“Science Europe wishes to express its protest against any politicisation of research funding and reiterate its unwavering support for the NCN”, reads a statement issued by the association of 41 institutions from 30 countries.

Science Europe published its statement in response to the upcoming changes in the status of the NCN, which had been announced by the Ministry of Education and Science and are supposed to apply in the autumn.

“In the run-up to the parliamentary elections in Poland on 15 October, Science Europe wishes to express its protest against any politicisation of research funding and reiterate its unwavering support for the National Science Centre. As a respected member of Science Europe, the NCN is of key importance to the Polish and European research and innovation ecosystem. It plays a crucial role in funding high-quality basic research among researchers at all career levels and promotes scientific excellence in the country”, the statement continues.

Science Europe is an association that sets the course of development for the entire European ecosystem of research and innovation. It brings together mostly state-funded institutions that enjoy full political independence and act as leaders in their respective domestic research systems. The member institutions together spend a total of 22.4 billion euro on research funding every year.

“In addition, Science Europe strongly opposes any action that may politicise research funding or encroach on research freedom and autonomy, which are the core values of our association, as well as of the entire European landscape of research and innovation”, the statement emphasises.

The statement was issued on 6 October and its full text can be found on the official website of Science Europe.

International cooperation is very important for Polish science and has been a cornerstone of the NCN’s mission since its founding. The NCN is a trusted partner of many foreign research-supporting institutions and an active member of Science Europe since 2012. Within this organisation, it has joined hands with many other European grant agencies to launch Weave, a programme based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP). NCN employees sit on working groups devoted to issues such as open science, international cooperation, the European Research Area (ERA), Horizon Europe, research culture, green and digital transformation and communication.

The winners of 2023 NCN Award will be announced on Wednesday, 11 October. This most prestigious distinction for early-stage researchers working in Poland will be awarded for the eleventh time. The ceremony will be streamed online.

The NCN Award is given to researchers under the age of 40 with a substantial record in the field of basic research, documented by publications affiliated with Polish research centres. The award is given in three groups of disciplines: Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST), and Life Sciences (NZ), and the main criterion in the selection process is scientific excellence and international recognition.

The award has been presented to 30 researchers since 2013, when it was conferred for the first time.

This year, the jury will select winners among 44 candidates. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony on 11 October held in the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art in Sukiennice (Branch of the Krakow National Museum).

The event will start at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed online, on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/ncngovpl) and on X/Twitter. 

The programme will feature speeches by the Acting Director and by the President of the NCN Council, a presentation of the profiles of the award winners and speeches by the award winners.

The event is supported by Nauka w Polsce and Forum Akademickie.

In November and December, the award winners will deliver lectures as part of the “Nauka w Centrum” [Science in the Centre] series organised jointly by the National Science Centre and the Copernicus Centre Foundation.

Media support

Since one of the winners of POLONEZ BIS 1 and three winners of POLONEZ BIS 3 decided not to pursue their projects in the end, we will be able to fund projects currently on the waiting list. A positive funding decision has just been issued for two more projects in Art, Humanities and Social Sciences, and one each in Physical Sciences and Engineering, and Life Sciences. 

Dr Tom Whyman, qualified under POLONEZ BIS 1, will join the Jagiellonian University to explore the concept of human “natality” in the philosophy of Hannah Arendt in the context of climate action and the education of future generations in the spirit of climate change prevention. Among the three additional projects to be funded under POLONEZ BIS 3, Dr Cillian Ó Fathaigh (Jagiellonian University) will focus on the role of digital public space in the expression and recognition of injustice. Another researcher, Dr Leila Elyasi, will work at the M. Mossakowski Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, PAS, studying the regenerative potential of baby teeth stem cells in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Last but not least, Disha Disha will join the Institute of Physical Chemistry, PAS, to work on developing carbon dot heterostructures from biowaste and metal-organic skeletons to build a platform for printed biosensors.

