ERC Mentoring Initiative Information Day: webinar

Tue, 02/14/2023 - 08:35
Kod CSS i JS

The National Science Centre and the ERC National Contact Point Department for Horizon Europe are organising the ERC Mentoring Initiative Information Day on 2 March 2023, at 10 am - 11.30 am, in the form of a ClickMeeting webinar.

The ERC Mentoring Initiative is a programme created by the European Research Council to support researchers applying for ERC grants. Together with the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), the National Science Centre (NCN) joined the initiative in May 2022. The agencies made it possible for their grant winners to cover the costs of participation in the ERC Mentoring Initiative from their domestic project resources. Researchers may apply to the National Contact Point Department of the NCBR specifying domestic grants they are pursuing. Having verified the information, the National Contact Point Department will identify mentors from the database provided by the ERC and will initiate contacts between the applicant and the mentor. The researchers will specify the scope of the mentoring together with the mentors according to the applicable rules provided in the programme description.

During the webinar, the guidelines of the ERC Mentoring Initiative will be presented as well as funding possibilities offered by the NCBR, NCN, FNP and NAWA under their programmes. At the end of the meeting, the Q&A session will be held.

You can register website of the National Contact Point.

Weave-UNISONO launch of a call for proposals with the Czech GAČR as the lead agency

Mon, 02/13/2023 - 15:23
Kod CSS i JS

We are pleased to announce that the Czech agency GAČR will conduct a call for proposals under the Weave programme between 13 February 2023 and 4 April 2023, with the Czech agency acting as the lead agency. Please note that under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to GAČR, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to GAČR, by 11 April 2023, 23:59 p.m. at the latest.

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.

Webinar QuantERA Call 2023

Thu, 02/09/2023 - 11:32
Kod CSS i JS

On Wednesday, 22 February 2023, at 11 a.m., a webinar will be held on QuantERA Call 2023 for transnational research projects in Quantum Science and Technologies. The webinar addressed to the Polish research teams intending to enter the call will be held in English.

The meeting will include discussions on the call subject and rules of submitting proposals to the National Science Centre and National Centre for Research and Development. The webinar will feature coordinators of projects funded under the QuantERA Programme:

  • Welcome – prof. Konrad Banaszek
  • Presentation of the QuantERA program – Sylwia Kostka
  • Scope of the QuantERA Call 2023 – prof. Konrad Banaszek
  • NCBiR guidelines for Polish applicants – Mateusz Skutnik
  • NCN guidelines for Polish applicants – dr Eng. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska
  • Presentation of the project coordinator NImSoQ – dr Anna Kamińska
  • Presentation of the project coordinator VERIqTAS – dr hab. Remigiusz Augusiak
  • Presentation of the project coordinator ExTRaQT – dr Alexander Streltsov
  • Answers to questions from the audience

Please register here.

To find out more on the call, please go to: https://quantera.eu/call-2023-announcement/ .

NCN podcasts

Wed, 02/08/2023 - 10:20
Kod CSS i JS

The first episode of NCN podcasts is called “Men and Women in Science”. We are launching a series of talks about important issues facing the scientific community and science in Poland. The first podcast has already been broadcasted via streaming platforms.

The next episodes will feature researchers from various academic centres in Poland, NCN staff and members of the NCN Council. In the serious of talks (“Science is All About People”), we will discuss, inter alia, the operation of our institution, research funding and support for internationalisation of science. New episodes will be broadcasted once a month.

The first episode dedicated to equal chances for men and women featured current and previous members of the NCN Council: Dr hab. Joanna Golińska-Pilarek, Prof. Monika Kaczmarek, Prof. Jacek Kuźnicki, Prof. Justyna Olko, Dr hab. Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz and Prof. Teresa Zielińska.

The Report on Men and Women in Science published by the National Science Centre in 2022 served as a starting point for the talks. The Report was drafted by the Evaluation Team and Committee of Research Activity Analysis of the National Science Centre based on a survey involving nearly 6,000 researchers from all over Poland.

“We have already done a lot and almost everyone has gender equality plans in place but I personally still feel some lack of understanding of equal opportunities for men and women across the scientific community” says Monika Kaczmarek.

The podcast guests have discussed the mechanisms for positive increase of female participation in science and decision-making groups and processes. Guests have shared their ideas and suggestions on how to support equal chances for men and women in science allowing researchers to balance their family and professional life.

Podcast host: Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz.

