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Research Components under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns

Read more about Research Components under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns

The National Science Centre is pleased to invite proposals for funding of Research Components in projects funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (“NAWA”).

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system available at https://osf.opi.org.pl pursuant to the proposal submission procedure. By submitting proposals, the applicants accept the General Terms of the Funding Agreement for a Research Component in projects funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns.

The continuous call for proposals shall be open from the date the funding decision is issued by the NAWA under its 2022 NAWA Polish Returns 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.

The Council of the National Science Centre has decided to allocate 3,000,000 PLN for Research Components carried out under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns.

Please read the Call documents provided in this Call Text.

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Eligible applicants

Eligible applicants referred to in Article 7 (1), Article 7 (2) and Article 7 (4) – (8) of the Act on Higher Education and Science of 20 July 2018 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2022, item 574, as amended) include:

universities,
federations of science and HE entities,
research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2020, item 1796),
research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2022, item 498),
international research institutes established pursuant to separate Acts, operating in the Republic of Poland,
the Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (consolidated text in Journal of Laws 2020, item 2098),
institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,
Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and
other entities involved mainly in research independently on a continuous basis that have been awarded an academic category.

Who may carry out a research component?

Research components may only be carried out by the Returning Scientists who are winners of the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns and have been awarded funds by the NAWA for research projects containing such components. A project team may also be involved in a project if it has been covered by a proposal submitted to the NAWA.

A Research Component covered by a proposal submitted to the NAWA and rejected by its Evaluation Team shall not be recommended for NCN funding and must not be submitted to the Call even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been awarded funding under the Programme.

Are there any restrictions on submitting proposals to the Call?

The following restrictions shall apply:

Proposals must only be submitted by institutions awarded funding under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns for their research projects containing a Research Component;
Proposals must not be submitted if a Research Component covered by a project submitted to the NAWA has not been recommended for funding by the NAWA Evaluation Team, even if a part of the project funded by the NAWA has been recommended by the Evaluation Team.

What are the topics covered by the call?

The Call is open to basic research proposals in any of 26 NCN panels within three major areas:

Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (HS),
Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST) and
Life Sciences (NZ).

The subject of a Research Component submitted to the Call must comply with the Research Component covered by the proposal funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns.

What can the Research Component’s duration be?

A Research Component shall be carried out over the first eighteen months of performance of the projects funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns.

A Research Component start date must be the same as the start date of the project funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns. If the date on which a Research Component funding decision is issued by the NCN Director becomes final is later than the project start date, the Research Component start date is the date the funding decision of the NCN Director becomes finale.

How should the budget be planned?

In the Planowane koszty [Planned Costs] tab in the OSF submission system, enter the budget of the Research Component only which must be consistent in its entirety with the costs planned in the project funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns.

PLEASE NOTE:

The budget must be in line with the recommendations of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns. Proposals disregarding such recommendations shall be rejected on the grounds that they do not meet the eligibility criteria.

For more information on the budget, please go to the “Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre”.

The funding requested for a Research Component must not exceed 200,000 PLN for the entire Research Component performance period.

Open access publication of research results

Together with other European cOAlition S research funding agencies, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S. Pursuant to the Open Access Policy adopted by the NCN, all research results produced under NCN-funded research projects must be made available in full and immediate open access.

In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes as compliant with its Open Access Policy:

publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals), as long as the Version of Record (VoR2) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM3) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;
publication in transformation journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

Articles must be made available using the CC-BY licence (in the case of transformation journals, the CC-BY-SA licence can also be used). The CC-BY-ND licence can also be used (regardless of the publication route selected).

For more information on the Open Access publication rules/ instructions, as amended, please go here and here.

More information can also be found in the Open Access Instructions.

Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?

No. Proposals in the call must not include application for state aid. For more information, please read the State Aid Section.

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check only.
An eligibility check is performed by the coordinators.
Only proposals approved as eligible by the coordinators can be recommended for funding.
Applicants whose proposals do not meet the eligibility criteria can submit another proposals incorporating the instructions received from the NCN.

What is reviewed in the eligibility check?

Proposals are only subject to an eligibility check comprising:

verification of a proposal for completeness,
verification of proposal’s compliance with the Call Text;
verification of whether information provided in the proposal submitted to the NCN complies with information provided in the proposal submitted to the NAWA under its 2022 NAWA Polish Returns; and
verification of whether the forecasted costs are eligible pursuant to the Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre.

