Four new calls

Wed, 09/15/2021 - 18:07
Kod CSS i JS

OPUS, SONATA, PRELUDIUM BIS and POLONEZ BIS – the National Science Centre is proud to announce four new calls, offering grants to researchers at all levels of seniority and experience, as well as foreigners who wish to conduct their research in Poland.

The National Science Centre supports researchers at all levels, from research centres throughout Poland, and actively promotes mobility and international research cooperation.

The next round of the OPUS, SONATA, PRELUDIUM BIS and POLONEZ BIS calls starts on 15 September; proposals will be accepted until 15 December.

For researchers at all levels

OPUS 22 is targeted at researchers at any level, who are planning to carry out projects with or without foreign partners in bilateral or multilateral cooperation (including within the framework of the LAP – Lead Agency Procedure under the Weave programme), as well as those that require large, international research equipment.

Launched at the beginning of 2021, the Weave programme is based on multilateral partnership between research-funding organizations that belong to the Science Europe association.

Projects carried out under OPUS 22 may take 1, 2, 3 or 4 years to complete. There is no upper funding limit for any single project; the total budget of the call equals 500 million PLN.

Grants for young researchers

SONATA 17 is designed to support those who are just starting out on their research careers, helping young researchers to conduct innovative studies with the aid of state-of-the-art equipment or an original methodology. The call is targeted at PhD holders who earned their degree 2 to 7 years prior to the application year.

Apart from the principal investigator, the project team may include students and PhD candidates, as well as postdoctoral fellows. The projects may take 1, 2 or 3 years. There is no upper funding limit for any single project; the total budget of the call equals 200 million PLN.

Support for PhD candidates

PRELUDIUM BIS 3 is open to entities that operate PhD programmes. The objective of the call is to support the education of PhD candidates in doctoral schools and fund projects conducted by young researchers within the framework of their PhD dissertation. Winners of PRELUDIUM BIS 3 may receive grants of up to 300,000 PLN, a PhD scholarship, and other resources to cover indirect costs. PhD candidates who get scholarships under PRELUDIUM BIS will also complete a 3- to 6-month foreign research fellowship funded by the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA).

The budget of PRELUDIUM BIS 3 equals 60 million PLN.

POLONEZ BIS – a comprehensive programme for foreign researchers

POLONEZ BIS is a comprehensive programme that combines research, secondments in non-academic institutions and soft skills training courses. In three successive rounds, the NCN will recruit 120 experienced researchers, who will then move to Poland for 24 months to carry out their research at various public and private institutions. The programme will be supplemented by a series of attractive training courses and cooperation with start-ups and NGOs. Successful applicants can expect attractive financial terms and conditions, including an annual salary of more than 65K € and a research grant of up to 100,000 €.If you have an excellent research idea, we encourage you to take part in the call and carry out your research in Poland. It is an opportunity for professional advancement and financial independence, as well as a great chance to create your own team”, says Jolanta Palowska from the NCN’s Department of International Cooperation.

POLONEZ BIS is open to applicants who hold a PhD degree or have at least 4 years of full-time research experience, and who have lived and worked outside Poland for at least 2 years within the last three years prior to the call announcement. The choice of the subject matter and discipline is up to the applicants, who must submit their proposals in tandem with their host institutions in Poland, i.e. their future employers.

The first round of applications is scheduled to last until mid-December. Two more will follow next year.

Our 10th anniversary event is behind us

Tue, 09/14/2021 - 12:34
Kod CSS i JS

For the last 10 years, we have supported Polish science by providing assistance to researchers working in Poland. Our celebration included a gala event that was followed by discussions on science in times of pandemic and open science to research.

First day of celebrations – 9 September

“Since the beginning, our main goal has been to focus on the quality of research based on the best standards in world science. We consistently strive to increase the importance of Polish science in the world”, stated Professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre, summarising its activities at a gala event at the Julius Słowacki Theatre in Krakow.

