In a recent issue of Nature, the BOREXINO experiment team, including  prof. Marcin Wójcik, dr Marcin Misiaszek & dr Grzegorz Zuzel from Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Physics, published an article reporting direct observations of neutrinos from the first step of the proton-proton fusion process in the Sun. Direct detection of pp neutrinos is confirmation of physicists’ main theoretical models describing the Sun and its energy origins. According to these models, almost 99 per cent of the power of the Sun is generated in its core by the proton-proton fusion process. The  fusion of two protons into deuteron is a prelude to a chain of reactions that transform hydrogen into helium. BOREXINO is one of the world’s most sensitive neutrino detectors with the unique capability of low energy neutrino registration in real time. It has been working since 2007 in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy and has so far delivered information on almost the entire solar neutrino spectrum, as well as on geo-neutrinos (neutrinos produced in radioactive decays in the Earth). Presently the BOREXINO team is working on detection of neutrinos from the  carbo-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) energy production cycle, which is of great interest for bigger stars (its contribution to the total energy production may be much more significant than in the Sun) The measurement of the CNO neutrino flux, even more challenging than the measurement of pp neutrinos, will also help to solve the Sun’s metallicity problem (an abundance of elements heavier than He).

Prof. Marcin Wójcik is a grant holder of the HARMONIA funding opportunity (supporting participation of the Polish team in BOREXINO),  dr Marcin Misiaszek has been granted funding within the SONATA BIS scheme, dr Grzegorz Zuzel is both a HARMONIA and SONATA BIS awardee.

Learn more about the project: http://borex.lngs.infn.it/

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This text was based on information found on the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science's website, Jagiellonian University.

The Call 2014 of CHIST-ERA, to be published in October 2014, targets research in the following topics:

1. Resilient Trustworthy Cyber-Physical Systems (RTCPS);
2. Human Language Understanding: Grounding Language Learning (HLU).

The details of the research targeted in the call have been defined by the research community during the CHIST-ERA Conference 2014 (http://conference2014.chistera.eu/) event, an event that was open to all interested researchers. The Call 2014 pre-announcement document below (see attached file) gives an overview of the research themes that have emerged during the conference (see pages 2 to 4).

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 of the following countries (additional partners from other countries may be part of a consortium if they can secure their own funding):

• Austria (topics to be confirmed)
• Belgium (FNRS & FWO)
• Canada (Québec)
• France
• Ireland
• Latvia
• Poland
• Romania
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom (RTCPS topic only)

Please note that this pre-announcement is for information purposes only and does not create any obligation for the CHIST-ERA consortium nor for any of the participating funding agencies. No further information will be given until the call is published.

The National Science Centre has launched the 8^th edition of three of its most popular funding schemes. From 15 September until 15 December 2014, researchers may apply for grants under the following funding programmes:

1. OPUS 8, intended for a wide range of applicants, irrespective of their research experience (proposals submitted under this scheme may include the purchase or construction of research equipment);
2. PRELUDIUM 8, aimed at pre-doctoral researchers beginning their career in research;
3. SONATA 8, addressed to emerging researchers with a doctorate that has been held for a maximum of 5 years.

Please note that calls for proposals with results published after 31 December 2014 no longer admit applications from entities legally categorised as entrepreneurs.

The National Science Centre, in cooperation with the German Research Foundation (DFG), has launched BEETHOVEN – a call for proposals from German-Polish research teams. Under this new arrangement, Polish and German researchers active in the field of the humanities and social sciences may jointly apply for funding of projects that meet the criteria of basic research.

The call is open until 10 December 2014. To learn more about the call, its content, specific conditions and requirements, see the topics below:

1. Call text
2. Project template
3. Information for applicants
4. Evaluation sheet for reviewers

Detailed information for Polish applicants: http://ncn.gov.pl/ogloszenia/konkursy/beethoven1.

