Dr inż. Wojciech Danowski is yet another winner of an NCN grant for the research component under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 programme. He will receive funding of PLN 200 thousand.

Dr inż. Wojciech Danowski’s research focuses on molecular machines, switches, and porous materials. He has received funding for his project on porous organic crystals which will be carried out at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw.

Ranking List

The Polish Returns NAWA 2023 programme enables Polish researchers who have conducted research abroad to continue their scientific work at Polish universities and research institutions.

The National Science Centre conducts a continuous call for proposals to fund research components in the project from the date the funding decision is issued by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 programme until the last proposal recommended for funding in the call is submitted to the NCN. Proposals submitted to the NCN are only subject to an eligibility check. 

Research components can be carried out by returning scientists or project team identified in a proposal submitted to the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 programme. 

The NCN Council has awarded PLN 2 million for basic research projects carried out under the Polish Returns NAWA 2023 programme.

A funding boost in the NCN’s budget will enable 485 researchers to receive over PLN 693 million for their basic research under recently concluded OPUS 26 and SONATA 19. We will fund 237 projects that are included in the standard ranking lists and all 248 projects on the waiting lists compiled by the experts in the calls. 

Under the OPUS call, which is addressed to a wide range of researchers, proposals may be submitted by all those whose publication track record includes at least one paper published or accepted for publication, and there are no restrictions on experience, academic degree, or title. Proposals may cover Polish research projects as well as projects with foreign participation and with the use of international research equipment by the Polish research teams. Similarly to other editions of the call launched each autumn, OPUS 26 was also open to funding proposals for projects carried out in international cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) under the Weave Programme, where researchers could carry out their projects in collaboration with research teams from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg or Belgium – Flanders that applied for funding of the same projects from their respective research funding agencies under the Weave Programme.

Under OPUS 26, the National Science Centre received 1737 proposals for a total of nearly PLN 2.6 billion, of which almost PLN 441 million was awarded to 267 research projects. The projects recommended for funding in the call included 127 proposals from the waiting lists, for a total value of PLN 191.9 million. The success rate was 15.4%. As regards 34 proposals for international research projects conducted pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure, recommended for funding by the Expert Teams of the National Science Centre, they must be approved by the partner institution, which is why they are not included in the lists we have just published. The funding decisions on proposals submitted to OPUS 26+LAP/Weave will be made on a rolling basis, following approvals from the respective partner agencies (Result Publication Schedule).

SONATA 19 is addressed to researchers with a PhD degree conferred within 2 to 7 years before the proposal submission year and aims to support innovative research of researchers at the onset of their research career. In this round of the call, 1148 proposals were submitted to the National Science Centre for a total value of over PLN 1.25 billion. 218 projects with a value of nearly PLN 252.4 million were recommended for funding, out of which 121 projects with a value of almost PLN 141.3 million were originally placed on the waiting lists, although due to the funding boost of the NCN’s budget, they will ultimately receive funding. The success rate under SONATA 19 was 19%.

On 8 April 2024, the NCN Council passed a resolution on the OPUS 26 and SONATA 19 waiting lists which have been compiled by the experts at the second stage of evaluation. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education awarded additional PLN 200 million to the National Science Centre and approved its material and financial schedule at the beginning of May, which is why the NCN Council decided to increase the budget of OPUS 26 and SONATA 19 pursuant to Resolutions Nos 47/2024 and 48/2024. This enabled us to fund all 248 projects on the waiting lists.

The lists of projects recommended for funding under OPUS 26 and SONATA 19 and their descriptions for the general public are available on our website (Call Results).

Ranking Lists to be downloaded (.pdf): OPUS 26, SONATA 18

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 first results of the eighth round of MINIATURA are now in! 40 researchers from all over Poland will get a total of more than PLN 1.7 million in funding for research activities such as preliminary and pilot studies, library and archive research, research fellowships, research visits and consultations.

First MINIATURA 8 ranking list

In the eighth round of MINIATURA, experts selected 12 applicants who will go on to work on research tasks in the field of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Their subjects include human relationships, especially those within the closest family, and parental care. Dr Albert Pielak from the Warsaw University of Technology, for instance, will carry out library and archive research focusing on parental responsibility in a comparative legal perspective.

14 winners in the Physical Sciences and Engineering panel will receive funding for projects that touch on issues such as current environmental and agricultural challenges. Dr Ewa Grabska-Szwagrzyk from the Jagiellonian University will join a consultation trip focused on identifying primeval forests and old tree stands using teledetection data.

In Life Sciences, 14 projects were recommended for funding. Their themes largely revolve around issues of health and disease. In her preliminary research, Dr Patrycja Mołek-Dziadosz from the John Paul II Hospital in Kraków, for instance, will assess the relationship between the degree of plasma protein carbonylation and fibrin clot phenotype in patients with atrial fibrillation.

All winning projects can be found on ranking lists:

MINIATURA 8 ranking lists

MINATURA 8 ranking list no.1 (.pdf)

Funding per panel:

• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – PLN 397,276
• Physical Sciences and Engineering – PLN 641,561
• Life Sciences – PLN 665,827

The total budget of projects on the first ranking list comes up to PLN 1,704,664.