PLEASE NOTE:

The budget of a Research Component submitted to the NCN must incorporate the instructions of the Evaluation Team reviewing proposals submitted to the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns.

Call results

The call results shall be communicated to the applicants in the form of a decision of the NCN Director and published on the NCN website.

More information

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail at: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone at the following phone numbers:

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Coordinator in charge of the Call:

Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska

E-mail: ewelina.szymanska-skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl

Call Schedule

Please, read our Call Schedule and List of International Programmes and follow us on our website at https://www.ncn.gov.pl/.

Useful Information

If you are intending to submit a proposal to our Call for Research Components:

read the documents included in the Call Text, in particular:

acquire the required information from the applicant to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and performance of the Research Component;
draft and prepare:

proposal title the same as the title of the Project that has been awarded funding under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns;
Research Component start date the same as the start date of the Project that has been awarded funding under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns;
full proposal submitted to the NAWA under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns in PDF format;
forecasted costs of the Research Component prepared according to the Costs in Research Components funded by the National Science Centre;
general budget;
information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of performance of the Research Component, as required by the proposal;
information on the ethical aspects, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to perform the Research Component in accordance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline, as required by the proposal;
in the case of a Research Component which includes clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials;
in the case of a Research Component to be performed in a host institution that does not receive any institutional core funding for research activities, information on research carried out over the last 2 years, together with a list of publications and information on research equipment and other instruments/facilities crucial to research; and
declaration by the applicant, as required by the proposal.

PLEASE NOTE:

A proposal submitted to the OSF submission system must include the proposal (in PDF format) funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns. Information in the proposal form submitted to the OSF submission system must comply with information in the proposal submitted to the NAWA and must incorporate the instructions (if any) of the Evaluation Team reviewing the budget of proposals submitted to the Call.

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

check if information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. The verification of the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
disable the final version of the proposal;
download the final version of the proposal, have it signed by the authorised representative of the applicant and submit the proposal with a signature to the OSF submission system; and
submit the proposal to the NCN via the OSF submission system.

The proposal shall be submitted to NCN electronically via the OSF submission system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

PLEASE NOTE:

Proposals must be signed with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES format.

Once the proposal has been submitted to the NCN:

it shall be subject to an eligibility check;
if the proposal does not meet the eligibility criteria, the applicant shall be requested to amend it appropriately and re-submit it to the NCN for another eligibility check;
following the eligibility check, a Research Component funding decision shall be issued by the NCN Director; and
if the date on which the Research Component funding decision of the NCN Director becomes final is later than the project start date, the date the decision becomes final shall be the Research Component start date.

PLEASE NOTE:

No agreement is concluded under the Call. The Research Component is funded and performed pursuant to the General Terms of the Funding Agreement for a Research Component covered by the project funded under the 2022 NAWA Polish Returns. The applicants are required to read the General Terms. By submitting a proposal, the applicants accept the agreement. In the event of a breach of the Call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council. The appeal must be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.

Call documents

Documents concerning evaluation of proposals:

Documents to be read before starting to perform Research Components:

Biodiversa+ reveals the topic of the fourth joint call for proposals

We are pleased to announce that European Biodiversity Partnership Biodiversa+ has revealed the topic of the fourth joint call. The BiodivTransform call will focus on Societal Transformation. The call will be included in our programme “Supporting societal transformation for the sustainable use and management of biodiversity” and will be co-funded by the European Commission.

Call timeline:

Spring / Summer 2024: pre-announcement of the call, with further information on its topic
September 2024: launch of the BiodivTransform call
November 2024: pre-proposal submission deadline

More info: Biodiversa+

Spring launch of NCN calls

The NCN has launched an OPUS 25 call for research projects and PRELUDIUM 22 call for researchers who are not PhD holders. The budget of both calls amounts to 330 million PLN. The call for proposals is open until 15 June 2023.

OPUS 25 is the flagship call in NCN’s call portfolio. Grants may be requested under the call to cover basic research projects, including projects carried out by the Polish research teams with the use of large international research equipment, with or without foreign collaboration.

The call is addressed at researchers at any stage of their research career, regardless of their age or experience. However, principal investigators are required to have at least one paper published or accepted for publication or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.

