It has been our priority for years to ensure gender equality in research funding.
In 2019, we took a position on gender equality in research funding.
Following the example of the European Research Council, we introduced measures to promote work-family balance for female researchers. We extended post-doctoral eligibility periods for all mothers by 1,5 years per child, allowing them to apply for grants for early-career researchers and post-doctoral positions, as well as time limits applicable to the evaluation of their academic and research track record.
In 2021, we conducted a survey on women and men in science. The survey report was a point of departure for further measures aimed at ensuring gender equality in research.
Gender Equality Plan
The first Gender Equality Plan (GEP) was adopted in 2022 for four years. The next GEP for 2026-2029 was completed at the end of 2025, following an analysis of the current situation and evaluation of experiences from the previous GEP.
The Gender Equality Plan is a set of measures aimed at promoting gender equality in R&I organisations. The European Commission requires from research institutions and research-funding agencies participating in the Horizon Europe programme to have a Gender Equality Plan in place. The Gender Equality Plan integrates two aspects of NCN’s operation: NCN as the employer and NCN as a basic research funding agency.
Summary of the first GEP
In 2022-2025, we introduced measures to enhance gender equality within the grant system. We changed the proposal forms, introducing a research track record in the form of a narrative CV, which enabled a qualitative evaluation of research achievements, accounting for individual career breaks. We included the analysis of gender and gender identity in the evaluation criteria and recommended its application when appropriate. The Rules and Regulations of the NCN Award were modified by replacing chronological age (up to 40 years of age) with academic age (within 12 years of the PhD award date), allowing for fairer assessment of researchers with career breaks.
We reinforced equal treatment in our HR strategy by providing training courses for our staff and updating internal anti-discrimination and anti-mobbing procedures.
GEP 2026-2029
The new GEP builds on the previous approaches and highlights the importance of an intersectional approach, including such categories as gender, age, and disability.
As a research-funding agency, the National Science Centre intends to analyse the reasons for differences in the call results on the grounds of gender and seeks effective mechanisms to support researchers who suffer from challenging life circumstances during grant periods.
As an employer, NCN emphasises continued professional development of its staff, for example by providing training courses on neurodiversity and disability awareness. The GEP provides for an increased reintegration of returning employees (e.g. exclusive welcome package).
EU context and cornerstone of our activities
The GEP complies with the current European framework and objectives of the ERA Policy Agenda Plan. It is monitored on an annual basis according to information on gender distribution of applicants, winning applicants and experts.
Ensuring equal opportunities with scientific excellence as the overriding criterion continues to be the cornerstone of our activities.
An annex presenting gender distribution of NCN call applicants and winners, Experts, NCN Council and Office in 2011-2025, constitutes an integral part of the GEP.