Researchers awarded NCN grants may participate in the ERC Mentoring Initiative launched by the European Research Council.

The National Science Centre, together with the National Centre for Research and Development, Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange and Foundation for Polish Science, has joint an initiative coordinated in Poland by the Polish National Contact Point. The agencies have allowed their grant winners to apply under the ERC Mentoring Initiative and fund their participation in the Initiative with the funds awarded under Polish research projects.

The initiative is targeted at researchers from countries where the success rates in ERC calls for proposals have been so far modest, e.g. Poland. A database of mentors has been compiled, comprising former ERC evaluation panel members and ERC call winners. Their aim is to support researchers participating in the ERC calls for proposals by helping them to write research proposals. 

Rules of procedure

Agencies allow their call winners to participate in the ERC Mentoring Initiative in so far as they meet the ERC grant requirements: Starting Grants (2-7 years of experience since completion of PhD), Consolidator Grant (7-9 years of experience since completion of PhD) and Advanced Grants (for researchers who have a track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years).

Researchers may apply for their respective grants to the Polish National Contact Point at the National Centre for Research and Development. Having reviewed the information provided, the Polish National Contact Point will name mentors from the database delivered by the ERC and connect the applicant and mentor. Researchers together with their mentors will specify the scope of mentoring within the framework of applicable rules laid down in the full project description.

This is an ongoing call; proposals are submitted via an interactive form. 

Terms and Conditions of the Initiative 

The National Science Centre has adopted a Gender Equality Plan for 2022-2025. The document looks into the current situation at the NCN and proposes future measures to support gender equality within the institution.

A Gender Equality Plan is a document that outlines a set of actions designed to promote gender equality in organisations involved in research and innovation. The European Commission requires such plans to be adopted by all ministries, research-funding agencies, scientific institutions and universities participating in the Horizon Europe programme.

The Gender Equality Plan of the National Science Centre includes a diagnosis of the current situation within the institution and proposes future measures to support gender equality. It looks at the NCN in its twin capacities: as an employer and a research-funding agency.

Levelling the playing field in the funding application process, while prioritising research excellence as a criterion for proposal review, has been the chief principle of the NCN ever since its foundation. The NCN organises calls targeted at male and female researchers at all career stages, of any age, experience and affiliation. It attracts researchers that represent various social groups, actively supports equal gender rights at Polish academic centres and participates in relevant international initiatives.

The research-funding measures proposed under the GEP will involve, for instance, including gender equality aspects in the proposal application form and raising the awareness of the importance of the various equality issues involved in setting up NCN expert teams, presenting the NCN Award and implementing NCN’s information and promotion campaigns.

The goals of NCN as an employer include a pledge to include information about employee gender in its activity reports and improve gender balance in the recruitment process.

The Gender Equality Plan is adopted for the 2022-2025 period. The document was drawn up by a team of ten NCN employees and NCN Council members, and approved by the NCN Council and NCN Director. Its implementation will be monitored by the NCN’s Committee for Equal Treatment and the Prevention of Discrimination and Mobbing.

 

The National Science Centre launched a special scheme for researchers from Ukraine at the end of March 2022. Approx. 50 people may benefit from the scheme. The NCN will provide funds to cover their research work and remuneration at the Polish academic and research institutions for a period of one year. The total budget of the scheme is 6 mln PLN.  

Call announcement

Proposals are evaluated on a weekly basis. Over 140 proposals have been submitted so far. More than twenty people received funding and new funding decisions will be issued in the next few days.

Proposals may still be submitted until 26 April 2022 (end of the day). Proposals submitted after that date will not be reviewed. 

How to draft a correct funding proposal? What is the proposal evaluation procedure? How to make a research data management plan? You will get the answers to those questions during the NCN Days in Białystok on 11 and 12 May 2022. 

The purpose of the event is to encourage researchers at various stages of their research career employed at various research institutions to participate in the calls for proposals launched by the National Science Centre and help them to draft funding proposals. This event is organised on a regular basis, each time in a different part of Poland. This year, it will be co-organised by the academic and research institutions from the Podlasie region, namely the University of Białystok, the Białystok University of Technology, the Medical University of Białystok and the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Białowieża. The event programme includes a meeting of the NCN Director and Council with the region’s research community and a discussion on the NCN grant portfolio.

