Announcement of the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call

Proposals in the call may be submitted by the following entities specified in the Act on the National Science Centre (NCN):

1. Higher Education entities,
2. federations of science and HE entities,
3. research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 1475),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 736);
5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland,

5a. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws, item 534);

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,

6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,
7. other entities involved in research independently on a continuous basis,
8. groups of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-7 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company),
9. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010,
10. scientific libraries and
11. legal entities with registered office in Poland

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must be at least a PhD holder at the proposal submission date, in charge of managing the work of the Polish research team.

Yes. Restrictions to submitting proposals are described in more detail in Chapter III of the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre under the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call.

The detailed subjects of the call are described in more detail in the documents of the SNSF National Research Programme NRP 78 - COVID-19. Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any selected NCN panel. The principal investigator selects the panel.

Under the merit-based evaluation performed by the SNSF as the lead agency, the project is verified for compliance with the basic research criterion.

In the call, research projects may be planned for a period of 24 months, whereas the project duration period must be identical for all research teams involved in the project.

The budget of tasks to be performed by Polish research teams must comply with the regulations on the costs planned in the project, including costs relating to the budget for salaries and scholarships laid down in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN under the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call (annex to the Regulations). The rules for awarding NCN scholarships are laid down in the Regulations on awarding scholarships.

Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims at identifying the required resources and estimating the costs. The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research, based on calculations and must specify the expenditures to be covered by the NCN (the so-called eligible costs).

Direct costs include:

1. salary:

• full time remuneration: funds for full-time employment of the principal investigator or post-doc(s),

• additional remuneration for members of the research team,

• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students,

2. purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software,
3. purchase of materials and small instruments,
4. outsourced services,
5. business trips,
6. visits and consultations,

(Please note! The costs of consultations and visits of Swiss partners who at the same time receive project funding from the SNSF and (in the case of trilateral projects) partners from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Luxembourg and South Tyrol who at the same time receive project funding from DFG, FWF, GAČR , ARRS, FNR or Provincial Administration South Tyrol/Alto Adige  are not eligible),

7. compensation for collective investigators, and
8. other costs crucial to the research project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call (annex to the Regulations) .

Indirect costs may not exceed 20% of direct costs.

When developing the budget, it is necessary to consider the following:

1. NCN proposals must specify the budget for tasks to be performed by the Polish team; a joint proposal – for the tasks to be performed by all research teams (including the Polish research team) involved in the project;
2. the budget in the NCN proposal must be specified in PLN; in the budget table in the joint proposal – in EUR;
3. the budget planned in the budget table for the Polish team in the joint proposal must be consistent with the budget in the NCN proposal;
4. the EUR exchange rate to calculate the budget of the Polish part of the project in the budget table  in the joint proposal: EUR 1 = PLN 4.5432 (exchange rate as at 29 April 2020);
5. the minimum funding for the Polish part of the project throughout its performance: PLN 150,000; and
6. the maximum funding: not specified (the costs must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research).

PLEASE NOTE:

• the detailed justification of the costs  to be incurred by the Polish research team must be provided in the budget table of the joint proposal; the costs and justification of expenditures to be incurred by the Polish research team must comply with the costs and justification provided in ZSUN/OSF;
• the PLN costs in the budget table will be automatically converted into EUR at the following exchange rate: EUR 1 = PLN 4.5432 (exchange rate as at 29 April 2020);
• the merit-based evaluation will be carried out by the SNSF as the lead agency on the basis of the joint proposal and will cover (inter alia) evaluation of justification of the costs planned for the Polish part of the research project as regards the subject and scope of research, hence justification of the costs planned for the Polish research team in the budget table of the joint proposal must be comprehensive, detailed and consistent with justification of the costs in ZSUN/OSF; if no such justification is provided, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

The terms of the call do not specify the minimum or maximum number of research team members. However, the rationale of involvement of individual members of the research team in the project will be subject to merit-based evaluation. The proposal form in ZSUN/OSF must include the description of competencies and tasks to be performed by individual members of the Polish research team. The detailed information on the budget for remuneration and scholarships can be found in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call.

Please note that NCN scholarship recipients or persons employed as post-docs in the project must be selected in an open call.

State aid cannot be applied for under the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call. The detailed information can be found in the State aid section.

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit based-evaluation.

Eligibility check

Proposals are subject to eligibility check performed by:

• the NCN and SNSF as the lead agency (in the case of Polish-Swiss bilateral projects)
• NCN, SNSF and DFG, FWF, ARRS or Provincial Administration South Tyrol/Alto Adige (in the case of trilateral research projects).

Only proposals positively evaluated in the eligibility check by all evaluating agencies will qualify for merit-based evaluation performed by the SNSF as the lead agency pursuant to the rules of the SNSF National Research Programme NRP 78 - COVID-19

The eligibility check is the first stage of proposal review. At the NCN, the eligibility check is performed by scientific coordinators pursuant to the formal criteria applicable to the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call.

