The names have been published of the early awardees in the second edition of the MINIATURA call, a funding opportunity supporting activities instrumental in basic research.

In the MINIATURA 2 call, unlike in other calls operated by the National Science Centre, submissions are accepted on a continuous basis and the review process has been trimmed down to 4 months. In the first round, 30 research proposals have been awarded funding. Subsequent ranking lists will be published systematically by the end of April 2019.

The MINIATURA scheme is addressed to researchers with a doctorate received within 12 years of submitting the proposal, who have not acted as principal investigators to NCN-funded research projects, nor have been laureates of the NCN doctoral scholarship and post-doctoral fellowship programmes. Prospective entrants to the call must also secure a research position with a contract of employment in the research institution acting as applicant.

Grants under the MINIATURA 2 call may be worth c. €1,160 to €11,600, and the time of their implementation may not exceed 12 months. The list of research efforts eligible for funding in the call is limited to such activities as preliminary studies, pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, conferences, research travels and consultations.

The first edition of MINIATURA, announced and concluded in 2017, saw a record-high response from researchers. Thanks to MINIATURA 1 as many as 828 applicants received funding worth nearly € 7 million in total.

To see lists of the research activities approved for funding under the MINIATURA 2 call, click here (in Polish only).

Today we learned the results of the second edition of the UWERTURA call proposals, in which entrants competed for fellowships in international research teams carrying out ERC grants. The National Science Centre has received proposals from 21 researchers, of whom 8 will be awarded the total sum of €156,000.

UWERTURA’s aim is to help Polish researchers successfully apply for European resources, and to increase their share among the recipients of ERC (European Research Council) grants. Those eligible were scholars with a doctorate or higher level of academic qualification, who have carried out an NCN-funded research project as principal investigator. The laureates, awarded the status of fellows, will join research teams abroad in their work on ERC-funded projects and within 18 months of returning to Poland, the visiting researchers will prepare and submit a research proposal to ERC themselves.

The essence of UWERTURA is the opportunity it offers to work alongside excellent researchers, winners of ERC grants. The applicants themselves choose the teams they want to join should their fellowship application prove successful. We are positive that working with international research teams will be for them a springboard to success later on, when they seek to secure grants from the European Research Council, said Professor Zbigniew Błocki, director of the NCN. As a matter of fact, we have already had our first success in this regard, as the laureate of the UWERTURA 1 call, Dr Tomasz Żuradzki of Jagiellonian University was among those awarded with ERC Starting Grants. Dr Żuradzki works on a new interpretation of the ethical disputes over contemporary advances in medicine.

In UWERTURA’s second edition, 21 researchers applied for fellowships, while 8 of them will go abroad to carry out research. For 3 to 6 months they will collaborate with eminent European scholars from the best centres. Dr Michał Tomza of the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw will be a fellow at the University of Innsbruck, working with Professor Francesca Ferlaino. He will investigate new dimensions in ultracold complex quantum molecular systems. Dr Błażej Nikiel-Wroczyński, of the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University (UJ) will conduct low frequency studies of atypical, poor galaxy systems. To that end, he will use the International LOFAR Telescope and the LoTSS Survey. The fellowship will be hosted by the University of Leiden, under the supervision of Professor Hubertus Röttgerin. Dr Piotr Micek of the Faculty of Mathematics and Information Technologies, UJ, focuses his research interests on the structure theory for posets. To study the subject he will go on a fellowship to Berlin’s Technical University, to work in the research team led by Professor Stephan Kreutzer. Dr inż. Błażej Scheibe of the NanoBioMedical Centre, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (UAM) will also go to Berlin. At the Humboldt University he will investigate Van der Waals heterostructures and nanocomposites based on MXenes and hexagonal layered 2D nanomaterials. The principal investigator of the fellow’s host team is Dr. rer. nat. Michael J. Bojdys. Another laureate in the same field of physical sciences and engineering is Dr Łukasz Pawlik of the Faculty of Earth Sciences, the University of Silesia in Katowice. In his project WINDIMPACT, Dr Pawlik will carry out research into extreme windstorms affecting European forests under climate change and their long-term impacts on bio-geomorphic and paedogenic systems. His fellowship will take him to the University of Reading in the UK. He will join a research team led by Professor Sandy P. Harrison.