OPUS projects may be carried out over a period of 12, 24, 36 or 48 months. The project budget may include funds for remuneration of the principal investigator and co-investors in the project, purchase of research equipment, devices and software, purchase of materials and small equipment, outsourced services, business trips, visits and consultations, compensation for collective investigators and other costs crucial to the project. OPUS grants have no cap of funding, however the budget must comply with the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects.

The spring edition of the OPUS call does not include the LAP procedure. Researchers who are intending to carry out their projects in collaboration with partners from foreign research institutions applying for parallel funding for that purpose under the programmes organised together with the NCN pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure, may submit their proposals to the next, autumn edition of the OPUS call.

PRELUDIUM 22 is addressed at researchers who are not PhD holders. The winning applicants may be awarded up to 70,000 PLN, 140,000 PLN or 210,000 PLN for research projects carried out over a period of 12, 24 or 36 months. The research team must not include more than three members, including the principal investigator and mentor. The call budget may include various costs crucial to the project, including remuneration of up to 1,500 PLN per month for the principal investigator and co-investigator (if any). The mentor must be the beneficiary of grant funding.

Call procedure and results

Both calls are open to proposals submitted by entities specified in the NCN Act, including universities, research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, other research institutes, scientific and industrial centres, research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences, scientific libraries, companies or legal entities with their registered office in Poland. NCN proposals may also be submitted by individuals who are not employed by any entity.

The call is open until 15 June 2023, 4 p.m. and proposals must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system.

Evaluation of proposals submitted to the National Science Centre includes an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation. In the course of eligibility check, proposals are reviewed for compliance with the terms of the call by the NCN coordinators. Merit-based evaluation is performed by the Expert Team in two stages. In the evaluation of proposals, experts working in the teams and external reviewers focus on the following criteria: compliance with the basic research criteria, quality and innovative nature of the research or tasks to be performed, impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline; relevance and other criteria laid down in the call documents. Proposals are evaluated within the review panels (i.e., HS1, NZ1, ST1).

The call results will be published when the evaluation procedure is completed, in December 2023 at the latest.

OPUS 25 call announcement (available in English soon)

PRELUDIUM 22 call announcement (available in English soon)

NCN Council takes measures to halt success rate decline in NCN calls

As previously announced, the NCN Council has taken measures to stop or slow down success rate decline in NCN calls, caused by insufficient funding that fails to match the needs and expectations of the research community. As of 15 March 2023, the total number of NCN projects that may be headed by a single person and the proposals they may submit for review to the NCN is down to two. This number may be increased to three if at least one of the projects or proposals is part of an international call. PRELUDIUM BIS and DIOSCURI calls do not count toward these limits.

For several months now, the success rate, or the proportion of applicants who are awarded a grant, in NCN calls has been much lower than expected. As a result, very good proposals are now turned down, even though, in the eyes of our reviewers, they fully deserve to be funded.

In the December round of OPUS, the most popular NCN call, the success rate was as low as 13%; it was even lower in our call for entry-level researchers, PRELUDIUM. At the end of February, results came in for SONATA BIS (for researchers who want to set up a new team) and MAESTRO (for advanced researchers); funding was awarded to 14% of applicants in the former and to fewer than 7% in the latter call (in total, to just 5 out of 72 researchers). The success rate has never been this low since the NCN was first founded. According to the NCN Council, if the funding conditions were optimal, grants would go to 25-30% of all applicants.

Such a low success rate is the direct result of NCN’s frozen budget, high inflation and the associated rise in research costs, as well as the generally growing need for basic research funding in the community.

New limits to the number of projects and proposals submitted to the NCN

All appeals made by the NCN to the public authorities to have its budget increased have fallen on deaf ears. As a result, as already mentioned, we now need to start the difficult process of limiting grant applications in order to stop or slow down a further decline in the success rate of our calls.

Starting from the calls announced on 15 March (OPUS 25 and PRELUDIUM 22), the total number of NCN project carried out by one person and the number of proposals submitted to the NCN, under review or qualified for funding, in which the person is listed as the principal investigator, will be limited to only two. The limit can be raised to three if at least one of the projects or proposals is part of an international call. PRELUDIUM BIS and DIOSCURI calls do not count toward these limits.

For more information on the limits applicable as of March, consult the specific call announcements on the NCN website.

