The National Science Centre is pleased to present list of projects qualified for funding in NCN calls:

• OPUS 9 – for a wide range of applicants. The research proposal submitted under this scheme may include the purchase or construction of research equipment.
• PRELUDIUM 9 – for pre-doctoral researchers about to embark on their scientific career.
• SONATA 9 – for scientists holding a doctoral degree starting their career in research.

Full ranking lists

We would like to inform all applicants interested in applying for the POLONEZ 1 fellowship that we have updated POLONEZ 1 Guidelines for applicants.

In chapter V please see detailed information regarding submitting the proposals in the OSF submission system.

We have also prepared document POLONEZ 1 Host institution data with all necessary information the applicant needs to obtain from the Host Institution in order to submit the proposal.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778.

The National Science Centre and the CHIST-ERA consortium invite researchers to a new edition of the call for international research projects. Topics of the 2015 opportunity are:

• User-Centric Security, Trust and Privacy in the Internet of Things (SPTIoT);
• Terahertz Band for Next-Generation Mobile Communication Systems (TMCS).

The deadline for submitting applications is 13^th of January 2016, 17:00 CET.

It is also required that Polish applicants fill in the UNISONO form by the 13^th of January 2016, using the OSF electronic submission system: www.osf.opi.org.pl.

It is highly recommended to fill in also the financial table and send it to jakub.gadek@ncn.gov.pl.

Funding

The NCN Council has set the contribution from the NCN, for the support of Polish projects, at  EUR 500,000.

Please make yourself familiar with the documents of the call:

1. CHIST-ERA Call 2015 Announcement
2. CHIST-ERA Call 2015 Eligibility Requirements
3. CHIST-ERA Call 2015 Proposal Form
4. CHIST-ERA Call 2015 Financial Template
5. CHIST-ERA Call 2015 Leaflet

Budget of the Polish part of the research project in the OSF system should be given in PLN (1 EUR= 4,2153 PLN). 

For detailed information on the call, go to: http://www.chistera.eu/call-2015-announcement

You are also invited to use Partner Search Tool, a development facilitating matches between potential partners with similar ideas.

Contact:

Dr Jakub Gadek, jakub.gadek@ncn.gov.pl, tel. +48 12 341 9152

Sylwia Kostka, sylwia.kostka@ncn.gov.pl, tel. +48 12 341 9018

We are pleased to announce that the international project AMIS, involving a Polish research team led by dr Mikołaj Leszczuk from AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow was awarded funding in the CHIST-ERA call, supporting research in the field of information and communication technology. Scientists from France, Poland and Spain will help people understand broadcasting news presented in a foreign language and compare this news to a corresponding one in the user's mother tongue.

In a previous CHIST-ERA call, concluded last year, a project led by prof. Piotr Bała from the University of Warsaw, received funding for research on heterogenous parallel and distributed computing in Java.  Here you can find more information on this project.

The next CHIST-ERA call for proposals will be announced in October.

Call topics:

1. Security and Privacy in the Internet of Things
2. Terahertz Band for Next-Generation Mobile Communication Systems

For more information please see: http://www.chistera.eu/topics-keywords-chist-era-conference-2015.

We are pleased to invite all researchers interested in applying for the POLONEZ 1 fellowship for a web chat in English. It will be held on the 15th October 2015 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m at https://ncn.clickmeeting.com/polonez.

Questions will be answered by NCN officers: Agata Mendrek, Malwina Gębalska, Joanna Komperda and Marcin Liana. All researchers willing to take part in the chat are strongly encouraged to read the call documentation, guidelines for applicants, and frequently asked questions, available on the POLONEZ website.

Please read the technical instructions regarding the web chat.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778.

Piotr Śniady, Wiesław Babik and Michał Bilewicz became the awardees of the 2015 National Science Centre (NCN) Award. Each will receive ca. EUR 12 000 for their respective outstanding research achievements.

Winners of the 2015 NCN Award. From left to right: dr hab. Michał Bilewicz, prof. dr hab. Piotr Śniady and dr hab. Wiesław Babik. Photo: Michał Niewdana

The winners were chosen from amongst researchers under 40 years old as the idea of the Award is to support young researchers. It is conferred for notable achievements in basic research carried out in a Polish research institution. The Award has been funded by enterprises committed to supporting research.

