QuantERA Mid-Term Strategic Conference gathered more than 100 participants at the premises of the University of Granada, Spain on 13-14 November, 2019. The event was hosted by the University of Granada and Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) – a research funding organisation from Spain and QuantERA partner institution.

Materials from the meeting are available under the links in the text below.

The aim of the meeting was to present an overview of the current state of the quantum technology research funding in Europe and conduct a mid-term evaluation of the projects funded within the QuantERA Call 2017. The organizers managed to bring together a wide representation of various stakeholders, incl. European Commission, Quantum Flagship, QuantERA Projects, Research Funding Organisations, industry and quantum community. This resulted in fruitful discussions, spontaneous networking and valuable insights that could be used for future development of the QuantERA programme.

The meeting started with a warm welcome by prof. Enrique Playán Jubillar (AEI Director) and prof. Konrad Banaszek (the QuantERA Scientific Coordinator) followed by an absorbing key note speech given by prof. Nicolas Gisin and speeches of Mr. Pascal Maillot (European Commission) and prof. Tommaso Calarco (the Quantum Flagship). The landscape of the quantum research in Europe was complimented with insightful conclusions of the following guests within two panel discussions:

• Thierry Debuisschert (Science & Engineering Board of the Quantum Flagship; Thales Research & Technology),
• Elisabeth Giacobino (QT Flagship Scientific Advisory Board),
• Freeke Heijmann (QuTech Delft),
• Yasser Omar (Quantum Community Network),
•  Javier Praena (IFMIF-DONES),
• Ana Predojević (project HYPER-U-P-S, Stockholm University),
• Juan José Ripoll (Network of Excellence Quantum Spain),
• Rob Sewell (The Institute of Photonic Sciences),
• Marek Żukowski (International Centre for Theory of Quantum Technologies).

All 26 QuantERA projects funded within Call 2017 were presented during the scientific sessions which formed the key part of the event and provided ground for engaging discussions which exceeded the timeframe of the meeting. Mid-term presentations of the 26 QuantERA projects funded within the Call 2017 will be soon available at the subpages of individual projects at www.quantera.eu.

The event posed also a chance to meet the Coordinators of the projects recommended for funding within the QuantERA Call 2019 during an Introductory Meeting (presentation from the meeting is available here).

Prof. Konrad Banaszek, the Scientific Coordinator of QuantERA highlighted that “Projects funded in QuantERA Call 2017 produced a significant number of very exciting scientific results that were reported at mid-term review presentations. It was very gratifying for organisations participating in the QuantERA initiative to see that our programme has become an important component of supporting European research into quantum technologies.“

On behalf of the whole QuantERA Consortium we would like to take this opportunity to thank all the participants for their active engagement and valuable insights!

The opening presentation from the event:

Contact:

• Sylwia Kostka, e-mail: sylwia.kostka@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9018
• Marlena Wosiak, e-mail: marlena.wosiak@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9018

Acting pursuant to Point 4 (7) of the Council Resolution No 32/2019 of 14 March 2019, the NCN Council has decided to close the MOZART call for proposals on 21 February 2020, at 23:59:59 (Council Resolution No 114/2019 of 14 November 2019).

The MOZART call announcement has been updated accordingly.

The cooperation between the NCN and the FWF will be continued within the framework of the CEUS programme launched by the NCN in cooperation with the funding agencies from Austria (FWF – Austrian Science Fund – Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung), Czech Republic (GAČR – Czech Science Foundation – Grantová agentura České Republiky) and Slovenia (ARRS- Slovenian Research Agency – Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije) in line with the Lead Agency Procedure. The aim of the programme is to fund basic research projects in all research areas carried out jointly by research teams from two or three countries involved in the CEUS programme.

In February 2020, an international CEUS-UNISONO call will be launched for research projects carried out in bilateral or trilateral cooperation by the Polish, Austrian, Czech and Slovenian research teams. Under the CEUS-UNISONO call, FWF, GAČR or ARRS will act as the lead agency and perform merit-based evaluation of the proposals. More on CEUS-UNISONO call.

