CHIST-ERA has just announced the results of its Open & Re-usable Research Data & Software (ORD) call. Out of the nine winning projects, five include Polish researchers. Polish teams from Warsaw, Krakow and Wrocław will get a total of 3.5 million zlotys for projects related to open science.

Two projects from the list are headed by Polish researchers. Dr Robert Sot from the University of Warsaw will coordinate a project on FAIR standards (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) in long-term bird population studies, while Dr hab. inż. Tomasz Kajdanowicz from the Wrocław University of Technology will head a project on judicial data gathering and coding. The other three projects involving Polish partners will focus on open data in the context of physical sciences, social sciences and information sciences.

The following projects include Polish research teams:

• FAIRBiRDS: FAIR Bird Research Data and Software (FAIRBiRDS): closing the research lifecycle in the long tail of science – the project will be coordinated by Dr Robert Sot (international consortium leader) from the University of Warsaw and conducted by an international consortium including partners from Belgium, Brazil, France and the Netherlands.
• JuDDGES: Judicial Decision Data Gathering, Encoding and Sharing – the project will be coordinated by Dr hab. inż. Tomasz Kajdanowicz (international consortium leader) from the Wrocław University of Technology and conducted by an international consortium including partners from France and Great Britain.
• OpenMAPP: Open meta-analysis in particle physics – the project will include Dr hab. Andrzej Siódmok from the Jagiellonian University in an international consortium with partners from France (international consortium leader), South Korea, Turkey and Great Britain.
• OPENMIN: Consolidating Open Science and Data Initiatives on Ethnic and Migrant Minorities in Europe – the project will include Dr hab. Justyna Salamońska from the Koźmiński University in an international consortium with partners from France (international consortium leader), Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Romania.
• SoFAIR: Making Software FAIR: A machine-assisted workflow for the research software lifecycle – the project will include Dr Tomasz Umerle from the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in an international consortium with partners from Great Britain (international consortium leader), France and the Czech Republic.

Full list of projects recommended for funding under CHIST-ERA ORD

The CHIST-ERA ORD call was open to international consortia made up of at least three research teams from at least three different participating countries. The PI of the Polish team had to have at least a PhD degree.

The purpose of CHISTERA is to support research on information and communication technologies. To date, the NETWORK has launched 13 international calls for proposals, with the next one being scheduled to start in October.

Scientists from Warsaw and Kraków will work on two international research projects funded by the NCN in cooperation with the SNSF, with a total budget of more than PLN 4.2 million. We are pleased to present the second ranking list of projects selected in this year’s Weave-UNISONO call.

Both scientists specialise in Life Sciences. Dr Marcin Tabaka from the International Eye Research Centre of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences will work on a project focused on the spatial determinants of immunotherapy resistance in cancer. Thanks to important advancements in cancer research, immune-checkpoint therapy (ICI) has emerged as an important treatment modality for cancers that resist other available therapies.  Recent research, however, shows that only 13% of patients respond to immunotherapy and, what’s more, its mechanisms are not entirely understood. This problem will be tackled by Dr Tabaka and his team in partnership with a team from the University of Basel, led by Professor Alfred Zippelius. They will attempt to determine precisely how ICI works and why, in a majority of patients, it fails. To this end, they will conduct an interdisciplinary study, including a series of experiments to analyse the cellular and transcriptional changes associated with tumours infiltrating immune cells; in addition, they will develop computational tools to better understand the organisation of the tumour microenvironment. The Polish team in the four-year project will receive nearly PLN 1.85 million in funding.

The other winner in this year’s Weave-UNISONO call is Dr Tomasz Kościółek from the Małopolska Biotechnology Centre of the Jagiellonian University, who will study the human gut microbiome.  Scientists all over the world have long been researching the diversity of these gut-inhabiting organisms across space and time, trying to understand how variations in their populations relate to human health and behaviour. This research has uncovered more than 600 million protein-coding genes from nearly 5,000 prokaryotic species, but the function of around half of these genes remains unknown. Dr Kościółek, in partnership with researchers from the University of Basel, headed by Prof. Torsten Schwede, will study these genes and attempt to identify their role and function in the human body, using deep learning and large-scale evolutionary modelling. The researchers will create an atlas of human gut protein structures and functions, and a protein universe map to help scientists navigate this vast space. The Polish team will receive nearly PLN 2.4 million for their four-year project.

The projects were selected following an evaluation by the Swiss National Science Foundation in its capacity as the lead agency under the Weave program. The National Science Centre accepted the results and awarded grants to the Polish teams.