About MINIATURA

The objective of the MINIATURA call is to finance research activities carried out in preparation for future research projects that will be submitted to NCN calls for proposals, as well as other domestic and international calls. Researchers can apply for funding from PLN 5,000 to PLN 50,000 for a research activity planned over a period of up to 12 months.

The total budget of this year’s call is PLN 20 million. Funds available for research activities are divided proportionally between the months during which proposals are accepted. A project can be recommended for funding only as long as there is sufficient resources available for any given month.

Proposals are being accepted until 31 July 2024.

The call, which funds preliminary or pilot studies, library and archive research, research fellowships, research visits or consultations, is open to PhD holders who earned their degree no earlier than 1 January 2012 and have never served as principal investigators in a project funded by the National Science Centre. They must demonstrate that tier scientific achievements include at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art. They must not be winning applicants of an ETIUDA call for doctoral fellowships or other call for fellowship s funded by the NCN and must not be applicants, principal investigators or fellowship candidates in proposals submitted to or recommended for funding under other NCN calls.

Decisions

Funding decisions, both positive and negative, for proposals submitted under MINIATURA 8 in February, were sent out on 20 May 2024.

Justifications are available in the OSF submission system, where you can also check the status of your proposal.

Let us remind you that decisions are delivered electronically to the ESP ePUAP address indicated in the proposal. If you have not received a decision, please make sure that the address listed in the proposal is correct. If it is not, contact the officer in charge of the proposal named in the OSF submission system.

Join us for our online courses on open science that will be held by our Open Science Team in 2024. The courses are addressed to:

• researchers applying for NCN-funding of their research projects,
• researchers carrying out NCN-funded projects,
• Open Science managers,
• data stewards,
• Open Science officers, and
• staff supporting researchers to prepare proposals submitted to the NCN and to manage projects funded by the NCN. 

The first meetings will be held on 8 and 9 May 2024.

1. Research Data Management Plan (introduction) on 8 May, from 10 a.m. till noon
2. NCN’s Open Access Policy on 9 May, from 10 a.m. till noon

Webinars will be held on the ClickMeeting platform. Registration is not required but a limit of 200 persons per meeting applies. The topics and dates of other meetings and links to the courses are available on our website at Schedule of 2024 Online Open Science Courses.

Should you have any questions or queries, please contact Ms. Gabriela Czarny at

Show number

Dr hab. Grigor Sargsyan from the Institute of Mathematics, Polish Academy of Sciences is the winner of the Weave-UNISONO call. He will receive nearly 975 thousand zlotys for a research project carried out jointly with Austrian researchers.

Dr hab. Grigor Sargsyan together with Dr hab. Eskew Monroe from the University of Vienna will carry out a research project “Generic large cardinals and determinacy”. The researchers aim to describe the connections between the set theory where generic cardinals are analysed and the study of the models of the Axiom of Determinacy (AD stating that certain infinitive games are determined). The researchers also intend to develop dense ideals by forcing (a technique for proving consistency and independence results), with the assumption that large cardinals exist. To achieve their goals, they will use classical methods that will be extended and generalised, as well as novel methods.

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.

„So, what’s new in (research) politics, sir?” is a series of meetings organised by Prof. Dariusz Jemielniak. The Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences hosts researchers, representatives of research institutions, institutes promoting research, and ministries responsible for science and higher education.

In a series of podcast meetings organised by Prof. Dariusz Jemielniak, Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, hosts researchers, representatives of research institutions, institutes promoting research, and ministries responsible for science and higher education.

Next Thursday, the podcast will feature Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak, Director of the National Science Centre. Prof. Jóźwiak will talk about the NCN grant procedure and Open Access requirements. The podcast participants will also discuss the system of basic and applied research funding in Poland and the future of Polish science. 

The meeting will be streamed on 18 April, at 6 p.m. and will be available on the PAS profile on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube). Prof. Jóźwiak will answer questions asked during the podcast chat.

The World Quantum Day, celebrated on 14 April, is an international celebration featuring researchers from 65+ countries dedicated to spreading awareness about quantum technologies (QT). Scientists predict that within a decade these technologies will significantly impact our daily lives. Medical diagnostics will be expedited and more precise, data security in networks unparalleled and new materials boasting revolutionary properties will be developed.

The global landscape of quantum technologies is experiencing rapid expansion, with Europe aspiring to be the world’s first Quantum Valley. To this end, researchers are supported by, inter alia, the Quantum Flagship and QuantERA, with Poland playing the key role.

Europa of new ideas

photo: Krzysztof Magda The Quantum Technologies Flagship, initiated by the European Commission, with a budget of over EUR 1 billion, is one of the most important endeavours in the field of research and innovation that aims to put Europe at the forefront of quantum technologies. In February, representatives of the Quantum Technologies Flagship presented a new quantum development agenda 2023, in which they defined their ultimate goal as turning Europe into the world’s first “Quantum Valley” thanks to its scientific and industrial potential and qualified workforce. “Many concepts and ideas in quantum technology were born on our continent,” says Prof. Konrad Banaszek, scientific coordinator of the QuantERA Network.

