Up to three centres of scientific excellence in Poland will be funded. With five Dioscuri Centres already established at Polish Host Institutions, the Max Planck Society and the Polish National Science Centre are looking for the next Centre leaders in their fourth call for Dioscuri Centres in Poland.

Applications for a Dioscuri Centre may be submitted until June 15^th, 2021. 

Going beyond the scope of a project grant, a Dioscuri Centre is built around a distinguished researcher position. It is awarded to excellent scientists capable of establishing and leading an outstanding, highly visible research group. The research group will be funded with 300,000 euros annually for initially five years. It will be set up at a Polish university or a research institute capable of supporting the Centre with appropriate infrastructure, scientific equipment, supplementary funds, and a long-term perspective for its leader. The work at the Centre will be accompanied by a Partner from Germany and supported further by an international Scientific Advisory Board.

The Dioscuri Programme aims to strengthen and expand scientific excellence in Central and Eastern Europe and is being implemented in Poland as a first step. The funding for the DCs is shared equally between the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Polish Ministry of Education and Science.

The detailed call and further information about the Dioscuri Programme are available here.

To provide a comprehensive overview of the Dioscuri Programme funding and support potential applicants in preparing their application, we will offer webinars during the call period. The first webinar is scheduled for: Tuesday, 23.03.2021, 14:00-15:30 CET.

More dates will follow as needed. To register for one of our webinars, please send an e-mail to dioscuri@gv.mpg.de

We are pleased to announce that the QuantERA II consortium coordinated by the National Science Centre has been allocated 15 million EUR from the EU Framework Programme “Horizon2020". QuantERA II (continuation of QuantERA) is currently the largest European network composed of 38 organisations from 30 countries. Its main aim is to fund QT research and innovation through the QuantERA Call 2021 for international research projects to be launched in March 2021.

The total budget of the call is 40 million EUR, with 25 million EUR contributed by the partner institutions and supported by 15 million EUR from the European Commission.

Information on the call

Call subject 

• Quantum Phenomena and Resources
• Applied Quantum Science

Research team

The call will be open to consortia composed of at least three research groups from at least three countries participating in the QuantERA Call 2021.

Project duration 

24 or 36 months

Call timeline

• Official announcement of the call and launch of the online submission system: March 2021
• Submission deadline for pre-proposals: 13 May 2021
• Information on proposals recommended for the second stage of the call: July 2021
• Submission deadline for full proposals: 15 September 2021
• Call announcement: December 2021
• Project funding start date: beginning of 2022

Countries participating in the call

More information on the call can be found here and on https://quantera.eu/.

Contact

• Call Secretariat Leader:

French National Research Agency (ANR)

Sergueï Fedortchenko, Ph.D.

Serguei.Fedortchenko@anr.fr

• Coordinator:

National Science Centre (NCN)

Programme Office

quantera@ncn.gov.pl

We have just announced the results of the 12^th MAESTRO and the 10^th SONATA BIS calls. The grants will allow successful researchers to carry out pioneering basic research and establish new research teams.

Ranking lists

The calls attracted 495 proposals, amounting to a total of 1 billion PLN, 86 of which were recommended for funding by the NCN experts, giving a success rate of more than 17%. The total funds awarded in the two calls equalled as much as 215,523,213 PLN.

MAESTRO is a call open to advanced researchers who wish to conduct pioneering basic research leading to scientific discovery. The grant may go toward the costs of research team salaries, including scholarships for graduate and doctoral students, purchasing or building research equipment, as well as other necessary project expenses. To qualify as a principal investigator in a MAESTRO project, applicants need to have published in reputable scientific journals, carried out other call-funded research projects, and taken an active part in the life of the scientific community. Projects can take 36, 48 or 60 months to complete. In the 12^th edition of the call, NCN experts decided to award a total of 37 million PLN to 10 out of 68 submitted proposals.

The objective of the SONATA BIS call is to support the establishment of new research teams to conduct basic research. Their members, apart from the principal investigator, must not hold a scientific title or any equivalent qualifications. The principal investigator is expected to have earned his/her doctoral degree 5 to 12 years prior to the submission of the proposal. Projects can take 36, 48 or 60 months to complete. In the 10^th round of SONATA BIS, a total of 179 million PLN will go to 76 out of 427 submitted projects.

Under the two calls, the field of arts, humanities, and social sciences attracted a total of 105 proposals altogether, 15 of which will receive nearly 34 million PLN in funding. 139 proposals were submitted in life sciences, out of which experts selected 27, worth a total of 79 million PLN. In physical sciences and engineering, a total of more than 102 million PLN will go to 44 out of the 251 submitted proposals.