In our 10 years of operation, we have announced over 200 calls and awarded over 23,000 grants. We created a fair and transparent system for evaluating proposals from scratch, with foreign experts playing a central role. We finance research for leading Polish scientists, based on the assumption that the most important factor in the development of Polish science is support for highly qualified research staff.

“It is worth emphasising the fact that the NCN’s activities for scientists are organised and run by scientists and have measurable effects”, said Prof. Jacek Kuźnicki, President of the NCN Council during the gala. “In the opinion of many people from Poland and abroad, the quality of grant proposals has significantly improved over the 10 years of the NCN's operations. The projects implemented are at an increasingly high level, which can be seen, among other things, in the increasing number of publications in the world’s best journals”, he added.

The National Science Centre’s budget for funding projects has grown over the years from less than PLN 300 million in 2011 to PLN 1.3 billion in 2021.

“I believe that the way a country treats such far-reaching investments as research funding is one of the markers of modern patriotism, and future generations will hold us accountable for such investments. In this context, I would like to note with great satisfaction the recent information that, after three years of stagnation in financing NCN, the Ministry of Education and Science decided to significantly increase the National Science Centre’s targeted subsidy by PLN 150 million, i.e. by over 12% in the budget for 2022”, the NCN Director emphasised during his speech.

The number of projects financed by foreign funds, including those of the European Commission, is also increasing. The NCN is one of the largest Polish recipients of funds from the Framework Programmes and these funds are allocated to scientists working in Poland.

During the gala ceremony, congratulations and words of appreciation were given by Przemysław Czarnek, Minister of Education and Science, Wojciech Murdzek, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education and Science, Marc Schiltz, President of Science Europe, and Katja Becker, Chairwoman of the Governing Board of the Global Research Council (GRC). The assembled guests also had the opportunity to listen to a lecture by the philosopher and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Åsa Wikforss, on “Science Denial in the Post-Truth Era”. The ceremony ended with a concert by the Sinfonietta Cracovia Orchestra of the Royal Capital City of Krakow under the baton of Edmon Levon.

Second day of celebrations – 10 September

On the second day of the 10th anniversary of the NCN, representatives of Polish and European research funding institutions and scientists representing various fields of science gathered at the International Cultural Centre to discuss science in times of pandemic and open access.

Invited guests reflected on the impact of the pandemic on the conduct of scientific research, the challenges it poses to scientists and how science can support countries and societies in functioning in a pandemic reality. The second panel discussion focused on open access to scientific content, primarily in the context of the cOAllition S initiative, whereby European research funding agencies have adopted Plan S to strive for full and immediate (no time embargo) access to publications containing research results resulting from publicly funded or co-funded research projects.

An important element of the conference was the presentations by three winners of National Science Centre competitions who, thanks to funding from the NCN, were able to build internationalised scientific teams, conduct ground-breaking research and achieve world-class results. Their research was presented by Prof. Grzegorz Pietrzyński (Astronomical Centre im. Mikołaj Kopernik PAN), Dr Katarzyna Cantarero (SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology in Wrocław) and Dr Sebastian Glatt (Małopolska Center of Biotechnology of the Jagiellonian University).

Photos

Polish researchers among the winners of the international CHIST-ERA call

Mon, 09/13/2021 - 13:39
Kod CSS i JS

We are pleased to announce that three projects involving Polish research teams have been awarded funding in the call launched by the CHIST-ERA network - European Coordinated Research on Long-term Challenges in Information and Communication Sciences & Technologies.

The CHIST-ERA Call 2020 covered the following topics:

  • Advanced Brain-Computer Interfaces for Novel Interactions (BCI);
  • Towards Sustainable ICT (S-ICT).

Within the call applicants submitted 53 joint proposals. 10 research projects have been selected for funding for a total budget of 10 mln EUR.

