On 30 December, Włodzimierz Bernacki, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education and Science, appointed new NCN Council members. On the same day, the new Council held its first session and elected Prof. Robert Hasterok as the new President. Prof. Robert Hasterok during the NCN Award ceremony, October 2022, fot. Michał Łepecki

The Minister of Education and Science appointed twelve new members to the NCN Council. The ceremony was held on 30 December at the offices of the NCN, and the nominations were awarded by Prof. Włodzimierz Bernacki, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education and Science.

“On behalf of my superiors, I would like to declare that, regardless of current and future party lines and divisions, the Ministry of Education and Science will try to increase the resources of the NCN over the next several years, because its effectiveness has more than stood the test of time. After 10 years, we can only see the mission of the NCN in a positive light”, said Prof. Włodzimierz Bernacki, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education and Science.

The outgoing President of the NCN, Prof. Jacek Kuźnicki, also appealed for an increase in state subsidies for the NCN. “Science is the best investment in the growth of our country”, he said, adding that an annual sum of 150 million zlotys paid to the NCN for the next several years, “would represent a negligible proportion of the state budget, but have an enormous impact on national growth and our position in the world”. He also said that this funding is necessary if we want to keep the young generation of researchers in Poland.

The NCN Director also thanked those council members whose term ended in the middle of December. “I think we can all be proud we have managed to build a modern grant agency, which responds to the needs of Polish science and enjoys recognition in Poland and beyond”, said Zbigniew Błocki, “As I am about to step down as NCN Director, I would like to wish all those who remain on the council many more opportunities to develop the institution for the sake of Polish science; let us not forfeit what we have achieved thus far.” On 30 December, the Council also sat in its first session and elected a new president, Prof. Robert Hasterok, who will remain in office until December 2024.

Prof. Robert Hasterok is a biologist affiliated with the University of Silesia, interested in the molecular cytogenetics of plants. He is an expert in the application of fluorescence in situ hybridisation in nuclear genome research. He was appointed to the NCN Council in 2020.

“The strategic goal of the Council in the next two years will be to convince decision-makers, despite the economic crisis, of the key importance of increasing the NCN’s resources for basic-research funding”, Hasterok said following his appointment. If its budget remains frozen, he warned, the NCN Council will need to resort to “emergency measures, such as changes in the terms and conditions of calls and research projects, which may limit access to its call portfolio”.

“Let us hope as few as possible are needed”, he said. Other issues the new president said the Council will need to address in the nearest future include the evaluation of grant applicants under initiatives such as DORA and COARA, debates on possible modifications of open access funding under Plan S, and changes in the terms and conditions of calls such as MAESTRO and PRELUDIUM BIS.

New Council President: profile

The Council of the National Science Centre is a key authority that defines research disciplines and discipline groups for the purposes of NCN calls, sets funding budgets under individual disciplines or discipline groups, decides on the terms and conditions of individual calls and appoints Expert Teams responsible for the merit-based review of submitted proposals from among prominent Polish and international researchers.

We have the pleasure to announce the results of the last round of the OPUS 22+LAP/Weave call for projects carried out by Polish researchers in cooperation with German and Slovenian teams. Funding will go to 15 bilateral Polish-German projects (three in art, humanities and social sciences; four in life sciences; and as many as eight in physical sciences and engineering), as well as one trilateral Polish-German-Slovenian project in physical sciences and engineering. The total budget of these projects exceeds PLN 19.9 million.

OPUS 22+LAP/Weave ranking lists

Bilateral Polish-German projects qualified for funding under OPUS 22+LAP/Weave (PDF)

Trilateral Polish-German-Slovenian project qualified for funding under OPUS 22+LAP/Weave (PDF)

The subject matter of the bilateral projects to be funded in the framework of OPUS LAP includes issues in ecology. A life sciences project conducted, on the Polish side, by dr hab. Radosław Włodarczyk from the University of Łódź, for example, will study how immune gene diversity and environmental pollution affect the composition of gut microbiota and, as a consequence, individual reproductive performance. The research will be conducted on a population of the common tern in northern Germany. On the German side, the principal investigator is Sandra Bouwhuis from the German Institute of Avian Research.

