Announcement of the SONATINA 4 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 research project under the SONATINA call for proposals may be submitted by entities described in Article 27 (1) (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”, for whom funding of the research project will not constitute state aid, namely:

1. Higher Education entity,
2. federation 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 institute operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 736);
5. international research institute established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland,
6. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws, item 534);
7. institute operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,
8. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,
9. other entity involved in research independently on a continuous basis,
10. group of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-9 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company),
11. scientific and industrial centre laid down in the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2018, items 736 and 1669 and of 2019, item 534),
12. research centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, items 1183),
13. scientific library,
14. company operating as R&D centre within the meaning of the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovative Activity of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2018, item 141 and 1669 and of 2019, item 534),
15. legal entity with registered office in Poland, and
16. natural persons.

The principal investigator must be an individual:

• who holds a PhD degree awarded within 3 years prior to the proposal submission year (this period may be extended by any the career breaks detailed in the Resolution), or will be awarded a PhD degree by 30 June 2020 and/or
• for whom employment under a full-time employment contract is planned, on terms and conditions laid down in the Regulations, for the research project performance period. Employment must be planned in another institution than the one from which the principal investigator has earned a PhD degree.

The applicant must meet the following terms and conditions:

1. the applicant must submit a proposal to carry out research that neither is nor was funded by the NCN nor from any other sources;
2. employment under a full-time employment contract must be planned in the proposal for the principal investigator, in a position dedicated to research tasks covered by the project, on terms and conditions laid down in the Regulations; and
3. the proposal must meet the other terms and conditions laid down in the Regulations.

The project must cover research, including both basic research understood as experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to gain new knowledge of the foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without concern for direct commercial use, and applied research understood as an investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge and skills, directed primarily towards developing new products, processes or services or introducing significant improvements thereto.

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

A research project can be planned for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

A foreign fellowship can last anywhere between 3 and 6 months.

No budget is planned for the purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and/or software.

Under the SONATINA 4 call for proposals, funds must be planned to cover:

1. principal investigator’s employment under a full-time employment contract for the research project performance period pursuant to the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects;
2. research projects in accordance with the budget specified in the proposal; and
3. foreign fellowship of the principal investigator at a selected research institution:
   • flat-rate funds of PLN 12,000 per month, multiplied by the percentage correction rate set for a given country, to cover the principal investigator’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) research project title (in Polish and in English);

2) project’s abstract (up to 4500 characters in English);

3) project’s abstract for the general public (up to 1 standard page in Polish and up to1 standard page in English);

4) descriptions of the research project: short description (up to 5 standard pages in English) and long description (up to 15 standard pages in English);

5) work plan (in Polish and in English) presenting research tasks;

6) information on the research team (in English), including:

a) information on the principal investigator, including:

- academic and research career;

- 1-10 most important papers published and/or accepted for publication (for research in art, artistic achievements and achievements in research in art) in the proposal submission year and/or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year. This period may be extended by the period of leave, sickness benefits or physiotherapy benefits detailed in detailed in the Resolution;

- information on research project management and/or other funding awarded under NCN calls or other domestic calls or international calls in the period referred to above;

- description of the most important research achievement;

- research experience gained in Poland and/or abroad; and

- information on the most important national and/or international distinctions for research and/or other activity in research in art, and

b) information on the required qualifications and scope of work planned by each investigator in the research project;

7) document confirming that the principal investigator has earned a PhD degree and if the principal investigator is intending to earn a PhD degree, a declaration by the PhD supervisor or certificate of the forecasted award date of the PhD issued by a competent institution;

8) 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, compliance of research with research performed under the project, research/tasks to be conducted during the fellowship, and potential use of knowledge and skills acquired during the fellowship in the principal investigator’s future career as a scientist (up to 2 standard pages in English);

9) document confirming approval by the research institution to host the foreign fellowship of the principal investigator, as required by the proposal (in English);

10) research project budget (in English) drafted according to the Regulations;

11) in the case of a research project to be carried out in cooperation with a foreign partner, information on international cooperation as well as description of benefits that may result from such international cooperation (in English);

12) information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project (in English);

13) information on the ethical aspects of the project, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the project in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices (in English);

14) in the case of research projects which include clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials (in English);

15) in the case of research projects covering research being performed or completed by the principal investigator, or with respect to which the principal investigator applies for funding under other NCN calls or from other sources, description of similar research tasks with reasons justifying the need to have them funded under the project (in English);

16) in the case of research projects to be carried out in a host institution that does not receive any operating support for research, information on research carried out over the last 2 years, together with a list of publications and information on research equipment and other instruments crucial to research (in English);

17) in the case of research projects to be carried out by a group of entities, a research project cooperation agreement including information and annexes detailed in the Resolution (in Polish); and

18) administrative declarations by the principal investigator and the host institution for the project, 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.

