Lauch of NCN’s international “LUKE Joint Call: R&I Cooperation with Ukraine”

The international LUKE Joint Call has just been launched by the National Science Centre (NCN) in collaboration with international partners in the LUKE project - Linking Ukraine to the European Research Area – Joint Funding and Capacity Building Platform for Enhanced Research and Innovation Cooperation.

The aim of the call is to support research projects involving international collaboration, with Ukraine as the key partner. The call is targeted at strengthening integration of the Ukrainian research and innovation system with the European Research Area (ERA).

Proposals should address one of the following topics:

1. Energy: Sustainable and renewable energy and energy security
2. Cybersecurity: Cyber resilience of critical infrastructures and adaptive cybersecurity systems
3. Medical and health research: Telemedicine, biomedical research
4. Social sciences and humanities: Social reconciliation, sustainable social development, and human capital restoration

The topics are described in more detail here.

Countries participating in the call: Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine.

The call is open to international research consortia comprising at least three entities from various countries participating in the programme, of which at least one must be based in Ukraine.

The principal investigator of the Polish team must be at least a PhD holder.

The total NCN budget for all Polish research teams selected in the call is EUR 750,000.

The Polish project budget in the joint proposal will be calculated according to the following exchange rate: EUR 1 = PLN 4.3463.

Under the LUKE programme, funding may be awarded for remuneration of the research team members, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, and for other costs crucial to the research project.

The application process consists of:

• International level, during which Polish research teams will draft joint proposals (in English) together with foreign partners and submit them to the electronic submission system PT-Outline
• National level, during which Polish research teams will draft NCN proposals for the Polish part of the project and submit them to NCN electronically via the OSF submission system within 7 days of the date of submission of joint proposals at the international level. 

The call comprises a single stage which means that only joint proposals are submitted at the international level. The proposal submission procedure at the international level is described in detail in the LUKE Joint Call text.

Call timeline:

• Submission deadline for joint proposals in the PT-Outline submission system: 15 May 2026,23.59 p.m..
• Submission deadline for NCN proposals in the OSF submission system: 22 May 2026
• Call results: November 2026
• Project start date: January 2027 – March 2027
• Project end date: December 2028 – March 2029

The principal investigator in the Polish research team drafts an NCN proposal for the Polish part of the project in the OSF submission system, which is then submitted to NCN electronically via the OSF submission system within 7 days of the submission deadline for joint proposals. Information in NCN proposals and in joint proposals must be consistent.

Under LUKE, only basic research proposals are eligible for submission to NCN, where basic research is understood as experimental or theoretical endeavours undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundations of phenomena and observable facts, without any direct commercial application or use).

Information in NCN proposals that affects the merit-based evaluation (e.g. concerning composition and remuneration of the research team or forecasted costs) must also be included in the joint proposals to enable evaluation of the forecasted costs and project feasibility. If such information is missing, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

Please read:

• the call documents available on the website of the LUKE Partnership (applicable to all applicants in the call) and
• information for applicants below and annexes hereto (only for applicants requesting NCN funding).

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Eligible applicants

Who may act as a principal investigator?

What are the topics covered by the call?

What is the project duration?

How should the project budget of the Polish part of the project be planned?

Is the number of Polish research team members predetermined?

Can proposals in this call include application for state aid?

What is the proposal evaluation procedure?

Who performs the merit-based evaluation of proposals?

When and how will the results be announced?

Useful information

Where can additional information be found?

As of the March calls, the proposal form will include a new section on retracted articles. The new solution will complement the evaluation of applicants’ publication track record based on the DORA Declaration and will provide a more comprehensive overview of grant applicants’ publication track record.

Since 2018, NCN has been a signatory of the DORA Declaration and has evaluated the publication rack record on the basis of value and originality of research achievements rather than bibliometric indicators, such as the number of publications or citations. Funding proposals must include 1-10 most important papers of the researcher, published or accepted for publication over the past 10 years. The proposal review is based solely on the information included in the proposal, thereby fostering equal treatment of applicants and limiting bias.

New requirement

In order to ensure a more comprehensive overview of the applicants’ publication track record, the NCN Council has introduced a requirement that all researchers must disclose information on retracted papers (Resolution of 12 February 2026).

A retracted paper is an article published or accepted for publication and then formally withdrawn by the journal editors. Retraction may indicate a breach of publication standards. It is identified by the journal editors, has a certain status, reason and context described.

According to the modifications, the proposal form must include information on any articles retracted over the past 10 years, reasons for retraction, co-authors and DOI of retracted articles.