Projects with Polish researchers awarded within the CHIST-ERA Call 2020:

TESLA: Transient Electronics for Sustainable ICT in Digital Agriculture. Polish Principal Investigator: dr inż. Beata Kinga Synkiewicz-Musialska, ŁUKASIEWICZ Research Network. The project will involve research teams from the United Kingdom, Finland, Canada, and Switzerland.

BANANA: Brainsourcing for Affective Attention EstimationPolish Principal Investigator: dr inż. Aleksandra Dagmara Kawala-Sterniuk, Opole University of Technology. The project will involve research teams from Finland, Spain and Luxembourg.

BITSCOPE: Brain Integrated Tagging for Socially Curated Online Personalised Experiences. Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. Veslava Osińska,  Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The project will involve research teams from France, Ireland and Spain.

The implementation of research projects funded within the Call will start still this year.

More information and the full list of the projects recommended for funding are available on the CHIST-ERA website.

Congratulations to all the laureates!

Online celebration

Fri, 09/10/2021 - 08:55
Kod CSS i JS

On 9 and 10 September 2021, the National Science Centre will celebrate 10 years of its existence. In over a decade, we have launched more than 200 calls in which over 23 thousand grants have been awarded. Our anniversary is a celebration of science and researchers all around Poland.

The anniversary celebration will be held two days and will include a gala event at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Krakow on 9 September 2021, at 6 p.m. and a conference at the International Cultural Centre in Kraków on 10 September 2021, at 10 a.m. during which the participants will discuss research during the COVID-19 pandemic and Open Access. In addition, our three winners will talk about their research.

The agenda of the event is available here: 10 years NCN.

Do join us in our celebration! 

Live streaming of our the event will be available at 10latncn.wydarzeniaonline.pl, our Facebook and YouTube. A Q&A platform will be available. We will also provide regular updates in our social media (TwitterFacebookLinkedinInstagram).

We are hoping that researchers, universities, as well as research institutes and organisations will join us in our celebration. Join us online and read the publications and posts where you can find out about the success of our winning researchers (#10latNCN, #10yearsNCN).

Information webinar on POLONEZ BIS

Wed, 09/01/2021 - 01:25
Kod CSS i JS

On 10 September (Friday) at 9:00 a.m. (CEST), an Information Webinar will be held for institutions interested in hosting researcher researchers under POLONEZ BIS. The POLONEZ BIS call is addressed at experienced foreign researchers intending to move to Poland for 24 months.  

120 people will be recruited under three calls for proposals. Researchers recommended for funding will be provided with attractive terms of employment, such as annual remuneration of 53.5 thousand EUR and research grant of up to 100 thousand EUR. During their time in Poland, researchers will also have a chance to attend a number of interesting training courses and cooperate with Polish start-ups and NGOs.   

The call will be launched on 15 September 2021 and will last until 15 December 2021. The Webinar will be a great chance to find answer to (inter alia) the following questions: What institutions can host the POLONEZ BIS fellows? Can an institution host a researcher whom it granted a PhD? What are the criteria of evaluating the hosting arrangements? The Webinar will be held in Polish on the Clickmeeting platform. In order to optimize the Q&A session, submit your questions in advance via the registration form. 

Register for our Webinar.

Learn more about the POLONEZ BIS programme.

 

The Baltic Sea in the research of SONATINA 5 winners

Mon, 08/30/2021 - 01:24
Kod CSS i JS

SONATINA is a programme targeted at researchers who have just recently earned their PhD degree. In the last round, 52 young researchers won a total of nearly 34 million PLN in funding. Thanks to their grants, they will be able to look more closely into various subjects in many scientific disciplines. One such subject has to do with the area of the Baltic Sea and the processes that occur within it.