We also wish to announce that the decision letters for proposals accepted and rejected under SONATA BIS 10 and MAESTRO 12 will be sent out today. Let us remind you that the decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to applicants in electronic form to the electronic address indicated in the proposal.

• If the applicant is an entity mentioned in art. 27.(1)-(7) and (9) of the Act on the National Science Centre, the decision shall be delivered only to the Electronic Inbox (ESP ePUAP) address indicated in the proposal
• If the applicant is a natural person and lists the ePUAP address in the proposal, the decision shall be delivered to that address. If the applicant is a natural person and does not list an ePUAP address, an electronic address from which the decision can be downloaded shall be sent to the e-mail address indicated in the proposal.

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

Should you not receive the decision, please verify that the address (ESP, ePUAP, e-mail) you provided is correct. If not, please contact the person in charge of the proposal, as listed in the ZSUN/OSF system.

The Journal Checker Widget is now available on the webpage of cOAlition S. It enables researchers to search for journals in which they can publish in compliance with the NCN‘s Open Access Policy. To find out more, go to https://journalcheckertool.org/widget.

Proposal forms for SONATINA 5, SHENG 2 and WEAVE-UNISONO are now available in the OSF submission system. 

PLEASE NOTE: Under Weave-UNISONO, NCN proposals must be submitted electronically via the ZSUN/OSF submission system, as soon as possible following submission of the joint proposal to the lead agency, within 7 calendar days. Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the ZSUN/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 ZSUN/OSF submission system.

PLEASE NOTE: NCN proposals processed in the ZSUN/OSF system:

• by 30 September 2021 (inclusive) - may include research projects carried out by Polish research teams from 2022 onwards; the following years will be included in the project budget, depending on the project duration:
• 2022-2023 for two year projects,
• 2022-2023-2024 for three year projects,
•  2022-2023-2024-2025 for four year projects;
• by 1 October 2021 (inclusive) - may include research projects carried out by Polish research teams from 2023 onwards; the following years will be included in the project budget, depending on the project duration:
  • 2023-2024 for two year projects,
  • 2023-2024-2025 for three year projects,
  • 2023-2024-2025-2026 for four year projects.

In the case of joint proposals submitted to the lead agencies covering Polish team budgets for 2022 onwards, make sure that:

• work on NCN proposals in the ZSUN/OSF submission system starts before 30 September 2021 and
• NCN proposals are submitted to the NCN within 45 days of the date work on the proposal has started in the ZSUN/OSF submission system. 

Together with the JPI Urban Europe network, we are pleased to announce a new call for international research projects under the ERA-NET Co-fund Urban Transformation Capacities (ENUTC) Call in the field of development of modern cities and urban areas. The topics covered by the call are described in detail in the call announcement.

See the call announcement

Funding can be applied for by international consortia consisting of at least three research teams from at least three countries participating in the call (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden). The principal investigator of the Polish research ream must be at least a PhD holder. The application procedure is carried out in two stages: 

• First stage:
  • International level: a joint pre-proposal drafted by the Polish research teams in cooperation with the foreign partners (in English) and submitted to the electronic submission system UDiManager (www.uefiscdi-direct.ro) of the Romanian research funding agency UEFISCDI.

PLEASE NOTE: LEASE NOTE: At this stage, Polish applicants are not required to submit any documents to the NCN.

• Second stage:

• International level: a joint full proposal drafted by the Polish research teams in cooperation with the foreign partners (in English) and submitted to the electronic submission system UDiManager (www.uefiscdi-direct.ro) of the Romanian research funding agency UEFISCDI.
• National level: an NCN proposal concerning the Polish part of the project drafted by the Polish research team and submitted to the NCN electronically via the ZSUN/OSF electronic submission system within 7 days of the joint full proposal submission date (international level). Please read the NCN proposal submission procedure .

Call Timeline:

• Submission deadline for joint pre-proposals: 15 April 2021, 2 p.m. CET
• Call for joint full proposals: June 2021
• Submission deadline for joint full proposals: 23 September 2021, 2 p.m. CET
• Submission deadline for NCN proposals in ZSUN/OSF: 30 December 2021
• Call results: December 2021

Under the EN-UTC call, funds can be applied for to cover salaries for members of the research team, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.

The total funding allocated by the NCN for research tasks to be performed by the Polish research teams under the call is 500 000 EUR.

Please read the call announcement.

We are pleased to present the fourth ranking list under the call for proposals for funding of Research Components in projects funded under the “Polish Returns 2020 Programme” launched by the NAWA. Only one project was found eligible and recommended for funding.