The only laureate of the UWERTURA 2 representing life sciences is Dr Michał Bogdziewicz of the Faculty of Biology, UAM. His hosts will be the team of Professor Josep Peñuelas at the Global Ecology Unit CREAF-CSIC-UAB in Spain. His project entitled EXPMAST envisages experimental tests of mechanisms driving variability in the reproduction of trees. In the field of arts, humanities and social sciences, fellowships have been awarded to Dr Michał Marciak and Professor Dariusz Jemielniak. The former works at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Technology, University of Rzeszów, and he carries out interdisciplinary research on the cultural, economic, military and political aspects of the presence of the Imperium Romanum in Mesopotamia. He will continue his work with Professor Caroline Warzeggers at the University of Leiden. Professor Jemielniak of Kozminski University will be a fellow at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where in the team of Professor Samer Hassan he will examine online communities and knowledge-legitimation systems such as alterscience, citizen science and open collaboration.

To see the list of the projects approved for funding, click here.

The results of the SONATINA 2 call for researchers in the early stages of their research career are in. Awardees have received the total sum of more than € 7 million for their research projects and international fellowships.

SONATINA is aimed at researchers who have held their doctorate for no longer than 3 years. In the call’s second edition 154 proposals have been submitted, of which 45 have been approved for funding. The budget distributed among the winners exceeds € 7 million. The grants provide for full-time employment of the laureates by research institutions, implementation of their research projects and 3-6 month fellowships at research centres abroad.

SONATINA is an opportunity for those who have received their doctorate relatively recently and thus, on the one hand, need a steady position at a research institution, and on the other, need experience, for which international collaboration is a welcome environment, said Professor Zbigniew Błocki, director of the NCN. When their projects are over, they will be able to apply for funding under SONATA, a call aimed at more experienced PhDs, or SONATA BIS, which comes with the opportunity to launch a new research team.

The largest share of proposals received in the SONATINA 2 call has been submitted to the arts, humanities and social sciences panels. Out of the 59 projects, funding of more than € 1.85 million was granted to 14. Scholars representing physical sciences and engineering have submitted 55 projects, of which 18, worth in total c. € 2.78 million were approved for funding. In life sciences, researchers proposed 40 projects, with funding of nearly € 2.44 million granted to 13 of them.

To see lists of the projects approved for funding under the SONATINA 2 call, click here.

A Polish research team, headed by Professor Jan Marcin Węsławski from the Institute of Oceanology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot, has made the list of winners of the BiodivScen call for international research projects focused on biodiversity and ecosystems. The call was organised by the BiodivERsA consortium, the umbrella for the National Science Centre, and the Belmont Forum network.

Within the framework of the successful ACCESS project, Polish researchers, alongside partners from Denmark, Norway, Canada and the US, will study the deglaciation of the Arctic coastline.

Entitled Scenarios of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the call drew 143 submissions. 21 research projects were selected to receive funding of over 28 million Euro.

The results of the sixth edition of the ETIUDA call are in. Successful doctoral students will receive a total of ca. PLN 15 million in research scholarships. Out of the 355 young researchers who vied for funding, 147 were selected.

ETIUDA is a grant call offered by the National Science Centre, targeted at researchers who are still taking their first steps in academia. Within the framework of the programme, selected doctoral students receive regular research scholarships of PLN 4,500 per month. They also get the opportunity to complete an internship at a foreign research centre of their choice. To cover their expenses abroad, they are paid a further PLN 9,000 every month.

"Ever since its inception, the National Science Centre has aimed to increase researcher mobility as one of its priorities", says Professor Zbigniew Błocki, the director of the NCN, "Exchanging experiences and transferring knowledge are the only effective ways to help Polish researchers play a greater role in the international arena. The sooner they start cooperating with other research centres, the greater the chance they stand to build large and diverse research teams in the future. The ETIUDA call has already proven its worth in activating the young generation of researchers".