The opening lecture “The secret to satisfaction and success in research” will be delivered by Prof. Barbara Malinowska from the Medical University of Białystok, physiologist, pharmacologist and winner of three NCN grants.

Grant winners will deliver presentations and meetings will be held to discuss national and international calls for proposals launched by the National Science Centre, of which one will be focused on the POLONEZ BIS programme for foreign researchers intending to carry out research in Poland. We will discuss the advantages for host institutions. 

Some of the activities will be very practical. There will be six workshops for applicants (also in English) and administrative staff as well as workshops on open access and NCN’s open access policy. If you wish to take part in our workshops, register in advance. Meetings and lectures will be open to public.

 

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

Complete list of the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2021 projects recommended for funding

493 proposals were submitted to the call. A total funding of EUR 69.9 mln was awarded to 70 research projects. Researchers from Poland will participate in 19 research projects of which 13 will be funded by the National Centre for Research and Development and 6, by the National Science Centre.

Research projects funded by the National Science Centre:

ZABAT: Next generation rechargeble and sustainable Zinc-Air batteries. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. inż. Grażyna Gryglewicz, Wrocław University of Science and Technology. The project will involve research teams from Germany, Norway and Spain.

Greenhouse-PV: Semi-transparent PV coatings for greenhouse application. Polish Principal Investigator: dr inż. Damian Marcin Głowienka, Gdansk University of Technology. The project will involve research teams from Czech Republic Denmark and Taiwan.

PORMETALOMICS: Porous Metal Genomics for Tailoring Mechanical Properties of Light-weight 3D-Printed Architectures. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Paweł Tadeusz Dłotko, Institute of Mathematics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The project will involve research teams from Spain and Israel.

-SMILE-: Surface coating and microstructuring for compound functionalised biomaterials in dentistry. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Jan Kurzydłowski, Bialystok University of Technology. The project will involve research teams from Germany and Romania.

PIECRISCI: Investigation of Regenerative Effects of CRISPR/Cas9 Functionalized Piezoelectric Nerve Conduits on in vitro and in vivo Spinal Cord Injury Models. Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. inż. Urszula Stachewicz, AGH University of Science and Technology. The project will involve research teams from Denmark and Turkey.

VENUS: Anti-calcification treatment of elastin-rich bioprosthetic materials using Fetuin A for aortic valved conduits. Polish Principal Investigator: dr inż. Honorata Kraśkiewicz, Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The project will involve research teams from Germany, Latvia and Turkey.

 

 

 

Here are the results of PRELUDIUM BIS 3, a call addressed at institutions operating doctoral schools.

The objective of PRELUDIUM BIS is to support the education of PhD students and fund research projects carried out by PhD students as part of their dissertation. The call also promotes international mobility: each grant holder is required to complete an overseas research fellowship, which is funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).

Under PRELUDIUM BIS, research teams consist of just two researchers: the PhD student and his/her supervisor acting as the principal investigator.

The third round of the call attracted 228 proposals. Out of these, our experts selected 97, which will receive a total funding of more than 55 million PLN. These resources can go toward funding research tasks, PhD scholarships and the supervisor’s salary.

RANKING LIST

Ranking list pdf

The terms of the call

Global problems

The final list of successful projects includes studies on the impact of global warming and its threats.

Changes in thermal conditions around the globe will lead to extreme meteorological phenomena, including sudden periods of heavy drought. This may shrink the resources of drinking water, cause soil desiccation and affect the equilibrium of forest ecosystems, including their biological activities and the decomposition rate of deadwood. Studying these changes is very important because the amount of carbon stored in deadwood is equivalent to about 8 per cent of global forest carbon stocks; it is a source of biodiversity and a model for observing natural processes in forest ecosystems. The purpose of a project headed by Prof. Ewa Błońska from the University of Agriculture in Kraków, will be to investigate the effect of drought on microbial activity and decomposition of deadwood in various temperate forest species. The scientists hope that a better understanding of the factors that influence the decomposition of deadwood in conditions of drought stress will help predict such phenomena in the future and contribute to maintaining the stability of forest ecosystems.