Check out the supplementary POLONEZ BIS 1 and POLONEZ BIS 3 lists

POLONEZ BIS 1 and POLONEZ BIS 3 waiting lists were approved by expert teams and include projects that could not be funded due to the funding limits established by the NCN Council for projects under specific panels. The NCN issued negative funding decisions for such projects, with the caveat that they might be funded should another winner withdraw.

“I was and I am still ready to step up as NCN Director”, says Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak from the Medical University of Lublin, who has been waiting for his appointment since February, in an interview published by “Forum Akademickie” on 2 October.

prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak The NCN Council voted to submit the candidacy of Prof. Krzysztof Jóźwiak for the role of NCN Director to the Ministry of Education and Science more than seven months ago. The professor has been waiting for his appointment ever since.

“I don’t even know why my appointment has been delayed so much, nobody has told me”, the scientist says, “We were expecting it to happen according to the term schedule, in early March. The Ministry of Education and Sciences has never tried to contact me, neither then nor at any later time. I don’t understand the reason for this delay”, he adds.

The journalist, Mariusz Karwowski, also asked Jóźwiak about his opinion of our agency. “I believe the NCN is one of the greatest success stories in institutional science in Poland”, Professor Jóźwiak says, “Over the last ten odd years, we have been able to win renown and international recognition. For many people working abroad, the NCN is an argument that shows you can do quality science at Polish research centres, so it makes sense to come here to pursue your research career. I would even risk the statement that what the NCN has to offer can potentially reverse the direction of the brain drain. Of course, this is not yet a large-scale phenomenon, it’s not a great change, but most researchers have already observed these effects at their institutions. I definitely do see it at my own university. Thanks to the prospects offered by the NCN, we have a constant influx of “fresh blood” and the newcomers expect the system to continue to work in the current paradigm”, he says.

Full text of the interview in the online edition of “Forum Akademickie”:

CHIST-ERA has just announced the results of its Open & Re-usable Research Data & Software (ORD) call. Out of the nine winning projects, five include Polish researchers. Polish teams from Warsaw, Krakow and Wrocław will get a total of 3.5 million zlotys for projects related to open science.

Two projects from the list are headed by Polish researchers. Dr Robert Sot from the University of Warsaw will coordinate a project on FAIR standards (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) in long-term bird population studies, while Dr hab. inż. Tomasz Kajdanowicz from the Wrocław University of Technology will head a project on judicial data gathering and coding. The other three projects involving Polish partners will focus on open data in the context of physical sciences, social sciences and information sciences.

The following projects include Polish research teams:

• FAIRBiRDS: FAIR Bird Research Data and Software (FAIRBiRDS): closing the research lifecycle in the long tail of science – the project will be coordinated by Dr Robert Sot (international consortium leader) from the University of Warsaw and conducted by an international consortium including partners from Belgium, Brazil, France and the Netherlands.
• JuDDGES: Judicial Decision Data Gathering, Encoding and Sharing – the project will be coordinated by Dr hab. inż. Tomasz Kajdanowicz (international consortium leader) from the Wrocław University of Technology and conducted by an international consortium including partners from France and Great Britain.
• OpenMAPP: Open meta-analysis in particle physics – the project will include Dr hab. Andrzej Siódmok from the Jagiellonian University in an international consortium with partners from France (international consortium leader), South Korea, Turkey and Great Britain.
• OPENMIN: Consolidating Open Science and Data Initiatives on Ethnic and Migrant Minorities in Europe – the project will include Dr hab. Justyna Salamońska from the Koźmiński University in an international consortium with partners from France (international consortium leader), Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and Romania.
• SoFAIR: Making Software FAIR: A machine-assisted workflow for the research software lifecycle – the project will include Dr Tomasz Umerle from the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in an international consortium with partners from Great Britain (international consortium leader), France and the Czech Republic.

Full list of projects recommended for funding under CHIST-ERA ORD

The CHIST-ERA ORD call was open to international consortia made up of at least three research teams from at least three different participating countries. The PI of the Polish team had to have at least a PhD degree.