Ecology in politics will be the subject addressed by dr inż. Zofia Łapniewska from the Jagiellonian University in cooperation with Claudius Gräbner-Radkowitsch from Europa-University Flensburg. The objective of the project is to better understand the impact of the policy of green transformation on EU countries and regions, as well as to identify those areas in which it creates the risk of social and economic polarization.

Improving Earth Orientation Parameter predictions for real-time geodesy is the title of a project in physical sciences and engineering, which will be carried out by prof. dr hab. Jolanta Nastula from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in tandem with Jan Saynisch-Wagner from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences. Their research aims to estimate the accuracy of predictions for Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) and improve their quality. EOPs describe the orientation of Earth in space and are estimated by measuring the position of various points on its surface with respect to an inertial reference system. Accurate EOP data are of key importance to scientific research, practical use of the global satellite navigation system, space mission planning, but also to regular users who use GPS to decide their travel route or observe the night sky.

The total budget of all bilateral research projects qualified for funding under OPUS 22+LAP/Weave in cooperation between the NCN and German Research Foundation (DFG) is over PLN 19 million.

Yet another proposal funded under OPUS 22+LAP/Weave will be a Polish-German-Slovenian project entitled Simultaneous functional near-infrared spectroscopy and optically pumped magnetometer-based magnetoencephalography for neurovascular coupling imaging. The three collaborating teams will be headed by prof. dr hab. inż. Adam Liebert from the Maciej Nałęcz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences,  Tilmann Sander-Thömmes from Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, and Zvonko Jagličić from the University of Ljubljana. The budget of the project exceeds 860 thousand zlotys.

Lead Agency Procedure – LAP

The OPUS 22 + LAP/Weave call invited researchers to vie for funding for research projects to be carried out either independently or in bi- and trilateral cooperation under the LAP procedure, projects conducted with other foreign partners or those that would require the use of large international research equipment. The call was targeted at researchers at all career levels. The LAP procedure is a new proposal evaluation standard adopted at European research-funding institutions, designed to facilitate the funding application process for international research teams and streamline proposal review.

Decision delivery

All the positive and negative decisions for OPUS LAP proposals submitted in bilateral cooperation with the German Research Foundation (DFG) and trilateral cooperation with the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) were sent out today.  Please remember that the decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to the applicant electronically, to the address indicated in the proposal.

If the applicant is an entity mentioned in art. 27 (1)-(7) and (9) of the Act on the NCN, the decision will only be delivered to the Electronic Inbox (ESP ePUAP) provided in the proposal. If the applicant is a natural person and has listed an ePUAP address in the proposal, the decision will be sent to that address. Otherwise, a message will be sent to the applicant’s indicated e-mail account, containing a link from which the decision of the NCN Director can be downloaded.

The funding decisions of the Director of the National Science Centre are also communicated to the principal investigator, and, if the applicant is a natural person, to the host institution indicated in the proposal.

If you do not receive a decision, please make sure that the address (ESP, ePUAP, e-mail) listed in your proposal is correct. If not, contact the person in charge of the proposal, as indicated in the ZSUN/OSF system.

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 Chair Programme.

The continuous call for proposals shall be open from the date the funding decision is issued by the NAWA under its 2022 NAWA Chair Programme 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 3,200,000 PLN for Research Components carried out under the 2022 NAWA Chair Programme.

Please read the Call documents provided in this Call Text.

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Eligible applicants

Who may carry out a research component?

Are there any restrictions on submitting proposals to the Call?

What are the topics covered by the call?

What can the Research Component’s duration be?

How should the budget be planned?

Open access publication of research results

Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

What is reviewed in the eligibility check?

Call results

More information

Call Schedule

Useful Information

NCN grant holders winning ERC calls, lots of support for young scientists, grants for Ukrainian researchers, a survey about men and women in science and the NCN Gender Equality Plan, NCN Days in Białystok and the QuantERA conference in Kraków – these are but some of the events we have lived and breathed in recent months. Here’s a rundown of 2022 at the NCN.

JANUARY

The European Research Council (ERC) announced the winners of its Starting Grants 2021, including eight researchers affiliated with Polish research institutions. In February and March, StG 2021 grants were awarded to two more Polish researchers. The results of yet another ERC call followed in November. Winners of StG 2022 include four researchers from Poland, who are also NCN holders.