fot. Joanna Węgrzycka Global warming also results in the melting of glaciers, which in turn leads, e.g. to a rise in sea level, changes in the functioning of marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and the flooding of coastal towns.  Disappearing glaciers also contribute to the spread of toxic anthropogenic substances in the environment. Not even seemingly pristine polar and high-mountain regions, remote from civilization, are free of contaminants. As the glaciers melt, substances such as radioactive elements from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear disasters or black carbon emitted by cruise ships are released into the environment. A project headed by Dr hab. Edyta Łokas from the Henryk Niewodniczański Institute of Nuclear Physics, PAS, aims to expand our knowledge about the contamination of Norwegian fjords and draw attention to this environmental threat. Understanding the threats posed by glacier contamination is particularly important since billions of people around the world use glacier water for drinking purposes and irrigation. The successful project is entitled “Legacy of airborne particulate contamination on Norwegian glaciers”.

 

Success rates

In this round of PRELUDIUM BIS, the highest success rate was observed in physical sciences and engineering – funding was awarded to 47% of all submitted proposals. The success rate for art, humanities and social sciences was 45%, and the corresponding figure for life science exceeded 37%. Funding success rates were even higher and stood at more than 48%, more than 47%, and more than 39%, respectively.

The agreement template will be available in the OSF system at a later date.

CHIST-ERA invites researchers interested in the field of Information and Communication Sciences & Technologies to the CHIST-ERA Conference 2022, which will take place on May 24-26, 2022 in Edinburgh (UK).

In preparation for the Call 2022 of CHIST-ERA, to be open in the fall of 2022, the research funding organisations of CHIST-ERA invite interested scientists at the CHIST-ERA Conference 2022 to participate in the definition of the two topics of the call:

• Security and Privacy and Decentralised and Distributed Systems (SPiDDS);
• Machine Learning-based Communication Systems, towards Wireless AI (WAI).

Participation in the conference is free, however travel and accommodation costs have to be covered by the participant. Online participation will also be provided.

Please find more details on the CHIST-ERA website: https://www.chistera.eu/conference-2022-programme

Three Polish-Austrian projects and one Polish-Swiss project have just joined the ranks of Weave-UNISONO call winners. The NCN will allocate 5.8 million zlotys to fund these research ventures carried out by Polish teams in cooperation with foreign partners.

All three successful Polish-Austrian projects explore issues in the field of physical sciences and engineering. A team of scientists from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Jagiellonian University, headed by Dr hab. Marcin Kozik will study constraint satisfaction problems; researchers from the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw, led by Dr hab. Iwona Stachlewska, will focus on synergetic aerosol remote sensing, while their colleagues from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology, under Dr inż Agnieszka Krawczyńska, will turn their attention to the tuning of nanomaterials by high-pressure annealing. The NCN allocated a budget of more than 4.15 million zlotys to fund their cooperation with Austrian partners from Vienna and Innsbruck. All joint Polish-Austrian projects were evaluated by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) in its capacity as the lead agency in the programme.

The list of winners of the Weave-UNISONO call also includes a team from the Mirosław Mossakowski Institute of Experimental Medicine, PAS, headed by Dr hab. Joanna Sypecka, which will study the role of autophagy in oligodendrocytes in perinatal hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage. The project will be carried out in tandem with a Swiss team based at the University of Lausanne; the Polish team was awarded a budget of nearly 1.68 million zlotys from the NCN. In accordance with the LAP procedure, the Polish-Swiss proposal was evaluated by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

RANKING LISTS

Weave-UNISONO is a call organised within the framework of a multilateral cooperation between research-funding institutions that make up the Science Europe association. It was announced in order to simplify submission and selection procedures for proposals in all disciplines of science, which bring together researchers from two or three different European countries.

The selection process is based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), under which only one partner institution is responsible for the merit-based review of submitted proposals; the other partners accept its results in accordance with a previously signed agreement.

Under Weave, cooperating research teams submit their research proposals in parallel: to the lead agency and to the relevant domestic institutions that participate in the programme. Their joint proposal must include a coherent research plan that clearly spells out the added value of international cooperation.

Until now, 13 Polish research teams, involved in projects conducted in cooperation with Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland, have made it to the list of Weave-UNISONO winners.

The Weave-UNISONO call accepts proposals on a rolling basis. Polish teams wishing to partner up with colleagues from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are encouraged to carefully read the call announcement and submit their proposal. Call announcement.

 

Please note that under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to GAČR as the lead agency by 7 April 2022, 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 14 April 2022, 23:59 p.m. at the latest.