The 2015 winner in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences is dr hab. Michał Bilewicz, a social psychologist at the Faculty of Psychology, the University of Warsaw, for demonstrating the trifactorial structure of today’s anti-Semitism and its psychological consequences.

Prejudices lead to discrimination, conflicts and sometimes even to crimes and genocide. I decided to study these prejudices to better understand and be able to explain the dark side of the human psyche. By learning more about sources of prejudices we can be more successful in our efforts to prevent them – and I hope my research will prove useful in this particular field, said dr Michał Bilewicz.

The  Award in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences was funded by FBN Poland: Colian, ENEL-MED SA, Grupa Bemo Motors, Nowy Styl, Netbox PL Sp. z o.o. and Yes.

This year’s winner in Life Sciences is dr hab. Wiesław Babik, an evolutionary biologist at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University. The chapter of the Award has singled him out for his research on adaptive evolution in animals, with particular focus on the MHC genetic variability.

I am interested in the use of historical information stored in DNA for making conclusions on evolutionary processes. Such research helps us better understand the mechanisms thanks to which the enormous number of creatures inhabiting the Earth have come into the world.

The Award in the category of Life Sciences was funded by Celon Pharma S.A.

This year’s third laureate of the NCN Award is professor dr hab. Piotr Śniady who works at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, and the Polish Academy of Sciences. His significant results in the Physical Sciences and Engineering deal with the calculus of probability.

The aim of my investigations is to find hidden structures that could explain the shape of our physical world as well as the invisible one of mathematical ideas. The tools offered to us by combinatorics seem particularly well-suited for the task, said professor Śniady.

The Award in Physical Sciences and Engineering was funded by EDF Polska S.A.

The National Science Centre Award in three domains is conferred by the NCN Council and a special chapter, composed of the representatives of the Centre as well as the sponsors of the Award. Candidates can be nominated by other eminent researchers, with each researcher recommending only one candidate.

There were 72 entries with several nominees named more than once. Of the entries sent, the competition committees of the NCN Council chose two finalists for each of the three research domains. The final selection had been concluded by the chapter already back in September, but the laureates’ names were kept secret until the evening of the ceremony. 

The award ceremony was held on 7th October at a Gallery of 19^th-Century Polish Art in the Cloth Call (a branch of the National Museum in Krakow).  It was hosted by Grażyna Torbicka, and the winners received their laurels from the hands of the secretary at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, professor Maciej Ratajczak; director of the NCN, professor Zbigniew Błocki; the chair of the NCN Council, Michał Karoński, and representatives of the Award’s funding partners: Jerzy Chachuła, R&D director of EDF Polska S.A.; Bogdan Manowski, member of the board at Celon Pharma S.A., and Adam Rozwadowski, board director at the ENEL-MED S.A.

Photos by Michał Niewdana

We would like to inform all researchers interested in applying for POLONEZ 1 fellowship that the OSF electronic submission system is now open. The deadline for submitting applications is 15^th December 2015.For more information please see: www.ncn.gov.pl/polonez.   

Contact: Agata Mendrek, tel. 12 341 91 39, polonez@ncn.gov.pl

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778.

We are pleased to invite researchers interested in applying for the POLONEZ 1 fellowship for a web chat in English, that will be held on the 15^th October 2015 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. During the chat we would be happy to answer all questions regarding the call documentation, the submission system, etc.

All technical details regarding access to the chat will be announced on the NCN website at the beginning of October. We strongly encourage applicants to read the call documentation before joining the chat.

We would also like to invite all POLONEZ 1 applicants to use the POLONEZ 1 Partner Search Tool, a match-making section created in order to establish new cooperation between incoming researchers and Host Institutions in Poland.

The POLONEZ 1 call was announced on the 15^th September and will be closed on the 15^th December 2015.

For more information about POLONEZ 1 please visit: www.ncn.gov.pl/polonez.

Contact: Agata Mendrek, tel. 12 341 91 39, polonez@ncn.gov.pl

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778.

We would like to inform all applicants interested in applying for the POLONEZ 1 fellowship that the electronic submission system will be opened in the next few days. A delay in opening the system occurred due to the fact that the resolution concerning the granting of state aid, issued by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education has only just been adopted on the 14^th of September. In order to enable institutions who benefit from state aid to participate in POLONEZ 1, NCN must introduce the necessary changes in the submission system.