Listen to our podcast!

   Anchor

   Spotify

   Apple Podcast

 

The next episode of our podcast will be broadcasted at the beginning of March. We will talk about how to draft a good proposal and receive an NCN grant.

Our first podcast was broadcasted on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February).

This week, we will present out winners and their projects on social media.

On 10 February, we will participate in a conference  (“Scientific Excellence Has No Gender”) organised by the Polish Young Academy PAS. The conference will be streamed online.

ForestValue2 Call pre-announcement

Fri, 02/03/2023 - 09:30
Kod CSS i JS

ForestValue2 will launch a Joint Call in 2023 - funded by national funding agencies - aiming to support transnational collaborative R&I projects that will produce knowledge to support the best possible use of forests and forest resources as well as to provide multiple benefits for society and the economy.

Call opening: 2 May 2023 (indicative).

The precise topics are still to be defined by the participating funders; however, the call will aim to encourage and make best use of cross-sectoral, coherent, and integrated perspectives.

To date, the following countries have expressed a preliminary interest to participate in the call: Finland, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.

Please follow https://forestvalue.org/ for any updates.

Please note that the information above is provisional and subject to change.

POLONEZ BIS 3 – decisions after the eligibility check

Thu, 02/02/2023 - 16:31
Kod CSS i JS

Decisions for the POLONEZ BIS 3 proposals that did not meet the eligibility criteria were sent out on 2 February 2023.

Please note that decisions of the Director of the National Science Centre are served in the form of an electronic document sent to the e-mail address provided by the applicant in the proposal.

Information was sent from the address: ncn.wnioski@ncn.gov.pl and contained a link to download the decision of the Director of the National Science Centre.

The correspondence was generated automatically – please do not reply to the message you received. If you have any problems with access to the document, please contact the POLONEZ BIS Team polonez@ncn.gov.pl.

The status of your proposal application can be checked in the OSF system.

Seventh Small Grant Scheme Call Already Open

Wed, 02/01/2023 - 13:39
Kod CSS i JS

We are pleased to announce the MINIATURA 7 call for single research activities, such as preliminary/pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, research visits and/ or consultations with a budget of 20,000,000 PLN.

The main objective of the call is to finance research activities for the purposes of future research projects submitted to NCN calls for proposals as well as other national and international calls. The call for a single research activity carried out over a period of up to 12 months will have a budget of 5,000 PLN and 50,000 PLN. Funds can be requested by researchers who have been conferred their PhD degree after 1 January 2011 and whose scientific achievements include at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.

A researcher designated to carry out a research activity must be employed by the applicant pursuant to an employment contract on the proposal submission date and must not be a principal investigator in a project funded by the National Science Centre or winning applicant of a call for fellowships (including FUGA and UWERTURA) or ETIUDA, and must not have requested funding under another NCN call as an applicant, principal investigator or fellowship candidate.

As of this edition of the MINIATURA call, proposals may be submitted in either Polish or English. A researcher may submit only one proposal and may only carry out one research under a call for proposals in the course of their research career.

Evaluation of proposals and results

Proposals are submitted electronically via the OSF submission system pursuant to the proposal submission procedure. Proposals are submitted according to the terms laid down in the Guidelines for MINIATURA 7 Proposal Completion.

The call for proposals will be open between 1 February 2023 and 31 July 2023, 4 p.m.

It may be suspended if the total amount of requested funds exceeds twice the value of funds allocated by the NCN Council for the research activities to be carried out under the call.

Funds for research activities carried out under the MINIATURA 7 call are divided proportionally to the number of months of the call for proposals. Funding is awarded in so far as (inter alia) the proposal is within the pool of funds available for a given month. In the previous MINIATURA call for proposals, a large number of proposals was submitted in the last month. Please remember that you can also apply in the other months of the call.

The first MINIATURA call was launched on 15 December 2016 and had 6 editions by the end of 2022. So far, 13,995 proposals have been submitted to the MINIATURA calls, of which 3,859 received funding.