The National Science Centre hereby announces the results of the OPUS 17 call for research projects addressed at all researchers and the PRELUDIUM 17 call for research projects to be carried out by researchers without a doctoral degree. The ranking lists include over five hundred research projects totalling nearly 390.3 million PLN.

In total, 3,145 proposals were received totalling nearly 2.14 billion PLN; out of these, NCN experts recommended 520 for a total funding of 390,268,309 PLN. On average, 16.5% of submitted proposals received funding.

OPUS is a call addressed to a wide range of researchers. There are no restrictions on the research career, academic degree or research experience. The competing researchers are subject to the same evaluation criteria, including quality of research to be performed, innovative nature of the research problem addressed, project’s impact on the development of the scientific discipline or research track record of the principal investigator. As usual, the OPUS call has drawn a record-breaking response, with 2,051 proposals sent to the National Science Centre totalling nearly 1.98 billion PLN. Following the evaluation procedure, the experts recommended 308 proposals for funding totalling 358,270,509 PLN, giving a success rate of just over 15% in the OPUS call.

In PRELUDIUM 17, researchers without a doctoral degree could apply for funding for their research. Maximum funds available in the call amounts to 70,000 PLN, 140,000 PLN or 210,000 PLN to finance projects of 12 months, 24 months or 36 months respectively. The research team in the PRELUDIUM call may consist of a maximum of three persons; a person holding a post-doctoral degree (doktor habilitowany) or academic title of professor may be designated in the proposal solely as a mentor. In the 17^th edition of the PRELUDIUM call researchers submitted 1,094 proposals totalling nearly 158.5 million PLN. Ultimately, 212 projects were recommended for funding with a total budget of 31,997,800 PLN, giving a success rate of 19.38%.

The majority of projects submitted to OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17 will be carried out by representatives of Physical Sciences and Engineering, where 193 out of 1,165 submitted proposals were recommended for funding, with a budget of over 142.3 million PLN. Although representatives of Life Sciences received a little less, i.e. 170 grants out of 1026 submitted proposals, their value totalled as much as 186.6 million PLN. 157 grants (with 954 submitted) were awarded to Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, totalling 61.3 million PLN.

NCN grants can be used to cover the cost of remuneration for researchers involved in the project, purchase or construction of research equipment, devices and software, purchase of materials and small equipment, outsourced services, business trips, visits and consultations, and compensation for collective investigators (i.e. direct costs). The grants also include indirect costs, i.e. expenses indirectly related to the project that are crucial to the project. Under OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17, indirect costs amounted to a maximum of 40% of direct costs, with the exception of the amount for the purchase or construction of research equipment, devices and software.

Proposal evaluations in NCN calls are performed by experts selected from outstanding Polish and foreign scientists, holding a minimum of a doctoral degree. The evaluation process comprises two stages: merit-based evaluation and specialist evaluation. Under each stage, a proposal is subject to at least two individual reviews and an expert team meeting is held to discuss the individual reviews and draft a ranking list. 

Under OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17, a majority of proposals have been submitted by universities (274), natural persons (111) and research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences (80). The winning grants will be carried out in 109 organisations.

Top 10 organisations to carry out research projects under OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17

See full ranking lists

PLEASE NOTE that negative decisions will be delivered in an electronic format on an ongoing basis while the positive ones will be delivered within the next few days.

Proposal forms for OPUS 18, PRELUDIUM 18, SONATA 15, PRELUDIUM BIS 1 and IdeaLab „Managing threats” calls are now available in the ZSUN/OSF system.

The deadline for submitting proposals is 16 December.