An example of an NTM created with the use of a bathymetric LiDAR

An example of an NTM (bathymetry) created with the use of a bathymetric LiDAR

Dr Łukasz Janowski submitted a project entitled “Pioneering exploration of Puck Bay based on high-resolution aerial and acoustic remote sensing”, which was awarded more than 756,000 PLN in funding. The goal is to create the first high-resolution Numerical Terrain Model (NTM), i.e. a digital image of the land surface that allows the formation of a given terrain to be presented via 3D graphics. The marine equivalent of the NTM is known as bathymetry, a model focusing on the depth of a given body of water. The model will make it easier for us to determine the underwater formation of the sea floor, the area of benthic habitats, and the threats that may lurk on the bottom of the sea. A precise bathymetry is indispensable for the preliminary exploration of an unknown sea basin when we take decisions to protect and manage the coastal zone, explains Dr Janowski.

The purpose of the project is not only to develop a numerical representation of the sea floor in Puck Bay, but also to discover its underwater cultural heritage. Ancient settlements that go back as far as 7000 years are likely to be found in the area. The oldest traces of human activity in the region date back to the Mesolithic and the Neolithic periods; the latter is represented by two extensive settlements, Osłonino and Rzucewo. In the Middle Ages and later historical periods, the port and shipyard in the mouth of the Płutnica river experienced dynamic growth, explains Dr Janowski. What is more, four shipwrecks and an aeroplane were discovered in the Bay; an unidentified object uncovered near the village of Rewa and the Beka nature reserve could also be linked to human presence in the region. Its shape and nature suggest that it might have been the result of human economic activity. In sum, Puck Bay has great archaeological potential, which still needs to be studied, he adds.

Dr Jankowski will carry out his research using an aeroplane and a small boat. The former will be equipped with an air camera and a device (a bathymetric LiDAR device) that emits laser beams in two colours, green and red to probe the sea floor quickly and with precision. The boat will carry a multibeam echosounder, which works not unlike the LiDAR, but relies on acoustic signals instead of laser beams. The measurement results obtained with the three methods will be integrated to create the first exact bathymetric map of the Inner Puck Bay.

But there is more in the Baltic Sea to interest researchers than just the earliest traces of human presence. The history that unfolded in the previous century, for instance, can still have an important impact on us today. This aspect will be studied by Dr Michał Czub in a project entitled “Ecological consequences of the dumping of chemical weapons into the Baltic Sea”. The researcher will look into the current impact of the chemical warfare substances deposited on the seabed. As he points out, Chemical arsenals were already being dumped into seas and oceans after WWI and, because of its efficiency, the method was resumed after WWII. Today, there are an estimated 300 chemical weapon dumping sites around the world. It is estimated that as many as 50,000 tons of chemical weapons have been dropped into the Baltic Sea alone, including 15,000 tons of toxic chemical warfare agents.

Prace badawcze prowadzone na Morzu Bałtyckim

Research on the Baltic Sea, photo by M. Czub

Toxic chemical warfare agents are substances that have often been employed for military purposes on account of their frequently toxic properties. They are dangerous not only during manufacture or use, but also during neutralization. By their very definition, these substances are poisonous to people; they are also likely to harm the environment and other living organisms. In the 20th century, as they struggled to adhere to the fragile provisions of post-war peace treaties, many states decided to “destroy by sinking” not only their own arsenals but also the weapons they had captured during military action. The process was thought to neutralize their toxic properties. The latest research suggests that their dissolved fractions continue to pose real danger; in line with the commonly accepted classification standards, they are categorized as toxic or very toxic for a crustacean known as Daphnia magna. In addition, both the arsenic-based warfare agents and their degradation products are now being found in deposits sampled from many Baltic Sea sites. Worse yet, one of the most recent studies detected their presence in the muscles of Baltic fish, including the Atlantic cod, says Dr Czub.

The project, which was awarded a grant of more than 760,000 PLN, aims to describe the specific biomarkers and bioindicators of contamination, which will help describe the observable and measurable effects of exposure to these toxic warfare agents on the marine fauna and environment.