The NCN joined the ranks of institutions that abide by a special code of conduct to prevent the exportation of unethical research practices to low and middle income countries. NCN applicants are now required to plan their research in accordance with the provisions of the Global Code of Conduct.

We organise calls targeted at scientists at all career levels. For many young researchers, NCN grants are an opportunity to quickly gain research independence. A report published by the Analysis and Evaluation Team in January indicates that, over the past six years, the NCN has awarded more than 3.75 million zlotys in funding for researchers without a PhD or those who have earned their PhD within the previous 7 years, which represents a whopping 46% of its total funding budget in that period.

FEBRUARY

We published the findings of our survey about men and women in science. The survey indicates that men and women apply for research funding for very similar reasons. However, women are much more likely to doubt their chances of success in securing research funds. Women’s careers are also hindered by an unequal division of responsibilities within the household. The survey also shows that many more women than men have experienced gender discrimination and gender inequality in their research facility and academic environment. The questionnaire was answered by nearly 6,000 respondents: more than 3,7000 female and nearly 2,100 male researchers at different career levels. For the NCN, the report will serve as a point of departure for designing further measures to level the playing field for men and women in science.

We published the results of MAESTRO 13 and SONATA BIS 11, announced in June 2021. MAESTRO is targeted at experienced researchers, while SONATA is open to those who would like to set up a new research team. 93 projects were qualified for funding.

Five projects that involve Polish research teams were selected for funding in an international call focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social life, organised by the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities (T-AP).

MARCH

We launched a special program for Ukrainian researchers and encouraged NCN grant winners to hire researchers who have fled the war in their ongoing projects. Several months later, we also announced a scholarship programme for Ukrainian students and entry-level researchers, from the EEA and Norway Grants. In total, NCN initiatives helped 111 Ukrainians who found refuge in Poland after the Russian invasion.

Two NCN call winners also won ERC Consolidator Grants, which are available to researchers within 7 to 12 years after their PhD defence. The winners were Prof. UW Dr hab. Marta Bucholc and Dr hab. Jarosław Wilczyński. In July, this prestigious group was joined by Dr hab. Dawid Pinkowicz, prof. UJ, winner of the NCN Award for 2019.

APRIL

M-ERA.NET 3, a network that funds research in materials science and engineering, announced the results of the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2021. A total of 69.9 million euro in funding was split between 70 projects, 19 of which include Polish researchers. 13 of these teams will be funded by the NCBR and the remaining six by the NCN.

We adopted our Gender Equality Plan for 2022-2025. The document presents a diagnosis of the status quo and lists gender equality measures that the NCN intends take in the future. It analyses the NCN in its twofold capacity as an employer and a research-funding agency. NCN Days in Bialystok, fot. Tomasz Hodun

MAY

The town of Białystok welcomed NCN Days 2022. The purpose of NCN Days is to present the activities of the NCN, encourage researchers at all career levels and from different centres to take part in its calls for proposals, and to support them in grant applications. This year, the event was co-organised by various academic and research institutions from the region of Podlasie.

26 teams won grants under the CHANSE call entitled “Transformations: Social and Cultural Dynamics in The Digital Age”. They will study the changes in social relations brought about by the digitisation of households, the dissemination of health-related knowledge in the 20th and 21st centuries and work safety challenges in an era of digital transformation. Polish researchers will be part of almost half of these projects. Coordinated by the NCN, the CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) network brings together 27 research-funding agencies and non-academic institutions from 24 different European countries.

Three new Dioscuri centres will be opened at the Jagiellonian University. Dioscuri is an initiative of the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, MPG), coordinated in cooperation with the NCN, which aims to create new Centres of Scientific Excellence in Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, five centres opened their doors in Warsaw. In July, Dioscuri centre leaders took part in a research-funding and young researcher training workshop, which was held at the MPG in Munich.

We announced the results of the first POLONEZ BIS call. POLONEZ BIS is a programme co-funded by the European Commission and the National Science Centre under the COFUND Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant. In three successive rounds, the NCN will recruit 120 experienced researchers, who will then move to Poland for 24 months to carry out their basic research projects at various public and private institutions. The results of the second round were announced in December and the proposals submitted to the third are currently under review.

