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The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) and the National Science Centre are pleased to invite researchers and entrepreneurs to submit their research proposals to the fifth call under the TANGO Joint Undertaking. A total budget of 30 million PLN is available this time to support the development of technologies based on basic research findings.

See the announcement

The proposals can be submitted to the NCBR, only electronically, between 1 February and 30 June 2021, divided into two rounds.

The idea behind TANGO is to build bridges between basic research and its practical applications. The National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development are reaching out to innovators whose basic research, i.e. empirical or theoretical endeavours undertaken to gain new knowledge of the foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any direct commercial use, have an especially high implementation potential.

“Cooperation between researchers and entrepreneurs ultimately serves the common good: it bolsters our economy and enhances the level of innovation in Polish science all at the same time. Many basic research findings can and do find applications in response to key challenges facing Poland, including in the areas of healthcare, environment, and technology. Through the TANGO programme, we want to support such ideas so that they can be developed and applied more quickly to generate tangible economic benefits”, says Przemysław Czarnek, the Polish Minister of Education and Science.

The fifth edition of the TANGO scheme is open to academic and research centres and research and industry consortia that conduct proof-of-concept work, industrial research and development based on the findings of basic research previously funded by the National Science Centre. No limits as to the subject matter of the study apply.

“Through the initiative undertaken together with the National Science Centre, we wish to boost the degree of commercialisation of technologies developed on the basis of research findings”, says Dr inż. Wojciech Kamieniecki, Director of the National Centre for Research and Development. “We have no doubts that this is the right direction. The results of the TANGO programme will be known in a few years, when we have counted the number of patents secured on the basis of completed projects and, especially, the number of research findings implemented and used in actual economic activity”, he adds.

Get on track to success!

The budget of the TANGO 5 call is 30 million PLN. Funding may be requested under one of three tracks (A, B, C), depending on the research stage of the initial project.

The initial project is a research project in the field of basic research. The schemes under which initial projects in Tracks A and C may be funded include all domestic and international calls launched by the National Science Centre, except ETIUDA, FUGA, UWERTURA and MINIATURA. To qualify for Track B, the project must be funded under the first, second, third or fourth (Track A only) TANGO scheme.

The differences between the tracks also have to do with the objective, the addressees and the scope of funded activities:

• Track A – the objective is to find an industrial partner interested in further project implementation under Track B. The proposal may be submitted by research centres. The funding of max. 250 thousand PLN per project will go towards proof-of-concept and R&D work. The total budget of Track A is 6 million PLN.
• Track B – is open to applicants who have already found an industrial partner within the framework of the TANGO programme. Proposals can only be submitted by consortia made up of academic or research organisations and enterprises, headed by an academic or research organisation. The funding of max. 3 million PLN will go towards industrial research and development work. The total budget of Track B is 6 million PLN.
• Track C – is targeted at entities that have found an industrial partner outside of the TANGO programme. Proposals can only be submitted by consortia made up of academic or research organisations (leader) and enterprises. The funding of max. 3 million PLN, will go towards industrial research, development and proof-of-concept work. The total budget of Track C is 18 million PLN.

The prerequisite for funding under Tracks B and C is that the applicants commit themselves to implementing the results of the project.

In accordance with the programme objectives, the merit-based review performed by experts will consider issues such as market demand and implementation profitability. Other important criteria will have to do with the objective of the project, intellectual property rights, implementation potential and the innovative and competitive edge of project results.

“Our many years of cooperation with the National Centre for Research and Development within the framework of the TANGO call are a bow to the demand of our grantees for a fast track to implement the results they have obtained in their basic research projects”, says Professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre. “It makes it possible for results with a high application potential to be used much sooner in the service of the national economy and the further growth of Polish science.”

We are pleased to announce the first results of the international CEUS-UNISONO call for bi- and trilateral research projects conducted by teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland, organised in accordance with the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP) within the framework of the multilateral CEUS programme. The first winner is Dr hab. Małgorzata Pilot from the Museum and Institute of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her project was recommended for funding following a merit-based review at the Austrian agency, FWF (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung).

Ranking list

Dr hab. Pilot was awarded nearly 1.2 million PLN to carry out a project entitled Testing the domestication syndrome hypothesis in free-ranging dogs. She will do so in cooperation with Sarah Marshall from the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology in Vienna. This Polish-Austrian research collaboration within a single project will make it possible to test the “domestication syndrome” hypothesis very comprehensively, including its behavioural, morphological and genetic aspects, and thus study the relationship between genetic variability and the behavioural and morphological traits of free-ranging dogs. The findings of the project will expand our knowledge of the genetic mechanisms of mammalian evolution.

