We would like to invite applicants interested in the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) for Social Sciences and Humanities Call Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World (RRR Call 2021), to participate in the live webinar on Thursday, 1^st of July 2021, at 16:00 (CEST). The webinar will provide detailed clarifications on the technical aspects of submitting a Full Proposal in the SAGe electronic system.

Click here for registration. The webinar will be available on YouTube after the live broadcast.

Webinar Agenda and detailed information can be found on the FAPESP - São Paulo Research Foundation website, via the following link.

On 15 September 2021, we are going to launch the OPUS 22 call for research projects, including research projects carried out within the framework of LAP cooperation under the Weave initiative. Here, you can find the most important information about this edition of the call.

OPUS 22 call opportunities

OPUS 22 is addressed at researchers at all stages of their research careers, who are planning to carry out their research projects:

• without the participation of foreign partners;
• implemented by Polish research teams with the use of large international research equipment;
• with the participation of foreign partners that are not applying for funding for that purpose within the framework of programmes launched by partner institutions and organised in cooperation with the NCN pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) under the Weave initiative (however, the foreign teams may apply for funding under other research-funding programmes that are not co-organised by the NCN pursuant to the LAP);
• within the framework of LAP cooperation under the Weave initiative, i.e. in cooperation with foreign research teams that are applying for parallel funding of their research projects to their respective research-funding institutions under the Weave initiative;
• within the framework of LAP cooperation under the Weave initiative with additional participation of foreign partners that are not applying for funding for that purpose under the Weave initiative or with additional use of large research equipment.

Weave initiative

The Weave initiative launched at the beginning of 2021 enables multilateral cooperation between research-funding institutions associated in Science Europe.

The purpose of Weave is to simplify research project submission and selection procedures in all academic disciplines with the participation of researchers from two or three European countries. It is performed pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) which means that research projects performed by research groups from two or three European countries are reviewed by one institution only, known as the lead agency, relevant to one of the participating research teams under a scheme from its regular call portfolio. The other partner institutions co-launching the call approve the results of merit-based evaluation performed by the lead agency and award funding to research projects recommended for funding in the course of such evaluation.

Thanks to its simplified submission and selection procedures, Weave enables researchers to collaborate across borders within the limits and in the form they regard as the most relevant for their respective research programmes.

Research teams from Poland intending to cooperate under Weave with one or two research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland and/or Germany may choose to submit their domestic proposals either: 

• under the current Weave-UNISONO call for domestic proposals (submitted to the NCN), in the case of which joint proposals must be submitted and evaluated by one of the foreign partner institutions acting as the lead agency (i.e. FWF, GAČR, ARRS, SNSF and/or, from 15 September 2021, DFG)

​or

• under the OPUS call announced on a regular basis in September for domestic proposals for funding of research projects carried out under the LAP cooperation and evaluated by the NCN as the lead agency.

For more information, visit our webpage.

Weave has replaced our bilateral international programmes, such as BEETHOVEN (carried out in cooperation with German research teams), MOZART (carried out in cooperation with Austrian research teams) and ALPHORN (carried out in cooperation with Swiss research teams), as well as multilateral CEUS call.

LAP cooperation under the OPUS 22 call under the Weave initiative

As of 2021, the National Science Centre has continued to cooperate under Weave with the following partner institutions:

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF) from Austria,
• Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) from the Czech Republic,
• Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) from Slovenia,
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) from Switzerland, and
• German Research Foundation (DFG) from Germany.

The NCN as the lead agency under OPUS 22 will perform the merit-based evaluation of OPUS LAP proposals for bilateral or trilateral research projects carried out by research teams from Poland, as well as the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Germany or Switzerland under the Weave initiative.

If a research project is recommended for funding, the NCN will provide funds for the Polish research teams, while the other partner institutions (FWF, GAČR, ARRS, DFG or SNSF) will fund the foreign research teams.

International cooperation is not obligatory under OPUS 22 and proposals submitted together with foreign partners will not be given preferential treatment over those that do not involve such partnerships.