Call announcements:

• OPUS 18
• PRELUDIUM 18
• SONATA 15
• PRELUDIUM BIS 1
• IdeaLab

International law, political economy, transport and mobility, urban studies, psychology, neurobiology, chemistry, public health, future studies are just some of the disciplines represented by the participants of the workshop organised by the National Science Centre between 21 and 25 October 2019 under the IdeaLab call funded from the EEA grants.

Over 30 scientists from Poland and Norway participated in the workshop held in Jaroszowice near Krakow. They worked in interdisciplinary teams aimed at developing the research projects ideas addressing the widely understood topic “Managing threats”. During the five days of the workshop, 8 projects ideas were developed addressing, inter alia, climate change, migration flows, disinformation in the globalised and networked world and smart cities focused on the needs of their citizens.

The workshop was carried out according to the “sandpit” method which makes IdeaLab different from a standard call for proposals mainly due to an unusual formation of the teams and procedure of developing proposal ideas. The participants did not know each other before. During the workshop they created ad hoc teams and developed project ideas to form the basis for future funding proposals submitted with the National Science Centre. 

More on the IdeaLab call: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/eeanorwaygrants/calls/idealab?language=en.

IdeaLab Workshop, photo credits: Daria Wójcik/NCN

The CHIST-ERA Network has defined topics for the Call for proposals that will be announced in December 2019: Explainable Machine Learning-based Artificial Intelligence (XAI), Novel Computational Approaches for Environmental Sustainability (CES).

Researchers are encouraged to start discussing possible projects with prospective partners. The call will require that projects are submitted by international consortia with partners in at least three countries (the list of countries which have shown preliminary interest in participating in the Call is provided in the pre-announcement). The national/regional eligibility criteria will be defined by each participating funding agency.

The anticipated deadline for proposals is 14^th February 2019. The projects will be selected in the second half of 2020.

For details please see the attached document (CHIST-ERA Pre-announcement of Call 2019) and CHIST-ERA website, where a Partner Search Tool is available.

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.

Contact:

• Dr Anna Wieczorek,  The Physical Sciences and Engineering Coordinator Unit, phone: 12 341 9164
• Alicja Dyląg, International Cooperation Office, phone:  12 341 9069

We would like to invite all researchers to participate in new international funding opportunities in urban studies  JPI Urban Europe.

In December 2019 JPI Urban Europe network plans to open a new funding opportunity on the following theme: Urban accessibility and connectivity. For more information please follow the promotion flyer and the webpage.

Contact:

• dr Katarzyna Jarecka-Stępień (Scientific Coordinator), e-mail: katarzyna.jarecka-stepien@ncn.gov.pl, tel: 12 341 9160
• Alicja Dyląg (International Cooperation Department), e-mail: alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl, tel: 12 341 9069

BiodivERsA Consortium is pleased to announce the results of the Biodiversity and its influence on animal, human and plant health call. Thanks to the funding provided by the BiodivERsA member organisations, the list of projects recommended for funding includes 10 excellent international proposals in the field of biodiversity research for over EUR 11,9 M.

The BiodivERsA Call 2018, launched in October 2018 by 15 funding organisations from 11 countries, attracted 49 international research consortia. Polish researchers will be involved in 6 of 10 awarded projects.

List of the projects with participation of Polish research teams:

• BioRodDis. Managing biodiversity in forests and urban green spaces: Dilution and amplification effects on rodent microbiomes and rodent-borne diseases, with participation of dr Maciej Grzybek from Medical University of Gdańsk;
• VOODOO. Viral eco-evolutionary dynamics of wild and domestic pollinators under global change, with participation of dr Hajnalka Szentgyörgyi from University of Agriculture in Krakow (cooperating with Warsaw University of Life Sciences);
• ANTIVERSA. Biodiversity as an ecological barrier for the spread of clinically relevant antibiotic resistance in the environment, with participation of dr hab. Magdalena Popowska from University of Warsaw;
• Dr. FOREST. Diversity of forests affecting human health and well-being, with participation of dr hab. inż. Bogdan Jaroszewicz from University of Warsaw (cooperating with Medical University of Warsaw);
• NutriB2. Nutrition as critical link between Biodiversity and Bee health, with participation of dr Michał Filipiak from Jagiellonian University;
• FunProd. Relationships between functional diversity and food production and quality under ecological intensification, with participation of prof. Werner Ulrich from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (cooperating with Warsaw University of Life Sciences).