In dialogue with the community

The NCN Council hopes these new measures will not need to stay in place for long. We understand that, for many active researchers, they may spell significant difficulties, considerably hindering their research work. However, until the financial situation of the NCN is changed and its budget increased, we may expect a need for further limits. In applying them, the Council will try, as far as possible, to limit the nuisance to the research community. We hope that the limits will encourage at least some researchers to apply to international calls more often than before, and the group of domestic call winners will grow to include researchers who have never completed an NCN-funded project before or have fewer such projects under their belt.

In the coming months, we will also create a special survey to ask our applicants about other possible restrictions they think would be the least problematic for their research work and team maintenance. We want these difficult decisions to be taken in communication with the Polish research community, for the benefit of which the NCN was originally established and which it is its mission to serve.

At the same time, we would like to encourage researchers to support the NCN in its efforts to have its budget increased to match the needs and expectations of the community. We need to make the decision-makers understand the importance of adequate basic research funding for the growth of our country; only a joint, concerted effort can change the current position of public authorities.

10 Polish research teams applying to NCN among the winners of the international M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2022

We are pleased to announce that 10 projects involving Polish researchers have been awarded funding in the M-ERA.NET 3 call for proposals.

Within the call applicants have submitted 289 proposals. Over EUR 43,7 million have been granted to 46 research projects.

Complete list of the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2022 projects recommended for funding

Research projects funded by the National Science Centre:

DEMETRA: Defective metal oxides as the next generation of lead-free piezoelectrics for ultrasonic actuators. Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. inż. Sebastian Molin, Gdansk University of Technology. The project will involve research teams from Brazil and Denmark.

STEEP UP: Steep absorption with supramolecular self-assembled functional dyes for vacuum-deposited organic solar cells. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Mariusz Łukasz Tasior, Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The project will involve research teams from Belgium, France and Germany.

MUST: Materials for Ultraefficient Chiral SpinTronics. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. Andrzej Maziewski, University of Białystok. The project will involve research teams from Spain and Turkey.

DNABEATS: Customized DNA-based nanocarriers to boost heart healing. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Monika Bzowska, Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The project will involve research teams from Estonia, Lithuania and Spain.

HELVA: Hybrid ELectrosynthesis of Value-Added chemicals. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Vignesh Kumaravel, Lodz University of Technology. The project will involve research teams from Brazil and Spain.

Nano4Zombie: Senolytic nanoplatform to target and eliminate skin cancer Zombie cells. Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. Anna Karolina Lewińska, University of Rzeszów. The project will involve research teams from Latvia and Spain.

NAMEAS: Novel asymmetric anion-exchange membranes for fuel cells. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. Artur Michalak, Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The project will involve research teams from Brazil, France, Israel and Turkey.

SustainFibresFCM: Development of sustainable fibre-based food packaging materials made from agricultural residues using safety-by-design. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Marcin Henryk Kudzin, Łukasiewicz Research Network – Lodz Institute of Technology. The project will involve research teams from Austria and Germany.

Coco: Copper conductive lines with glass insulation by a melt extrusion process. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. inż. Jarosław Krzysztof Domaradzki, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. The project will involve research teams from Germany and Spain.

SLAP: Stabilization of Lithium Metal Anodes with Porphyrin-based Electrolyte Additives. Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. Szymon Godlewski, Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The project will involve research teams from Denmark and Germany.

Congratulations to all the laureates!

On March 1, 2023, M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 was announced. We encourage you to apply!

M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023

Read more about M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023

1 March 2023

M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023

The National Science Centre (“NCN”) and the National Centre for Research and Development (“NCBR”) are members of the M-ERA.NET network. This call text applies only to the applicants requesting NCN funding.

The National Science Centre, in cooperation with the M-ERA.NET 3 network, has launched the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 for international research projects in the area of material science and material engineering. Funding proposals may be submitted by international consortia composed of at least 3 research teams from at least 3 countries participating in the call. The principal investigator of the Polish research team must be at least a PhD holder.

Countries participating in the call: Austria, Belgium, Brasil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Republic of South Africa, Spain, Israel, Canada, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Hungary and Italy*.

*Some countries participate in the call regionally. For more information, please read the guidelines for foreign research teams participating in the call available on the call website: Participating countries/ regions Call 2023.

The NCN Council has decided to allocate EUR 1,200,000 for research projects carried out by the Polish research teams under the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 within the following subjects:

Sustainable advanced materials for energy
Innovative surfaces, coatings and interfaces
High performance composites
Functional materials
Advanced materials and technologies for health applications
Next generation materials for advance electronics

The budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal must be calculated according to the following exchange rate: EUR 1 = PLN 4.7728.