The modification will enter into effect as of the launch date of OPUS 31 and PRELUDIUM 25 (16 March 2026). The new requirement will apply to researchers whose publication track record will be evaluated, i.e. principal investigators, as well as (depending on the call) mentors, senior researchers and PIs of LAP proposals.

The new information will form an integral part of the evaluated proposal and will provide expert-reviewers with a more comprehensive overview of the publication track record of applying researchers without increasing discretion in the process.

Owing to Weave-UNISONO funding, researchers from the Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology together with their German partners will study proteins driving prostate cancer progression.

Prof. Monika Pietrowska will lead the Polish research team in carrying out the project: “Characterization of the ALDH1A1/MMP11 pathway as a potential biomarker and regulator of prostate cancer progression and metastases.” The German research team will be headed by Dr Ielizaveta Gorodetska from the Dresden University of Technology.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancer in men worldwide and its metastatic form has low survival and limited therapeutic options. Our study describes a new mechanism whereby ALDH1A1 and ALDH1A3 are critical regulators of PCa radioresistance and metastases by activating a pathway using retinoic acid, TGF-β1 and MMP11. MMP11 was found to contribute to the PCa progression, whereas its inhibition enhances prostate cancer cell radio-sensitization. The tumour and plasma MMP11 levels have shown a potential to differentiate between metastatic and non-metastatic, and to predict disease progression and response to therapy. Development of the MMP11 targeting strategy may enhance cancer diagnosis, patient stratification, and treatment efficacy in prostate cancer, especially when combined with radiotherapy.

The successful proposal was evaluated by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the evaluation results were approved by NCN under the Weave cooperation. The Polish project budget is over PLN 950,000.

Weave-UNISONO and Lead Agency Procedure 

Weave-UNISONO is a result of multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies associated in Science Europe and aims at simplifying the submission and selection procedures in all academic disciplines, involving researchers from two or three European countries.

The winning applicants are selected pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure according to which one partner institution performs a complete merit-based evaluation of proposals, the results of which are subsequently approved by the other partners.

Under the Weave Programme, partner research teams apply for parallel funding to the Lead Agency and their respective institutions participating in the Programme. Joint research projects must include a coherent research program with the added value of the international cooperation clearly identified.

Weave-UNISONO is carried out on an ongoing basis. Research teams intending to cooperate with partners from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are urged to read the call text and apply for funding.

Dr Aneta Pazik Aybar, Poland’s representative in the EOSC Association and head of NCN’s Open Science Team has been appointed Co-Chair of the EOSC Steering Board.

Aneta Pazik-Aybar On 13 February 2026, nominees-experts from the EU member states and countries associated to Horizon Europe appointed Co-Chairs of the EOSC Steering Board, a key strategic authority of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The EOSC Steering Board supports the European Commission in guiding the EOSC development and forms a part of the EOSC Tripartite Governance.

This is a huge honour for Aneta, as well as the National Science Centre and our country. Aneta’s involvement and long-term efforts to support open science have a real impact on the EOSC development in Poland and abroad.

In view of the recent International Day of Women and Girls in Science, her success is of particular importance. Aneta’s experience, knowledge and passion serve as an example of the highest European decision-making position of women in the field of research and innovation.

Congratulations to Aneta! We are proud of your accomplishment and wish you every success in developing strong, open and modern European science.

We are pleased to announce that the Slovenian agency ARIS will conduct a call for proposals under the Weave programme between 16 February 2026 and 31 March 2026, with the Slovenian agency acting as the lead agency.

Under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to ARIS, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to the ARIS, by 7 April 2026, 23:59 p.m. at the latest.

Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the OSF submission system, the Polish research team has 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and submit it to the NCN. After that, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team that has not sent its proposal to the NCN must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system.

At the beginning of March 2026, the M-ERA.NET network will launch its next call for international research projects. The call focuses on research and innovation in materials technology, aimed at supporting the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals.

This year’s edition will cover the following thematic areas:

• Clean energy technologies;
• Circular economy;
• Digital technology integration.

For more information, please visit the official M-ERA.NET program website.

Note: This announcement is for informational purposes only. Detailed terms and conditions will be specified in the official call for proposals.

We are pleased to announce that the Czech agency GAČR will conduct a call for proposals under the Weave programme between 9 February and 31 March 2026, with the Czech agency acting as the lead agency.