Weave-UNISONO

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 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 carefully read the call text and submit their funding proposals.

DAINA 3 is a funding opportunity for joint Polish-Lithuanian research teams launched by the Research Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos mokslo taryba, LMT) and the National Science Centre (NCN).

The programme aims to support research projects in all fields of science (within one of the 26 NCN panels).

Within the DAINA 3 scheme, only basic research projects will be funded by the NCN and LMT.

• Call announcement: 15 December 2023
• Call deadline: 15 March 2024
• Call results: November 2024
• Start date of joint research projects: January 2025

ELIGIBILITY

• Projects must involve basic research and feature an integrated work programme. Research equipment or networking activities can only be funded within projects with a basic research focus. As stand-alone projects, research equipment or networking projects will not be eligible.
• Grants that are considered state aid will not be offered.
• PIs may submit only one proposal under the same call.
• Joint Polish-Lithuanian research projects may be funded for a period of 36 months.
• Eligible host institutions in Poland: NCN proposals may be submitted by the entities specified in Article 27 (1) (1) – (2), (1) (4) – (5) and (1) (7) – (8) of the Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 153).
• Eligible participating entities in Lithuania: Lithuanian research and higher education institutions entered into the Register of Education and Research Institutions (available at  https://www.aikos.smm.lt/en/Pages/Default.aspx  under “Registers” in the ”Education Providers” category).
• The budget of the Polish part of the project must not exceed PLN 1,000,000.
• The budget of the Lithuanian part of the project must not exceed EUR 150,000 EUR.
• Polish Principal Investigators (PI) must be at least PhD holders when submitting their proposal. Lithuanian PIs must be scientists (who are at least PhD holders when submitting a proposal).

CONTACT DETAILS

POLAND, NCN

NCN Coordinators

• Life Sciences: Dr Jadwiga Spyrka
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: Dr Oskar Wolski
• Physical Sciences and Engineering: Dr inż. Michał Olejnik

General Affairs

• Dr Magdalena Nowak

LITHUANIA, LMT

• Asta Aleksandravičienė

“It is with alarm that we are witnessing the public statements made by the Minister of Education and Science about the Ministry’s plans to change the status of the NCN or shut it down. We fear that such steps would have disastrous implications for Polish science”, write 61 winners of the L’Oreal-UNESCO Scholarship for Women and Science in an open letter to the President and the Prime Minister of Poland.

This is already the fourth appeal signed in defence of the NCN by researchers working at Polish and foreign research institutions. Earlier this month, similar concerns were voiced by groups of ERC grant holders, FNP award winners, and FNP fellows.

“We wish to appeal to Mr President and Mr Prime Minister to show caution with regard to these changes and to preserve the structure and mechanism of the NCN, whose work was rated positively by the Ministry of Education and Science in 2023”, the letter reads. “Inspired by the European Research Council (ERC), the NCN has become the main source of funding for basic research in Poland. Its assessment criteria and transparency in the way grants are awarded have made the NCN a key instrument for supporting basic research in our country”, it adds.

The signatories of the open letter echo the previous appeals, reiterating that what Polish science requires is stability, independence and rigorous standards, and the NCN stands guard over these values.

“Our research success in Poland and beyond has been made possible in part by funding from the National Science Centre (NCN)”, emphasise the 61 life sciences researchers who signed the open letter to the President and the Prime Minister.

Full text of the letter

We would like to invite researchers interested in the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) for Social Sciences and Humanities Call Democracy, Governance and Trust (DGT Call 2023), to participate in the 2nd live webinar on Thursday, 5th of October 2023, 15:00 (CEST).

The webinar will provide final clarifications on the Call and on the use of the proposal submission system (SAGe). To optimize the Q&A session, questions may be submitted in advance via registration form. Webinar will be held in English.

Click here for registration. The webinar will be available on YouTube after the live broadcast.

Webinar Agenda and detailed information can be found on the FAPESP - São Paulo Research Foundation website.

“If the minister gave us an extra 100 million tomorrow, we would give it all away in grants, because this is what we do: we support the best research projects”, says Prof. Z. Błocki in an interview published by “Gazeta Wyborcza”.

Professor Błocki adds that, even if “there were no inflation to speak of, the budget of the NCN should still continue to increase for many years to come as part of a long-term programme to catch up with the average government spending on science around Europe.”