Full list of the projects recommended for funding. More information and the full list of the projects recommended for funding are available on the BiodivERsA web page.

On 17 October 2019, the Regulation exempting income (revenues) from certain scholarships and other financial resources awarded by the National Science Centre from personal income tax of 14 October 2019 was published in the Journal of Laws (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1982). The Regulation signed by the Minister of Finance, Investment and Development has been in force since 18 October 2019 and applies to income (revenues) generated between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020.

Pursuant to the Regulation, tax is waived for:

1. doctoral scholarships and other financial resources awarded under the ETIUDA call,
2. scientific scholarships awarded and paid under research projects in all NCN calls under which such scholarships can be planned and paid (OPUS, SONATA, SONATA BIS, MAESTRO, SYMFONIA, DIOSCURI, international bilateral or multilateral calls).

According to the National Science Centre, pursuant to the Regulation scholarship grantees may recover any advance payments made on scholarships between 1 January 2019 and the date the Regulation entered into effect. However, scholarship grantees should contact the competent tax authorities for more information on how to proceed with the recovery of advance payments. The National Science Centre will not provide any information on this issue.

Following the entry into force of the Act on Higher Education and Science of 20 July 2019 entering into effect on 1 October 2018 (Journal of Laws, item 1668, as amended) (hereinafter referred to as “Act 2.0.”) along with other legal acts reforming the system of higher education, the tax regulations concerning scientific scholarships awarded under NCN-funded research projects have, inter alia, been amended.

Pursuant to Article 21 (1) (39) of the Act on Personal Income Tax of 26 July 1991, in force before 1 October 2018, the following scholarships were exempt from tax: scientific scholarships and merit-based scholarships awarded according to the rules approved by the Minister of Higher Education, having consulted the General Council for Science and Higher Education, or by the Minister of Education.

The above category included scientific scholarships awarded under NCN-funded research projects carried out under, inter alia, OPUS, MAESTRO and SONATA BIS calls.

However, as of the effective date of Act 2.0, in particular the Act enacting the same (i.e. the Act of 3 July 2018 - Provisions Enacting the Act on Higher Education and Science (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 1669, as amended)), new Article 21 (1) (39) of the Act on Personal Income Tax became effective which, in the opinion of the National Science Centre, does not give grounds for exemption of scholarships granted under NCN-funded projects from income tax.

However, pursuant to Article 339 of the above Act of 3 July 2018 enacting Act 2.0., scholarships awarded according to the rules approved by the Minister of Higher Education received after the effective date of Act 2.0 (i.e. after 1 October 2018), are exempt from personal income tax pursuant to Article 21 (1) (39), (40) and (61) of the Act on Personal Income Tax in effect before 1 October 2018.

This means that pursuant to the applicable regulations of awarding scientific scholarships, all scientific scholarships awarded before 1 October 2018 in NCN-funded projects will be exempt from tax pursuant to the foregoing provision, regardless of being paid after the effective date of Act 2.0.

The National Science Centre has already announced that as a consequence of Article 21 (1) (39) of the Act on Personal Income Tax being amended, certain measures have been taken to bring into force the regulations exempting the said scholarships from income tax. Following many months of work by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Investment and Development and the National Science Centre, on 14 October 2019, the Minister of Finance, Investments and Development signed the Regulation exempting income (revenues) from certain scholarships and other financial resources awarded by the National Science Centre from personal income tax.

The National Science Centre continues its endeavours to resolve this issue in a systemic manner through appropriate amendments to the current Act on Personal Income Tax.