Following a detailed analysis of the National Science Centre’s current call portfolio, the NCN Council decided to expand the formula of the OPUS call to include elements of the HARMONIA call. Applicants will still be able to receive funding for research projects conducted without any international partners, but also for those that do involve such cooperation.

Ever since our inception, we have striven to ensure that our basic research funding schemes are optimally suited to the needs and expectations of the research community. Organized since 2011, the HARMONIA call has funded research projects carried out within the framework of international cooperation, provided that they were not co-financed from foreign resources. The idea behind the call was to encourage Polish research teams to collaborate with foreign partners. Over the years, however, as the call portfolio steadily expanded and the NCN joined a number of international initiatives and programmes conducted within the framework of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the rationale for the HARMONIA call has considerably weakened. Research teams may have their international research projects funded under other schemes, including bilateral and multilateral calls, as well as the OPUS call.

With this in mind, the NCN Council decided to expand the formula of the OPUS call and allow its funds to go toward research projects that have until now been funded under the HARMONIA call. Starting from the September edition, researchers, regardless of the stage of their research careers, will be able to apply with projects conducted within the framework of direct international cooperation with a partner or partners from a foreign research institution, within bilateral or multilateral international programmes or initiatives or projects conducted by Polish teams with the use of large international research equipment. In their proposal, applicants will be required to supply information on the proposed international collaboration and describe its expected benefits.

A special advantage of the OPUS call is that it allows projects that require the purchase of up to 500 thousand PLN in research equipment to be funded, which was not possible under the HARMONIA scheme. In addition, OPUS gives researchers greater leeway to construct their teams. Principal investigators may take their salaries from project resources and hire teams composed of persons with doctoral degrees, students and doctoral candidates, as well as partners from foreign research institutions. The scheme also provides funding for project-related foreign travel, covers the expenses related to foreign partners' stay in Poland, as well as other visits, consultations and conference travel costs.

The results of the first edition of the SHENG call are now in. Funding was awarded to 30 projects to be conducted within the framework of Polish-Chinese cooperation.

The SHENG call was an opportunity to secure funding for Polish-Chinese basic research in the fields of life sciences, physical sciences and engineering, as well as selected disciplines of social sciences. Awarded projects will be carried out both in Poland and China and supervised by two principal investigators: one on the Chinese and the other on the Polish side. The Polish investigator must hold at least the title of doctor. The project should take 36 months to complete and the budget of its Polish section should be at least PLN 250,000.

"This was the first, pilot edition of SHENG in more than one sense. It was the first opportunity for Polish researchers to vie for such extensive funding for direct basic research cooperation with Chinese partners. Interestingly, proposals were evaluated in a two-track procedure, independently by the Polish and Chinese expert teams. The final list of qualified projects was drawn up after the two assessments were compared and reconciled", said Professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre.

250 proposals with a total budget of PLN 313,250,096 were submitted to SHENG 1. Because their quality was generally very high, the ranking list only includes projects that both agencies considered to be the best.

Financial support will go to 30 research projects, including one in the field of arts, humanities, and social sciences, seven in life sciences, and 22 more in physical sciences and engineering. The total budget of awarded grants amounts to PLN 36,377,384.

SHENG is organised by the National Science Centre (NCN) in cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The proposals were evaluated in terms of their content and formal requirements in parallel at the NCN and the NSFC. The call was open to joint Polish-Chinese research proposals, and experts assessed their research value, the qualifications of the research team, as well as project feasibility and cost estimates.

The first projects qualified for funding under the SHENG call will be launched as early as in June 2019.

SHENG 1 ranking lists

Polish and German research funding and research performing agencies plan to intensify cooperation to support scientific excellence in both countries. They met in Kraków at the end of February and discussed existing mechanisms as well as ways to improve the regional research landscape.

The Second Polish-German Science Meeting held in Kraków was organized by the National Science Centre in Poland (NCN), German Research Foundation (DFG) and Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). During the meeting, heads of research agencies and research managers discussed how to foster Polish-German and European academic relations through excellence strategies and how should they be supported by bilateral mechanisms on the one hand, and EU-funding on the other.

The meeting was opened by Prof. Zbigniew Błocki, director of the National Science Centre, who set discussion points and questions to be touched upon during the roundtable discussion.

