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.

In this episode of our podcast, NCN Coordinators Dr Anna Wieczorek and Dr Magdalena Wyszkowska-Kolatko discuss the role of coordinators, expert panels and workshops for applicants.

Our first podcast was recorded at the beginning of last year. Twelve podcasts have been released so far. The most popular episode featured Dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska and Dr inż. Tomasz Szumełda, NCN coordinators and Prof. Jacek Młynarski, expert participating in the evaluation of proposals.

In the current episode, we continue to talk on the evaluation of proposals. Our guests today include Dr Anna Wieczorek, coordinator for Physical Sciences and Engineering, Dr Magdalena Wyszkowska-Kolatko, coordinator for Life Sciences and your host, Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz. At the beginning, our guests talk about coordinators, experts and reviewers evaluating NCN proposals in general and discuss the evaluation procedure. They focus attention on how important it is for the applicants to know the procedure. “If you understand what happens to your proposal once it has been submitted to the NCN, you will be able to move from a great idea to an equally great project. You should put yourself in the shoes of the experts reviewing your proposal before you start working on it and draft your project description in such a way as to make it easier for them to understand your project and make them interested enough to ensure they are willing to invest public money in your project,” says Magdalena Wyszkowska-Kolatko.

Anna Wieczorek adds that it is extremely important to employ the best experts for the evaluation of proposals and eliminate any conflict of interest. In 2023, proposals were evaluated by nearly 10.5 thousand experts and reviewers. Over 90 percent of them were affiliated with foreign research institutions. “Sometimes we face very niche topics and projects involving many researchers. Finding and selecting the right person without any conflict of interest is a challenge but we can overcome it having the whole world accessible,” she explains. 

Much of the discussion focuses on the final stage of evaluation, i.e. expert team meetings. The coordinators are asked about the number of experts participating in panel work, number of evaluated proposals, explained how they reach a consensus and compile ranking lists. Our guests also discuss the workshops for applicants, including mock panels during which researchers could assume the role of experts evaluating proposals.

The recording is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcast and on our You Tube channel. 

Related information:

If you wish to find out more on the number of researchers applying for NCN grants, number of NCN call winners and experts and reviewers, please go to the Facts and Figures tab.

Expert team members evaluating proposals under NCN calls in 2023.

NCN Podcast 2, 2023. Evaluation of Proposals

64 researchers will carry out preliminary/ pilot studies, library and archive searchers, fellowships, research visits and/ or consultations owing to MINIATURA 8 funding. The third list of awarded research activities under proposals submitted in April is now available.

The experts evaluating proposals under MINIATURA selected 21 winning researchers who will conduct research activities in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Most of them will tackle cultural production and legal issues. Dr Agnieszka Kramkowska-Dąbrowska from the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences will perform a fellowship to study television plays and scripts of television plays in the United Kingdom. Owing to MINIATURA 8 funding, Dr Marcin Kryński from the University of Bialystok will conduct a library and archive search to compare legal measures to address illegal shadow banking activities under Polish and Austrian law.

The focus of research activities conducted by 23 winning applicants in Physical Sciences and Engineering will include synthetical chemistry and materials science, production and processing engineering and earth sciences. During her fellowship at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Dr inż. Marta Włodarczyk-Sielicka from the Maritime University of Szczecin will revolve around the use of artificial intelligence methods during the processing of spatial data from hydrographic systems. Dr inż. Marek Mysior from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology will participate in a consultation visit and library and archive search to analyse the efficiency of Large Language Models (LLM) used to identify technical contradictions.

Research activities conducted by 20 winning researchers in Life Sciences will focus on human health, biology of tissues, organs and organisms as well as environmental processes. Dr Ewa Bulczak from the Poznań University of Life Sciences will conduct a pilot study of caffeine consumption and subjective reaction to caffeine consumption in adolescents. During his research visit, Dr Arkadiusz Czerwonka from the Medical University of Lublin will develop methods to control Notch signalling using an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) in a cell aging model.