The applicants’ most frequent errors resulting in the proposal being rejected at the stage of eligibility check performed by the NCN include:

• failure to provide a justification of the costs planned for the Polish research team in the budget table of the joint proposal; the merit-based evaluation is carried out by the SNSF as the lead agency on the basis of the joint proposal and covers (inter alia) evaluation of justification of the costs planned for the Polish part of the research project as regards the subject and scope of research, hence justification of the costs planned for the Polish research team in the budget table of the joint proposal must be comprehensive and well detailed. Furthermore, both the costs and justification of expenditures in the joint proposal must comply with the costs and justification in ZSUN/OSF;
• miscalculation of the budget (cost differences in the budget for the tasks to be performed by the Polish team in the budget table of the joint proposal and in the NCN proposal as a consequence of (for example) wrong conversion of the EUR/PLN exchange rate or inconsistency of the expenses planned). PLEASE NOTE: Under the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call, the budget for the Polish part of the research project in the budget table will be automatically converted according to the following exchange rate: EUR 1 = PLN 4.5432 (exchange rate as at 29 April 2020);
• naming, in the NCN proposal, joint proposal or project description, persons who are to be selected in an open call procedure according to the call regulations, including persons to be employed as post-docs and remunerated from the NCN budget;
• inconsistency of information in the joint proposal and NCN proposal;
• incompleteness of the proposal; and
• submission of the proposal to one partner agency only.

What is reviewed in the merit-based evaluation of proposals?

Merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed in compliance with the SNSF’s principles. The terms of the SNSF’s calls are set forth in the documents applicable to the SNSF National Research Programme NRP 78 - COVID-19.

The call results will be announced on the NCN’s website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision of the NCN Director by the end of October 2020.

More information can be found in the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call announcement, including the Guidelines for the Polish research teams. Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact the NCN officers:

Coordinator for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences:

Dr Aneta Pazik

e-mail: aneta.pazik@ncn.gov.pl

Coordinator for Physical Sciences and Engineering:

Dr Anna Wieczorek

e-mail: anna.wieczorek@ncn.gov.pl

Coordinator for Life Sciences:

Dr Jadwiga Spyrka

e-mail: jadwiga.spyrka@ncn.gov.pl

General affairs:

Dr Magdalena Godowska

e-mail: magdalena.godowska@ncn.gov.pl

Magdalena Dobrzańska-Bzowska

e-mail: Magdalena.Dobrzanska-Bzowska@ncn.gov.pl

Contact person at the SNSF:

Stéphanie Wyss

e-mail: stephanie.wyss@snf.ch

tel. 031 308 22 22.

Read our Call Schedule and Schedule of International Programs for 2020 and to follow news on our website: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call:

1. read all call documents included in the call announcement, in particular

1. Resolution on the terms of the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call;
2. Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre under the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call carried out as bilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure;
3. Guidelines  for Polish research teams
4. SNSF’s guidelines concerning joint proposals – in the SNSF National Research Programme NRP 78 - COVID-19.

2. learn about the NCN proposal submission procedure
3. obtain  data from the applicant that is required to complete the proposal and learn about the internal procedures of the applicant that may affect the proposal and project performance (cost planned in the project, procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal);
4. draw up:
   • joint proposal in compliance with the SNSF’s requirements (in English);
   • CV with a list of publications by all principal investigators involved in the research project, in compliance with the requirements of the SNSF National Research Programme NRP 78 - COVID-19 (in English);
   • research project’s abstract for the general public (in Polish and in English) and
5. when the proposal is submitted by a group of entities on the Polish part, draw up a Research project cooperation agreement  

Before submitting an NCN proposal:

1. make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Please note that the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] in ZSUN/OSF provides information that all sections of the proposal have been completed. It does not, however, guarantee that all information entered is correct and/or required annexes have been attached;
2. make sure that the joint proposal submitted to the NCN is identical to the joint proposal submitted by the Swiss partner to the SNSF;
3. generate the final version of the NCN proposal and
4. download the confirmation of proposal submission to be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the host institution.

Upon the end of the call for proposals:

1. eligibility check of proposals will be carried out by the NCN and the SNSF and in the case of trilateral projects, additionally by the DFG, FWF, GAČR , ARRS, FNR or Provincial Administration South Tyrol/Alto Adige;
2. merit-based evaluation will be carried out by the SNSF;
3. experts evaluating proposals at the SNSF will select projects recommended for funding;
4. the SNSF will provide the NCN with the list of projects recommended for funding;
5. funding decision of the NCN Director, concerning a research project to be carried out by a Polish research team, will be delivered;
6. the NCN will sign  a funding agreement with the Polish institution and principal investigator at the Polish research team ; and
7. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on the implementation of research projects, fellowships and scholarships.

The rules of appeals under the ALPHORN-COVID-19 call are set forth in Articles 43-45 of the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre under the ALPHORN–COVID-19 call carried out as bilateral cooperation pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure.