Sankowski share their personal experience in applying for funding and encourage others to never give up. “I started writing proposals and applying for jobs when I was at the University of Chicago and wanted to stay there or someplace else in the US a little longer. I sent out around 20 job applications, maybe more, and failed to get any of those jobs. But I think the idea is to never give up...If you’re confident you have a good research programme, just keep going”, says Artur Obłuski.

Both our guests admit that, today, they make short work of writing proposals but before they do, they take several months to get prepared. “Building a consistent research record, asking questions that fall within the wide spectrum of interest of other researchers or research programmes around the world: this is something I think a lot about before I begin writing a proposal”, stresses Piotr Sankowski. Artur Obłuski adds that consultations with colleagues in the field are equally important. “Today, archaeology is such a complex discipline that you cannot keep track of everything that goes on in every nook and cranny of this atomised field. We use the methods of physics (archaeometry) but also history. We need to be able to read ancient and medieval texts. And then there’s archaeobotany, which means we need to know about plants that once grew in this or that region. It is simply impossible for one person to hold it all in their head, so we have to ask our colleagues”, he says.

The same tone continues throughout our interview. Our guests point out that consulting proposals submitted to, e.g. the ERC with other experienced researchers is now the standard at many Western universities. “In Poland, a colleague will often hesitate to show their proposal for fear I might steal their research idea. I’ve never seen that happen in the West; on the contrary, researchers want to share their work, because a colleague who comes in with a slightly different perspective can really help them a lot with their proposal”, says Piotr Sankowski.

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast or YouTube.

Three more scientists returning to Poland under the programme of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) will have their basic research funded by the National Science Centre. We have published the fourth ranking list of research components under Polish Returns NAWA 2023.

Dr Marek Jan Szczepańczyk from the University of Warsaw will explore gravitational-wave astrophysics, Dr Aleksandra Borek from the SWPS University will examine influences on antibiotic use and strategies to prevent antimicrobial resistance in Poland from behavioural, social and public health perspective, while Dr inż. Agnieszka Chmielewska-Wysocka from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw will study in situ alloying and in situ heat treatment of Ni-Ti-X alloys using Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB). They will receive nearly 600,000 zlotys for their research from the National Science Centre.

Ranking List

Polish Returns NAWA 2023 provides an opportunity for Polish researchers working abroad to continue their research in Polish research centres. 

A continuous call for proposals for research components is open from the date the funding decision is issued by the NAWA under its Polish Returns NAWA 2023 until the last proposal is submitted to the NCN that contains a research component and has been recommended for funding by the NAWA under the programme. Proposals submitted to the NCN are subject to an eligibility check only.

Research components can be carried out by returning scientists or project teams if the latter is covered by a proposal submitted to the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 call.

The NCN Council has allocated 2 million zlotys for research components under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 call.

Polish researchers among the winners of the international call for research projects launched by the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) for Social Sciences and Humanities.

The Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities was formed at the initiative of humanities and social science research funders. It currently operates as a cooperation network for research teams from North America, South America and Europe, supporting research activities with funds from the participating countries.

The call for proposals on Democracy, Governance and Trust (FGT) was launched in June 2023 and was open to international consortia comprising at least three research teams from at least three participating countries, representing both sides of the Atlantic.

18 out of 101 international proposals that met the formal requirements of the call were recommended for funding. 5 of the winning projects involve participation of Polish research teams. They will be supported with over 3.53 million zlotys from the National Science Centre

The winning projects:

1. Participation in the City: How Urban Participatory Innovations are Reshaping Democracy, Governance and Trust (PAR-CITY)

The project aims to explore the importance of cities in responding to global challenges of democracy, governance and trust. Researchers will explore various urban participatory innovations, such as new forms of dissent and protest and the role of digital media, tools and technologies in democracy. They will focus on seven major cities, i.e. Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Lyon, New York, Sao Paolo, Toronto and Warsaw. Dr hab. Agnieszka Kampka from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences will manage the Polish research team as the PI.

2. Democracy in exile (DemEx): comparative study of Russian migrant community after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine

The Polish research team headed by Dr Zuzanna Brunarska from the University of Warsaw will focus on defining the political impact of new émigré communities from Russia on host countries and their potential to affect political change in their country of origin. Research will be conducted in collaboration with research teams from Canada and United States of America.

3. The Potential of Digital: Optimising Trustworthy Digital Contact

The research team of Dr hab. Damian Guzek from the University of Silesia in Katowice, in collaboration with researchers from France, Canada and United Kingdom will study ways of rebuilding social ties and relationships to create a democratic state based on citizens’ trust in public actors. Scholars will consider whether and under what conditions digital communication can strengthen or erode trust.

