We have just resolved the results of the next editions of OPUS + LAP, SONATA and PRELUDIUM BIS calls. The ranking lists included 638 projects with a total value of nearly PLN 668 million.

- This is perhaps the best invested money in Polish science, for research at the highest level, awarded in the most competitive system that exists in our country. A very large part of these funds goes to young people who, thanks to the funding, have the opportunity to work in an attractive way in science – says prof. Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre,

The OPUS + LAP call is open to researchers at all stages of their career. NCN received as many as 2122 proposals for the total amount of over PLN 2.3 billion. This time, researchers could apply for funding of their research projects carried out without foreign partners, projects carried out in international bilateral or trilateral cooperation (including LAP cooperation) as well as projects implemented with the use of large international research equipment. After the eligibility check and merit-based evaluation, the experts recommended 342 projects worth over PLN 449 million for funding, including 79 OPUS LAP projects that must be approved by the partner institutions. The funding decisions on OPUS LAP proposals are made within 11 months of the proposal submission date. The ranking lists related to proposals submitted pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure will be successively complemented.

Timeline for funding decisions on OPUS-LAP proposals:

• Decisions on OPUS LAP proposals involving foreign research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland: expected date: end of July 2021, 
• Decisions on the OPIS LAP proposals involving foreign research teams from Germany: expected date: end of October 2021.

The SONATA programme is aimed at supporting persons beginning their scientific career in conducting innovative basic research with the use of modern apparatus or original methodological solutions. The call is addressed to researchers with a doctoral degree awarded between 2 and 7 years before the year of proposal. In the sixteenth edition of the programme, researchers submitted 1123 proposals, the total amount of which was over PLN 891 million. Ultimately, 180 projects received funding worth almost PLN 161 million.

Entities running doctoral schools can apply for funding under the PRELUDIUM BIS call. The programme aims to support doctoral training by funding research projects carried out by early stage researchers as part of their doctoral dissertations. The winners of the call are also required to complete a 3 to 6 month foreign research internship funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA). Within the second edition of PRELUDIUM BIS, 282 researchers at the beginning of their careers applied for funding amounting to nearly PLN 139 million. According to the experts' decision, grants worth almost PLN 58 million will be awarded to 116 applicants.  

Success rate

Over 3.5 thousand proposals for the total amount of almost PLN 3.4 billion were submitted in the just concluded NCN calls. Funding was awarded to 638 projects with a total value of nearly PLN 668 million.

The success rate in this edition of the call was therefore over 18%. According to the director, it should be around 25%. In calls organised by NCN, it was at this level two years ago. – More and more often we have to reject projects that in our opinion, and above all in the opinion of our experts, mainly international, deserve funding – says prof. Zbigniew Błocki.

The biggest problem in the functioning of NCN is the agency's insufficient budget. – For the last three years it has been fixed for grant funding, and because there are a bit more proposals and the expectations of applicants are rising – we are funding new elements like post-doc jobs, PhD scholarships, hence the success rate.

- We have some announcements from the Ministry that to a small extent our budget may increase this year, but the most important thing for us is the decision to increase it systematically in the coming years. Funding very good projects is the best investment for the country - the director adds.

Universities and science groups

In the calls adjudicated today, the largest number of proposals, as many as 1299, were submitted in the group of sciences and technical sciences. Financial support totalling almost PLN 252 million was awarded to 246 projects. In the life sciences group, 1210 proposals were submitted, of which 232, worth almost PLN 319 million, were qualified for funding. In the humanities, social sciences and arts, NCN received 1018 proposals, of which 160 received funding of over PLN 97 million.

Most grants will be implemented at universities: Warsaw University (64), Jagiellonian University (62), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (43), University of Wrocław (25) and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (21). 

The ranking lists of the winning projects have been published on the NCN website.

