Announcement of the ETIUDA 8 call for proposals

In this edition of the call, the proposal submission deadline is 16 March 2020, 4 p.m. CET

Proposals for funding of a doctoral scholarship may be submitted by natural persons described in Article 27 (1) (8) of the NCN Act (Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010, Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1384, as amended), hereinafter “applicants”.

1. The applicant cannot hold a PhD degree;
2. The applicant must undertake to earn a PhD degree within 12 months of the scholarship end date and no earlier than 6 months from the scholarship start date;
3. The applicant must be a doctoral school student or have PhD dissertation proceedings initiated at a Polish institution authorised to award PhD degrees;
4. The applicant must not be a former winner of an ETIUDA call;
5. The applicant must have a scholarship of PLN 5,000 per month planned for the period of preparing a PhD dissertation, which cannot be less than 6 months and more than 12 months; and
6. The applicant must have a foreign fellowship of 3 to 6 months planned at a selected research institution and complete it while collecting the scholarship or within 12 months thereafter.

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research performed to support the PhD dissertation in any of 25 NCN panels within the three core areas: HS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences; ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering; NZ – Life Sciences.

A doctoral scholarship can be planned for a period of no less than 6 months and no more than 12 months. The start date for doctoral scholarship funding is 1 October of the calendar year in which the call is concluded.

A foreign fellowship can be planned for a period of 3 to 6 months and can be completed while collecting the scholarship or within 12 months thereafter.

Funding under the ETIUDA 8 call will have an impact on the PhD dissertation defence date. Applicants participating in the call undertake to earn a PhD degree within 12 months of the scholarship end date and no earlier than 6 months from the scholarship start date.

Under the ETIUDA 8 call for proposals, funds must be planned to cover:

• scholarship of PLN 5,000 per month,
• flat-rate funds of PLN 12,000 per month, multiplied by the percentage correction rate set for a given country, to cover the applicant’s living expenses at the research institution hosting the foreign fellowship, and
• flat-rate funds of PLN 1,000 to PLN 10,000 to cover the travel expenses to and from the research institution hosting the foreign fellowship.

State aid cannot be applied for under the call.

Proposals must include:

1. title of the PhD dissertation
2. description of research performed to support the Ph7D dissertation:
   • short description (up to 1 standard page in Polish),
   • long description (up to 10 standard pages in Polish),
   • description for the general public (up to 1 standard page in Polish);
3. information on the candidate’s academic and research track record, including:
   • academic and research career,
   • list of all papers published or accepted for publication and/or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art,
   • information on participation in research projects funded under domestic and international calls as well as a list of the most important papers resulting therefrom,
   • research experience gained in Poland and abroad,
   • scholarships and prizes awarded, and the most important international and Polish awards for research and/or other activities in research and art;
4. document confirming that the applicant is a doctoral school student or has initiated PhD dissertation proceedings;
5. information on the foreign research institution hosting the foreign fellowship as well as justification for the choice of the institution in terms of reputation, equipment or specific scientific achievements, description of research conducted and compliance of research with research performed to support the PhD dissertation, research/tasks to be conducted during the fellowship, potential use of knowledge and skills acquired during the fellowship in the applicant’s future career as a scientist (up to 2 standard pages in Polish);
6. document confirming approval by the mentor from the research institution hosting the foreign fellowship, as required by the proposal (in English);
7. doctoral scholarship budget (in Polish);
8. obligation to complete the foreign fellowship and earn a PhD degree within the time limits specified in the Resolution; and
9. administrative declarations by the applicant and administrative declarations by the institution where the applicant pursues doctoral studies or has initiated PhD dissertation proceedings, as required by the proposal.

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

The eligibility check shall be performed by the scientific coordinators and shall comprise verification of the proposal for completeness and compliance with all eligibility criteria set forth in the call announcement.

Only complete proposals that meet all the requirements set forth in the call announcement shall be recommended for merit-based evaluation.

The merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed in two stages.

The first stage consists of individual reviews made by two members of the expert team and approval thereof by the expert team during the meeting following the discussions at which individual reviews are discussed.