 

 

The SONATINA call is targeted at researchers who earned their PhD up to 3 years before submitting the proposal or were awarded the degree before 30 June 2021. The fifth edition attracted 160 proposals for a total amount of 100 million PLN, 52 of which (with a total budget of 34 million PLN) were recommended for funding by NCN experts, for a final success rate of 32.5%. The winner list can be found HERE.

The grants will go toward the costs of the winners’ full-time employment at Polish research centres, basic and applied research activities, as well as three- or six-month foreign fellowships. Upon the completion of the projects, the researchers will be able to apply for more funds under the SONATA call, designed for more experienced PhD holders, or SONATA BIS, which makes it possible to set up a new research team.

 

 

First MINIATURA 5 results: 58 researchers awarded resources for individual research activities

Mon, 08/16/2021 - 00:51
Kod CSS i JS

We have just published the first ranking list of the MINIATURA 5 call, under which researchers can request funding for preliminary and pilot studies, library and archive search, fellowships and research visits or consultations. 58 individual research activities, with a total budget of more than 2.3 million PLN, were recommended for funding based on the decision of NCN experts.

Funding under individual panels:

  • arts, humanities, social sciences: 18 activities with a total budget of 541,761 PLN
  • physical sciences and engineering: 18 activities with a total budget of 740,827 PLN
  • life sciences: 22 activities with a total budget of 1,051,860 PLN

Ranking list

The main objective of the MINIATURA call is to finance research activities conducted for the purposes of a future research project that will be submitted under an NCN call or other domestic and international calls for proposals. The fifth edition offers grants from 5,000 PLN to 50,000 to fund preliminary or pilot studies, library and archive search, fellowships, research visits or consultations to be carried out over a period of up to 12 months. The call is open to researchers who earned their PhD no earlier than on 1 January 2009, have never conducted an NCN-funded research project, and whose scientific achievements include at least one published paper or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.

One of the winners of MINIATURA 5 is Dr Emilia Bogacka from the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, who will use her grant to conduct a preliminary study entitled “Determinants of the sense of personal safety of women as users of public transportation”. The researcher will look into the fears experienced by women at bus stops and inside the means of public transportation in Poznań, which are a frequent crime site. The analysis will lay the groundwork for a future project that will also include other cities and contribute to the development of research into Polish social geography and, in particular, the geography of crime.

A subject related to the female gender will also be tackled under MINIATURA 5 by Dr Maciej Kałaska from the University of Warsaw during his research fellowship at ICTA-AUB in Barcelona. The goal of this practicum at a Spanish university will be to develop an indicator to measure the empowerment of women in studies on environmental justice. This will allow the obstacles that prevent women from acquiring the power needed to engage in environmental activism to be identified and work out the strategies to neutralize these setbacks. The knowledge and experience gained during the fellowship will contribute to developing the theoretical and analytical framework of a project that is scheduled for submission to the NCN at the end of 2022.

PDF ranking list

The proposals are accepted on a rolling basis until 30 September 2021.

The total budget of MINIATURA 5 equals 22 million PLN. The resources are being successively and proportionally distributed throughout the entire call and the proposal may be recommended for funding only as long as there are enough funds in the pool of resources slated for a given month. Since a lot of proposals are often submitted in the last month of the call, we urge you not to postpone your decision to participate in MINIATURA until the last moment.

Service of decisions

On 16 August 2021, the NCN will dispatch the positive and the negative decisions for calls submitted under MINIATURA 5 in May.

The justifications are available in the ZSUN/OSF system. Please check the status of your proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system and your Electronic Correspondence Register (ESP ePUAP).

We remind you that the decisions are served on the applicant in electronic form to the ESP ePUAP address indicated in the proposal. If you have not received a decision, please make sure that the address listed in the proposal is correct. If it is not, contact the NCN officer in charge of the proposal indicated in the ZSUN/OSF system.