The CEUS-UNISONO grant may go towards funding research team salaries, scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or construction of research equipment and other necessary project-related expenses. The total budget of the call equals 20 million PLN and it is targeted at Polish research teams planning to join up with one (in the case of bilateral projects) or two (in the case of trilateral projects) selected partner teams in order to submit a funding proposal for a basic research project in any discipline of science. The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree; the principal investigator of the partner research team must meet the requirements of its own partner agency in this respect. Projects may be planned for a period of 24 or 36 months and in the case of research projects to be carried out jointly with research teams from Austria this can also be 48 months.

The CEUS-UNISONO call is organised in accordance with the Lead Agency Procedure, with proposals being accepted on a rolling basis until 31 December 2020. Results are announced within 12 months from the day of submission; the ranking lists will be successively published here.

On 21 December, the NCN Council composed of the new members held its first meeting during which Professor Jacek Kuźnicki was appointed its new President. The meeting was attended by Dr Anna Budzanowska, Under-Secretary of State for the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

Professor Kuźnicki has been a member of the NCN Council since 2018. During the last term of office of the Council, he chaired the Committee for International Cooperation. Professor Kuźnicki is the Head of the Laboratory of Neurodegeneration at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw. Since 2004, he has been a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His research interests are focused on neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, calcium dyshomeostasis and the role of STIM proteins in store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) in neurons. He is a winner of many awards and prizes, such as the Officer’s and Knight’s Crosses of Polonia Restituta, Professorial Subsidy Program Award from the Foundation for Polish Science (2004-2007), Prime Minister’s Award for Scientific Achievements and Crystal Brussels Prize for outstanding FP7 achievements in the individual category. He has been a  member of many organizations and societies in Poland and abroad, such as the International Advisory Board of the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University, COST Action BM1406 Management Committee, International Expert Council of the Research and Education Centre in Ukraine, Society for Neuroscience, PTBioch. A honorary Head of the Program Board at the Centre for Innovative Bioscience Education (BioCEN) and Board of the BioEducation Foundation.

The new President has established the following committees within the Council: Committee for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (K-1) chaired by Professor Krystyna Bartol, Committee for Physical Sciences and Engineering (K-2) chaired by Professor Grzegorz Karch and Committee for Life Sciences (K-3) chaired by Professor Jakub Fichna.

Pursuant to NCN Council Resolution no 104/2020 of 30 September 2020, the submission of NCN proposals under the CEUS-UNISONO call will be closed on 31 December 2020, 4 p.m.

PLEASE NOTE: NCN proposals processed in the ZSUN/OSF system from 30 September 2020 inclusive, may include research projects to be carried out by the Polish research teams from 2020 onwards.  If the funding decision by the NCN Director is taken in 2021, the applicants may incur pre-financing costs from their own resources before the funding agreement is executed by the NCN, the applicant and the principal investigator. Such pre-financing costs shall be deemed eligible from the date the funding decision by the NCN Director becomes final until the date the research project is completed. 

Furthermore, from the commencement of the work on the NCN proposal in ZSUN/OSF, the Polish research team shall have 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and send it to the NCN, after which date the proposal shall be disabled for editing. In this case, if the Polish research team has not sent its proposal to the NCN, a new proposal must be drafted and completed in ZSUN/OSF (whereas, for such NCN proposals, the Polish research teams may plan their research projects in the ZSUN/OSF submission system starting from 2022).

Cooperation between NCN, FWF, GAČR and ARRS aimed at funding  bilateral and trilateral research projects in all research areas carried out jointly by research teams from Poland, Austria, Slovenia and the Czech Republic will be continued in the framework of the lead agency procedure from the beginning of 2021 within the Weave initiative. More information on Weave:  Weave website and Weave pre-announcement.  

Today, 12 national research funding organisations, with the support of Science Europe, launch Weave, a cross-European initiative to fund and support excellent international research projects. It is the first time a large network of this scale has developed an initiative of this kind to enable bilateral and trilateral scientific cooperation in Europe.

Weave aims to simplify the submission and selection procedures of collaborative research proposals involving researchers from up to three European countries or regions with a single evaluation. It makes use of existing national or regional funding programmes, through which research projects will be financed. It seeks to make it easier for researchers to collaborate across borders. It also has ambitions to increase the capacity of researchers to freely determine the composition, focus and content of their projects.

Weave builds on the Lead Agency Procedure, through which a single funding organisation evaluates proposals put forward by an international team of researchers and communicates the funding recommendation to the other funders involved. In practice, the researchers choose a coordinating applicant, who submits the joint proposal to the respective Weave funding organisation in their country or region.

“We fully support the Weave initiative, and its effort to promote bilateral and trilateral scientific cooperation within Europe,” said Lidia Borrell-Damián, Science Europe Secretary General. “Innovative projects like Weave strongly contribute to strengthening international research collaboration and the realisation of the European Research Area.”