An event promoting initiatives for Ukraine

JUNE

We published the first results of OPUS 22 + LAP/Weave, under which researchers at all career levels can apply for funding for bilateral projects conducted in international cooperation within the framework of the Weave programme. Experts selected 8 Polish-Slovenian projects with a total budget of nearly 13 million zlotys. In July, the list grew to include 5 Polish-Swiss projects and twenty two more, which involve bilateral cooperation with Austria and the Czech Republic, or trilateral cooperation with Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

JULY

Under the auspices of the President of Poland, we held a special event to present NCN initiatives for Ukrainian researchers.

We published the results of SONATINA 6. 32 researchers from all over Poland, who have only recently earned their PhD, will get a total of 22 million zlotys in funding for research and fellowships at prestigious international research centres.

AUGUST

We announced the first results of the Weave-UNISONO call for proposals submitted in 2022. Weave-UNISONO is the result of multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies gathered under the umbrella of Science Europe. Weave-UNISONO aims to simplify submission and selection procedures for research proposals that bring together researchers from two or three different European countries in any discipline of science. Proposals are taken in on a rolling basis. One more round of winners was announced in November. Conference organized by the QuantERA network

SEPTEMBER

Scientists and representatives of the European quantum industry and agencies that fund quantum technology research came together in Kraków at a conference organised by the QuantERA network. Coordinated by the NCN, QuantERA promotes ambitious research on cutting-edge quantum technology engineering solutions, supports cooperation between scientists and research-funding agencies, monitors public quantum technology policies and strategies, and drafts responsible research guidelines.

OCTOBER

Gdańsk provided the venue for a conference promoting the Basic Research programme funded from the 3rd round of the EEA and Norway Grants. The event was dedicated to polar and climate research.

Karolina Safarzyńska, Michał Bogdziewicz and Piotr Wcisło won the NCN Award for 2022, a prestigious distinction given to young researchers working in Poland. The awards ceremony was held on 12 October at the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art in the Sukiennice. This year, the awards were given out for the tenth time in history. In December, winners talked about their research in lectures organized by the NCN and the Copernicus Centre. The talks are available online.

The NCN held the EOSC festival – the National Tripartite Event Poland under the banner of “Open Science for Better Science” (in live and online format). The purpose of the festival was to present the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and strengthen cooperation and dialogue between key EOSC stakeholders. EOSC Festival, fot. Michał Łepecki

“Nature” published an article co-authored by Dr Mateusz Tałanda from the University of Warsaw, which sheds new light on the evolution of lizards in the era of the dinosaurs. This was Tałanda’s second publication in the journal.

“Research under pressure. How research institutions and funding organisations react to crises” was the title of the 3rd Polish-German Scientific Meeting held in Berlin, attended by representatives of embassies and 17 research and research-funding institutions from both countries.

NOVEMBER

We announced the results of the MINIATURA 6 call for preliminary and pilot research, library research, research fellowships and study and consultation trips. One of the objectives of MINIATURA is to expand the ranks of NCN winners, encourage researchers working in smaller centres to apply, and to increase equality between regions. Under the sixth edition, funding was awarded to 502 proposals.

Four projects that involve Polish research teams were awarded funding under a call organised by the JPND network: Understanding the Mechanisms for Non-Pharmacological Interventions. Two of these are coordinated by Polish PIs. The objective of the projects selected under the call is to better understand the biology and mechanisms of non-pharmacological therapies in neurodegenerative diseases.

A team led by Prof. Zuzanna Drulis-Kawa from the University of Wrocław will carry out a project focused on antibiotic resistance, which was awarded under the 14th edition of a call announced by JPIAMR: Disrupting drug Resistance Using Innovative Design (DRUID). Polish researchers will coordinate research tasks in cooperation with teams from Belgium, France, Germany and Israel.

DECEMBER

Winners of the NCN Award, fot. Michał Łepecki 576 researchers won grants under OPUS 23, PRELUDIUM 21 and POLONEZ BIS 2.

Prof. Leszek Kaczmarek was appointed as a new member of the Scientific Board of the European Research Council, the most important body of the agency, made up of 22 outstanding researchers. Prof. Kaczmarek previously served as an NCN Council Member in 2010-2016.