“Our guiding questions concentrate on key issues like excellence and science diplomacy. Of course the big subject of this meeting is bilateral Polish-German scientific cooperation but also the landscape of European Research Area as well as a discussion of those issues within new Framework Programme. We always should be aware of the European perspective.”

In the first part of the meeting, representatives of the invited institutions presented their excellence programmes and funding initiatives supporting research, e.g. Excellence Strategy ExStra (DFG), Centres of Excellence by FNP, DIOSCURI by the Max Planck Society (MPG) and NCN, mobility related schemes by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), as well as network-related initiatives such as Strategic Partnerships & Networks by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Leibniz Network Eastern Europe by the Leibniz Association or Central European Science Partnership CEUS presented by the NCN. During the roundtable discussion, other participants briefly reported on programmes and initiatives established by their organisations: the Polish Academy of Sciences, the German-Polish Science Foundation (DPWS), the Helmholtz Association, German’s Rectors Conference (HRK) and the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (CRASP) and others. As a result, those at the meeting gained a clear picture of the landscape of Polish-German funding opportunities and support mechanisms for researchers.

In the second part of the discussion, central questions were reformulated. Support mechanisms for Polish-German cooperation were discussed: should they be large-scale ventures or small-scale but flexible support programmes? Should excellence schemes be given priority or should the portfolio of programmes intended to support a broad range of scientific projects be developed? It was suggested that the funding system should be structurally pluralistic. In order to increase each country’s capacity and be able to answer questions the existence of which we have no idea of yet, we should fund curiosity-driven blue skies research.

During the discussion an important opinion shared by the meeting attendees was articulated that, within a pluralistic system, the structures and funding for researchers need to be stable and long-lasting. Since the most important factors for the quality of science are the people, there is a substantial need to support researchers in a more stable way and offer them a long-term perspective.

The discussion concentrated then on excellence in science. It was clearly stated that excellence initiatives have an enormous influence on society. Since excellence is not equally distributed  in Europe, it is of the utmost importance to reflect on our funding schemes with regard to excellence. There is a need for a benchmark system in European science. Excellence based initiatives within Polish-German collaborations, such as, e.g. Dioscuri or the COPERNICUS Award are relevant instruments for achieving this goal.

During the meeting, the relevance of Polish-German cooperation within the European Research Area was addressed. The discussion brought various observations and ideas on how to act proactively: strengthening bilateral collaboration, creating macroregional research support initiatives and efficiently using EU funding opportunities to foster widening as well as regional, pluralistic cooperation, that in consequence will help to maintain the quality of the selection. On the basis of this existing trustful and well organized Polish-German cooperation, representatives of both countries should cooperate in Brussels more closely to address their joint interests.

Last but not least, all participants agreed that bilateral cooperation gives all the funding bodies the necessary basis for mutual trust.

The Second Polish-German Science Meeting was preceded by a reception held at the German Consulate in Kraków, where the Consul General of Germany and the heads of NCN, DFG, FNP and MPG welcomed the guests and introduced the meeting with short speeches.

The Polish-German Science Meeting was organised for the second time, after the first stimulating and fruitful event organised in Munich in May 2017, by DFG, FNP and NCN. Polish-German research and academic collaboration is strong and has a big potential for building solid Central European research cooperation.

The third Polish-German Science Meeting is scheduled for 2020 and will take place in Germany.

PROGRAMME

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

Photographs: Michał Niewdana/NCN

The National Centre for Research and Development has published the results of the TANGO 3 call. 22 projects have qualified for funding.

TANGO 3 is a call operated jointly by the National Science Centre and the National Centre for Research and Development to support research organisations investigating the practical application of basic research findings. Research may be coordinated by the principal investigator of the related NCN-funded basic research project or by another researcher, who obtains the written consent of the latter to serve as the principal investigator in the project submitted under the TANGO 3 call.

In the two stages of the TANGO 3 call, the National Centre for Research and Development received a total of 33 proposals, 22 of which got a positive review.

The results of the first stage of the TANGO 3 call were announced in January 2019. Out of 11 submitted proposals, 6 qualified for funding and 5 were rejected.

Ranking lists for the first stage of TANGO 3

22 proposals were submitted in the second stage. 16 of these were recommended for funding, while 6 were rejected.