Research activities recommended for funding under MINIATURA 8 Ranking List No 3 

MINIATURA 8 Ranking List No 3 in PDF format

Funding per research groups:

• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: 636,124 zlotys
• Technical Sciences and Engineering: 921,327 zlotys
• Life Sciences: 924,581 zlotys 

Total funding: 2,482,032 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. 

This is the last moment to submit proposals. The call closes on 31 July 2024, 4 p.m. 

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 24 July 2024, positive and negative decisions for proposals submitted to MINIATURA in April 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.

Owing to funding from the Weave-UNISONO grant, Dr hab. Dorota Michułka from the University of Wrocław will pursue a project in collaboration with German researchers. Polish research team will receive funding of over 422 thousand zlotys.

“(Self-)Positioning in transnational spaces – Children's narrations and narrations about children living transnationally” is the title of a project that will be carried out by a research team under the leadership of Dr hab. Dorota Michułka from the Institute of Polish Philology at the University of Wrocław. The German part of the project will be coordinated by Alexandra König and Jessica Schwittek from the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Transnational families are families in which members live separated from each other due to migration but maintain close ties with their relatives in the country of origin. The project aims at studying the experience of children aged 12-14 years who grow up in families struggling with migration and their (self-) positioning. The problem will be tackled from sociological and literary perspectives. As part of the project, an international conference will be organised, and teaching aids will be prepared on the basis of the project results. Research will focus on Poland and Germany.

The proposal was evaluated by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the evaluation results were accepted by the National Science Centre under the Weave collaboration.

Weave-UNISONO Ranking Lists

Weave-UNISONO and Lead Agency Procedure

The Weave-UNISONO call builds on multilateral cooperation between the research funding agencies associated in Science Europe and aims at simplifying the submission and selection procedures for research proposals that bring to together researchers from two or three European countries in any discipline of science. 

The selection process is based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) under which only one partner institution is responsible for a merit-based evaluation, the results of which are then approved by the other partners. 

Under Weave, partner research teams apply in parallel to the Lead Agency and to their respective institutions. Their joint proposals must include coherent research programmes and clearly spell out the added value of international collaboration. 

Under Weave-UNISONO, proposals are accepted on a rolling basis. Polish teams wishing to partner up with colleagues from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium (Flanders) are welcome to read the call text and submit their funding proposals.

The NCN Council has appealed to the Minister of Science for an increase in NCN funding by 300 million zlotys from 2025 onwards. “The Polish scientific community needs stable support to nurture their talents and develop ambitious research projects,” the NCN Council members wrote in their resolution. The increased funding would trigger, e.g., a higher success rate in NCN calls and discussions on how to make the salaries and scholarships for researchers more realistic.

In their appeal to the Minister of Science Dariusz Wieczorek, the Council members point out that the NCN is crucial for the development of science in Poland, while the increased funding would be an investment in the future that could be beneficial for the society at large and could contribute to Poland’s technological, economic and social development.

Between 2018 and 2023, the NCN budget was virtually frozen, with its grant-in-aid for research funding increasing by merely several percent, from 1.226 billion zlotys to 1.392 billion zlotys. This made the NCN unable to fund some very good projects. In 2023, only 11 percent of researchers applying to the NCN had their projects funded.

The situation improved earlier this year, with the Minister of Science deciding to increase the NCN budget by 200 million zlotys. This allowed us to fund 584 highly evaluated projects on our waiting lists. “Additional funds ware used as well as possible to fund the most valuable research projects in various scientific disciplines and research fields,” wrote the NCN Council members in their resolution. Funding was awarded to 322 projects on the waiting lists under OPUS 25, PRELUDIUM 22, MAESTRO 15 and SONATA BIS 13 and 262 projects under OPUS 26+LAP/Weave and SONATA 19.

The Council members emphasised that from 2025 onwards, the NCN budget should include the current increase in the grant-in-aid by 200 million zlotys and be additionally higher by 300 million zlotys. The Council members further held that this would allow us to fund more projects and resume discussions about the limited number of grants, how to make the salaries and scholarships more realistic, indirect costs, etc.