“Freezing the budget of the NCN has dealt the hardest blow to individual researchers. Due to high inflation, research costs have increased dramatically, which means researchers now apply for higher grants; however, since our budget is not growing, our experts need to turn down a lot of excellent projects that should otherwise be funded… What’s at stake, I believe, is the overall good of Polish science. These unfavourable indicators mean that many good projects cannot be funded and the prospects of young people are shrinking much faster”, the director laments.

The interview also touched on many other issues concerning research policy and the NCN, such as its competitive edge, proposal evaluation and support for young researchers.

The interview was published on 22 September by “Gazeta Wyborcza”.

Earlier this month, Prof. Zbigniew Błocki also talked with Mariusz Karwowski from "Forum Akademickie".

We are pleased to present the latest MINIATURA 7 ranking list. 139 researchers from all over Poland will complete a single research task, such as a preliminary/pilot study, library or archive search, research fellowship, or research/consultation trip, thanks to nearly PLN 5.4 million in funding from the NCN in the fifth round of the call.

The winners of this round are interested in a very diverse range of themes. They are looking for new solutions for the treatment of lifestyle diseases such as cancer and diabetes, analysing the optimal organisation of urban space or studying the impact of artificial intelligence on different aspects of our lives. Certain topics, however, recur in all panels; one such topic is the recycling and reuse of industrial waste or products to reduce the environmental footprint of industry. Interestingly, statistics suggest that it is women who take a particular interest in this subject matter.

Zero waste in winning projects

48 projects were selected in Physical Sciences and Engineering. Dr inż. Julita Krassowska from the Białystok University of Technology will conduct preliminary research on the influence of carbon fibres recovered from advanced products of the automotive industry and the renewable energy sector on the properties of cement concretes, while Dr inż. Kamila Mizerna from the Opole University of Technology will analyse the possible industrial use of ash-slag mixtures, a waste product of the coal power industry.

Some of the 54 winners in Life Science are also focused on industrial waste recycling. In her pilot study, Dr inż. Alicja Stanisławska from the Gdańsk University of Technology will search for an effective method to produce nanocomposite SCOBY nanocellulose-hydroxyapatite from the waste products of the drink industry for applications in bone tissue engineering, and Dr Beata Koim-Puchowska from the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz will study the effect of microbially synthesized surfactin from potato industry waste on cellulase activity.

In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, grants were awarded to 37 researchers. The theme of zero waste is addressed by a preliminary research project proposed by Dr Katarzyna Uklańska from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. The project is devoted to thrift shops and circular boutiques; Uklański will look into the identity of such shops and analyse the motivations of second-hand shoppers.

All project topics can be found on the ranking list.

RANKING LISTS

RANKING LIST NO. 7

Funding per panel

• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – PLN 1,002,127

• Physical Sciences and Engineering – PLN 1,914,052
• Life Sciences – PLN 2,469,476

The total budget of projects selected in the fifth round of MINIATURA 7 is PLN 5,405,655.

About MINIATURA

The main objective of the 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 call is open to PhD holders who earned their degree no earlier than 1 January 2011 (except in special cases specified in the terms and conditions of the call). They need to be employed by the host institution and demonstrate a research record of at least one published paper or at least one achievement in art or art research.

Funds for research activities carried out under the MINIATURA 7 call were divided proportionally between the months during which proposals were accepted. In this edition, the submission deadline was 31 July 2023.

Funding decisions are sent 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 not, contact the person in charge of handling the proposal, as indicated in the OSF system.

In the run-up to the upcoming parliamentary elections, the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) organises a series of online debates entitled “What has come to PASs in research policy?”.

The series started on 11 September. It consists of six meetings, during which politicians from major parties running in the elections, talk to Prof. Dariusz Jemielniak, Vice-President of PAS, and share their thoughts on supporting research, funding early-stage researchers and using science to address social problems.

The 7th episode, meant as a recap, will bring together experts from the research community to talk about the challenges of research policy and prospects for change in Polish science. The panellists will include Prof. Zbigniew Błocki, acting NCN Director, Prof. Marek Konarzewski, President of PAS, Prof. Marta Miączyńska, Director of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw and Prof. Piotr Wachowiak, Rector of the Warsaw School of Economics.

The debate will take place at 6 pm on 26 September.

Scientists from Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic will conduct a joint Life Sciences project. The Polish team will receive nearly PLN 900,000 in funding. We are pleased to present the 7th ranking list of the Weave-UNISONO call (2022).