We would also like to inform you that the decisions for the proposals selected and not selected for funding in the calls will be sent out today. We would like to remind you that the decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to the applicant in the form of an electronic document to the electronic address indicated in the proposal. In the event that the applicant is an entity referred to in art. 27 par. 1 – 7 and 9 of the NCN Act, the NCN Director’s decision will be delivered only to the Electronic Delivery Box address indicated in the proposal. If the natural person who is the applicant indicates an Electronic Delivery Box address in the proposal, the decision will be sent to this address. If an applicant being a natural person does not indicate an Electronic Delivery Box address, delivery of the decision will be realized by sending to e-mail address given in the proposal information with electronic address from which the decision of the NCN Director can be downloaded. The NCN Director’s decisions on the allocation of financial resources are additionally transmitted to the principal investigator for information, and if the applicant is a natural person, also to the entity indicated in the proposal as the executing entity.  In the absence of a decision, check the correctness of the electronic address given in the proposal (Electronic Delivery Box address, e-mail). If an incorrect address is given, please contact the proposal supervisor listed on the ZSUN/OSF system.

The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) has announced a new call for proposals under its Polish Returns Programme providing Polish researchers with attractive terms upon which they can return to work at the Polish higher education institutions. The programme offers funds for e.g. remuneration for the returning scientist, remuneration for the members of the project group, resettlement costs as well as the costs of organisation of the workplace. Participants of the Polish Returns NAWA Programme may also apply for funding of the so-called research components from the National Science Centre.

The call for proposals is open between 14 May and 29 July 2021. The total budget of the fifth edition of the Programme is 18 million PLN.

For more information on the programme and call announcement, please go to the NAWA website

We have published the third 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. One project was found eligible and recommended for funding.

See the Ranking List

The winning project by Professor Emilian Kavalski (“Promoting Order in the Period of Turbulence”) will be carried out at the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University.

The “NAWA Chair Programme (1st edition)” was launched by the NAWA on 1 June 2020. The 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 projects 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 3 of NCN-funded Research Components in projects funded under the “NAWA Chair Programme (1st edition)” launched by the NAWA.

We would like to invite Polish researchers interested in applying for 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 Friday, 21^st May 2021, at 14:00 (CEST). During the webinar, detailed information about the Call will be presented, including thematic scope and national application procedure. Webinar will be held in Polish.

Click here for registration. To optimize the Q&A session, questions may be submitted in advance via the registration form.

The webinar will be available on YouTube after the live broadcast.

We also encourage you to watch the T-AP webinar on the application procedure at the international level.

The CHIST-ERA Network (European Coordinated Research on Long-term Challenges in Information and Communication Sciences & Technologies) has defined topics for the next call for proposals (CHIST-ERA Call 2021) to be announced in Fall 2021: 1. Nano-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems for ICT (NOEMS); 2. Foundations for Misbehaviour Detection and Mitigation Strategies in Online Social Networks and Media (OSNEM).

The Call will require that projects are submitted by international consortia with partners from countries participating in the Call (the list of countries which have shown preliminary interest in participating in the Call, as well as the first details of the call conditions are provided in the pre-announcement on the CHIST-ERA website). The national/regional eligibility criteria will be defined by each participating funding agency.

Please note that this pre-announcement is for information purposes only. It does not create any obligation for the CHIST-ERA consortium, nor for any of the participating funding organisations. The official call announcement, to be published later, shall prevail.

In preparation for the Call 2021, the national and regional research funding organisations of CHIST-ERA Network invite the researchers to participate in the CHIST-ERA Conference 2021, which will be held on-line on 25 and 26 May 2021.

This event creates an excellent opportunity for the scientific community to directly participate in scoping the call content, discuss with experts and exchanging views on the future of the domains with their peers.

Please check the CHIST-ERA website for detailed information on the Conference and registration: https://www.chistera.eu/conference-2021-programme.

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 Friday, 7 May 2021, at 15:00 (CEST).

During the webinar, detailed information about the Call will be presented, including research theme and application procedure. To optimize the Q&A session, questions may be sent in advance to the e-mail t-ap@fapesp.br (with subject “Question-RRR Webinar”). Webinar will be held in English.

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.