Doctoral students can choose to complete their foreign internship during the grant period, or within a year after its end. They also commit themselves to obtaining their doctorate no sooner than 6 months from the beginning of receiving the scholarship and no later than a year after the last scholarship payment.  

Representatives of different academic disciplines vied for grants available within the ETIUDA 6 call. The largest number of submissions, as many as 152, came from the physical sciences and engineering; out of these, experts chose 64 projects to recommend for funding of nearly PLN 6.5 million. 108 applications were submitted in the arts, humanities and social sciences; 44 received scholarships of PLN 4.3 million in total. Last but not least, 39 out of 95 submissions in life sciences will soon be funded with a total of PLN 4.1 million.

ETIUDA 6 ranking list (in Polish only)

Together with the Research Council of Lithuania (RCL) we have announced the results of DAINA 1 call for joint Polish-Lithuanian research projects. 

DAINA 1 ranking list

Funding in DAINA 1 was available to Polish-Lithuanian research teams conducting projects within basic research in all fields of science and the humanities. More about the DAINA 1 call.

Ca. € 46.3 million: this is the sum of funding available under the new NCN calls for proposals to researchers who plan to establish new teams, carry out projects in international cooperation or launch innovative and groundbreaking efforts. Researchers planning joint Polish-Chinese projects will compete for more than € 9 million in total.

The SHENG call for Polish-Chinese research projects is a novelty in the Centre’s offer of funding programmes. An agreement establishing cooperation between the National Science Centre and the Chinese research-funding agency, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), was signed at the end of March in Beijing.

We hope that the Polish-Chinese programme will be as popular as previous bilateral NCN funding opportunities. The choice of partner is no coincidence. Entering into and developing a relationship with a country as active in economics and science as China, will certainly be fruitful for the Polish academic community, said Professor Zbigniew Błocki, director of the NCN.

Funding under the SHENG scheme will be available to projects in basic research, carried out under all panels of Physical Sciences and Engineering, as well as Life Sciences and selected panels of Art, Humanities and Social Sciences. Funding will be awarded to research carried out jointly by Polish and Chinese teams, and in which international cooperation is an essential component of the effort. The research should be conducted over 36 months, and both the Polish and the Chinese principal investigator may act as such only in one proposal submitted under the SHENG call. The principal investigator of the Polish team should hold a doctorate, and the budget of the Polish contribution should be no less than € 57,982.

Traditionally, June sees the launch of another SONATA BIS call, seeking to establish new research teams. Principal investigators under the scheme may be doctorate holders who have obtained their degree within 5 to 12 years of submitting their application to the call. Also, the researcher submitting the proposal is required to name between 3 and 10 published papers, the 3 most significant of which should be attached to the proposal. It will be noted that investigators in the project may not include researchers with habilitation or professorship other than the principal investigator. The budget of the 8^th edition of the call has been set at more than € 27.83 million.

MAESTRO is a call addressed to advanced researchers, who seek to conduct research surpassing the current state of the art. Principal investigators may recruit from scholars who, over the past 10 years, have published at least 5 papers in renowned Polish or foreign journals, have acted as principal investigators to at least two research projects carried out under nationwide or international calls and have been active in other fields of academic life. The MAESTRO call is being announced for the 10^th time, and its budget is nearly € 9.28 million.

It is also the 10^th round of the HARMONIA programme: the call for research projects carried out as international collaborations, non-co-funded from foreign resources. Eligible under the call is research carried out in direct cooperation with partners from research institutions overseas, under international programmes or initiatives launched as bi- or multilateral cooperation, and the research in which Polish teams use large-scale international infrastructure. The total funding in the call comes close to € 9.28 million.

The calls will be open until 17 September 2018, and the results will be announced by 15 March 2019.

The National Science Centre invites Polish research institutions to declare commitment as potential Host Institutions to Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence. Applications for establishing Dioscuri Centres may come from basic organisational units and research centres of higher education institutions, research units of the Polish Academy of Sciences, research institutes, international research institutes established on the territory of Poland, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, other research institutions established on the territory of Poland.

The deadline for submissions expires on 5^th November 2018.

Submissions meeting the formal requirements will be published alongside the Dioscuri call announcement, thus helping researchers find the right research institution in Poland.