Previous MINIATURA call results

An article in FORUM AKADEMICKIE summarising previous MINIATURA calls

MINIATURA 7 Call Text

MINIATURA 7

Kod CSS i JS

The Director of the National Science Centre has announced the MINIATURA 7 call for single research activities carried out in one of the following forms: preliminary/pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, research visits and/ or consultations. The main objective of the call is to finance research activities for the purposes of future research projects to be submitted to NCN calls for proposals as well as other national and international calls. Funds of 5,000 PLN to 50,000 PLN can be applied for under the call, to finance a research activity to be carried out over a period of up to 12 months. Funds can be applied for by institutions employing researchers:

  1. whose scientific achievements include at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art;
  2. who were conferred their PhD degree after 1 January 2011. This period may be extended pursuant to § 5 (5) (a) of the Regulations. In the case of multiple PhD holders, the reference date is the date of award of the first PhD.

The Council of the National Science Centre has allocated 20,000,000 PLN for research activities carried out under the MINIATURA 7 call for proposals.

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system available at https://osf.opi.org.pl pursuant to the proposal submission procedure The proposal submission procedure is described in the Guidelines to complete proposals submitted to MINIATURA 7 in the OSF submission system.

The call for proposals will be open between 1 February 2023 and 31 July 2023, 4 p.m.

The call for proposals may be suspended if the total amount of requested funds exceeds twice the value of funds allocated by the NCN Council for the research activities to be carried out under the call.

PLEASE NOTE: Funds for research activities carried out under the MINIATURA 7 call are divided proportionally to the number of months of the call for proposals. Funding is awarded under the call in so far as (inter alia) the proposal is within the pool of funds available for a given month. In the previous MINIATURA call for proposals, a large number of proposals was submitted in the last month. Please remember that you can also apply in the other months of the call.

Please read the call documents included in this call text.

Please note the Most important changes tab where you can find out about any changes to the call documents as compared to the previous edition of the call.

The NCN Council has decided that as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, no collaboration with Russian entities is allowed under proposals submitted to NCN calls. If any such collaboration is planned, a proposal will be rejected as ineligible.

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Major Changes

  1. Proposals may be submitted in Polish or in English (§5 (6) of the Regulations).
  2. The budget planning aspect must be clarified. The budget is an important aspect of the proposal subject to evaluation. It must be well-justified with regard to the subject and scope of the research activity, based on realistic calculations and must itemise expenses to be covered from the NCN resources, the so-called eligible cost.
  3. The eligibility criterion for travel expenses must be clarified. The travel expenses must be calculated in line with the principle of advisability and frugality, on the basis of the actual expenses (§4 (2) of the Types of Costs in Research Activities).

Eligible Applicants

Proposals under the call may be submitted by:

  1. universities;
  2. federations of science and HE entities;
  3. 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 2020, item 1796);
  4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws 2022, items 498, as amended);
  5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland;
  6. scientific libraries;
  7. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws 2020, items 2098);
  8. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network and
  9. legal entities with registered office in Poland if they belong to the public finances sector.

Eligible Researchers Carrying out Research Activities

Research activities must be carried out by researchers:

  1. who have been conferred their PhD degree after 1 January 2011. This period may be extended by the time of long-term (in excess of 90 days) documented sick leave or rehabilitation leave granted on account of being unfit to work. In addition, this period may be extended by the number of months of child care leave granted pursuant to the Labour Code and in the case of women, by 18 months for every child born or adopted, whichever manner of accounting for career breaks is preferable. In the case of multiple PhD holders, the reference date is the date of award of the first PhD;
  2. who have been employed by the applicant pursuant to an employment contract on the proposal submission date;
  3. who have not acted as the principal investigator in any of the projects funded by the NCN;
  4. who are not winning applicants of an ETIUDA call for doctoral scholarships or a call for fellowships (including FUGA and UWERTURA) funded by the NCN;
  5. who are not an applicants, principal investigators or fellowship candidates under proposals submitted or recommended for funding under another NCN call; and
  6. whose scientific achievements include at least one paper published or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.

Restrictions on Submitting Proposals under MINIATURA 7

Restrictions on submitting proposals are described in detail in Chapter IV of the Regulations.

Researchers carrying out a research activity in a proposal submitted to the MINIATURA 7 call must not be applicants, principal investigators or fellowship candidates under proposals submitted or recommended for funding under another NCN call. This condition applies until the NCN Director’s decision regarding the proposal reviewed under the MINIATURA 7 call becomes final. Only one proposal may be submitted under the MINIATURA 7 call, in which a person is specified as carrying out a research activity, except as specified in Chapter IV § 10 of the Regulations.

PLEASE NOTE: One may carry out a research activity funded in any edition of the MINIATURA call only once.

Subject-Matter of the Call

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of 26 NCN panels comprising three groups: HS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering and NZ – Life Sciences.

The topic of the proposal must concern a single research activity carried out in one of the following forms: preliminary/pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, research visits and/or consultations.

Research Activity Duration

Research activities may be planned for a period of up to 12 months bearing in mind that the funding decision will be issued within 5 months of the proposal submission date.

Research Activity Budget

The terms of funding under MINIATURA 7 differ from the rules applicable to NCN calls for research project funding. Please read the Types of Costs in Research Activities.

Please find out which costs are not allowed under the MINIATURA 7 call (§2 of the Types of Costs in Research Activities) and which expenditures must not be financed as direct costs but can be financed as indirect costs (§5 of the Types of Costs in Research Activities).

The budget is an important aspect of proposals submitted to the MINIATURA call subject to evaluation. The expenditures must be well-justified and consisted with the research activity, based on realistic calculations and must itemise expenses to be covered from the NCN resources, the so-called eligible costs. The expenditures must also be well-planned and calculated in line with the principle of advisability and frugality, on the basis of the actual expenses, and must be consistent with the applicable laws, including the internal regulations of the host institution.

If an unjustified budget is planned, the proposal may be rejected.

State Aid

State aid is not allowed under the MINIATURA 7 call for proposals. For more information, please go to the State Aid Section.

Proposal Evaluation Procedure

  1. Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation.
  2. The eligibility check is carried out by the coordinators.
  3. Only proposals approved as eligible by the coordinator can be accepted for merit-based evaluation.
  4. Merit-based evaluation of proposals is conducted by the Expert Team members.
  5. Proposals undergo a single-stage merit-based evaluation during which individual reviews are drafted by three Expert Team members acting individually pursuant to the criteria established by the NCN Council for the MINIATURA 7 call.
  6. Merit-based evaluation is performed based on the information specified in the proposal.
  7. The Expert Team members may reject a proposal as ineligible at the stage of merit-based evaluation.

For more information on the proposal evaluation procedure, please read the Detailed Procedure for Evaluating Proposals for Funding of a Single Research Activity.

Merit-based Evaluation of Proposals

Merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed by the Expert Team members appointed by the NCN Council among outstanding researchers who are at least PhD holders.

Proposal Evaluation Criteria

In the evaluation of proposals, the following factors are reviewed in particular:

  1. compliance with the basic research criterion;
  2. preparation of the proposal and meeting other requirements of the call text;
  3. justification of the costs planned as regards the subject and scope of the research activity; The budget is an important aspect of the proposal subject to evaluation. It must be based on realistic calculations and must itemise expenses to be covered from the NCN resources, the so-called eligible cost;
  4. assessment of the research activity and justification thereof in view of the research project to be submitted under future NCN calls and/or other national or international calls and
  5. evaluation of the scientific achievements of the person carrying out the research activity.

Proposals are evaluated pursuant to Proposal Evaluation Procedure.

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Call Results

The call results will be published on the NCN’s website and delivered to the applicants by way of a decision of the NCN Director within 5 months of the proposal submission date.

Additional Information

Please read the Information for Applicants available on the NCN’s website.

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by email: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone

Call Timeline

Read our 2023 Call Timeline and follow news on our website: www.ncn.gov.pl.

Useful Information

If you are intending to submit a proposal to MINIATURA 7:

  1. read the call documents referred to in the call text, in particular:
  2. obtain the data from the applicant that are required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and the research activity,
  3. draw up the following documents in Polish or in English:
  • proposal title related to the selected type of research activity to be carried out;
  • type of the research activity to be carried out;
  • brief description of the research activity to be carried out (1 standard page, A4);
  • description of the link between the research activity to be carried out and a research project to be submitted to future NCN calls and/or other national or international calls as well as justification thereof in view of the potential impact on the scientific level of the future research project (1 standard page, A4);
  • information on the scientific achievements of the person carrying out the research activity containing:
      - their career in research, the most important publications/artistic achievements/ achievements in research in art, participation in research projects, research experience, scholarships, prizes and awards (no more than 6,000 characters),
       - publications or artistic achievements: the most important publication in pdf format (in the language of publication) or the most important artistic achievement or achievement in research in art,
       - justification for choosing the annexed publication or presented artistic achievement or achievement in research in art (no more than 1,500 characters).
  • expenditures planned to carry out the research activity in compliance with the Types of Costs in the Research Activities;
  • general budget;
  • information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of the research activity, as required by the proposal;
  • information on the ethical aspects, including consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the research activity in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline, as required by the proposal;
  • in the case of a research activity 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 activity to be carried out in a host institution that does not receive any operating support for a research activity, information on research carried out over the last 2 years, together with a list of publications and information on research equipment and other instruments crucial to the research; and
  • declaration of the applicant, as required by the proposal.