If a joint proposal is submitted to FNR as the lead agency by 21 April 2022, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to FNR, by 28 April 2022, 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.

28 березня 2022 року

Анонс програми

ПРОДОВЖЕНННЯ ДОСЛІДЖЕНЬ В ПОЛЬЩІ ДЛЯ ДОСЛІДНИКІВ З УКРАЇНИ 

Національний науковий центр оголошує програму, орієнтовану на науковців з України, які внаслідок агресії Росії проти України знайшли притулок або знайдуть притулок у Польщі. Метою програми є підтримка науковців шляхом створення для них можливостей працевлаштування в польських наукових установах та продовження ними досліджень.

Дослідник, який приєднується до програми, повинен відповідати таким вимогам:

• має принаймні ступінь кандидата наук або еквівалентну кваліфікацію (в українській системі Candidate of Science);
• до початку війни працював у науковому підрозділі в Україні;
• внаслідок війни залишив Україну 24 лютого (або пізніше) або має намір залишити Україну.

Працевлаштування наукового співробітника має бути заплановано на 12 місяців на підставі трудового договору на повну зайнятість із винагородою на загальну суму 100 тис. злотих. (включає витрати на оплату праці, включаючи внески на соціальне та медичне страхування, а також інші елементи винагороди, що фінансується даним суб’єктом). Крім того, ви можете запланувати фінансові ресурси для наукового дослідження на суму не більше 30 тис. злотих.

У заяві, окрім вченого, який планує працевлаштуватись, слід також вказати наукового керівника, який працює у заявника і проводить дослідження в тій самій або суміжній галузі, яку представляє дослідник. Науковий керівник дослідника не може бути бенефіціаром коштів, що фінансуються за програмою.

Бюджет програми: 6 млн. злотих

Заявка подається тільки в електронній формі через ePUAP на адресу електронної скриньки ННЦ: /ncn/SkrytkaESP згідно з процедурою подання заявок.

Кінцевий термін подання заявки: 28 березня – 26 квітня 2022 року (до кінця дня)

Результати: рішення про присудження коштів буде прийнято протягом 1 місяця з дня подання заяви до ННЦ. У обґрунтованих випадках термін буде продовжено до 3 місяців.

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28 March 2022

Call Text

FOR RESEARCHERS FROM UKRAINE ALLOWING THEM
TO CONTINUE RESEARCH IN POLAND

The National Science Centre is launching a scheme addressed at researchers from Ukraine who took or will take refuge in Poland after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The purpose of the scheme is to support researchers by creating employment opportunities at the Polish research institutions and allowing them to continue research.

Researchers who meet all of the following conditions are eligible to participate in the scheme:

• hold at least a PhD degree or equivalent degree (in Ukraine: Candidate of Science);
• worked at a Ukrainian research institute before the war and
• left Ukraine on 24 February 2022 or after or is intending to leave Ukraine.

Researchers should be employed full time, pursuant to an employment contract, for a period of 12 months, with total remuneration of 100,000 PLN (including non-payroll labour costs, such as social and health insurance premiums, as well as other remuneration components paid by the institution). Additional funds of up to 30,000 PLN may be awarded for research work.

Apart from the researcher to be employed, proposals must include the name of the mentor employed by the applicant and conducting research in the same or related research field as the researcher in question. The mentor must not be the beneficiary of the funds awarded under the scheme. 

Scheme budget: 6,000,000 PLN

Proposals must be submitted electronically via ePUAP to the address of NCN’s electronic delivery box (/ncn/SkrytkaESP) pursuant to the proposal submission procedure.

Call for proposals: The call for proposals will start on 28 March 2022.

Call closed on 26 April 2022

Results: The funding decision will be taken within 1 month of the proposal submission date. In well-justified cases, this period may be extended to 3 months. 

Due to significant differences and simplified call procedure as compared to NCN’s regular calls, please read the call documents and information below carefully.

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Who may submit proposals?

Terms and conditions to be met by employed researchers

Are there any restrictions on submitting proposals?

Is the subject-matter of proposal pre-determined?

How long can a researcher be employed for?

How can the project budget be planned?

Is application for state aid allowed under the scheme?

How to prepare proposals and what should they contain?

How are proposals evaluated?

What is reviewed in the evaluation of proposals?

When and how are the call results announced?

Where can additional information be found?