Research projects on Alzheimer’s Disease financed by the NCN have been added to the International Alzheimer’s Disease Research Portfolio database, launched in 2010 as a joint collaboration between the National Institute of Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association. The IADRP brings together funded research supported by public and private organizations in the United States and other countries. It enables both researchers and organisations supporting research on Alzheimer disease to asses opportunities in which to collaborate and coordinate in a collective effort to advance AD research.

For more information please click here: http://iadrp.nihlibrary.com/.

It is with nearly € 8.2 M that the National Science Centre is awarding six laureates of its just-concluded SYMFONIA 2 call for proposals.

59 principal investigators competed for funding of their projects under the SYMFONIA 2 scheme, which welcomes research projects carried out by collaborating research teams that combine theories, approaches, techniques and tools from two or more research domains. Funding was awarded to six eminent researchers, whose research stands out for its quality and boldly transcends borders between different research fields.

Cross-domain research is crucial to the advancement of science. Thanks to the combined efforts of researchers representing different disciplines and the use of various methods and research tools, we get a whole new scientific quality and a fresh outlook on research problems, said professor Andrzej Jajszczyk, director of the National Science Centre.

The largest share of funding (over € 1.6 M) has been granted to researchers from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. The team, led by dr Marcin Nowotny, will conduct comprehensive interdisciplinary studies of Mitochondrial RNA decay and surveillance.

More than € 1.5 M in financing is the sum given to the project titled The role of antimicrobial protein-chemerin in skin pathophysiology, led by dr hab. Joanna Cichy from the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University. Only slightly less  funding is to provide prof. Tadeusz Holak and his team from Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Chemistry with the means to study transient protein states in designing small-molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions.

For ca. € 1.4 M prof. Marek Figlerowicz and his team from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, will carry out the project Dynasty and population of the Piast State in view of integrated historical, anthropological and genomic studies.

Dr Bartosz Grzybowski will study the development of “Computational Chemical Linguistics” and its applications to the efficient planning of multistep chemical syntheses. The NCN will contribute € 1.3 M. The project will be carried out at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. The same academic unit is represented by another SYMFONIA 2 laureate: dr hab. Dorota Gryko, with over € 700,000 in funding, she will examine the behaviour of vitamin B12 as a delivery vehicle for antibacterial oligonucleotide analogues.

We are happy that among the laureates of SYMFONIA 2 are young yet very experienced researchers who themselves are Principal Investigators to large research teams. It is proof of the great potential of Polish researchers, said prof. Michał Karoński, chair of the NCN Council.

The call was open to projects which provided new full-time employment for at least two researchers with a PhD and employment for at least four doctoral candidates. Under the SYMFONIA 2 call, applicants could also seek funding for research equipment worth up to PLN 500,000 (ca. € 118,000) for projects in the fields of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences and Engineering, and up to PLN 150,000 (ca. € 36,000) in the field of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

The National Science Centre has published a new edition of its calls for proposals addressed to advanced researchers, researchers wanting to carry out projects in international cooperation, and those who have been awarded PhDs between 2 and 12 years prior to submitting. The calls are open until the 16^th of September, 2014.

The MAESTRO funding opportunity, running for the sixth time in three years, has been designed for advanced researchers. Authors of projects submitted under this scheme must be intending to conduct pioneering research (which may include an interdisciplinary component) that is important for the advancement of human knowledge and may result in discoveries. € 16.6 million has been assigned for projects that are successful under this call.

MAESTRO 6 offers an opportunity for authors of innovative research, of import not only at home but on a global scale. With so much at stake, experts reviewing proposals submitted under this scheme are committed to the principle of recommending quality projects that are groundbreaking in nature, said professor Andrzej Jajszczyk, director of the NCN.

Eligible proposals will be from researchers with at least a doctoral degree, who – over the last 10 years – have acted as Principal Investigators to at least two research projects, had their papers published in renowned journals, and have been active scholars (e.g. took part in international conferences).

We want our funding schemes to be responsive to the actual needs of Polish researchers; when setting out to publish a new call, we make sure to to take into account all the feedback coming from the researchers themselves. For MAESTRO 6 and SONATA BIS 4, we have raised the ceiling of funding per project by one third, the director said.