The purpose of CHISTERA is to support research on information and communication technologies. To date, the NETWORK has launched 13 international calls for proposals, with the next one being scheduled to start in October.

Scientists from Warsaw and Kraków will work on two international research projects funded by the NCN in cooperation with the SNSF, with a total budget of more than PLN 4.2 million. We are pleased to present the second ranking list of projects selected in this year’s Weave-UNISONO call.

Both scientists specialise in Life Sciences. Dr Marcin Tabaka from the International Eye Research Centre of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences will work on a project focused on the spatial determinants of immunotherapy resistance in cancer. Thanks to important advancements in cancer research, immune-checkpoint therapy (ICI) has emerged as an important treatment modality for cancers that resist other available therapies.  Recent research, however, shows that only 13% of patients respond to immunotherapy and, what’s more, its mechanisms are not entirely understood. This problem will be tackled by Dr Tabaka and his team in partnership with a team from the University of Basel, led by Professor Alfred Zippelius. They will attempt to determine precisely how ICI works and why, in a majority of patients, it fails. To this end, they will conduct an interdisciplinary study, including a series of experiments to analyse the cellular and transcriptional changes associated with tumours infiltrating immune cells; in addition, they will develop computational tools to better understand the organisation of the tumour microenvironment. The Polish team in the four-year project will receive nearly PLN 1.85 million in funding.

The other winner in this year’s Weave-UNISONO call is Dr Tomasz Kościółek from the Małopolska Biotechnology Centre of the Jagiellonian University, who will study the human gut microbiome.  Scientists all over the world have long been researching the diversity of these gut-inhabiting organisms across space and time, trying to understand how variations in their populations relate to human health and behaviour. This research has uncovered more than 600 million protein-coding genes from nearly 5,000 prokaryotic species, but the function of around half of these genes remains unknown. Dr Kościółek, in partnership with researchers from the University of Basel, headed by Prof. Torsten Schwede, will study these genes and attempt to identify their role and function in the human body, using deep learning and large-scale evolutionary modelling. The researchers will create an atlas of human gut protein structures and functions, and a protein universe map to help scientists navigate this vast space. The Polish team will receive nearly PLN 2.4 million for their four-year project.

The projects were selected following an evaluation by the Swiss National Science Foundation in its capacity as the lead agency under the Weave program. The National Science Centre accepted the results and awarded grants to the Polish teams.

Weave-UNISONO

The Weave-UNISONO call is the result of multilateral cooperation between research-funding agencies that make up the Science Europe association. It aims to simplify submission and selection procedures for research proposals that bring together researchers from two or three different European countries in any academic discipline.

The selection process is based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), under which only one partner institution is responsible for merit-based evaluation and the others simply accept the result.

Under Weave, partner research teams apply in parallel to the lead agency and their relevant domestic institutions. Their joint proposal must include coherent research plans and clearly spell out the added value of international cooperation.

The Weave-UNISONO call accepts proposals on a rolling basis. Polish teams wishing to partner up with colleagues from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are encouraged to carefully read the call text and submit their funding proposals.

DAINA 3 is a funding opportunity for joint Polish-Lithuanian research teams launched by the Research Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos mokslo taryba, LMT) and the National Science Centre (NCN).

The programme aims to support research projects in all fields of science (within one of the 26 NCN panels).

Within the DAINA 3 scheme, only basic research projects will be funded by the NCN and LMT.

• Call announcement: 15 December 2023
• Call deadline: 15 March 2024
• Call results: November 2024
• Start date of joint research projects: January 2025

ELIGIBILITY

• Projects must involve basic research and feature an integrated work programme. Research equipment or networking activities can only be funded within projects with a basic research focus. As stand-alone projects, research equipment or networking projects will not be eligible.
• Grants that are considered state aid will not be offered.
• PIs may submit only one proposal under the same call.
• Joint Polish-Lithuanian research projects may be funded for a period of 36 months.
• Eligible host institutions in Poland: NCN proposals may be submitted by the entities specified in Article 27 (1) (1) – (2), (1) (4) – (5) and (1) (7) – (8) of the Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 153).
• Eligible participating entities in Lithuania: Lithuanian research and higher education institutions entered into the Register of Education and Research Institutions (available at  https://www.aikos.smm.lt/en/Pages/Default.aspx  under “Registers” in the ”Education Providers” category).
• The budget of the Polish part of the project must not exceed PLN 1,000,000.
• The budget of the Lithuanian part of the project must not exceed EUR 150,000 EUR.
• Polish Principal Investigators (PI) must be at least PhD holders when submitting their proposal. Lithuanian PIs must be scientists (who are at least PhD holders when submitting a proposal).