Call timeline:

International level (two-step procedure)

Both in the first and second step of the call, a joint proposal is prepared by the Polish research teams in cooperation with the international partners (in English) and submitted electronically by the international consortium leader via the international M-ERA.NET Submission System.

First step: 16 May 2023 (12:00 noon CET): submission deadline for pre-proposals

PLEASE NOTE: At the pre-proposal submission stage, Polish applicants submit no documents to the NCN.

Second step: 21 November 2023 (12:00 noon CET): submission deadline for full proposals

National level (single-step procedure):

An NCN proposal concerning the Polish part of the project is prepared by the Polish research team and submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system within 7 days of the submission deadline for joint full proposals (international level). NCN proposals are submitted at the full proposal submission stage.

28 November 2023 (4:00 p.m. CET): submission deadline for NCN UNISONO proposals by the Polish research teams.

PLEASE NOTE: The information provided in the NCN proposals and in joint full proposals must be consistent. Joint proposals annexed to NCN proposals must be consistent with joint proposals submitted at international level.

Call results:

March 2024: publication of the list of projects recommended for funding

Under the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023, funds may be awarded to cover salaries for members of the research team, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.

Please read:

call documents available at the website of the website of the M-ERA.NET network (applicable to all applicants in the call);
information for applicants below and annexes hereto (applicable only to researchers applying for NCN funding; other documents apply to researchers applying for NCBR funding).

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Who may apply for NCN funding?

NCN proposals may be submitted by entities specified in Article 27 (1) (1), (1) (2), (1) (4), (1) (5), and (1) (7) – (1) (8) of the NCN Act, hereinafter referred to as the “applicants”, for which project funding does not constitute state aid, i.e.:

universities,
federations of science and HE entities,
research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796),
research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383);
international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland,

5a. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 2098);

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,

Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,
other entities involved in research independently on a continuous basis,
groups of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-7 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company),
scientific and industrial centres laid down in the Act on Research Centres of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1383),
research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1183, as amended),
scientific libraries,
companies operating as R&D centres laid down in the Act on certain forms of support for innovation activities of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 706),
legal entities with registered office in Poland,
natural persons,
companies conducting research in other organisational form than set forth in sections 1-13.

If research projects are carried out by two or more Polish entities applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities (see point 8 above) and as such submit NCN proposals. NCN proposals are submitted by a leader specified in the research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities. An entity employing the principal investigator acts as the leader of the group of entities.

If, pursuant to Article 27 (1) (2) of the NCN Act, Polish entities cannot set up groups of entities, they are not eligible to apply for NCN funding of a joint research project.

Who may act as a Principal Investigator?

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Additional restrictions are described in detail in Chapter IV of the Terms and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO, annexed to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022 of 2 March 2022.

The principal investigator must be a person employed at the host institution for the project for the entire project duration period pursuant to at least a half-time employment contract. The principal investigator must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution. The foregoing obligation does not apply to evidenced project-related business trips or holiday, time off work and other excused absence at work governed by the applicable laws.

What are the topics covered by the call?

Researchers intending to apply for funding under the call must focus on the chief goals of the M-ERA.NET programme when preparing their research plan. The main objectives of the programme are as follows:

support the European Green Deal by striving to develop technologies in the area of material engineering to be used for clean energy-related applications, energy generation and harvesting, energy storage, electrolysers and fuel cells.
support the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in particular SDG 7 (“Affordable and clean energy”) through fostering research on sustainable energy storage technology, SDG 9 (“Industrial innovation and infrastructure”) by upgrading the technological capabilities of industrial sectors, and SDG 12 (“Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”) through an environmentally sound management of natural resources and reduced waste generation;
socio-ecological benefits in the context of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). Projects funded under M-ERA.NET 3 shall aim at developing responsible research and innovation processes to systematically address socio-ecological, ethical and political dimensions of material research, development and use.
support for the innovation chain by making best use of the interdisciplinary network the calls will facilitate the generation of knowledge along the innovation chain, from excellent science and research to innovative industrial applications; and
strengthen interdisciplinarity through an integrative approach across disciplines and across application fields, making the initiative an attractive and efficient tool for transnational joint projects that were unlikely to be realised before.