See the Ranking List

The “Polish Returns 2020 Programme” was launched by the NAWA on 7 January 2020 in order to allow Polish researchers working abroad to return to Poland and conduct research in the Polish research institutes. Projects could have contained a basic Research Component funded by the National Science Centre 

The NAWA evaluation team has selected seven projects containing a Research Component. Before starting the projects, the researchers whose projects contained a Research Component must submit a proposal for funding of such Components under the NCN call. Their proposals will be subject to an NCN eligibility check only. The eligibility check will be carried out on a continuous basis until the last proposal containing a Research Component funded under the “Polish Returns 2020 Programme”, is submitted to the NCN.

List 4 of NCN-funded Research Components in projects funded under the “Polish Returns 2020 Programme” launched by the NAWA.

We have published the first ranking list under the call for proposals for funding of Research Components in projects funded under the “NAWA Chair Programme (1st edition)” launched by the NAWA. Only one project was found eligible and recommended for funding.

See the Ranking List

The “NAWA Chair Programme (1st edition)” was launched by the NAWA on 1 June 2020. he objective of the NAWA Chair programme is to support outstanding scientific and research as well as teaching activity of Polish scientific entities by inviting world-class foreign scientists to participate in those activities. The first edition of the call was addressed at researchers who carry out research in the areas of humanities as well as social and theological sciences. Proposals could have covered basic Research Components funded by the NCN. 

The NAWA evaluation team has selected five projects containing a Research Component. Before starting the projects, the researchers whose projects contained a Research Component must submit a proposal for NCN funding of such Components under the call. Their proposals will be subject to an NCN eligibility check only. The eligibility check will be carried out on a continuous basis until the last proposal containing a Research Component funded under the “NAWA Chair Programme (1st edition)”, is submitted to the NCN.

List 1 of NCN-funded Research Components in projects funded under the “NAWA Chair Programme (1st edition)” launched by the NAWA.

You are welcome to submit proposals under a new call launched by the ForestValue network for international research projects in the following areas: 1. Sustainable and multifunctional use and management of forests, to maximize their contribution to all United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, 2. Building with wood from various perspectives, and 3. Analysis of benefits, synergies and trade-offs in the use of forest biomass.

Funding can be applied for by international consortia consisting of at least three  research teams from at least three countries participating in the call. The principal investigator of the Polish research ream must be at least a PhD holder and countries participating in the call include Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and Estonia.

Under the ForestValue call, funds can be applied for to cover salaries for members of the research team, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.

The total funding allocated by the NCN for research tasks to be performed by the Polish research teams under the call is 500 000 EUR.

The application procedure consists of two stages:

• international stage: a joint proposal drafted by the Polish research teams in cooperation with the foreign partners (in English) and submitted to the electronic submission system of the ForestValue network (ESS),

• national stage: an NCN proposal concerning the Polish part of the project drafted by the Polish research team and submitted to the NCN electronically via the ZSUN/OSF electronic submission system within 7 days of the joint full proposal submission date (international stage).

PLEASE NOTE: This is a single-stage call which means that only full proposals are submitted at the international stage. More on the application procedure at the international stage can be found in the Call Announcement available on the webpage of the ForestValue network.

Call Timeline:

• Submission deadline for international joint proposals in the ESS submission system: 13 April 2021, 3 p.m. CET
• Submission deadline for NCN proposals in the ZSUN/OSF submission system: 20 April 2021
• Call results: September 2021
• Project start date: end of 2021 and beginning of 2022

The latest issue of ”Nature” features an article about new photon-avalanching nanoparticle materials developed by scientists from Poland, South Korea, and the US. The authors of the paper include Prof. dr hab. inż. Artur Bednarkiewicz from the Institute of Low Temperatures and Structural Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (INTiBS PAN) in Wrocław, and the Polish part of the research project has been funded under the OPUS 16 scheme, with Professor Bednarkiewicz as its principal investigator.

The first and the greatest achievement of the research team is the successful generation of the nanocrystals as such. Normally, lanthanide-doped luminescent materials are limited by what is known as concentration quenching: at dopant concentration levels of more than 1%, their luminescence tends to decrease. The authors of the paper relied on the photon-avalanching mechanism to obtain a spectacular (10,000-fold) increase in luminescence. As presented in the journal, their research opens up brand new avenues for the application of nanotechnology in the construction of biosensors (e.g. to detect viruses, bacteria, fungi, or biological processes in cells and tissues) and physical parameter sensors (e.g. temperature, pressure), as well as for neuromorphic computing, mid-infrared detectors, new nanolasers and sub-diffraction limit imaging.

The research team includes scientists from INTiBS PAN (Poland), Columbia University (USA), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) and the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (South Korea).

Read the paper here.