The following OPUS LAP proposals are eligible under OPUS 22:

• drafted by the Polish research teams in cooperation with foreign teams under Weave, in compliance with the requirements outlined in the OPUS 22 call announcement, which will be published on the NCN website on 15 September 2021;
• in any academic discipline covered by the NCN review panels
• involving basic research that has not been funded by the NCN or from other sources;
• based on an equal and complementary contribution by all research teams applying for parallel funding of their research projects to their respective research-funding institutions under Weave. This is to say that the contribution of each research team involved in the project must be significant and necessary and their respective tasks should complement one another to create a coherent joint research project. Any OPUS LAP proposal deemed by the Expert Team not to meet this requirement will not be eligible for funding.

An OPUS LAP proposal must be submitted to the NCN by the Polish research team via the ZSUN/OSF submission system available at: https://osf.opi.org.pl, by 15 December 2021, 4 p.m.

In addition, each foreign research team involved in the project must submit a funding proposal to the relevant research-funding institution under Weave, including a set of required documents, before the deadline and in accordance with the terms and conditions; the proposals are submitted by:

• Austrian research teams – to the FWF;
• Czech research teams – to the GAČR;
• Slovenian research teams – to the ARRS;
• German research teams – to the DFG;
• Swiss research teams – to the SNSF.

If the partner institution under Weave requires applicants to submit a copy of the OPUS LAP proposal, a complete English language version of the OPUS LAP proposal in PDF format must be generated in the ZSUN/OSF submission system and sent to the foreign research team.

PLEASE NOTE: OPUS LAP proposals submitted to the NCN must be the same as the one submitted to the partner institution.

NCN Contact Persons:

Scientific Coordinator:

Dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska

e-mail:Ewelina.Szymanska-Skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl

General inquiries

Dr Magdalena Godowska

e-mail: Magdalena.Godowska@ncn.gov.pl

Magdalena Dobrzańska-Bzowska

e-mail: Magdalena.Dobrzanska-Bzowska@ncn.gov.pl

Is it true that in the early history of the Earth, over 3.6 billion years ago, Antarctica, Greenland and Labrador formed a part of a single supercontinent? This theory is investigated by Prof. Monika Kusiak from the Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, author of the project “Poles together – missing links between Arctic and Antarctic early Earth records” funded under the GRIEG call. Prof. Kusiak’s project will be presented at the conference promoting the Basic Research Programme on 17 June 2021.

In the first part of the conference starting at 11 a.m., the following projects will also be presented:

• “Polish and Norwegian language and world knowledge development in mono- and multilingual children” by Dr hab. Ewa Maria Haman from the University of Warsaw and
• “Investigation into the mechanism of regulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors” by Dr Ákos Nemecz from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

The second part (between 12.30 p.m. and 2 p.m.) will include an expert panel discussion on open access with the participation of representatives of Polish and foreign research community. The full list of speakers is available at https://ncn.wydarzeniaonline.pl/speakers/. Moreover, a Q&A session will be held. You can register to the conference here.

The first two calls (GRIEG and IdeaLab) were launched in June 2019 and the programme will come to an end in 2024. “We are ending a certain stage and entering a period of mature project implementation”, says Marzena Oliwkiewicz-Miklasińska, PhD, head of the Norway Fund Team at the National Science Centre.

The objective of the GRIEG call is to strengthen the Polish-Norwegian research cooperation, support early-stage researchers and build a positive image of science among people at large. The call covers all research domains, with particular focus on polar research and research in social sciences. 

IdeaLab is a call for research projects carried out by research teams comprising at least one Polish partner and at least one partner from Norway, Iceland or Lichtenstein. The topics covered by the call concern challenges arising from processes, such as globalisation, technological change, issues of environment and climate change, demographic change, major waves of migration and geopolitical instability.

POLS is a Small Grant Scheme aimed at researchers from all over the world who intend to conduct their research in Poland. “The internationalisation of Polish science is still insufficient, therefore not many people apply for European grants as compared to mature EU member states (low success rate). POLS can change it”, says Ms Oliwkiewicz-Miklasińska.