QuantERA, which works in close cooperation with the Quantum Flagship, is Europe’s largest quantum research-funding programme. QuantERA promotes ambitious, foundational and cutting-edge engineering research projects in quantum technologies (QT), monitors activities and strategies in quantum technologies, and creates responsible research guidelines. So far, the Network has funded over 100 international projects in the field of basic and applied research involving 550 research groups.

The National Science Centre is the Network coordinator. “We are well aware of what’s going on in quantum technologies, we know what projects are underway in Europe at the moment and, most importantly, we can influence the directions of development in the field,” says Sylwia Kostka, programme coordinator from the National Science Centre.

Pushing the boundaries

In the latest QuantERA call, concluded at the end of 2023, the highest-ranked proposals included research into quantum imaging, colour-centre quantum sensors and quantum-dot single-photon sources.

Dr Radek Łapkiewicz from the University of Warsaw studies how quantum effects can be used in imaging. He was awarded funding for his project “Quantum Multi-Modal Microscopy” carried out in tandem with researchers from France, Germany and Switzerland. When asked what changes quantum technologies may bring to imaging in the nearest future, he says that it would be only natural to use quantum instruments to push the boundaries of what can be done in biomedical imaging. “Advanced biomedical imaging is often limited by the amount of light available. For instance, if you want to look at the structures deep inside a tissue, it is often difficult to introduce enough light there in a non-invasive way and it is just as hard to detect the light coming out. Quantum optics scientists specialise in detecting even very weak light pulses, while quantum metrologists know how to plumb each photon for maximum information,” he explains, adding that “the scientific community has already witnessed the first demonstrations of the quantum advantage”.

Dr hab. Adam Wojciechowski Dr hab. Adam Wojciechowski from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow works on a project that can also be used for biomedical purposes. Together with researchers from Germany and Spain, Dr Wojciechowski aims to develop novel quantum sensing protocols tailored for use with nanodiamonds (NDs). “Our objective is to enhance the material properties of nanodiamonds and introduce advanced measurement techniques to obtain detailed information about their surrounding environment. Ultimately, our goal is to embed those nanodiamonds into biological cells and measure signals related to the presence of specific substances delivered to the cells” explains Wojciechowski.

Knowledge and competencies all over Europe

Prof Banaszek emphasises “the abundance of promising research endeavours underway” across our continent, advocating for their “parallel support.” In that regard, QuantERA stands as a direct facilitator, incentivising collaboration among European scientists and fostering partnerships between countries participating in the programme.

At the stage of merit-based evaluation of proposals submitted in the QuantERA calls, emphasis is placed solely on their scientific merit. However, in cases where two or three projects receive equally high ratings, priority is given to the one involving researchers from the countries where the level of research and innovation is lower than the EU average – the so-called “widening countries.” The same approach is used to ensure more balanced participation of women and men in the research teams giving priority to projects involving participation of female researchers.

According to Prof. Katarzyna Roszak from the Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, winner of the call in 2023, formation of research consortia by researchers from less prominent research centres, often including young researchers, is possible due to the rules and regulations adopted by the Network. “This team formation improves the quality of research, allowing less conventional research directions to be developed, which can lead to important discoveries,” she says. Researchers from Czechia, Germany, Poland and Italy are involved in research under the leadership of Prof. Roszak.

Dr hab. Adam Wojciechowski hopes that participation in the projects of the Network will improve the significance of researchers from the widening countries. “Many quantum technologies in Poland are developed at the world-class level. QuantERA programmes increase our chance for international recognition and may as such enhance our participation in top European projects which now mostly include large consortia,” he explains.

“Strengthening scientific excellence in the widening countries is crucial for fostering a Europe without borders and gaps. Spreading of excellence across the entire European Research Area should play a major role in evaluating the long-term impact of individual funding programmes,” adds Prof Ticijana Ban from the Institute of Physics in Zagreb. The project “QNet: Transport, metastability, and neuromorphic applications in quantum networks” under her management involves participation of researchers from Croatia, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

QuantERA brings together 41 research-funding agencies from 31 countries and will continue until 2026. Representatives of the Network are already working with the European Commission on the continuation of the programme.

Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz

Researchers in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are strongly encouraged to take part in a survey on Social Transformations and Resilience. The goal of the survey is to boost promotion of Poland’s priority areas. The survey can be completed by the end of April.

The European Partnerships are initiatives introduced in the Horizon Europe Framework Programme that aim to address Europe’s most pressing challenges of health, digitalisation, environment climate, energy, agriculture or mobility by joint R&I initiatives. In the light of the upcoming European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience, the European Commission has launched a survey for potential stakeholders.

The survey aims to identify potential stakeholders in the partnership and to collect suggested objectives and subject for the partnership. Representatives of institutions, departments and heads of research groups in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences are all welcome to take part in the survey. Information collected will feed into the process of partnership formation at international level. The contribution of Polish researchers will help promote Poland’s priority areas in research and relevant to Polish society.

Link to the survey: Stakeholder Survey ST&R

End date: 30 April 2024

Contact details:  malwina.gebalska@ncn.gov.pl