We announced a bilateral SHENG call for Polish-Chinese research proposals, organised in cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

The Solar-driven Chemistry network announced the results of its call for research projects studying new applications of solar energy. Funding was awarded to a Polish project led by Prof. Joanna Kargul from the Centre of New Technologies of the University of Warsaw.

The Minister of Education and Science appointed 12 new members of the NCN Council.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a wonderful New Year!

 

In interviews with Prawo.pl and the Polish Press Agency, the Director of the National Science Centre talks about the budget situation, the new Council and the NCN’s plans for 2023.

– Financing is key for research and science. Expenditure on research should grow by 15% per year for us to start dreaming of reaching the European average. And in the case of NCN, which has proven itself as an institution, such expenditure should go up at an even faster pace – says Prof. Zbigniew Błocki in an interview with Prawo.pl's Monika Sewastianowicz.

The Director added that “in the world of science and academics, the NCN is considered a very respectable organisation, especially when it comes to the standards applied.” – Of course, being respected doesn’t mean that we would win any popularity contests. That would be difficult considering that only 15 percent of submitted projects receive grants. We think this is not enough, as the success rate should be at 25-30% but currently it can’t get any higher due to the restricted budget of the NCN.

The NCN Director was also asked about the assessment of applications at the NCN, international cooperation and his organisation's plans for 2023. Mr Błocki also discussed more general matters, including researcher mobility, evaluation of academic disciplines and investment financing by the State.

The interview was published on 23 December.

Full text of the interview (in Polish)

A day before, in a commentary for the Polish Press Agency, the NCN Director referred to the appointment of 12 new members of the NCN Council. – We are concerned to see that the appointment (…) was done in such a non-standard way. For the first time in our history the proposals of the candidate-nominating team have been completely disregarded. It is also extraordinary that none of the current members of the Council (a few persons who could serve on the Council in the next few years) have not been appointed – said Prof. Błocki.

– The Director pointed out that “there will be no balance between the representatives of different disciplines in the Council.” – One of the problems that will make functioning of this body much more difficult is that it will have no physicists onboard. And there is only one astrophysicist. 

Moreover, the Council will have no specialists in electronics, telecommunications, engineering sciences and Earth sciences.

Full text of the PAP message (in Polish)

The Minister of Education and Science has recently appointed twelve new members of the NCN Council, who will be in office from 15 December 2022 until 14 December 2026.

New NCN council members (2022-2026 term):

Dr hab. Justyna Chodkowska-Miszczuk, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Faculty of Earth Sciences (art, humanities and social sciences);

Dr Diana Dajnowicz-Piesiecka, University of Białystok, Faculty of Law (art, humanities and social sciences);

Prof. Dr Stanisław Karpiński, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Department of Biology (life sciences);

Dr hab. inż. Alicja Kazek-Kęsik, Silesian University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry (physical sciences and engineering);

Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Kopiec, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Theology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Mariola Łaguna, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Social Sciences, (art, humanities and social sciences)

Dr hab. inż. Krystian Marszałek, Wacław Dąbrowski Institute of Agriculture and Food Biotechnology – State Research Institute (life sciences);

Dr hab. Bogusław Przywora, Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa, Faculty of Law and Economics (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Roszak, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Faculty of Theology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Skarżyński, Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing (life sciences);

Dr hab. Bogumił Szady, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Adam Zając, Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, Faculty of Physical Education (life sciences).

 

The NCN Council includes the following members whose term of office ends on 14 December 2024:

 

Prof. Dr hab. Krystyna Bartol, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Wojciech Dajczak, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Law and Administration (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Stefan Dziembowski, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics (physical sciences and engineering);

Dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Fic, Poznań University of Technology, Faculty of Chemical Technology (physical sciences and engineering);

Dr hab. Joanna Golińska-Pilarek, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology (art, humanities and social sciences)

Prof. Dr hab. Robert Hasterok, University of Silesia in Katowice, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. inż. Monika Kaczmarek, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Olsztyn (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. Grzegorz Karch, University of Wrocław, Mathematical Institute (physical sciences and engineering);

Prof. Dr hab. inż. Barbara Klajnert-Maculewicz, University of Łódź, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. Bronisław Rudak, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomy Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Toruń (physical sciences and engineering);

Prof. Dr hab. Anetta Undas, Jagiellonian University, Collegium Medicum (life sciences);

Prof. Dr hab. Tomasz Zaleśkiewicz, SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology in Wrocław (art, humanities and social sciences)

The Council of the National Science Centre is a key authority that defines research disciplines and discipline groups for the purposes of NCN calls, sets funding budgets under individual disciplines or discipline groups, decides on the terms and conditions of individual calls, and appoints Expert Teams responsible for the merit-based review of submitted proposals from among prominent Polish and international researchers.