The call covers the following topics in the field of material science and material engineering:

Sustainable advanced materials for energy
Innovative surfaces, coatings and interfaces
High performance composites
Functional materials
Advanced materials and technologies for health applications
Next generation materials for advance electronics

PLEASE NOTE: The National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development are members of the M-ERA.NET network. Applicants from Poland whose projects meet the basic research criterion (TRL 1-4) may apply for NCN funding. Involvement of an industrial partner from Poland is not required.

Researchers whose projects start from TRL 3-6 and achieve TRL 5-8 may apply for NCBR funding. Involvement of a Polish industrial partner is required.

NCN proposals covering research tasks that are overlapping with tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier under any other NCN call or for which an appeal procedure has been initiated, may be submitted only after the funding decision has become final.

What is the project duration period?

Research projects may be planned in the call for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

How should the Polish budget be planned?

We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project with the NCN. To receive NCN feedback in time, please send the budget table in .xlsx format to magdalena.nowak@ncn.gov.pl by 3 May 2023. Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims to identify and estimate the resources required to perform the research tasks. The project budget must be based on realistic calculations and must comply with the guidelines provided in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

The maximum budget of the Polish research team is not pre-determined; however, the justification of the expenses versus the scope of tasks is assessed by an international expert team.

The budget in the NCN proposal should be quoted in PLN, while the budget in the joint proposal, in EUR.

The EUR budget for the Polish part of the research project in the joint proposal must be calculated according to the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4.7728 PLN.

Eligible costs in the project include direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

remuneration:

full-time employment: funds for full-time employment of the principal investigator or post-doc(s);
additional salaries for members of the research team;
salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students;

purchase or construction of research equipment, devices and software;
purchase of materials and small equipment;
outsourcing;
business trips, visits and consultations;
compensation for collective investigators; and
other costs crucial to the project.

Remuneration of administrative staff and costs of conference organisation (rental of rooms, catering) may be financed solely as indirect expenses.

Indirect costs may not exceed 20% of direct costs. Additionally, indirect costs of up to 2% of direct costs may be spent on open access to publications and research data. At the stage of project implementation, the host institution shall arrange with the principal investigator in the project for the distribution of at least 25% of the indirect costs’ value.

The NCN will award funding only for those projects carried out by the Polish research teams in the case of which foreign partners also receive funding.

Are there any restrictions on the minimum or maximum size of the Polish research team?

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of the research team members. For more information on the costs of salaries and scholarships, please read the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN and carried out as the multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

NCN scholarship recipients and/or post-docs in the project must be recruited in an open call procedure. Please read the Regulations for awarding scholarships in NCN-funded research projects.

Scholarship recipients and post-docs must not be named in either joint or NCN proposals.

Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?

Yes, they can. For more information, please read the State aid rules.

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

International level

Joint pre-proposals and full proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other members of the M.ERA.NET 3 and Secretariat of the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023.

Joint proposals successfully evaluated during the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation. For more information on merit-based evaluation of proposals submitted to M-ERA.NET Call 2023, please read the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 Guide for Proposers.

National level

NCN proposals are subject solely to an eligibility check carried out by the scientific coordinators.

The eligibility check of NCN proposals involves verification of proposals for completeness, compliance with all terms set forth in the call documents and Resolution No 28/2022, including compliance of the planned budget with the Annex thereto (Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO). Information provided in NCN proposals and in joint proposals must be consistent.

Open Access Policy

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted its Open Access Policy applicable to publications pursuant to which all research results stemming from NCN-funded research projects must be made available in immediate open access. The policy does not apply to monographs, anthology chapters and peer-reviewed collective works.

In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes as compliant with its Open Access Policy:

Publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
Publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals), as long as the Version of Record (VoR) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;
Publication in transformative journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

Papers must be published using the CC-BY licence (in the case of transformative journals, the CC-BY-SA licence is acceptable). The CC-BY-ND licence may also be used (regardless of the publication path selected).

More information on open access publication terms / instructions, as amended, can be found here.

Furthermore, please read the Guidelines: Open Access Policy.

When and how will the results be announced?

The M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 will be concluded by the time specified in the call documents (February/March 2024). Firstly, project coordinators will be informed about the outcome. Polish research teams will be notified by way of NCN Director’s decisions.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements, applicants may lodge an appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council. An appeal may be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.

Where can additional information be found?

For more information on the call, please go to the website of the M-ERA.NET 3 network. For detailed terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding in the call, please refer to the Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022 of 2 March 2022 (UNISONO).