4. Investigating the relationship between science diplomacy and global DGT: the role of inclusive metascience observatories

Dr hab. Emanuel Kulczycki from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań will head the Polish research team to examine the role of science diplomacy as a strategic instrument to address threats to democracy, governance, and trust (DGT). His research will be conducted in collaboration with researchers from Brazil, France, Canada, South Africa, United States of America, United Kingdom and Netherlands.

5. Governance of policy failure risks in the design and implementation of MOIP. Experience of the Global North.

The Polish research team headed by Dr Seweryn Krupnik from the Jagiellonian University will study Mission Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIP) to address contemporary challenges transcending the borders, such as conflicts, climate change, social inequities. Scholars will focus on understanding policy failure risks in the design and implementation of MOIP and identifying suitable risk governance approaches to address them. The project will be carried out in collaboration with researchers from Canda and United Kingdom.

Dr hab. Julia Pawłowska from the University of Warsaw, together with Austrian researchers, will soon start working on a project funded under the Weave-UNISONO call. The Polish component of the project has a budget of more than 1.7 million zlotys.

Entitled Mofale: Mortierellaceae Functional Diversity in Alpine Ecosystems, the project will be run by a Polish team led by Dr hab. Julia Pawłowska from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Warsaw in partnership with Austrian researchers headed by Prof. Ursula Peintner from the Department of Microbiology of the University of Innsbruck. Their goal is to find, isolate and describe currently unknown Mortierellaceae and to prepare a functional characterisation of this important fungal group in threatened alpine habitats using culture-dependent and independent approaches.

Their research represents an innovative and promising approach that is likely to give us a better insight into the role of fungi in alpine ecosystems.

The proposal has been evaluated by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) in its capacity of the Lead Agency. The National Science Centre has approved the results of the evaluation within the framework of collaboration under the Weave programme.

Weave-UNISONO and the Lead Agency Procedure

The Weave-UNISONO call is the result of multilateral cooperation between research-funding agencies that make up the Science Europe association. It aims to simplify submission and selection procedures for research proposals that bring together researchers from two or three different European countries in any academic discipline.

The selection process is based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), under which only one partner institution is responsible for a merit-based evaluation and the others simply accept the result.

Under Weave, partner research teams apply in parallel to the lead agency and their relevant domestic institutions. Their joint proposal must include coherent research plans and clearly spell out the added value of international cooperation.

The Weave-UNISONO call accepts proposals on a rolling basis. Polish teams wishing to partner up with colleagues from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are encouraged to read the call text and submit their funding proposals.

On 11 and 12 September, the 2nd Internationalisation Congress will be held in Warsaw to debate the international research collaboration. The event is organised by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange and the National Science Centre. Registration is now open.

Education was the main topic of the 1st Internationalisation Congress held last spring in Gdańsk. At the upcoming event, Polish and foreign experts will discuss internationalisation of science to shape the national strategy for the internationalisation of Polish higher education and science.

Participants of the Warsaw Conference will discuss the extent to which internationalisation should be included in the national development strategy, Polish researchers’ participation in the EU framework programs, etc. In view of Poland’s participation in the EU framework programmes over the past 25 years and the upcoming 10th EU Council Meeting, they will assess the impact of international on the development of research and research institutions. The European strategies for retaining talent in research, innovation and business will also be addressed. Polish researchers who have have conducted successful work abroad will share their stories focusing on the impact of international mobility on the development of their research careers.

The 2nd Internationalisation Conference is organised by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange and the National Science Centre, in partnership with the University of Warsaw.

The National Science Centre will host the following panels: “Effective promotion of international research collaboration” and “Polish researchers in a dynamic international environment”.

If you wish to take part in the Conference, register now! The event programme and registration form are available on the website of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange.

Thanks to NCN funding, 35 early-stage researchers will soon be able to embark on their projects, using a total of 31.3 million zlotys worth of grants to fund their research, find employment at Polish research institutions and complete foreign research fellowships.

SONATINA is a call in which early-stage researchers vie for funding for basic research projects and applied research projects. Its eighth round was open to PIs who earned their PhD degree between 1 January 2021 and 30 June 2024.

An important goal of SONATINA grants is to fund the full-time employment of early-stage researchers at Polish research institutions. There is only one condition: they cannot be employed at the same institution where they earned their PhD degree. All winners must also complete a mandatory fellowship of 3 to 6 months abroad. The project budget may also include resources for, e.g. additional remuneration for investigators, materials and equipment, business trips, visits and consultations.