Ranking lists for the second stage of TANGO 3

The TANGO scheme is open to research projects involving proof-of-concept (C) tasks: concept design for the economic application of research findings, searching for partners interested in R&D cooperation and research implementation, strategy development and measures to ensure copyright protection, market analyses investigating the demand for the solution to be delivered by the project, as well as research and development tasks (R&D): basic research, industrial research and the experimental development.

The maximum amount of funding awarded under the TANGO 3 call equals PLN 200 thousand. Projects may take anywhere from 3 to 12 months to complete.

We are pleased to announce that four projects involving Polish researchers have been awarded funding in the M-ERA.NET call for proposals. Within the M-ERA.NET Call 2018 over EUR 18,2 million have been granted to 27 research projects.

Complete list of the M-ERA.NET Call 2018 projects recommended for funding

A special word of congratulation is due to prof. Maria Bryszewska from the University of Lodz, the leader of the first Polish research team to coordinate an international M-ERA.NET  consortium ever since the NCN joined the programme.

Polish projects awarded within the call:

1. NanoTENDO: Nanoparticle Transfer Through Endothelial Barrier. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. Maria Bryszewska (Project Leader), University of Łódź. Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection The project will involve research teams from Latvia and Spain.
2. FunKeyCat: Functional Grading by Key doping in Catalytic electrodes for Proton Ceramic Cells. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Sebastian Wachowski, Gdańsk University of Technology; Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics. The project will involve research teams from Spain and Norway.
3. NOEL: Innovative nanostructured electrodes for energy storage concepts. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. czł. koresp. PAN Elżbieta Frąckowiak, Poznań University of Technology; Faculty of Chemical Technology. The project will involve research teams from Spain and Slovenia.
4. HOTselflub: Self-lubricating systems for high temperature tribo-applications. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Agnieszka Tomala, Institute for Sustainable Technologies - National Research Institute. The project will involve research teams from Austria and Estonia.

Congratulations to all the laureates!

We are announcing calls for basic research projects under OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17 under a refreshed formula and a new international call MOZART, carried out in co-operation with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). There is a total of PLN 335.5 million to win.

All scientists, regardless of the stage of their scientific careers, may participate in the OPUS call to fund research projects. As concerns the PRELUDIUM call, it is a chance for persons who do not have a doctoral degree yet to win a grant, while MOZART offers the possibility of obtaining funds for Polish-Austrian research projects by partnership teams from both countries.

OPUS 17 is a call addressed to a broad circle of recipients under which it will offer financial remuneration for a research team, scholarships for students or doctoral students, purchase or manufacture of equipment and other costs related to expenditures necessary for carrying out a research project. A Principal Investigator may be a person whose scientific achievements include at least one paper that has been published or accepted for printing, or one artistic achievement or artistic and scientific achievement. Projects carried out under the OPUS 17 call may last 12, 24 or 36 months, and the amount to be allocated stands at PLN 300 million.

PRELUDIUM 17 is a call addressed to researchers who have no doctoral degree and under which as much as 30% of the research project’s value may be obtained for equipment purchase. Funding amounts that may be applied for under the call: PLN 70,000 for projects lasting 12 months, PLN 140,000 for projects that are 24 months long and PLN 210,000 for projects for which the implementation period is 36 months. A research team may be comprised of a maximum of three persons, including the principal investigator and a scientific supervisor. In PRELUDIUM 17, scientists may be allocated as much as PLN 30 million.

“OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17 are the first calls announced after the so-called Act 2.0 has come into force; it's therefore been necessary to adapt the terms and conditions of calls to its provisions. Modifications have also included the rules that govern granting scholarships under NCN projects.” says Małgorzata Kossowska, Chairwoman of the Council of the NCN. “Further to those changes, we would strongly advise applicants to read carefully the content of the announcement and call documentation.”

MOZART is an international call for projects carried out by Polish-Austrian research teams. Its budget amounts to PLN 5.5 million. It is organised under a bilateral co-operation between the National Science Centre and the Austrian Science Fund. The call focuses on Polish research teams which, together with their Austrian partners, may apply for project financing. MOZART offers opportunities for obtaining funds for remuneration of the research team, scholarships for under- and post-graduate students, purchase or manufacture of equipment and for covering other necessary expenditures related to the project. A scientist having at least a doctoral degree may be a principal investigator of the Polish team. A research project may last 24 or 36 months.