Under the Weave-UNISONO call, if a joint proposal is submitted to GAČR, an NCN proposal must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system as soon as possible following the submission of the joint proposal to the GAČR, by 7 April 2026, 23:59 p.m. at the latest.

PLEASE NOTE: Once the work on the NCN proposal has started in the OSF submission system, the Polish research team has 45 calendar days to complete the proposal and submit it to the NCN. After that, the proposal can no longer be edited, in which case a Polish research team that has not sent its proposal to the NCN must prepare a new proposal and complete it in the OSF submission system.

On 16 January 2026, the National Science Centre in Kraków hosted a strategic meeting of the EOSC Poland Network. Representatives of more than twenty institutions from across the country gathered at the headquarters of the NCN — the coordinator of the national partnership and the EOSC node — to discuss the development of the European Open Science Cloud to date and Poland’s role in the initiative. The main topics were progress in building the EOSC Federation, its transition to the operational phase, and development prospects for the coming years.

The meeting was opened by Marcin Liana, NCN Deputy Director, who emphasised the importance of cooperation within the research community in developing open science and digital infrastructure. “We are meeting at a crucial moment in the development of the European Open Science Cloud. EOSC has moved beyond a project-based initiative and is becoming a lasting component of the European research and innovation ecosystem, firmly embedded in key EU strategies and policy directions. Its role is increasingly emphasised both in the context of research and technological infrastructure development and in discussions on AI in science and large-scale use of research data,” he noted, adding that the federated model of EOSC is particularly important, as it enables national and institutional resources to be combined into a coherent, interoperable whole. “In this context, cooperation with research infrastructures, e-infrastructures, data infrastructures, as well as competence centres — both national and European — plays a key role,” Marcin Liana stressed. “They can significantly strengthen the potential of open science, increase the visibility of Polish resources, and facilitate their reuse.”

The EOSC Federation enters the operational phase

In the next part of the meeting, Aneta Pazik-Aybar, Head of the Open Science Team at the National Science Centre and Coordinator of the EOSC Poland national node, took the floor. She explained the fundamentals of the EOSC Federation, the current stage of its development, and clarified the position of the Polish node. The Federation is currently transitioning from the build-up phase to the operational phase. In 2025, several organisations were involved in the work, and the signing ceremony of the Letter of Intent during the Symposium in Brussels formalised cooperation mechanisms. On 16 January, the director of the National Science Centre, Prof. Dr hab. Krzysztof Jóźwiak, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the Polish EOSC node.

Aneta Pazik-Aybar also presented the benefits of EOSC Poland, a project intended to provide support for the integration of national research data infrastructure. “To date, many resources have not been interoperable or compliant with standards; there has been no federated AAI, and smaller research teams have lacked access to technical support,” she said. “EOSC Poland responds to these needs by integrating Polish institutions with the European cloud, promoting FAIR standards, offering unified access to services, and supporting multi- and interdisciplinary research.” Concluding her speech, she outlined a plan for 2026, which anticipates intensive development of the Federation — transition to operational mode, inviting additional institutions to join the nodes, introduction of monitoring and cybersecurity standards, development of participation rules, and work on a governance and funding model after 2027. The first quarter of 2026 also saw a meeting called Winter School EOSC 2026, with this year’s format supporting the expansion of the Federation.

EOSC EU Node – the first European EOSC node

Dr inż. Norbert Meyer, Head of the Data Processing Technologies Division at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Centre, presented the EOSC EU Node: the European Commission's first European EOSC node, which initiated the creation of the European federation — an access point to open science services. Participants were able to see, in practice, how data resources, computing tools, and analytical environments work. Numerous questions from the audience demonstrated growing interest in the practical aspects of integration with EOSC.

Norbert Meyer emphasised that EOSC involves not only open research data, but also data relating to the economy, administration, and society. “The European Commission's policy concerns openness and equal access to results, publications, and experimental data from EU-funded R&D activities,” he said. “This opens up access to repositories, providing opportunities for big data analytics supported by AI and machine learning algorithms, together with LLM models. A new level of access to data enables the extraction of information and the acquisition of knowledge. At the same time, we are seeing new areas opening up in science and the economy thanks to open data sources supported by AI.”

A support platform for Polish researchers

In the next presentation, Roksana Wilk, Head of the Data Processing Laboratory at the Academic Computer Centre CYFRONET AGH, spoke about the eosc.pl platform, which supports Polish researchers in accessing EOSC resources.