Pierwsze wyniki konkursu MINIATURA 5

 

SONATINA 5 results are in! 52 early stage researchers win almost 34 million PLN

Fri, 08/06/2021 - 12:20

We have just announced the results of the fifth edition of the SONATINA call. Researchers who have recently earned their PhDs will receive almost 34 million PLN to fund their research and fellowships at prestigious foreign institutions.

SONATINA is targeted at researchers who earned their PhD up to 3 years before submitting the proposal or were awarded the degree before 30 June 2021. The fifth edition attracted 160 proposals to the total amount of 100 million PLN, 52 of which (with a total budget of 34 million PLN) were recommended for funding by NCN experts, for a final success rate of 32.5%. The grants will go toward the costs of the winners’ full-time employment at Polish research centres, basic and applied research activities, as well as three- or six-month foreign fellowships.

The greatest number of proposals, as many as 63, were submitted under the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences panel. 20 of these were awarded more than 10.6 million PLN in funding. Physical Sciences and Engineering attracted 61 proposals, 20 of which will receive a total of more than 12.5 million PLN. The NCN also received 36 proposals in the field of Life Sciences; 12 of these were awarded more than 10.7 million PLN in total.

The successful projects will be carried out at research institutions all over Poland. The ranking lists include researchers from, e.g. universities, universities of science and technology, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Łukasiewicz Research Network.

The ranking lists of SONATINA 5

SONATINA 5 winners

The winners of SONATINA 5 will look into various subjects, such as, for instance, the social and cultural determinants of the relationship between blind people and their guide dogs. Headed by Dr Kamil Pietrowiak from the Faculty of History of the University of Gdańsk, this particular project will analyse the ways in which blind individuals cooperate and communicate with their assistant quadrupeds. The results will fill in gaps in our general knowledge on the functioning of blind people and the close interactions between people and animals.

Another grant will go toward funding research into the response of marine birds to the environmental warming in the Arctic. The goal of the project carried out by Dr Martyna Syposz from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Gdańsk is to establish how climate change has affected the activity of the little auk during breeding season. The research will deliver information on the social and parenting behaviour of marine birds and the corresponding impact of climate evolution. Dr Michał Czub from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw will use his SONATINA 5 grant to study the ecological consequences of the dumping of chemical weapons into the Baltic Sea. These chemical substances are not neutralized; they present a real threat and are toxic to marine organisms. The compounds have already been detected in the muscles of Baltic fish, including the Atlantic cod. Dr Czuba’s research will allow to describe the various effects of exposure to poisonous chemical warfare substance on the Baltic fauna and environment.

Upon the completion of the projects, the researchers will be able to apply for more funds under the SONATA call, designed for more experienced PhD holders, or SONATA BIS, which makes it possible to set up a new research team.

A full list of successful proposals (PDF)

Open Access Policy

In accordance with the Open Access Policy adopted by the National Science Centre, the results of research conducted under NCN-funded projects will be disseminated via various publication paths in open access journals and platforms that meet specific requirements. This will allow the general public to use their findings immediately and free of charge.

Decisions and their delivery

Decisions for successful and rejected proposals, submitted under SONATINA 5 call will be dispatched on 5 August 2021. The decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to the applicant in the form of an electronic document sent to the e-mail address indicated in the proposal.

If the applicant is an entity referred to in Article 27 (1)-(7) and (9) of the Act on the NCN, the decision will only be delivered to the Electronic Inbox (ESP ePUAP) address provided in the proposal. If an applicant who is a natural person lists an ePUAP inbox in the proposal, the decision will be delivered to that address; otherwise, an e-mail will be sent to the address indicated in the proposal with an address from which the decision can be downloaded.

The decision of the NCN Director is also communicated to the principal investigator, and, where the applicant is a natural person, to the host institution in the proposal.

If you have not received a decision, please verify that the electronic address (ESP, ePUAP, e-mail) you provided in the proposal is correct. If not, please get in touch with the NCN Programme Officer assigned to the proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system.