This year’s last lecture in the “Science in the Centre” series will be delivered by the forest ecologist Michał Bogdziewicz.

Bogdziewicz is a professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Last autumn, he won the NCN Award 2022 for top young scientists working in Poland. Last spring, he was also the first Polish researcher to win the Tansley Medal, one of the world’s most important distinctions given to young biologists who research plants.

He is carrying out an NCN grant, as well as ERC’s Starting Grant.

At 6 pm on 21 December, Bogdziewicz will give a talk entitled: “Hunger and Abundance: Tree Reproduction as an Unstable Foundation of Food Webs”. The session will be held within the framework of “Science in the Centre”, a series of talks organised by the NCN and the Nicolaus Copernicus Foundation, and will be livestreamed on the Foundation’s YouTube channel.

“There are years in which hundreds of thousands of trees all over a given region together produce tons of seeds and years in which no tree of a given species does that. For animals, that means alternating periods of abundance, which allows them to reproduce on a great scale, and hunger, which decimates their populations. This leads to cascading perturbations in forest ecosystems: abundant seeds invite large numbers of rodents and numerous rodents mean more birds of prey. A year later, the rodents are gone, while the birds of prey stay on, looking for other prey”, says Michał Bogdziewicz. In his talk, he will discuss these interrelationships in forest ecosystems and explain how they are affected by climate change.

During the session, you will also be able to ask him questions via chat.

You can rewatch previous lectures online.

More about the series.

We present a preliminary timeline for calls operated by the National Science Centre in the year 2023.

The call timeline does not include multilateral calls launched by the international networks of research funding agencies, including the NCN, which are announced and pre-announced on the NCN website all year round according to the decisions of the participating agencies.

2023 call timeline

TYPE OF CALL	CALL ANNOUNCEMENT	CALL DEADLINE	CALL RESULTS
WEAVE-UNISONO	continous call, in line with partner agencies call timelines		depend on the time of publishing results by partner agencies
MINIATURA 7	continuous call, open from 1 February to 31 July 2023
OPUS 25 PRELUDIUM 22	15 March	15 June	December 2023
SONATA BIS 13 MAESTRO 15	15 June	15 September	March 2024
OPUS 26 + LAP Weave PRELUDIUM BIS 5 SONATA 19	15 September	15 December	OPUS 26, SONATA 19 – June 2024 Weave – depends on the time of accepting evaluation results by partner agencies, November 2024 at latest PRELUDIUM BIS 5 – May 2024
SONATINA 8 DAINA 3	15 December	15 March 2023	SONATINA 8 – September 2024 DAINA 3 – November 2024

Download the NCN 2023 call timeline

The Solar-driven Chemistry network has just selected the winners of a call for research proposals on solar energy applications. A Polish project, headed by Professor Joanna Kargul from the Centre for New Technologies of the University of Warsaw, has made the list.

Professor Kargul will coordinate a consortium composed of Polish, French, German and Turkish research teams under the SUNCOCAT project (Rational design of efficient energy and charge transfer in biophotoelectrodes for direct conversion of CO2 into fuel).

The consortium will focus on the nanoscale engineering of electron and energy transfer pathways with a view to developing efficient bio photoelectrodes to better capture sunlight and convert it into renewable fuel. The objective is to achieve the highest possible energy conversion efficiency by integrating methodologies from different scientific disciplines: electrochemical research, electron transfer modelling by quantum/molecular mechanics, as well as genetic and biophysical methods. The project is scheduled to start in early 2023.

Solar-driven Chemistry is a network of European research-funding organisations, established in 2008 on the initiative of the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). It organises international calls for research proposals devoted to the photochemical processes associated with sunlight. The network brings together research-funding organisations from Finland (AKA), France (ANR), Germany (DFG), Poland (NCN), Switzerland (SNSF) and Turkey (TÜBİTAK).