“EOSC.pl significantly strengthens the implementation of standards and interoperability, without which open science remains a mere promise,” she noted. “The platform facilitates publishing, organising, and finding research resources, as well as their reuse in research projects. A well-designed national node allows Poland to participate coherently and reliably in the EOSC Federation, genuinely speeding up and improving the quality of scientific collaboration across Europe.”

Gateways to EOSC Federation services

In the second part of the event, Dr Monika Góral-Kurbiel, representing the EOSC Gravity project funded under Horizon Europe and the NCN Open Science Team, discussed calls related to the development of the Federation. The second call for EOSC nodes will identify institutions ready to act as “gateways” to Federation services, providing access to data and tools for research communities. The call is selective in nature, with no direct funding.

Monika Góral-Kurbiel emphasised that, in parallel, preparatory and inter-project calls are being run under the Gravity project, supporting candidates in preparing documentation, pilot implementations, and training materials. Both calls provide a budget of EUR 50,000 per project.

EOSC Handbook

Finally, Natalia Galica from the NCN Open Science Team presented the EOSC Handbook — a practical guide for organisations joining the Federation, designed to facilitate understanding of operating models, services, and participation procedures.

“The EOSC Handbook is a much-needed and practical guide for institutions wishing to join the EOSC Federation,” she noted. “It clarifies the nature and operation of Nodes, along with the EOSC Federation's participation rules and mechanisms. I am delighted to be part of this initiative and to co-create solutions that genuinely advance science.”

The meeting concluded with a summary and a discussion about the next steps. Informal discussions continued for a long time, focusing on directions for further cooperation, new opportunities, and Poland’s role in building the European research data infrastructure. The dynamic and energetic atmosphere showed that for many institutions the event marked the start of new initiatives and joint projects.

The fourth edition of the EEA and Norway Grants focuses on fundamental research that helps to improve understanding of key social and environmental challenges. As the programme operator, NCN will support projects that combine different research fields and produce results that can be used in the development of public policy.

Signing of agreements for the first five programmes funded under the fourth edition of the EEA and Norway Grants: Secretary of State at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy Jan Szyszko, Chair of the Financial Mechanisms Committee Kristin Hansen, and Dr Marcin Liana, Deputy Director of the National Science Centre, photo: MFiPR The programme agreements initiating the fourth edition for the years 2021–2028 were signed on 4 February 2026 at the Museum of Polish History in Warsaw. The budget for the “Basic Research” programme exceeds EUR 71 million, and project funding will be available until the end of April 2031.

In this edition, we have planned two research calls and two supporting calls, addressed to research teams implementing projects in collaboration with partners from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The calls are GRIEG BIS (with a budget of EUR 50 million) and the interdisciplinary LANGSPIL (with a budget of EUR 12 million). Both will be launched in 2026 and will include three-year projects implemented on a bilateral or multilateral basis. Projects submitted to the calls will need to align with at least one of the three donor priorities specified in the Blue Book: green transition, democracy and the rule of law, and social transformations and resilience. Also this year, the first of the supporting calls will be launched — Coordination & Capacity Kick-off — aimed at supporting team formation and developing research concepts for international interdisciplinary projects. The second supporting call — Coordination & Capacity Follow-up — is planned for 2028 and will support the valorisation of knowledge generated in projects funded under the programme. We will also strengthen polar research through the predefined project SPARK, which will involve scientists from Poland, Iceland and Norway.

Going Beyond Boundaries

Presentation of the Basic Research Programme In the years 2017–2024, during the previous edition of the EEA and Norway Grants, NCN managed a budget of EUR 54 million. The resources were allocated to, among other areas: research on early risk assessment of cancer and non-invasive methods for diagnosing the circulatory system; projects on activism and alternative forms of citizenship, data privacy and the politics of law; as well as research on the effects of climate change, and the social and psychological responses to the climate crisis. The results of peatland research conducted in Poland and Norway are now forming the basis for further planning of protection measures for these ecosystems and the restoration of peatland areas.

This is precisely the kind of impact NCN aims for in the new funding cycle. “Not commercialisation or patents, but situations in which research results are genuinely used in developing regulations, educational programmes or public policy,” emphasises Joanna Węgrzycka from the NCN Team for the EEA and Norway Grants. The fourth edition places particular emphasis on transdisciplinarity, meaning going beyond academic boundaries. The key competition here will be LANGSPIL, which assumes collaboration between researchers and non-academic partners, such as local authorities and civil society organisations. “We want researchers to step out of their disciplines and work with partners from other fields and beyond academia who are genuinely interested in solving a given challenge,” adds Joanna Węgrzycka.