HARMONIA 6 caters for the needs of researchers planning to collaborate on projects with partners from around the world or using international research facilities. Total funding in HARMONIA 6 amounts to almost € 12 million.

SONATA BIS 4 is a funding opportunity where grants are made to research projects that entail setting up a new research team. It welcomes applications from PhD holders who have received their degree between 2 and 12 years before submitting the proposal. More than € 14 million will be distributed to successful applicants.

Find out more at: www.ncn.gov.pl

On the 5^th of June, in Krakow, members of the HERA network came together. HERA is a joint initiative of research funding organisations financing research in the humanities. Representatives of 19 European countries, chaired by professor Sean Ryder from NUI Galway, discussed the position of the humanities in the EU’s new Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The subjects of the meetings also involved a new funding opportunity set to be launched in 2015, and the agenda of the consortium for the coming years. The special guest of the conference was professor Kirsten Drotner, Chair of the Scientific Committee for Humanities at Science Europe.

The National Science Centre joined HERA in 2011. Under HERA’s Cultural Encounters call for proposals, the NCN has financed four projects by researchers from Poland and their partners from abroad.

On 27^th and 28^th of May, in Beijing, heads of public national research funding organisations from around the globe took part in the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC). The meeting has been a significant step forward in two particular respects. Firstly, a report on Open Access to Publications was adopted, another milestone on the road to making the results of publicly financed research available to the public. Secondly, the participants endorsed the Statement of Principles for Shaping the Future, which will serve as a reference document for research funding agencies to support the next generation of researchers.

It was brought to attendees’ attention by Pascale Briand, Director General of the French National Research Agency (ANR), that it [was] crucial that researchers - at any stage of their careers - are recognised as professionals. Addressing this issue, Director of the NCN Andrzej Jajszczyk gave a presentation on the National Science Centre’s funding schemes for researchers at early stages of their career: PRELUDIUM, SONATA, ETIUDA and FUGA.

The report on Open Access comes as a follow-up to the endorsement of the GRC Action Plan towards Open Access to Publications published in 2013 and a series of preparatory meetings. Paul Boyle, President of Science Europe, commented: “Public research agencies worldwide support the principle that all results originating from research they have funded should be open access and that activities related to Open Access should be monitored in a systematic way. This is the first time this wide range of agencies have agreed on a common approach to their respective policies. ”

Among the guests of the opening session was the Premier of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang. The participants of the Annual Meeting, co-hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, included leaders of fifty research funding institutions worldwide.

The Global Research Council is a virtual organisation, comprised of the heads of science and engineering funding agencies from around the world, dedicated to promoting the sharing of data and best practices for high-quality collaboration among funding agencies worldwide.

On the 20^th of May, the National Science Centre acted as host to the General Assembly of Science Europe, an association promoting the collective interests of European Research Funding Organisations (RFO) and Research Performing Organisations (RPO), comprising 52 such organisations from 27 countries.

One of the key events of the assembly was the election of the new President of Science Europe. The incumbent president, Professor Paul Boyle, is ending his term in August 2014. The representatives of member organisations of SE convening in Krakow unanimously chose Professor Miguel  Seabra as the next president. He will assume his duties on the 1^st of September 2014.

Professor Seabra is President of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) and a renowned researcher in the field of membrane trafficking and diseases, academically active at the Medical School of the Universidade de Lisboa.

Professor Boyle said of his successor: Miguel has already played an instrumental role in the General Assembly and as a member of the Governing Board. He will undoubtedly lead the organisation from strength to strength

In his address after the election, Professor Seabra said that his idea for the future desired path of the organisation was to establish Science Europe as a pivotal stakeholder in shaping European science policy.

Other points on the assembly’s agenda included discussions and decisions on changes to the organisation’s Scientific Committees and Governing Board, and on various components of its budget.

The National Science Centre, a member organisation of Science Europe since 2012, was represented by its director, Professor Andrzej Jajszczyk.