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

  1. check if all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Verification of the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
  2. disable editing of the final version of the proposal;
  3. download the final version of the proposal, have it signed by the authorised representative of the applicant and submit the proposal that has been signed to the OSF submission system; and
  4. submit the proposal form to the National Science Centre via the OSF submission system.

The proposal should be electronically submitted to the National Science Centre via the OSF submission system, using the Wyślij do NCN [Submit to NCN] button.

PLEASE NOTE: Under the MINIATURA 7 call, proposals must only be signed with an electronic signature in the PAdES format. If the proposal is signed by anyone other than the head of the institution, annex an authorisation to represent the institution in an electronic format or a scan of the document signed by hand.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

  1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out;
  2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision of the NCN Director will be delivered within 5 months of the proposal submission date;
  3. if the proposal is recommended for funding, the research activity will start on the date the NCN Director’s decision becomes final.

PLEASE NOTE: Under the MINIATURA 7 call for proposals, no agreement is concluded. Research activities are funded and carried out pursuant to the General Terms of the Funding Agreement for a Single Research Activity that must be read and approved by the applicants when submitting proposals.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicants 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 date of effective service of the decision.

ERC Consolidator Grants 2022

Tue, 01/31/2023 - 14:30
Kod CSS i JS

Two NCN grant winners, Dr hab. Artur Obłuski (archaeologist) and Dr Michał Drahus (astronomer), win prestigious ERC Consolidator Grants 2022.

Research in Old Dongola, fot. Mateusz Rekłajtis/CAŚ UWResearch in Old Dongola, fot. Mateusz Rekłajtis/CAŚ UW Dr hab. Artur Obłuski is an archaeologist who specialises in medieval Nubia and promotes the ideas of social responsibility in archaeology and the involvement of local communities in cultural heritage management. In 2017, he became the first Polish archaeologist to win an ERC Starting Grant. This year, the ERC has decided to award him a Consolidator Grant for a project entitled “Afropolis Tungul. Urban Biography of a Cosmopolitan African Capital”. The project will develop an “urban biography” of Tungul (Old Dongola), a Nubian metropolis situated in what is now Sudan, which existed for more than 1500 years.

Artur Obłuski works at the University of Warsaw. He served as a PI under an NCN SONATA project , and is currently a PI under SONATA BIS.

Dr Michał Drahus is an astronomer affiliated with the Jagiellonian University; he studies comets and planetoids. He has completed a FUGA project and, like his Warsaw-based colleague, now serves as a PI under a SONATA BIS project. His NCN-funded research looks into the natural lifespan of comets and the spontaneous break-up of minor bodies in the Solar System.

He won an ERC Consolidator Grant 2022 for a project entitled “YADES. Hydrogen and Deuterium Survey of Minor Bodies: Transformative Science with a Purpose-built CubeSat”.

The European Research Council awards Consolidator Grants to researchers within 7 to 12 years after their PhD programme. This time, it selected 321 researchers from 37 different countries.

Full list of winners

Earlier this month, the ERC also awarded a Proof of Concepts Grant to Professor Magdalena Król.

Upcoming JPI Urban Europe Call

Fri, 01/27/2023 - 11:04
Kod CSS i JS

The JPI Urban Europe network has started preparations of the transnational, European call for research proposals dedicated to urban transformation capacities - Building Transformation Capacities through arts and design: Unlocking the full potential for urban transitions (BTC ENUTC Call).

Eight funding agencies from Sweden, Latvia, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Romania*, and Bulgaria have together a budget of approximately 4 million euro. The call will be open from 22 February until 25 April, and will follow a one-step evaluation process by an international expert panel.

Consortia shall consist of scientists from at least two participating countries. The final call text will be available when the call opens, and for further briefing, we recommend attending the 27 February back-to-back Urban lunch talk and call information meeting.

Detailed information can be found at the JPI Urban Europe website.

Please note that this pre-announcement is for information purposes only. It does not create any obligation for the JPI Urban Europe network, nor for any of the participating funding organisations. The official call announcement, to be published later, shall prevail..