The National Science Centre has announced the results of the second edition of the DAINA funding opportunity for research projects carried out by Polish-Lithuanian research teams. Researchers will be awarded almost 11.7 million PLN for their basic research projects.

133 proposals amounting to a total of over 113 million PLN were submitted in response to the DAINA 2 call. The largest number of these – 56 proposals – were submitted in the area of Physical Sciences and Engineering, with 41 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and 36 in Life Sciences. 11 research projects totalling 11,691,311 PLN were recommended for funding. The winning applicants in the area of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences will study, inter alia, mobility, migration and the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of emergency management in Poland and Lithuania. Researchers in Life Sciences will examine, inter alia, the manipulation of drug resistance in cancer cells by asymmetrical nanosecond pulse sequences. Projects in Physical Sciences and Engineering that are on the ranking lists include, inter alia, studies on the importance of long-range transport biomass burning emissions for local smog in the urban environment.

Polish-Lithuanian research teams performing research in all academic disciplines covered by the NCN review panels were allowed to apply for funding under DAINA 2. Projects had to be planned for either 24 or 36 months and principal investigators were required to be at least PhD holders. The requested funding for the entire duration of the Polish part of the project had to be no less than 150,000 PLN and the budget funds could be spent on salaries for members of the research team, scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or construction of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.

The DAINA call is launched by the National Science Centre in cooperation with the Research Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos mokslo taryba, “LMT” or “RCL”) pursuant to the agreement executed on 16 November 2016. The first call was held in 2017 and attracted a lot of attention among scientists. The funds that were awarded allowed 16 joint Polish-Lithuanian research projects to be completed. The DAINA call supports the development of Polish-Lithuanian research cooperation and allows the position of Polish and Lithuanian science to be strengthened internationally. 

The ranking lists under DAINA 2 are available here.

We also wish to announce that the letters with decisions on the proposals recommended for funding and rejected under DAINA 2 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 Article 27 (1)-(7) and (9) of the Act on the National Science Centre, the decision are delivered only to the Electronic Inbox (ESP ePUAP) address indicated in the proposal.

The funding decisions of the NCN Director are also provided to the principal investigator.

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 specified in the ZSUN/OSF system.

The National Science Centre announces the MINIATURA 5 call for proposals for the implementation of single research activities to develop future research projects. The total budget earmarked for the call is PLN 15 million.

Under the MINIATURE 5 call for proposals, you can apply for funding to carry out preliminary or pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, research visits or consultations. The basic aim of the call is to financially support research activities aimed at developing a future research project planned for submission to NCN calls or other national or international calls.

The call for proposals is open to holders of a doctoral degree awarded not earlier than 1 January 2009, who have at least one published work or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art. A researcher applying for a grant cannot be an applicant or principal investigator in a proposal submitted to NCN, or a principal investigator in an ongoing or completed research project that is or was funded by NCN, or be a winner of calls for doctoral scholarships or fellowships organized by NCN. The call proposal must be submitted by the entity where the researcher is employed. Research activities may be planned for a period of up to 12 months and the amount of funding must range from PLN 5 thousand to PLN 50 thousand.

The MINIATURA 5 call for proposals is be carried out on an ongoing basis and proposals may be submitted via the ZSUN/OSF submission system between 5 May (9:00) and 30 September this year until 16:00. The call for proposals may be suspended if the total amount of requested funding has exceeded twice the amount of funding allocated by the NCN Council for research activities under this edition of the call.

Funding in the MINIATURA 5 call for proposals is divided proportionally to the number of months in which the call for proposals is carried out. One of the conditions for funding a proposal in the call is that the proposal must be within the pool of available funds for the month. Due to the large number of proposals submitted in the last month of the call in previous editions of the MINIATURA call for proposals, we draw your attention to the possibility of applying in the remaining months of the call.

The detailed information can be found in the MINIATURA 5 call announcement.

Please note that under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to GAČR as the lead agency by 22 April 2021, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the ZSUN/OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to GAČR, by 29 April 2021, 23:59 p.m. at the latest.

PLEASE NOTE: 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.

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.