28 projects are funded under the GRIEG call, 3 projects under the IdeaLab call and 39 projects under the POLS call. Proposals submitted under the calls have been reviewed by international research teams.

For more information on the calls and call winners, go to: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/eeanorwaygrants/calls

The NCN has just launched this year’s MAESTRO and SONATA BIS calls, under which researchers can submit proposals for pioneering basic research projects and projects aimed at forming new research teams. A total of 170 million PLN is up for grabs.

MAESTRO 13 is open to advanced researchers who wish to conduct pioneering research that goes beyond our current state of knowledge. To qualify as a principal investigator in a MAESTRO project, applicants need to hold at least a PhD; they are also expected to have served as a PI in at least two other research projects selected within domestic or international calls for proposals in the last 10 years. In addition, they need to demonstrate at least five publications in reputable scientific journals or publishing houses, as well as documented involvement in other academic activities. MAESTRO 13 has a total budget of 20 million PLN.

“MAESTRO is a programme designed for researchers with a considerable research record, which allows them to embark on innovative projects. It also gives them an excellent opportunity to expand their team to include researchers with other types of experience and prepare to apply for ERC grants. A MAESTRO grant attests to an institution’s high research quality”, says Professor Jacek Kuźnicki from the International Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, President of the NCN Council.

Announcement of the MAESTRO 13 call for proposals

SONATA BIS 11 provides funding for projects aimed at establishing new research teams. It is targeted at researchers with a doctoral degree earned 5 to 12 years prior to the submission of the proposal; the principal investigator must also present a list of 1 to 10 of the most important publications, published or accepted for publication within the previous 10 years. Apart from the principal investigator, no other team member can hold a scientific title, a degree of associate professor or habilitated doctor, or any equivalent qualification; in addition, the team members must not include researchers who have already cooperated with each other in a call-funded research project. The total budget of SONATA BIS 11 is 150 million PLN. “This grant is an opportunity for young researchers who have an ambitious research idea and want to form their first research team. It is also a chance for institutions to use the grant to create new groups that will strengthen their potential and research infrastructure”, explains the President of the NCN Council.

Announcement of the SONATA BIS 11 call for proposals

In both MAESTRO 13 and SONATA BIS 11, the funding can go towards the costs of research team salaries, purchasing or building research equipment, as well as other necessary project expenses. There is no upper funding limit and the project may be planned for 36, 48 or 60 months.

Traditionally announced in June, MAESTRO and SONATA BIS are the highlights of the NCN’s call portfolio. Over the 10 years of the NCN’s existence, 262 grants in total have been awarded to master research projects and 728 for new research teams. Experts who review call proposals pay particular attention to the quality of the research project and its innovative character, its potential contribution to the development of the discipline and the principal investigator’s achievements.

Proposals must be submitted via the ZSUN/OSF system by 4 pm on 15 September 2021. Detailed information about the calls can be found in the MAESTRO 13 and SONATA BIS 11 call announcements published on the website of the National Science Centre.

Among the projects carried out within the framework of NCN calls, those dealing with ecology and the natural environment are particularly topical. One such project will be implemented by Dr Maciej Liro from the Institute of Environmental Protection of the Polish Academy of Sciences, who will analyse the pollution of Carpathian mountain rivers with macroplastics.

Caring for the environment

The Carpathians have always stunned visitors with their beauty and nature, which is why it may come as a surprise that the amount of plastic waste in their rivers is on the rise. These changes have not escaped the notice of Dr Liro, who spent ten years doing other research in the region. “I collected data on morphology, hydrodynamics, and vegetation along several river sections. With every passing year, I got more and more alarmed by riverine litter. I began to notice certain regularities”, he recollects. He observed, for instance, that a much greater amount of plastic waste could be found in riverine areas that had thick tree cover. He began to leaf through the literature on the subject in search of more information. It turned out, however, that the publications he was looking for were rather few and far between, and hardly any were devoted specifically to mountain rivers.