According to the resolution mentioned above, researchers are able to apply for fellowships in a wide range of Host Institutions located in Poland, such as:

• research organisations,
• university research centres established within a single university structure,
• scientific libraries,
• enterprises with the status of a research and development centre as defined in the Act of 30^th May 2008 on Certain Forms of Support for Innovation Activities,
• organisational institutions having legal personality status, established on Polish territory,
• enterprises conducting res earch in a different organisational form than those set forth in 1-5.

The exact date the submission system will open shall be announced on the NCN website. We apologise for any inconvenience.

More information about POLONEZ 1.

CONTACT:

Agata Mendrek

tel. +48 12 341 9139

polonez@ncn.gov.pl

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778.

The National Science Centre opened its tenth call for proposals within the OPUS, PRELUDIUM and SONATA funding schemes with a financing pool totaling PLN 240 million. The NCN also launched its first call for proposals within the POLONEZ funding scheme targeted at researchers from abroad who want to carry out research in Polish institutions. This funding scheme was allocated as much as PLN 40 million. POLONEZ 1 is the latest funding scheme administered by the NCN, offering a research fellowship of one or two years to researchers from abroad who wish to come to Poland. However, to be eligible for funding, the applicant must meet two conditions: hold a PhD degree or have 4 years of full-time research experience as well as neither having lived nor worked/studied in Poland for longer than 12 months in the period from 15 September 2012 to 14 September 2015.

“POLONEZ is the first funding scheme targeted at scientists from other countries which, thanks to co-financing obtained from the European Horizon 2020 programme, offers truly attractive financial conditions. I hope it will enable us to attract talented and ambitious researchers to Poland, who will serve as an influx of fresh blood energising and motivating Polish research", emphasised Prof. Zbigniew Błocki, the National Science Centre director.

The awardees will be granted guaranteed funds for employment in host institutions of EUR 31,500 per year and a research grant of up to PLN 160,000 per year. Additionally, they may obtain more than EUR 20,000 annually to cover the costs related to temporary relocation, family benefits (if the researcher’s family is also coming to Poland) and a training package offered by the NCN. The host institution will be reimbursed 20% of all overheads. The POLONEZ 1 funding scheme is co-financed by the Horizon 2020 programme within the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions (COFUND).

What is more, the National Science Centre has announced calls for proposals within three funding schemes that enjoy great popularity among Polish scientists: OPUS 10, PRELUDIUM 10 and SONATA 10.

PRELUDIUM 10 offers funds to researchers at the beginning of their career who have not been awarded their PhD degree yet. The funding scheme has been allocated PLN 30 million for this purpose. PRELUDIUM is unique worldwide: very few countries around the world offer PhD candidates a principal investigators. As shown by statistics, most applications in previous calls for applications were submitted by PhD candidates.

“We do our best to support young scientists with good ideas for research. At the same time, we are aware of the very difficult position PhD Candidates in Polish science are in. The system of financing graduate programmes is not working well - only a small percentage of students receive scholarships, especially in the field of Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts. As a result, very few of them actually complete their doctoral dissertation. The NCN Council called the Ministry of Science and Higher Education to take urgent steps aimed at the expeditious implementation of necessary, comprehensive changes in this respect" said Prof. Michał Karoński, chair of the NCN Council.

The OPUS 10 funding scheme offers grants for the performance of basic research to all scientists, irrespective of their age and experience. The funds obtained in this funding scheme are sufficient to build a large research team consisting of both researchers in post-doc positions and PhD candidates receiving scholarships. The resources from the scheme can also be used to purchase equipment necessary to conduct research.

SONATA 10 is dedicated to researchers at the early stages of their career who have already been awarded a PhD degree. Previously, the call for proposals was open to people who were awarded their PhD degree in the period of 5 years prior to the date of submitting the application. As a result of a recent amendment to the Act on the financing of science, SONATA 10 is now open to anybody who has defended their doctoral dissertation in the period of 7 years before the year of submitting the application, i.e. in the period from 2008-2015 in this case.  The funds allocated to the scheme amount to PLN 30 million.

The calls for proposals announced by the National Science Centre will enable it once again to offer public funds for the purpose of financing basic research in the form of research projects and to grant de minimis aid to finance internships in enterprises for PhDs who are at the onset of their scientific career.

Applications may be submitted via the OSF system (https://osf.opi.org.pl) until 15 December 2015. The results will be announced by mid June 2016.