Researchers will be able to choose an institution from beyond the published list, provided that the institution meets the formal requirements and will commit to satisfy the basic conditions specified in the announcement.

Dioscuri is an initiative by the Max Planck Society (MPG), intended to establish Centres of Scientific Excellence in Central and Eastern Europe. The Centres will enable outstanding researchers to carry out top level research at research institutions in this part of Europe.

For details of the Dioscuri programme and all formal requirements, see the Dioscuri web-page.

Contact:

Marcin Liana, tel. 12 341 9161

Małgorzata Jacobs, tel. 12 341 9173

The results of the first Dioscuri call will be announced in September 2018.

3^rd Polish-German BEETHOVEN call coming up in September 2018.

Following up on its two successful rounds the National Science Centre (NCN) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) are extending the funding initiative to cover new disciplines.

The BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3  call will be a continuation of the BEETHOVEN 2 call with a joint peer review and selection process. It is open to research in the humanities, social sciences, chemistry, physics, mathematics and material sciences. This corresponds to the subject areas covered by

• the DFG review boards/Fachkollegien
• 101-113,
• 301-312,
• 406
• proposals in the subject areas 317-02, 410-01 are accepted if they have a clear humanities and social sciences focus
• and NCN panels
• HS1- HS6
• ST1.1-1.14, ST1.16-1.17,
• ST2.1-2.9, ST2.11-2.12, ST2.14-2.18,
• ST3.1-3.18,
• ST4.1-4.17,
• ST5.1-5.24,
• ST9.1.-9.18.

A new joint call titled BEETHOVEN LIFE 1 will be announced for research in the life science disciplines. This corresponds to the subject areas covered by

• DFG review boards 201-207
• and NCN panels NZ1-NZ9.

In this call, DFG will act as the lead agency, i.e. assessment of all applications will be made by the DFG according to its rules for the individual research grants programme.

The aims of the BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3 and BEETHOVEN LIFE 1 calls are:

• to support research in the above-named disciplines carried out by Polish-German teams;
• to strengthen cooperation between Polish and German researchers in basic (knowledge-oriented) research.

Proposals for research projects in the above-listed disciplines must be written in English and submitted by joint Polish-German research teams. The duration of the projects must be either 24 or 36 months.

The National Science Centre (NCN) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) will launch BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3 and BEETHOVEN LIFE 1 on 14 September 2018.

The submission deadline for proposals under the two calls will be 17 December 2018. Further information will be made available on 14 September 2018 on the websites of both agencies.

Contact persons at NCN:

BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3   

Humanities and Social Sciences:

• Dr Małgorzata Jacobs, phone: +48 12 341 9173, malgorzata.jacobs@ncn.gov.pl

Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Material Science:

• Dr. Eng. Tomasz Szumełda, phone: +48 12 341 9174, tomasz.szumelda@ncn.gov.pl

BEETHOVEN LIFE 1

• Dr Anna Wiktor, phone: +48 12 341 9166, anna.wiktor@ncn.gov.pl

General inquiries:

• Dr Magdalena Godowska, phone: +48 12 341 9016, Magdalena.godowska@ncn.gov.pl

• Dr Aneta Pazik, phone: +48 12 341 9017, Aneta.pazik@ncn.gov.pl

Contact persons at DFG:

BEETHOVEN CLASSIC 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences:

• Dr. Tanja Kollei, phone: +49 228 885-2972, tanja.kollei@dfg.de

Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Material Science:

• Dr. Ilka Paulus, phone: +49 228 885-2021, ilka.paulus@dfg.de

BEETHOVEN LIFE 1

• Dr. Katharina Hartmann, phone: +49 228 885-2342, k.hartmann@dfg.de

General inquiries on cooperation with Poland:

Dr. Annina Lottermann, International Affairs, phone: +49 228 885-2802, annina.lottermann@dfg.de

Starting on 25 May 2018 the General Personal Data Protection Regulation will directly apply in Poland. GDPR is a comprehensive regulation that unifies data protection laws across the EU member states. To comply with the GDPR requirements, we have prepared information about how we process personal data at the NCN.

See: Personal data processing at the National Science Centre