Funding was awarded to a project entitled "Targeting a unique mRNA decapping enzyme for trypanosomatid infectious disease drug discovery, chemical biology and biotechnology applications". The Polish PI is Dr Maria Górna from the Biological and Chemical Research Center of the University of Warsaw, who will work in partnership with Dr Susanne Kramer from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in Germany and Dr Martin Zoltner from the Charles University in Prague (Biocev, Czech Republic Center for Research of Pathogenicity and Virulence of Parasites).

Trypanosomes are unicellular parasites that cause infectious tropical diseases and pose an important threat, especially to people living in rural areas with high poverty rates. The vast majority of currently used treatments have serious limitations, such as adverse toxicity or emerging resistance; moreover, their mode of action is often not well understood, which means they cannot be improved or adapted when necessary. Scientists from Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic will work together to explore new possibilities of target-based drug design, focusing their attention on ALPH1, an mRNA decapping enzyme found in trypanosomes.

The project was selected following an evaluation by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in its capacity as the lead agency under the Weave program. The National Science Centre and the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) accepted the results and awarded grants to the Polish and Czech partner teams.

Weave-UNISONO

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 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 carefully read the call text and submit their funding proposals.

A short reminder of how to prepare proposals in the Weave-UNISONO call for the Polish research teams.

1. Please note that under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to the SNSF as the lead agency by 2 October 2023, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to the SNSF, by 9 October 2023 at the latest.
2. PLEASE NOTE: Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the OSF submission system, the Polish research team has 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and submit it to the NCN. After that, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team that has not sent its proposal to the NCN must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system which may impact the budget for research tasks performed by the Polish research teams specified in the NCN proposal (see points 3 and 4 below).

   PLEASE NOTE: The 45-day period applies only to the period during which NCN proposals may be edited in the OSF submission system. Under Weave-UNISONO, NCN proposals must be submitted to the NCN via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of joint proposals to the lead agency, within 7 calendar days at the latest.

3. PLEASE NOTE: NCN proposals processed in the OSF submission system:
   • by 30 September 2023 (inclusive), may include research projects that will be carried out by the Polish research teams from 2024 onwards.

     The following years will be included in the project budget, depending on the project implementation period:

     2024-2025 for two-year projects,

     2024-2025-2026 for three-year projects,

     2024-2025-2026-2027 for four-year projects;

   • from 1 October 2023 (inclusive), may include research projects that will be carried out by the Polish research teams from 2025 onwards.

     The following years will be included in the project budget, depending on the project implementation period:

     2025-2026 for two-year projects,

     2025-2026-2027 for three-year projects and

     2025-2026-2027-2028 for four-year projects.

4. In the case of joint proposals submitted to the lead agencies covering Polish team budgets from 2024 onwards, make sure that:

   If the work on NCN proposals in the OSF submission system starts before 30 September 2023, with project performance scheduled to begin in 2024, and the NCN proposal is not completed and submitted within 45 days of the date the work on the proposal has started in the OSF submission system, a new proposal must be created. A new NCN proposal (created after 1 October 2023) may cover research projects with a start date in 2025. If a joint proposal has already been submitted to the lead agency for a research project involving 2024 funding, information in the NCN proposal will be inconsistent with information in the joint proposal and may result in the proposal being rejected on the grounds that it does not meet the eligibility criteria.

   • the work on NCN proposals in the OSF submission system starts before 30 September 2023 and
   • NCN proposals are submitted to the NCN within 45 days of the date that the work on the proposal has started in the OSF submission system.
5. The budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal should be  calculated according to the following exchange rate:
   • In joint proposals, for which NCN proposals are processed and submitted via the OSF submission system by 31 December 2023: 1 EUR=4,7244 PLN;
   • In joint proposals, for which NCN proposals are processed and submitted via the OSF submission system from 1 January 2023 onwards: 1 EUR=4,5940 PLN;
6. NCN proposals processed in the OSF submission system in 2023, to which the exchange rate of 1 EUR= 4,7244 PLN applies, must be completed and submitted via the OSF submission system by 31 December 2023, 23:59:59. Otherwise, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system, to which the exchange rate 1 EUR=4,5940 PLN will apply. If a joint proposal has already been submitted to the lead agency, in which the budget of the Polish part of the project was calculated according to another exchange rate, information in the NCN proposal will be inconsistent with information in the joint proposal and may result in the proposal being rejected on the grounds that it does not meet the eligibility criteria.
7. As of 1 January 2024, the updated Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre under international calls carried out as multilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure shall apply.