 

Solar-Driven Chemistry Call 2021

Fri, 07/30/2021 - 13:26

In cooperation with the Solar-Driven Chemistry network, the National Science Centre is launching a call for international research projects under the latest round of the Solar-Driven Chemistry Call 2021.

Solar-Driven Chemistry is a network of European research-funding agencies, established in 2018 on the initiative of the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), which announces regular international calls for research projects in the area of photochemical processes. The subject matter of the new call in particular concerns the photochemical transformation of small molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen) into more valuable, storable chemicals by means of solar radiation.

The call is open to projects prepared by international consortia, made up of at least two teams from at least two countries involved in the call: Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland or Turkey.

The budget slated by the NCN for Polish teams under the call equals 500 thousand EUR. These can go toward research team salaries, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD candidates, purchasing or creating new research equipment, as well as other expenses necessary for project implementation.

The Solar-Driven Chemistry Call 2021 consists of two stages. As a first step, the teams must submit a joint pre-proposal, with a deadline of 29 October. The best teams will then be invited to join stage 2 and submit a full proposal before 2 May 2022.

In addition, the principal investigator (on the Polish side) is obliged to draft an domestic proposal for the Polish part of the project in the ZSUN/OSF system. The deadline for submitting domestic proposals in the ZSUN/OSF system: 9 May 2022.

Call results:

  • November 2022 – publication of the list of projects recommended for funding;
  • January 2023 – project start date.

Read the full call announcement

 

The call: ARTIQ – Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CE AI) announced by the NCN and the NCBR

Fri, 07/30/2021 - 12:39

The National Science Centre (NCN), in cooperation with the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR), is proud to announce the ARTIQ call for proposals aimed at creating three Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CE AI). 

With a wide range of possible applications, artificial intelligence (AI) is hailed as one of the most important technologies of the future. Its elements have already been around for many years, employed in tools such as internet search engines, navigation, predictive text or automatic translation apps. AI is expected to fundamentally change almost all aspects of our lives and economies, and activities designed to promote it have been defined by the European Parliament as a EU priority. At the end of 2020, Poland also adopted what is known as a “Policy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence from 2020”.

The objective of the call ARTIQ – Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence (CE AI), organized jointly by the NCN and the NCBR, is to boost Poland’s potential in terms of artificial intelligence. The newly created CE AIs, headed by world-renowned leaders, will conduct basic and industrial research, R & D and pre-implementation work in the field.

Announcement

The CE AIs will be established at so-called host institutions, put in charge of providing research teams with all the conditions necessary to carry out their project. A list of available host institutions was published on the website of the NCBR in April, designed to make it easier for leaders to find an entity where a CE AI will be launched. Proposals may also be submitted in cooperation with other institutions, as long as they meet all the requirements listed in the call’s Terms and Conditions.

The host institution must declare its own contribution to the project. Its duties will also include financial and administrative coordination; to this end, a dedicated administrative coordinator should be hired.

To qualify as a CE AI Leader, applicants are expected to have earned their PhD degree up to 8 years before the start date of the call, demonstrate international experience and achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, including successful commercialization and business cooperation ventures, and should not have lived, worked, studied or carried out a grant in Poland in the two years prior to the submission deadline.

In the ARTIQ call, basic research will be funded by the NCN, while the NCBR will award resources for industrial research, R & D, pre-implementation, and the establishment of SPEs. The maximum amount of eligible costs funded by the NCN and the NCBR for a single project is 20 million PLN.

Only projects that have never been funded by the NCBR, the NCN or from any other sources can be submitted under the call. They should take 60 months to complete.

Information on how to apply and how funding will be awarded can be found in the call’s Terms and Conditions.

Proposals will be accepted between 20 September 2021 and 4 pm on 20 December 2021 and must be submitted electronically, via the LSI system available at https://lsi.ncbr.gov.pl.

Konkurs ARTIQ