The Weave signatories have developed, with the support of Science Europe, an interactive online tool that researchers can use to determine the relevant funding opportunities for their projects.

As of 2021, the National Science Centre will continue to cooperate with the following partner institutions within the framework of WEAVE:

• Austrian Science Fund – Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) from Austria,
• Czech Science Foundation – Grantová agentura České Republiky (GAČR) from the Czech Republic,
• Slovenian Research Agency – Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije (ARRS) from Slovenia,
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) from Switzerland, and
• German Research Foundation – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) from Germany.

The NCN is intending to extend the cooperation in the nearest future to include other research funding institutions to participate in the WEAVE scheme.

At the NCN, the WEAVE call for NCN proposals covering all academic disciplines will be carried out in two separate calls, depending on the lead institution (a foreign partner institution or the NCN), i.e.:

• under the WEAVE-UNISONO call for NCN proposals, in the case of which joint proposals will be submitted to and evaluated by the foreign partner institutions acting as the lead agencies (in 2021: FWF, GAČR, ARRS, SNSF or DFG); more information on the terms of the call will be available on the NCN’s website on 4 January 2021;
• under the September edition of the OPUS call for NCN funding proposals for research projects carried out pursuant to the LAP cooperation and evaluated by the NCN as the lead agency.   

Contact:

• weave@ncn.gov.pl

The results of the POLS call, co-funded from the Norway Grants, are now in. Foreign researchers will receive more than 30.5 million PLN in funding for research projects to be carried out in Polish research centres.

POLS is a scheme designed to support researcher mobility, implemented in the form of small grants awarded to international researchers who wish to conduct their research in Poland. The arrival of both well-established and promising researchers with at least a PhD degree is expected to contribute to strengthening the research potential of Polish institutions. The grants (ranging from 100 to 200 thousand euro) can go towards the costs of research team salaries, equipment depreciation or purchase, materials and services, research trips and conferences, as well as other project-related expenses. The projects may take 12 or 24 months to complete. In justified cases, their duration can be extended, but they must all be completed before 30 April 2024.

The call attracted 99 proposals totalling more than 74 million PLN, 39 of which were recommended for funding: 21 in physical sciences and engineering (ST), 8 in life sciences (NZ) and 10 in the arts, humanities and social sciences (HS). In total, the winners will receive more than 30.5 million PLN, 85% of which will be funded from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 and 15% from domestic sources. The POLS call encompassed all disciplines of science, as specified in the list of NCN panels, with a special emphasis on polar research and social science studies. The final ranking lists of recommended projects feature three polar research proposals and ten social science projects.

The proposals were reviewed by international expert panels. Three panels were appointed, one for each group of sciences (HS, NZ, ST), and researchers from Poland and Norway were barred from the review process. Each project was evaluated by three experts. The final list of successful projects was approved by the “Basic Research” Programme Committee, while the funding decision was issued by the NCN Director.

“The Programme Committee appreciated the high quality of the proposals and considers the call a success, despite initial fears that it might be difficult to attract excellent international researchers to Polish research centres. At least ten more projects fully deserved to receive funding but, unfortunately, our budget proved insufficient”, says Professor Zbigniew Błocki, NCN Director.

The results of the POLS call

POLS is one of three calls funded under the third edition of the EEA and Norway Grants 2014-2021 within the framework of the “Research” programme, in which the NCN serves as the operator responsible for basic research, with an allocation of 40% of its budget of more than 129 million euro. The “Research” programme is designed to support Polish science by, for instance, giving it an international dimension, boosting the effectiveness of EU and ERC applications, and intensifying cooperation between science, business and society.

We also wish to announce that the decisions concerning submitted proposals, both those accepted and those rejected, will be dispatched today in electronic form to the address of the Electronic Inbox (ESP ePUAP) provided in the application from. Should you fail to receive your decision, please verify that the ESP address you provided is correct. If not, contact the person in charge of your proposal, as listed in the ZSUN/OSF system.

We have just announced the second edition of the SHENG call for Polish-Chinese research projects and the fifth SONATINA call for research projects carried out by researchers at the outset of their research career. The total budget of the two calls equals 45 million PLN. 

SHENG is the first call in the NCN portfolio to be organized thanks to international cooperation that goes beyond Europe. First launched in 2018, it has attracted great interest among researchers. In response to the great demand for funding for Polish-Chinese projects, the National Science Centre has joined hands with the National Natural Science Foundation of China to resume the call this year. SHENG 2 is targeted at basic research projects carried out by Polish-Chinese research teams in one of the four basic disciplines: materials science and engineering, chemical sciences, health sciences, or life sciences. The principal investigator on the Polish side must hold a PhD degree and the projects should take 36 months to complete. The total budget of the Polish part of the project must be at least 250 thousand PLN. A total of 25 million PLN is up for grabs for Polish proposals submitted under the SHENG 2 call.