During the first stage, proposals undergo a preliminary evaluation based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description. The preliminary evaluation consists in:

• individual reviews made by two members of the expert team and
• expert team’s verdict at the first meeting based on the discussions about individual reviews.

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

During the second stage, proposals shall undergo a specialist evaluation based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description, and based on the interview. At this stage, the proposal is evaluated by at least two external experts. Additionally, members of the expert team interview the applicant in Polish or English and decide on the final grade for a proposal based on external 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 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.

Proposal evaluation criteria

1. compliance with the basic research criterion detailed in §5(2) of the Resolution;
2. level of research expertise and/or tasks to be performed;
3. innovative nature of the research problem addressed;
4. the project’s impact on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
5. research achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals;
6. evaluation of other projects carried out by the principal investigator and funded by the NCN and/or from other sources;
7. evaluation of feasibility of the project’s completion;
8. justification of the costs as regards the subject and scope of research;
9. justification for the choice of the research institution;
10. development of the proposal, quality of the presentation and interview; and
11. compliance with other requirements presented in the call announcement and detailed in the Resolution.

The evaluation of proposals is performed by the expert teams. Experts are selected by the NCN Council among outstanding Polish and foreign 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 SONATINA 4 call, proposals are evaluated by inter-panel teams (HS, NZ, ST).

Proposals are evaluated pursuant to the proposal evaluation criteria applicable to the SONATINA 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. Change of the terms of employment of the principal investigator. Employment of the principal investigator cannot be planned in an institution from which the principal investigator has earned a PhD degree.

If you plan to submit a proposal under the SONATINA 4 call:

1. read all call documents included in the call announcement, in particular:
   1. Resolution on the terms and regulations of the SONATINA call for proposals,;
   2. 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: 24 or 36 months;
4. decide on the research institution to host the foreign fellowship and duration thereof: 3 to 6 months;
5. obtain a document confirming approval by the mentor from the research institution hosting the fellowship (in English);
6. draw up a document confirming that the principal investigator has earned a PhD degree and if the principal investigator is intending to earn a PhD degree, a declaration by the PhD supervisor or certificate of the forecasted award date of the PhD issued by a competent institution;
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 the project (procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal);
8. draw up the following documents:

1. in Polish:
   • description for the general public (up to 1 standard page);
   • work plan presenting research tasks;
   • in the case of research projects to be carried out by a group of entities, a research project cooperation agreement;
   • administrative declarations by the principal investigator and the research institution hosting the research project;
2. in English::
   • project’s abstract (up to 4500 characters);
   • description for the general public (up to 1 standard page);
   • work plan presenting research tasks;
   • descriptions of the research project: short description (up to 5 standard pages) and long description (up to 15 standard pages);
   • information on the research team, including information on the principal investigator, detailed above (item 6: Information to be included in the proposal and documents to be attached);
   • information on the foreign research institution hosting the fellowship and justification therefor (up to 2 standard pages in Polish);
   • document confirming approval by the research institution to host the foreign fellowship of the principal investigator;
   • research project budget;
   • in the case of a research project to be carried out in cooperation with a foreign partner, information on international cooperation as well as description of benefits that may result from such international cooperation;
   • information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project;
   • information on the ethical aspects of the project, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the project in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices;
   • in the case of research projects which include clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials;
   • in the case of research projects covering research being performed or completed by the principal investigator, or with respect to which the principal investigator applies for funding under other NCN calls or from other sources, description of similar research tasks with reasons justifying the need to have them funded under the project; and
   • in the case of research projects to be carried out in a host institution that does not receive any operating support for research, information on research carried out over the last 2 years, together with a list of publications and information on research equipment and other instruments crucial to research.

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 principal investigator 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 research project funding agreement shall be entered into; and
4. project shall be performed pursuant to the funding agreement.

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.