“If the funding of National Science Centre was increased, Polish researchers would be more competitive internationally and have better working environment which could result in an outflow of talented researchers from and inflow of outstanding researchers to Poland,” wrote the Council members.

The Council resolution was adopted on 5 July and send to the Ministry of Science.

Full text of the appeal

On 16 September 2024, we will launch the OPUS 28+LAP/Weave call for research projects, including projects within the framework of LAP cooperation under the Weave programme.

LAP cooperation under the OPUS 28 call under the Weave programme

As of 2024, the National Science Centre has cooperated with the following partner institutions under the Weave programme:

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF) from Austria,
• Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) from the Czech Republic,
• Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) from Slovenia,
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) from Switzerland,
• German Research Foundation (DFG) from Germany,
• Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) from Luxembourg,
• Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) from Belgium - Flanders.

The NCN as the lead agency under OPUS 28+LAP/Weave will perform the merit-based evaluation of OPUS LAP proposals for bilateral or trilateral research projects carried out under the Weave programme by research teams from Poland, as well as the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium Flanders.

If a research project is recommended for funding, the NCN will provide funds for the Polish teams, while the foreign teams will be funded by their respective partner institutions (FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG, SNSF, FNR, FWO).

OPUS LAP proposals under the OPUS 28+LAP/Weave call are eligible as long as they:

• are drafted by the Polish research teams in cooperation with foreign teams under the Weave programme pursuant to the OPUS 28+LAP/Weave call text, which will be published on the NCN website on 16 September 2024;
• concern any academic discipline covered by the NCN review panels;
• involve basic research that has not been funded by the NCN or from other sources;
• are based on an equal and complementary contribution by all research teams applying for parallel funding of their research projects to their respective research-funding institutions under the Weave programme. The contribution of each research team involved in the project must be significant and is required and their respective tasks should complement one another to create a coherent joint research project. If the Expert Team finds that an OPUS LAP proposal does mot meet the foregoing criteria, it will not be eligible for funding.

Polish research teams must submit their OPUS LAP proposals to the NCN via the OSF submission system available at: https://osf.opi.org.pl, between 16 September and 16 December 2024, 4 p.m.

Foreign research teams involved in the project must submit their funding proposals to their respective research-funding institution under the Weave programme together with the required documents by the required date and in accordance with the terms and conditions.

If, under the Weave programme, a partner institution requires applicants to submit a copy of their OPUS LAP proposals, a complete English language version of the OPUS LAP proposal in PDF format must be generated in the OSF submission system and sent to the foreign research team.

PLEASE NOTE: OPUS LAP proposals submitted to the NCN must be consistent with the proposals submitted to the partner institutions.

NCN Contact Persons:

General inquiries

Magdalena Dobrzańska-Bzowska

Magdalena Nowak, PHD

Scientific Coordinator:

Oskar Wolski, PHD

Polish researchers will carry out 29 research projects in collaboration with researchers from Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Czechia and Switzerland owing to OPUS 26+LAP/Weave funding. Over 42.3 million zlotys will be awarded for their research.

OPUS is NCN’s largest call open to all researchers, regardless of their age, research experience, academic title or award.

Researchers can apply for funding of their projects carried out in Polish research institutions, with or without foreign participation, as well as projects with the use of large international research equipment. It is launched twice a year, in spring and autumn. The autumn edition follows the Lead Agency formula, which means that researchers may request funding of projects carried out in collaboration with foreign research teams from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium (Flanders) within the framework of the Weave programme.

Results of OPUS and OPUS LAP

Under OPUS 26+LAP/Weave, 1,737 proposals were submitted to the NCN, for a total of nearly 2.6 billion zlotys. In the first round, a total funding of 441 million zlotys was awarded to 267 researchers. Projects concluded in the first round did not involve collaboration under the Weave programme. The winning applicants have recently included 36 Polish research teams involved in 29 international research projects carried out under the Weave programme, with a total value of over 42.34 million zlotys.

28 projects among those recommended for funding involve bilateral collaboration with research partners from Austria, Belgium (Flanders), Czechia and Switzerland, and one will be carried out in trilateral collaboration with researchers from Poland, Belgium (Flanders) and Switzerland. 10 projects were submitted to Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 11 to Physical Sciences and Engineering and 8 to Life Sciences. 5 projects on the Polish part will be implemented by groups of entities.

OPUS LAP bilateral projects in collaboration with teams from Austria, Belgium-Flanders, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, and trilateral project in collaboration with teams from Belgium-Flanders and Switzerland (.pdf)

OPUS 26+LAP/Weave Ranking Lists

The Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) is a new proposal evaluation standard applied by the European research-funding agencies to simplify the application procedure for joint projects to be carried out by international research teams and enhance the evaluation of proposals by research-funding agencies. LAP proposals submitted to the NCN undergo a complex merit-based evaluation according to the terms and conditions of the OPUS call. Furthermore, the experts evaluate the academic and research career of foreign principal investigators and completion of other research projects by foreign principal investigators, and make sure that the contribution of all teams in the project is balanced and complementary.

Foreign partner teams apply for parallel funding of their parts of the project to their respective research-funding agencies under the Weave programme, however, pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure, proposals are no longer subject to a merit-based evaluation which is performed by the experts at the NCN, and the evaluation results are then approved by the partner agencies.

The Polish winning projects will be funded by the National Science Centre, Czech projects, by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), Austrian projects, by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), research performed by scientists from Belgium (Flanders) will be funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), and the Swiss part of the project, by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Decisions are yet to be taken on LAP proposals involving collaboration with research partners from Luxembourg, Slovenia and Germany, recommended for funding under OPUS 26+LAP/Weave. Call Timeline 

Waiting Lists

The additional 200 million zlotys awarded to the National Science Centre by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education this year and regulations adopted by the NCN Council to increase the OPUS 26 budget allowed LAP proposals on the waiting lists to be funded.

Service of Decisions

Today, the funding decisions will be served for both proposals recommended for funding and not recommended for funding under OPUS 26 and SONATA 19. The funding decisions of the NCN Director will be served on the applicants in an electronic format and will be sent to the electronic address indicated in the proposal.

If the applicant is an entity described in Article 27 (1) – (7) and (9) of the Act on the National Science Centre, the funding decision of the NCN Director will only be served to the applicant’s Electronic Delivery Box (ESP ePUAP) address specified in the proposal. If a natural person applies and provides their ePUAP address in the proposal, the funding decision will be sent to that address, however, if no ePUAP address is specified, they will receive an e-mail with an electronic address from which they will be able to download the NCN Director’s decision.

The funding decisions by the NCN Director are also sent to the principal investigator and, if a natural person applies, to the participating entity specified in the proposal.  

Applicants who have not received a decision are recommended to check if their electronic address (ESP, ePUAP, e-mail) provided in the proposal is correct and if they provide an incorrect e-mail address, they should contact the NCN Program Officer in charge of the proposal specified in the OSF submission system. 

The National Science Centre and the Medical Research Agency are intending to cooperate on calls of the MRA. On 4 July, representatives of the two agencies met in Krakow.

The Medical Research Agency (MRA) is a state agency responsible for development of scientific research in the field of medical and health sciences. The agency has been in business for 5 years. In its future calls for research funding, the MRA will use the expertise of the National Science Centre, including its experience in the organisation of the calls for proposals and work of the expert teams.

The first meeting to discuss the cooperation was held on 4 July in Krakow, and the next will take place this month in Warsaw.

“The NCN coordinators will provide support in the organisation of expert panels which will enable MRA’s grant evaluation system to be harmonised and strengthened. The call for translation research we are planning to launch in December will also require a reliable and objective review of basic research components. The support we may get from foreign reviewers and NCN experts experienced in project evaluation will be invaluable. We can only hope that the call will enable the best research teams to translate their discoveries from bench to bedside,” says Prof. Wojciech Fendler, President of the Medical Research Agency since July.