SONATINA 5 is targeted at applicants who were awarded a PhD up to three years before the year in which the proposal is submitted or expect to earn it by the end of June 2021. The purpose of the call is to support young researchers in their career, enabling them to find full-time employment, conduct research at Polish research centres and gain experience through fellowships at renowned foreign research institutions. Projects should take either 24 or 36 months to complete, while foreign fellowships should last anywhere from 3 to 6 months. As part of the grant, the principal investigator should be hired full-time, based on an employment contract, by an entity other than that which awarded the PhD degree. The budget of this year’s edition of SONATINA is 20 million PLN.

The proposals will undergo a formal eligibility check and a merit-based review by Expert Teams composed of outstanding Polish and foreign researchers. The final verdict will be based, e.g. on research quality and the innovative nature of the project.

The deadline for submission in both calls is 4 pm on 15 March 20221. Proposals should be submitted electronically via the ZSUN/OSF system, available at https://osf.opi.org.pl, in accordance with the proposal submission procedure. The results of both calls will be announced in the autumn of 2021.

As of today, the composition of the NCN Council has changed. Twelve professors have been newly appointed as members and will sit on the Council from 15 December 2020 until 14 December 2024. They include eight new professors and four previous NCN Council members.

Council members 2020-2022:

1. Prof. dr hab. Krystyna Bartol
2. Prof. dr hab. Wojciech Dajczak
3. Prof. dr hab. Stefan Dziembowski
4. Dr hab. inż. Krzysztof Fic
5. Prof. dr hab. n. med. Jakub Fichna
6. Dr hab. Joanna Golińska-Pilarek
7. Prof. dr hab. Robert Hasterok
8. Prof. dr hab. inż. Monika Kaczmarek
9. Prof. dr hab. Grzegorz Karch
10. Prof. dr hab. inż. Barbara Klajnert-Maculewicz
11. Prof. dr hab. Jacek Kuźnicki
12. Prof. dr hab. Jerzy Łuczka
13. Prof. zw. hab. Dariusz Markowski
14. Prof. dr hab. Piotr Migoń
15. Dr hab. Justyna Olko
16. Prof. dr hab. Bronisław Rudak
17. Prof. dr hab. inż. Marek Samoć
18. Prof. dr hab. Andrzej Sobczak
19. Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Szapiro
20. Prof. dr hab. n. med. Anetta Undas
21. Prof. dr hab. inż. Aneta Wojdyło
22. Dr. hab. Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz
23. Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Zaleśkiewicz
24. Prof. dr hab. inż. Teresa Zielińska

The Council of the National Science Centre consists of twenty-four eminent researchers representing various disciplines, appointed by the minister responsible for science from among the candidates nominated by the Identification Team. The duties of the Council include, e.g. laying out the priority basic research areas, specifying the conditions of NCN calls, as well as establishing the amount of funding slated for research within individual disciplines or groups of disciplines. The Council sits for a term of four years, but half of its members are changed every two years.

The first session of the new NCN Council, with the attendance of Przemysław Czarnek, Minister of Education and Science, is scheduled for 21 December 2020.

We are pleased to inform you that the CHANSE (Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe) consortium will soon announce a call for international research projects: Transformations: social and cultural dynamics in the digital age. The programme has been co-created by the HERA and NORFACE networks and will be implemented by 27 research funding organisations from 24 countries, coordinated by the National Science Centre, Poland (NCN). The total call budget amounts to EUR 36 M and includes over EUR 26 M of national allocations complemented by up to 10 million in co-funding from the European Commission.

Information about the call:

Full call topic description is available here. From mid-January 2021 onwards, all information will shift to the CHANSE website: www.chanse.org. 

Project team: Composed of at least four Principal Investigators, i.e. partners, eligible to receive funding from the CHANSE funders from four or more different countries participating in the call

Project duration: 24-36 months

Recommended cap on funding for one international project: 1 500 000 EUR

Indicative timeline:

• Official call announcement and launch of the submission system: March 2021
• Deadline for outline proposals: May 7^th, 2021, 14.00 CEST
• Deadline for full proposals (for invited applicants): December 7^th, 2021, 14.00 CET
• Call results: May/June 2022
• Earliest funded project start: September/October 2022

Countries participating in the call:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom

PARTNER SEARCH TOOL:

In order to facilitate the process of forming research consortia, we offer applicants a partner search tool available here: https://ncn.gov.pl/partners/chanse/. This tool can be used by projects looking for partners and partners looking for projects.      

In mid-January 2021 the full list of national contact points will be published on the CHANSE website and then they will be available for questions about national eligibility requirements.

For general questions please contact:

Dr Malwina Gębalska, CHANSE programme coordinator

Michał Kaczmarek, CHANSE Coordination Office

chanse@ncn.gov.pl

National Science Center, Poland