“We're very happy about expanding our international co-operation to include a call organised jointly with the Austrian Research Fund.” says Prof. Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the NCN. “The call is one of the elements of closer collaboration between agencies financing scientific research in the region of Central Europe.”

Proposals under the MOZART call shall be accepted on an ongoing basis. Proposals shall be submitted to both the NCN and the FWF: domestic proposals shall be submitted by Polish scientific teams via the ZSUN/OSF platform (https://osf.opi.org.pl), whereas joint proposals by Austrian scientific teams shall be submitted via the ELANE system https://elane.fwf.ac.at/. Proposals shall be evaluated pursuant to the rules applicable at FWF under the “Stand-Alone-Projects” programme, and in the case of evaluation of projects relating to clinical research, they shall be evaluated pursuant to the documents of the “Programme Clinical Research” (KLIF). The results of the MOZART call shall be known within 12 months from the submission date of a domestic proposal.

Proposals for OPUS 17 and PRELUDIUM 17 calls shall be submitted in an electronic form via the ZSUN/OSF platform (https://osf.opi.org.pl). The deadline for submitting proposals will expire on 17 June 2019, while the results will be known no later than in December 2019. Proposals shall be evaluated pursuant to a two-stage procedure by Expert Teams of the NCN consisting of eminent scientists specialising in a given discipline, supported by external experts, including foreign ones, too.

We have adopted a position on equal access of men and women to research funding. We have also prepared a brief report on the participation of male and female principal investigators in research projects funded by the NCN in the years 2011-2018.

• Position of the NCN
• Report on the participation of male and female principal investigators in research projects funded by the NCN in the years 2011-2018 (in Polish only)

The results of the MAESTRO 10, SONATA BIS 8 and HARMONIA 10 calls are in. Awardees have received the total sum of more than PLN 250 million for their research projects.

See ranking lists

We are pleased to announce that four projects involving Polish researchers have been awarded funding in the HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) call for proposals. Within the call entitled Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe over EUR 18 million have been granted to 20 research projects.

Polish projects awarded within the call:

1. BESTROM: Beyond stereotypes: cultural exchanges and the romani contribution to european public spaces. Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. Anna Piotrowska, Jagiellonian University. The project will involve research teams from Finland, Spain and the UK.
2. HCPubS: Healthcare as a Public Space: Social Integration and Social Diversity in the Context of Access to Healthcare in Europe. Polish Principal Investigator: prof. dr hab. Paweł Łuków, University of Warsaw. The project will involve research teams from Croatia, Germany and Slovenia.
3. FestiVersities: European music festivals, public spaces and cultural diversity. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Karolina Golemo, Jagiellonian University. The project will involve research teams from Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK.
4. en/counter/points: en/counter/points: (re)negotiating belonging through culture and contact in public space and place. Polish Principal Investigator: dr Grażyna Szymanska-Matusiewicz, University of Warsaw. The project will involve research teams from the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Italy.

Congratulations to all the laureates!

The Electronic Submission System (ESS) for the QuantERA Call 2019 is now open. The deadline for submitting short and full proposals is February 18^th, 2019, 17.00 Central European Time.

The link to the system is available here: https://aap.agencerecherche.fr/_layouts/15/SIM/Pages/SIMNouveauProjet.aspx?idAAP=1353

Guidelines and further information can be found under the following link: QuantERA Electronic Submission System Guidelines. The Financial Form that should be used for preparing the budget of an international consortium has been approved and is now ready for downloading: QuantERA Call 2019 Financial Form.

Please be reminded that Polish applicants within the QuantERA Call 2019 are also required to submit a national application (UNISONO) through the ZSUN/OSF system within the same deadline (i. e. until 18^th February 2019 r. at latest).

Contact:

• Sylwia Kostka (Programme Coordinator), e-mail: sylwia.kostka@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9018
• Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska, e-mail: ewelina.szymanska-skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9155
• Marlena Wosiak, e-mail: marlena.wosiak@ncn.gov.pl, tel: +48 12 341 9018