SONATINA 8 attracted 236 proposals with a total budget of nearly 197 million zlotys. Following a full evaluation procedure by expert teams, funding was awarded to 35 projects worth 31.3 million zlotys in total, for a final success rate of 15%.

Successful SONATINA projects

In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, a total of 9 million zlotys in funding was awarded to 12 researchers. One of the winners is Dr Maria Zimmermann from the University of Warsaw, whose project proposes to explore human brain plasticity. Specifically, Zimmermann will look into the impact of language exposure and sensory experiences on brain organisation in people deaf from birth. Her research will rely on two complementary approaches: firstly, while their brains are scanned with fMRI, subjects will be exposed to naturalistic stimuli (such as watching a silent movie) and asked to perform various tasks that will allow specific functions in their brains to be mapped. These fMRI data will then be supplemented by an analysis of the deaf subjects’ individual life experiences. At the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Dr Joanna Tomczyk will focus on the mental health of breast cancer patients. Breast cancer carries an increased risk of depression and anxiety disorders. Being able to notice and appreciate the small things in life is recognized as an effective tool to help tackle the hardships of life. Dr Tomczyk will investigate the effects of mindful gratitude training in which the exercises are tailored to each individual research subject, as opposed to using one exercise repeatedly over a longer period.

The winners of SONATINA 8 also include nine researchers working in Life Sciences, who will conduct projects worth more than 10.3 million zlotys in total. Thanks to her grant, Dr inż. Katarzyna Gembara from the Voivodeship Specialist Hospital in Wrocław will analyse the gut microbiome and the urinary tract microbiome in patients who have undergone bladder removal surgery as part of cancer treatment. Following the procedure, the urinary tract is typically reconstructed to allow the elimination of urine from the body. To this end, surgeons often use a segment of the patient’s intestines; originating in another part of the body, however, this tissue causes a radical change in the microbiome of the urinary tract. As a result, more than half of all patients face a variety of post-surgical complications. Dr Gembara’s project aims to elucidate the gut-bladder axis and understand how the intestinal phageome transitions into the urinary tract phageome, as well as how it impacts the bacterial part of the microbiome and the clinical outcomes of patient treatment. Another winner, Dr Tomasz Diserens, will conduct his SONATINA 8 project at the Institute of Mammalian Biology, PAS, in Białowieża. Beavers and wolves are two species that are crucial for biodiversity protection. Dr Diserens will try to determine how wolf risk and human activity shape the behaviour of beavers and their impact on woody tree communities. The results will enable a more informed management of wolf and beaver populations, as well as riparian landscapes, which is especially important in the context of the ongoing recolonisation of these species in previously human-dominated areas throughout Europe.

In Physical Sciences and Engineering, SONATINA grants were awarded to 14 research projects with a total budget of nearly 12 million zlotys. Dr Michael Lintner from the Institute of Geological Sciences, PAS, will look into the still unknown relationships between marine proxies and environmental pollution, focusing on the impact of antibiotics on foraminifera. Foraminifera are single-cell organisms (protists) that can be found in all marine habitats from shallow water to the deep sea. For scientists, they serve as important proxies for the monitoring of environmental changes. In his project, Dr Lintner will analyse how foraminifera are affected by the main types of antibiotics used in mass marine and land animal farming, which will allow him to draw up a list of the least harmful substances. Dr inż. Natalia Majewska, who works at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, will conduct research into materials that contain transition metal ions, which are characterised by efficient luminescence and serve as crucial emitters of near-infrared (NIR) light, imperceptible to the human eye. The luminescence can persist for hours after excitation, which means the materials are crucially useful for marking and imaging substances introduced into living organisms; they can also be used as components of LED light sources for food analysis or in optical thermometry, a non-invasive method for determining internal body temperature. Dr inż. Majewska will test how the optical and structural features of luminescent materials change in high hydrostatic pressure conditions.

SONATINA 8 – ranking lists

SONATINA 8 - ranking list in PDF

Proposal assessment under SONATINA

SONATINA proposals undergo a two-stage merit-based evaluation by NCN expert teams. At stage 1, each proposal is evaluated by at least two team members, based, among other things, on the short project description. The team agrees on a score for each proposal and then decides whether to pass it on to stage 2 or reject it. At stage 2, the proposal is evaluated by at least two external reviewers, based on the full project description; the PI of the project is also invited to the NCN headquarters for an interview. The final scores, as well as the ranking list of proposals recommended for funding, are decided by the entire expert team.

Under SONATINA, proposals are evaluated by three panel teams composed of experts in a given area: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (HS); Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST); and Life Sciences (NZ). Experts are appointed by the NCN Council from among outstanding Polish and international scientists with at least a PhD degree.