The increased budget in this edition of the EEA and Norway Grants is a result of NCN’s effective management in previous years. We utilised nearly 100 % of the available funds, which translated into a larger allocation for the current cycle. “We delivered not only all the planned calls, but also additional activities: a scholarship programme for early-career researchers from Ukraine, the predefined polar project CRIOS, and two bilateral initiatives — HarSval in polar research and Science & Society in the Social Sciences and Humanities,” lists Dr Marzena Oliwkiewicz-Miklasińska, Head of the EEA and Norway Grants Team at NCN.

Signing of programme agreements for the 4th edition of the EEA and Norway Grants, photo credit: MFiPR

In the year of NCN’s 15th anniversary, in the NCN podcast, we talk about the future of Poland – 10 to 15 years from now. About demography, migration and the labour market, but also about the role of science in making sense of these processes and about the conditions of scientific work.

Social, economic and technological changes have clearly accelerated. We ask whether, under conditions of such volatility and a strong impact of external factors, it is possible today to answer the question of what Poland will look like in 10 to 15 years. According to the guests of #podcastNCN – yes, although with important caveats. The conversation, hosted by Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz, featured Dr hab. Paweł Kaczmarczyk, Professor at the University of Warsaw, Director of the Centre of Migration Research at the University of Warsaw, and Dr Michał Myck, Director and Member of the Management Board of the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA), Professor at the Institute of Economics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The conversation concerns the topics they have studied for years: migration, demography, the labour market and technological change, as well as the consequences of these processes for science and public policy.

As Paweł Kaczmarczyk notes, the last decade has brought about a structural change. “Poland has changed from a typical country of emigration into a country of immigration, one people are more likely to come to than leave. This means a whole range of new challenges, but also opportunities.” Labour-market data already show the scale of this change: foreign nationals account for around 7–8 per cent of those in employment, and in many sectors their presence has become a condition for maintaining employment dynamics.

Over the next dozen or so years, the share of foreign nationals in the labour market will continue to grow, approaching the levels currently observed in Western European countries. Poland’s migratory future will therefore increasingly depend not on whether migrants will be needed, but on whether the state creates conditions conducive to their long-term presence, integration and use of their potential, including in areas requiring high qualifications.

At the same time, as the interviewee emphasises, migration is an area particularly sensitive to events that cannot be predicted in any model. “We may try to design policies, but what is of fundamental importance are external factors: the war in Ukraine, COVID, the situation at the Polish-Belarusian border. Reality may painfully verify our predictions.”

These processes overlap with profound demographic changes. Michał Myck points out that over the past 15 years life expectancy in Poland has increased by around 2.5 years, while fertility has declined. “The old-age dependency ratio was around 20 in 2010, today it is already 30, and by 2040 it will be around 40. These are huge changes with direct consequences for the labour market and public systems.”

From this perspective, the future of the labour market will depend not only on migration, but also on the state’s ability to invest in education, health and productivity, both with regard to Polish citizens and to children and young people with migration experience. “It is today’s education and healthcare system that will determine what the labour market will look like in 10 to 15 years,” Myck stresses.

The speakers also draw attention to the challenges facing science, especially in the social sciences, which provide the knowledge needed to design public policies and respond to long-term demographic and migration changes. Limited access to administrative data and the lack of long-term panel studies currently hinder the full use of this potential. “We would like to talk about the future, but to do so reliably, we must understand the present. If in 2040 we want to look back and understand how the lives of people in Poland have changed, we must start collecting these data today. Without data, we are in a more difficult position, not a lost one, but certainly a much more difficult one,” says Michał Myck.

An important thread of the conversation is also the impact of technological development on the way scientific research is conducted. AI-based solutions are already accelerating data analysis and changing the organisation of research teams’ work, and in the longer term they may influence models of collaboration and the evaluation of scientific achievements. “Technology can greatly help in implementing good ideas, but it will not replace researchers’ responsibility or the need for a reliable interpretation of results,” Michał Myck emphasises.

Paweł Kaczmarczyk points out, however, that the ability to take advantage of these changes also depends on institutional conditions. “If we want Polish science to be part of the global circulation of knowledge, we must create an environment in which it is possible to work normally and plan research over a longer horizon,” he says.

The latter part of the recording also discusses the impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market, the role of the social sciences in analysing economic and demographic processes, and the ethical and institutional challenges facing science under conditions of accelerated technological transformation.

The NCN podcast can be listened to on YouTube and on the Apple Podcasts and Spotify streaming platforms.