Should you have any questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail or by phone:

Anna Kotarba, anna.kotarba@ncn.gov.pl

Show number

Before calling, make an e-mail appointment

To consult the budget, please contact:

Magdalena Nowak, magdalena.nowak@ncn.gov.pl

Show number

For Secretariat of the M-ERA.NET 3 call:

Project Coordinator:

Dr. Roland Brandenburg

FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency

1090 Wien, Sensengasse 1, Austria

office@m-era.net

Call Secretariat:

call-secretariat@m-era.net

Useful information

Before submitting an NCN proposal at national level:

make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Checking the proposal for completeness in OSF with the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information entered is correct and the required annexes have been attached;
disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the entity;
upload the signed confirmation of proposal submission.

Once the proposal is completed and all the required annexes attached, use the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button to submit the proposal to the NCN electronically via the OSF system.

Call documents

The M-era.net network:

The National Science Centre:

Documents applicable to the evaluation of proposals:

Documents to be read before starting an NCN project:

Call for proposals under M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 NOW OPEN

The National Science Centre, in cooperation with the M-ERA.NET network, has launched the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2022 for international research projects in the area of material science and material engineering within the following subjects:

Sustainable advanced materials for energy
Innovative surfaces, coatings and interfaces
Functional materials
Advanced materials and technologies for health applications
Next generation materials for advance electronics

Funding proposals may be submitted by international consortia composed of at least 3 research teams from at least 3 countries participating in the call: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Canada, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey.

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree.

Research projects may be planned in the call for a period of either 24 or 36 months. The project budget may cover funds for salaries for members of the research team, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.

The NCN has awarded 1,200,000 PLN EUR to the Polish research teams.

Researchers intending to submit their proposals should focus on the overriding objectives of the M-ERA.NET Programme, such as:

supporting the European Green Deal by striving to develop technologies in the area of material engineering to be used for clean energy-related applications, energy generation and harvesting, energy storage, electrolysers and fuel cells.
supporting the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG);
increasing the socio-ecological benefits in the context of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI);
supporting the innovation chain by making best use of the calls to facilitate the generation of knowledge along the innovation chain, from excellent science and research to innovative industrial applications; and
strengthening interdisciplinarity through an integrative approach across disciplines and across application fields.

ERC Starting Grants for two Polish researchers

NCN grant winners, Dr Agnieszka Brylak and Dr hab. Piotr Skowron from the University of Warsaw, win prestigious ERC Starting Grants.

Dr Agnieszka Brylak, from the Faculty of Modern Languages of the University of Warsaw specialises in Mesoamerican studies. Thanks to her ERC Starting Grant, she will be able to work on a project entitled The Concept of Teotl: a Complex Approach to the Principal Religious Category of pre-Hispanic Central Mexico. Teotl was a key concept in the religious worldview of the Nahua Indians. Brylak will try to determine whether it referred to a god, an otherworldly being or a kind of energy. She will also trace the use of the category in Christian writings. Her budget is almost 1.5 million euro.

Within the framework of NCN’s UWERTURA 3 scheme, Dr Brylak has previously completed a fellowship with a foreign ERC grant team that helped her gain important experience with the international grant system and prepare her ERC proposal. She has also finished two other NCN projects: PRELUDIUM 1, devoted to Pre-Hispanic performances of the Nahua Indians, and SONATA 11, focused on humour and laughter in the pre-Hispanic culture of this group.

Dr hab. Piotr Skowron from the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics of the University of Warsaw specialises in theoretical computer science, social choice theory and artificial intelligence. His ERC grant will go toward a project entitled “Proportional Algorithms for Democratic Decisions” (PRO-DEMOCRATIC). The scientist will analyse algorithms that could be used in complex voting systems, such as citizens’ budget decisions. Dr Skowron and his team will determine whether specific formal fairness criteria can be met by voting and then design tools for the analysis of electoral data and voting systems. His budget is close to 1.5 million euro. Dr Skowron is a double NCN grant winner, currently working on an OPUS 18 project devoted to committee selection systems.

Starting Grants are awarded to researchers who have earned their PhD 2 to 7 years earlier, for projects of up to 5 years. The grants help them set up their first independent research team or programme and achieve research independence.

The last round of ERC Starting Grants ended in November 2022. The list of winners featured four Polish scientists. Some proposals were put on the waiting list. The European Research Council later decided to allocate additional funding to more proposals, which means that the two scientists from the University of Warsaw will soon be able to start on their projects. ERC Starting Grants

ERC Starting Grants

Source: PAP Nauka w Polsce

Podcast 2. Evaluation of Proposals

Each year, the National Science Centre receives 10-12 thousand grant proposals. Funding is awarded to up to twenty-something percent of the best projects.

In the second episode of our NCN podcast, we are talking about the evaluation of proposals at the National Science Centre. We have invited Dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska and Dr inż. Tomasz Szumełda, scientific coordinators of the National Science Centre and Prof. Jacek Młynarski, NCN expert.

The coordinators are in charge of organising and conducting NCN calls, while the expert has participated in the evaluation of funding proposals on numerous occasions.

Guests invited by Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz advised on what to focus on when preparing grant proposals submitted to the National Science Centre and explained the proposal evaluation procedure. Finally, they were requested to discuss, among other things, the discrepancies in the proposal reviews and participation of foreign experts in the evaluation of proposals submitted to the NCN.

Anchor

Spotify

Apple Podcast

Google Podcast

We launched NCN podcasts three weeks ago with a discussion on men and women in science. The podcast dedicated to equal chances for men and women featured current and previous members of the NCN Council representing various research centres and disciplines: Joanna Golińska-Pilarek, Monika Kaczmarek, Jacek Kuźnicki, Justyna Olko, Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz and Teresa Zielińska.

NCN grants for advanced projects and new research teams

We have now selected the winners of MAESTRO and SONATA BIS. The two calls attracted 472 proposals, 63 of which will receive a total of more than 188 million zlotys in funding. MAESTRO is a call for experienced researchers, while SONATA BIS targets those who want to set up a new research team. Both provide funds for salaries, including scholarships for students and PhD students, research equipment, as well as other necessary project costs.

The 14th edition of MAESTRO attracted 72 proposals, out of which the jury selected five winners. One is Prof. dr hab. Katarzyna Maria Jednoróg from the Marceli Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, who will work on a project entitled Language Breakdown in Child Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Its purpose is to examine the connections between language deficits and disorders such as ADHD and the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), and test the correlations between language development and the levels of hormones involved in social cognition. The project is expected to set out new directions for research on the relationship between the brain and behaviour in human development. Another grant will go to the winner of the NCN Award 2016, Prof. dr hab. Mikołaj Bojańczyk from the University of Warsaw, who works in theoretical computer science, automata theory and logic.

400 proposals were submitted in the 12th edition of SONATA BIS and 58 of these will receive funding: 9 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 33 in Physical Sciences and Engineering and 16 in Life Sciences.

Ranking lists

MAESTRO 14 ranking list (.pdf)

SONATA BIS 12 ranking list (.pdf)

Dr hab. Katarzyna Natalia Zawadzka from the Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań will work on a project devoted to the processes of metamemory, e.g. the way in which external clues can affect metamemory, and then memory, at each stage of the process: 1) learning new information; 2) deciding whether a piece of information we need is available in our memory; 3) attempts to retrieve the information. The ultimate goal of the project is to see whether this new knowledge can be used to help eliminate errors in how metamemory regulates memory processes.

In Physical Sciences and Engineering, Dr hab. inż. Artur Maciej Rydosz from the Faculty of Computer Science, Electronics and Telecommunications at the AGH University of Science and Technology will carry out a basic research project that may one day allow us to produce cheap and widely available sensors, e.g. to enable screening tests for lifestyle diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and diabetes.

Dr Milena Anna Damulewicz from the Faculty of Biology of the Jagiellonian University and her team will work on a model of Drosophila melanogaster (an insect more commonly known as the fruit fly) to analyse the molecular mechanism by which light affects the progression of Parkinson’s disease. She will try to show that, in elderly patients, disruptions of the circadian clock caused by light pollution cause a number of changes in eye cell metabolism, which ultimately accelerate neurodegeneration.

Other SONATA BIS 12 winners also include winners of the NCN Award 2022: Dr hab. Karolina Safarzyńska, who studies behavioural and experimental complexity economics and analyses climate change policies and Dr hab. Piotr Wcisło, a quantum physicist from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

Ranking list

MAESTRO 14 announcement

SONATA BIS 12 announcement

Lectures by NCN Award winners

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Call procedure and results

New limits to the number of projects and proposals submitted to the NCN

In dialogue with the community

Call documents

National Science Centre

Information for applicants

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