From its very beginning, the NCN has awarded almost 30 thousand grants for a total of nearly 16 billion zlotys. “The Medical Research Agency aims to support health care innovations with particular focus on the development of non-commercial clinical research and research experiments. The collaboration between the National Science Centre and the Medical Research Agency may soon result in joint initiatives and the best system of basic and experimental medical research. It is equally important to coordinate the efforts to ensure the highest standards of evaluation and selection of grant proposals,” says Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak, NCN Director.

Prof. Wojciech Fendler, Dr inż. Zuzanna Nowak-Życzyńska and Krzysztof Górski attended the meeting on the part of the Medical Research Agency, while the National Science Centre was represented by Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak, Prof. Anetta Undas, Prof. Piotr Skarżyński, Prof. Barbara Klajnert-Maculewicz, Dr Marcin Liana and Dr Anna Wiktor.

Prof. Wojciech Fendler, Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak, Prof. Anetta Undas, Prof. Barbara Klajnert-Maculewicz, Prof. Piotr Skarżyński

On 2 July, government leaders of Poland and Germany met in Warsaw to adopt a document in which they agreed to boost social and economic cooperation. A science section of the document refers to the Dioscuri centres, a joint initiative of the National Science Centre and the Max Planck Society, and NCN’s collaboration with the DFG.

The “German-Polish Action Plan” is a document adopted as a consequence of international consultations involving the Polish Prime Minister Donalda Tuska and German Chancellery Olaf Scholza. The consultations were held in Warsaw at the beginning of the week. The governments of the two countries declared their wish to cooperate in the area of economy, defence, science, education, etc.. 

In the science section of the document, the signatories expressed their wish to “provide a strong foundation for science, research and innovation through joint investment in order to secure prosperity, competitive strength and the technological sovereignty of Poland, Germany and Europe.”

Two initiatives of the NCN and its German partner are mentioned in the document: the Dioscuri centres jointly managed by the NCN and the Maxa Planck Society (MPG) and NCN’s cooperation with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

The document adopted by the two governments provides as follows “Dioscuri centres in Poland (…) set the benchmark for scientific excellence, promote brain circulation within Europe and develop the “European Research Area” further. We want these centres to become points of leverage to intensify European cooperation.”

The Dioscuri programme seeks to support outstanding scientists in their cutting-edge research at Polish research institutions. Eight Dioscuri centres have been established so far at the research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and at the Jagiellonian University. The following early-stage researchers who have returned to Poland after years of work abroad are the previous winners, selected by the international research committee:

• Dr Aleksandra Pękowska and Dr Grzegorz Sumara
• Dr Paweł Dłotko, Prof. Gracjan Michlewski and Dr Bartłomiej Wacław
• Dr Mikołaj Frączyk, Dr Przemysław Nogły and Dr Mateusz Sikora

Strong efforts are underway to launch the next edition of the programme.

In the German-Polish Action Plan, the signatories provide as follows: “We are pleased about the intensive collaboration between the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Polish National Science Centre resulting from their participation in the multilateral European Weave initiative.” Furthermore, the document mentions the Polish-German Science Meetings organised jointly by the NCN, DFG and the Foundation for Polish Science.

Information on intergovernmental consultations and full text of the German-Polish Action Plan are available on the website of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland:

NCN Podcast on Dioscuri centres

The Minister of Science has announced a call for NCN Council members. The Council is made up of 24 researchers with half of them replaced every two years. Applications can be submitted by 5 August. 

The NCN Council was formed pursuant to the Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010. It is made up of 24 scholars from various academic disciplines. Members of the Council are appointed for a period of four years and half of them are replaced every two years. 

On 2 July, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education published a call for NCN Council members who will start their term of office at the end of the year. 

The Council identifies priority areas in basic research in accordance with the state's development strategy, lays down the terms and conditions for calls for research proposals, allocates funding and publishes calls for doctoral scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships. Furthermore, the Council appoints members of expert teams evaluating research proposals and announces calls for the NCN Director.

The call for NCN Council members will last until 5 August. The Identification Team established by the Minister of Science evaluates the candidates and compiles a list of candidates recommended for the NCN Council.