CONTACT DETAILS

POLAND, NCN

NCN Coordinators

• Life Sciences: Dr Jadwiga Spyrka
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences: Dr Oskar Wolski
• Physical Sciences and Engineering: Dr inż. Michał Olejnik

General Affairs

• Dr Magdalena Nowak

LITHUANIA, LMT

• Asta Aleksandravičienė

“It is with alarm that we are witnessing the public statements made by the Minister of Education and Science about the Ministry’s plans to change the status of the NCN or shut it down. We fear that such steps would have disastrous implications for Polish science”, write 61 winners of the L’Oreal-UNESCO Scholarship for Women and Science in an open letter to the President and the Prime Minister of Poland.

This is already the fourth appeal signed in defence of the NCN by researchers working at Polish and foreign research institutions. Earlier this month, similar concerns were voiced by groups of ERC grant holders, FNP award winners, and FNP fellows.

“We wish to appeal to Mr President and Mr Prime Minister to show caution with regard to these changes and to preserve the structure and mechanism of the NCN, whose work was rated positively by the Ministry of Education and Science in 2023”, the letter reads. “Inspired by the European Research Council (ERC), the NCN has become the main source of funding for basic research in Poland. Its assessment criteria and transparency in the way grants are awarded have made the NCN a key instrument for supporting basic research in our country”, it adds.

The signatories of the open letter echo the previous appeals, reiterating that what Polish science requires is stability, independence and rigorous standards, and the NCN stands guard over these values.

“Our research success in Poland and beyond has been made possible in part by funding from the National Science Centre (NCN)”, emphasise the 61 life sciences researchers who signed the open letter to the President and the Prime Minister.

Full text of the letter

We would like to invite researchers interested in the Trans-Atlantic Platform (T-AP) for Social Sciences and Humanities Call Democracy, Governance and Trust (DGT Call 2023), to participate in the 2nd live webinar on Thursday, 5th of October 2023, 15:00 (CEST).

The webinar will provide final clarifications on the Call and on the use of the proposal submission system (SAGe). To optimize the Q&A session, questions may be submitted in advance via registration form. Webinar will be held in English.

Click here for registration. The webinar will be available on YouTube after the live broadcast.

Webinar Agenda and detailed information can be found on the FAPESP - São Paulo Research Foundation website.

“If the minister gave us an extra 100 million tomorrow, we would give it all away in grants, because this is what we do: we support the best research projects”, says Prof. Z. Błocki in an interview published by “Gazeta Wyborcza”.

Professor Błocki adds that, even if “there were no inflation to speak of, the budget of the NCN should still continue to increase for many years to come as part of a long-term programme to catch up with the average government spending on science around Europe.”

“Freezing the budget of the NCN has dealt the hardest blow to individual researchers. Due to high inflation, research costs have increased dramatically, which means researchers now apply for higher grants; however, since our budget is not growing, our experts need to turn down a lot of excellent projects that should otherwise be funded… What’s at stake, I believe, is the overall good of Polish science. These unfavourable indicators mean that many good projects cannot be funded and the prospects of young people are shrinking much faster”, the director laments.

The interview also touched on many other issues concerning research policy and the NCN, such as its competitive edge, proposal evaluation and support for young researchers.

The interview was published on 22 September by “Gazeta Wyborcza”.

Earlier this month, Prof. Zbigniew Błocki also talked with Mariusz Karwowski from "Forum Akademickie".