Following the discussions on all proposals, a ranking long list of proposals approved for the second stage is compiled

During the second stage, members of the expert team interview the applicant in Polish or English and decide on the final grade for a proposal based on individual reviews, interview results and analysis of and discussion about the proposals.

The interview will be held at the registered office of the National Science Centre in June/July 2020. The date of the interview will be announced on the webpage of the National Science Centre and communicated to the applicants recommended for the second stage of merit-based evaluation by e-mail.

For more information on the proposal evaluation procedure, read the Detailed procedure of evaluating proposals by expert teams and the Resolution.

In the evaluation of proposals, the following criteria shall be reviewed:

1. compliance with the basic research criterion;
2. level of research expertise and/or tasks to be performed;
3. research achievements of the applicant;
4. justification of the choice of the host institution;
5. development of the proposal, quality of the presentation and interview; and
6. compliance with other requirements presented in the call announcement and detailed in the Resolution.

The merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed by the expert teams. Experts are selected by the NCN Council among outstanding researchers holding at least a PhD degree. The composition of the expert team depends on the number and subjects of proposals submitted to a panel. Under the ETIUDA 8 call, proposals are evaluated by inter-panel teams (HS, NZ, ST).

Proposals are evaluated pursuant to the proposal evaluation criteria applicable to the ETIUDA call.

The call results shall be announced on the NCN website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision by the NCN Director within 6 months of the proposal submission deadline, by September 2020 at the latest.

Read the Information for applicants available on the NCN website.

Should you have any questions, please contact us by e-mail: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone: +48 12 341 90 00.

Read our Call and International Programmes Timeline for 2019 and 2020 and follow news on our website: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/

1. PLEASE NOTE! The time for the submission of proposals has been changed. In this edition of the call, proposals can be submitted until 16 March 2020 at 4 p.m
2. The scholarship amount has been changed from 4,500 per month to 5,000 per month.
3. The call is also open to doctoral school students who have not initiated PhD dissertation proceedings. The NCN has not set any time frame for initiating PhD dissertation proceedings.

If you plan to submit a proposal under the ETIUDA 8 call:

1. read all call documents included in the call announcement, in particular:
   • Resolution on the terms and regulations of the ETIUDA call for proposals,
   • specimen proposal form, where you can find out about information and annexes needed to be drawn up to complete the electronic proposal form in ZSUN/OSF;
2. read the proposal submission procedure;
3. decide how long the project should last: 6 to 12 months;
4. decide on the research institution to host the foreign fellowship and duration thereof;
5. obtain a document confirming approval by the mentor from the research institution hosting the fellowship (in English);
6. obtain a document confirming that the applicant has initiated PhD dissertation proceedings or is a doctoral school student;
7. obtain data from the host institution that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and scholarship (procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal);
8. draw up the following documents in Polish:
   • description of research performed to support the PhD dissertation: short description (up to 1 standard page); long description (up to 10 standard pages), description for the general public (up to 1 standard page),
   • justification for basic research (up to 2,500 characters),
   • information on the foreign research institution hosting the foreign fellowship (up to 2 standard pages in Polish); and
9. prepare acceptance letters from publishers confirming that the work has been accepted for publication (in the event that the publication track record section includes research papers that have not been published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. check if all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Verification of the proposal for completeness in ZSUN/OSF by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable editing of the final version of the proposal to NCN;
3. download and sign the confirmation of submitting the proposal in the call (signature of the natural person acting as the applicant and authorised representative of the institution); and
4. attach the confirmation of submitting the proposal with a signature

Once you have filled out the form and attached the required annexes, the electronic proposal must be submitted to the National Science Centre in ZSUN/OSF via the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

1. evaluation of proposals shall be carried out;
2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision by the NCN Director shall be delivered with regard to proposals that have been evaluated;
3. if the proposal is qualified for funding, a doctoral scholarship funding agreement shall be entered into;
4. scholarship shall be paid pursuant to the agreement; and
5. in the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council. The appeal shall be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.