Litter piled up on a beaver dam. Czarny Dunajec, photo by Maciej Liro

To remedy this situation, Maciej Liro decided to study the waters of the Carpathians to gauge their pollution with macroplastics (plastic pieces with a diameter of more than 5 mm) and hopefully determine the factors that promote the accumulation of plastic waste. The project will involve a thorough analysis of four rivers, each with a different level of anthropic pressure. ”Our objective is to identify the places in river valleys that suffer particularly heavy pollution with macroplastics and explain why this happens on a local and regional scale”, Liro explains. To answer these questions, the team will need to collect field data and interpret them against existing maps, flood simulations and high-resolution drone images of riparian zones. ”Our research team includes not only physical and socio-economic geographers, but also a hydrotechnical engineer and a geologist. The research we want to conduct will mostly involve the manual collection of different fragments of macroplastics deposited by river waters on sediments and vegetation in the vicinity of the river bed”, he adds.

Future benefits

Research thus far has focused primarily on microplastics (pieces with a diameter of less than 5 mm) and their accumulation in seas and oceans. The results of this project will furnish the first data on the level of macroplastic waste pollution in the mountain rivers of the Carpathians and allow a comparison with rivers in other parts of the world.

The study may also have a practical dimension: “As part of the project, we want to map the places along the river bed where plastic waste is most frequently retained, so that we can remove it more efficiently. We want to do this on a local scale, e.g. by identifying the river formations that suffer the heaviest pollution, but also on a regional level, by showing, for instance, which part of the catchment basin receives the greatest amount of plastic waste. This information may be very useful when we decide which areas to clean up or where to install waste removal infrastructure”, explains the researcher. If the project reveals any interrelationships of this kind, we will be able to predict where the macroplastics are likely to accumulate in the future and where they are likely be transported further down the river.

One Earth only

June 5 marks World Environment Day, established on 1972 by the UN General Assembly. It is one of the oldest and the most important celebrations designed to raise ecological awareness and increase involvement in environmental protection.

In this context, we would all do well to ask ourselves what each of us can do to revive our planet. Maciej Liro suggests one idea: ”It is crucial that we understand we have a problem and realize its scale. Plastics have been dumped into rivers for around seventy years now and have already accumulated in really large quantities in river sediments and waters. A plastic bottle dropped into a mountain stream in the Tatras, after many years, may break down into microplastics, flow downstream, and end up in a glass of water that someone drinks in Warsaw.” This is why it is so important to continue raising public awareness about environmental pollution and reach out with the results of scientific research to local communities and tourists in a way that is clear and accessible. “I trust that our project will allow us to get to the root of the problem and come up with real solutions for plastic waste management that can be employed by local communities living in the proximity of rivers, as well as to raise the ecological awareness of our society at large”, Liro emphasizes. What each of us does today may also have an impact on whether the areas with attractive natural features, such as the Carpathians, will still give joy to future generations.

We are happy to inform that the ongoing JPIAMR ACTION Call 2021 is currently implementing a Widening Mechanism, thanks to which research teams from Poland can join international projects submitted by consortia consisting of fewer than 7 partners and recommended to the second stage of the call.

Coordinators looking for new partners for projects recommended to the second stage of the call  have been invited to publish their abstracts on the Partner Search Tool website https://ncn.gov.pl/partners/amr13th/.

Polish research teams interested in joining the consortia are encouraged to publish their profiles on the same page. 

Please note that if you are contacted by a Coordinator with an offer to join the international consortium as a new partner, you are obliged to submit the budget table of the Polish part of the project for NCN’s approval. Please e-mail the budget table in .xlsx format to jolanta.palowska@ncn.gov.pl  no later than 25 June 2021.

The submission deadline for full-proposals is 12 July 2021 at 12:00 p.m. CET. NCN proposals (NCN UNISONO) must be submitted by 4:00 p.m. CET on 19 July 2021.

For more information about the call please visit the JPIAMR website and our website.

We are pleased to announce the next results of the international CEUS-UNISONO call for bilateral and trilateral research projects carried out by research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland under the multilateral CEUS programme pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP). Prof. dr hab. Janusz Rak from the University of Gdańsk is the third person recommended for funding as a result of merit-based evaluation performed by the Austrian agency Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF). Professor Rak will receive over 1.6 million PLN for his project “Radiosensitizing derivatives of pyrimidine or purine bases: mass spectrometry and quantum chemistry methods in research on interactions with low-energy electrons in the gas phase, water clusters and solution”.

Ranking list

The project results could be employed in radiotherapy mainly against solid tumors that account for ca. 80% of all cancer cases. Unfortunately, ionizing radiation that destroys cancer cells may also damage healthy tissues surrounding the tumor that are more sensitive to ionizing radiation than the tumor itself which may lead to their cancer transformation. In order to eliminate such situations, chemical substances are used to increase the sensitivity of tumor to ionising radiation (the so-called radiosensitizers, such as native nucleosides which incorporate into genomic DNA). The basic objective of the research project carried out by Professor Rak is to comprehend a relation between the character of dissociative electron attachment (DEA) to MNuc in the gas phase and the mechanism of the degradation of MNuc in water, i.e. in the environment where a potential radiosensitizer should work. Explaining the details of DEA, the influence of water in particular, should allow to optimise the performance of tested compounds, which may result in super-radiosensitizers that ultimately could be employed in the clinic. 

Under the CEUS-UNISONO call for proposals, funding may be awarded for remuneration of the research team, scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or construction of research equipment and other project-related expenses. The call was addressed at Polish research teams that jointly with one (in the case of bilateral cooperation) or two (in the case of trilateral cooperation) partner research teams requested funding of their basic research projects. Projects could have been planned for a period of either 24 or 36 months and in the case of projects carried out jointly with research teams from Austria, also 48 months

All ranking lists that have been published in the CEUS-UNISONO call are available here.

International proposals recommended for the second stage of the JPND Call 2021 launched by the JPND (Neurodegenerative Disease Research) network to detect early symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases, can now be extended to include Polish research teams.

If you are interested in joining a research team recommended for the second stage of the call, please contact Jadwiga Spyrka, PhD (jadwiga.spyrka@ncn.gov.pl) by 7 June 2021.

The submission deadline for full proposals under the call is 29 June 2021. NCN UNISONO proposals must be submitted to the ZSUN/OSF submission system by 6 July 2021.

For more information on the call, go to the website of the JPND network and the our website.

Three applicants decided not to have their projects funded under the POLS call and their decisions have been validated. As a consequence, the National Science Center started to finance projects on the waiting list. Another three projects on the waiting list received positive decisions.

Additional ranking list

The waiting list under the POLS call for research projects to be carried out by incoming researchers (funded under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021) was submitted to the National Science Center by the Basic Research Programme Committee. The list lays down the order of projects recommended for funding. Proposals on the waiting list have been refused by the National Science Center with the reservation that they may be funded if other projects are not granted or additional funding becomes available under the scheme.

The significance and impact of the global SARS-CoV-2 epidemic is being addressed by researchers from a variety of disciplines. These include the winners of the just-concluded OPUS 20 + LAP call. Thanks to grants awarded by the National Science Centre (NCN), researchers will be able to look at the consequences we have faced as a result of the pandemic.

OPUS is the main NCN call, expanded in the 20th edition by an international path based on the Lead Agency Procedure, in which researchers at all stages of their scientific career may apply for funding for research projects in the field of basic research. Among the laureates of the OPUS 20 call, there are also researchers whose projects will examine the consequences of the pandemic that has been with us for over a year.

Coronavirus and managerial decisions

One of the projects to be funded in the OPUS 20 call is the grant “Behavioural biases in corporate risk management and investment decisions – their impact on selected macroeconomic indicators in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Researchers want to find out how coronavirus-related psychological factors affect the decisions of managers of companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. – We want to investigate to what extent, in a pandemic situation, factors such as fear, a sense of uncertainty, perhaps even panic, influence decision-making at an individual level and how they can affect the economy as a whole – says Prof. Adam Szyszka of the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, head of this project.

- The pandemic triggered incentives that could potentially influence less rational, suboptimal decisions – the researcher adds. An example of such irrational behaviour would be, for example, refraining from making decisions, even when the pandemic and the associated uncertainty, have no impact on the business project in question.

In addition to researchers from SGH, the grant will also involve researchers from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Warsaw and the University School of Advanced Studies in Padua. The researchers will conduct a survey of entrepreneurs and then want to aggregate the data obtained. To this end, they plan to build a so-called multi-agent model. – If we find an anomaly, we want to see if it can be replicated – he adds. Multi-agent modelling allows us to simulate and see what would happen if all entrepreneurs behaved in the same way; what the impact would be on economic performance, employment, investment and growth.

Attention, plastic!

The OPUS 20 call will also fund prof. Małgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak “Mayday, plastic threat! - Integration of citizen  science  and  science communication into solutions to single-use plastic pollution at times of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

Prof. Małgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak is a biologist and ecologist, working at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the Jagiellonian University. Her research concerns the social aspects of nature conservation and environmental protection. Together with the Nature Conservation and Environmental Education Team, which he heads, he is concerned with plastics, mainly single-use plastics, and their impact on the environment and human health. It explores what is the public perception of single-use products made of plastic, among different stakeholders, e.g. producers, recyclers, policy makers.

The production and disposal of plastics, especially single-use plastics such as cups, plates, bowls and cutlery, and the associated emissions of toxic substances – mainly carbon dioxide – have been identified as having a significant impact on climate change and human health. The European Commission has ordered all EU member states to reduce or completely eliminate them by 2021. However, these provisions were issued before the pandemic, and this changed the situation completely. – Climate problems and the threat of plastic have receded into the background. Understandably, in light of the threat to life and health, the hierarchy of values in the life of the potential consumer, which is each and every one of us, has reversed – says prof. Grodzińska-Jurczak. However, he adds, there is now a big challenge ahead to reduce plastic and return to the way the problem was viewed in pre-pandemic times.

- We plan to identify the most effective methods to reduce the production and use of single-use plastics. We are betting on the model of a closed loop economy that we have created, but understood not as before, technically, but as a model for creating knowledge and circulating information about plastics between different stakeholders involved in the plastics economy – explains the researcher.  

As part of the National Science Centre grant, researchers will study the discourse on plastic in other European countries in scientific literature, traditional and social media. Among other things, they also plan to conduct large sample surveys on Poles' knowledge of the toxicity of single-use packaging and the actions they would be willing to take to reduce plastic. They will organise focus studies of representatives of different professions, including producers, recyclers, but also researchers and young people. – We are about finding a common solution. Today, science is not only the domain of researchers. It is knowledge creation based on the experience of different stakeholders. Only a debate in which society is involved and the dissemination of knowledge by us researchers can lead to greater awareness and the development of appropriate behaviour towards the environment. Remember, popularisation of science is the mission and duty of every scientist – he adds.

COVID-19 – this needs to be investigated!

The ranking list of the twentieth edition of the OPUS call also included other projects on coronavirus and the accompanying effects of its emergence. Thanks to grants awarded by NCN prof. Piotr Błędowski from the Warsaw School of Economics will carry out a project entitled. “Households in the time of the coronavirus. Work, education, and support under uncertainty”,

prof. Piotr Heczko from Jagiellonian University will investigate “Mechanisms of immunity directed against coronaviruses based on the analysis of antibodies in convalescents, exposed/sub-clinical residents and non-exposed residents of Polish long term care facilities and their reaction with coronavirus antigens”, and dr Andrea Lipińska from the University of Gdańsk will look at “Immunomodulatory properties of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus-encoded proteins”.