BTC ENUTC Call 2023

Proposals in the call may be submitted by the following entities specified in the Act on the National Science Centre:

1. universities,
2. federations 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 2020, item 1796, as amended),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws 2022, item 498, as amended),
5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland,

5a. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws 2020, item 2098, as amended),

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,

6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,
7. other entities involved in research independently on a continuous basis,
8. groups of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-7 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company),
9. scientific and industrial centres laid down in the Act on Research Centres of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws 2020, item 1383, as amended),
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws 2020, item 1796, as amended),
11. scientific libraries,
12. companies operating as R&D centres laid down in the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovation Activities of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws 2021, item 706, as amended),
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures,

14. natural persons and
15. companies conducting research in other organisational form than set forth in sections 1-13a.

If research projects are carried out by two or more Polish entities applying for NCN funding, they must set up a group of entities and in that form submit NCN proposals. NCN proposal is submitted by a leader named in the research project cooperation agreement concluded by the group of entities. An institution employing the principal investigator acts as the leader of the group of entities.

Polish entities that cannot set up groups of entities are not eligible to apply for NCN funding of a joint research project pursuant to Article 27 (1) (2) of the Act on the National Science Centre.

If funding is requested by an individual, the project must not be carried out by a group of entities or entity for which project funding constitutes state aid.

Pursuant to the terms of the call, cooperation must be initiated during the project with at least one institution operating in the area of culture or related to culture and technology, combining arts and business. The participation of representatives of urban communities is encouraged.

PLEASE NOTE: Before a proposal is submitted, contact the NCN officers to confirm the applicant is eligible.

The principal investigator of the Polish research team must hold at least a PhD degree when submitting a proposal. Additional restrictions are laid down in in Chapter IV of the Terms and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO, annexed to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022 of 2 March 2022.

NCN proposals comprising research tasks overlapping with research tasks to be carried out in another proposal that has been already submitted in any NCN call or with respect to which an appeal has been initiated, may only be submitted once the funding decision has become final.

The call “Building transformation capacity through arts and design: Unlocking the full potential for urban transitions” covers the following subjects:

1. Experimentation and co-creation for a beautiful and sustainable urban future
2. Transformation to sustainable cities / urban transformation
3. Designing Inclusive, Liveable and Green Neighbourhoods

Polish researchers may apply for NCN funding of their basic research projects for the purposes of Article 2 (1) of the Act on the National Science Centre.

NCN proposals comprising research tasks overlapping with research tasks to be carried out in another proposal that has been already submitted in any NCN call or with respect to which an appeal has been initiated, may only be submitted once the funding decision has become final.

Research projects may be planned under the call lasting up to 24 months.

We recommend that Polish applicants should consult the budget table of the Polish part of the project with the NCN. The budget table in .xlsx format should be sent to alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl by 14 April 2023.

Creating a project budget is one of the most important aspects in the project planning which aims at identifying the required resources and estimating the costs required to perform the research tasks. The project budget must be based on realistic calculations and must comply with the guidelines provided in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under multilateral collaboration UNISONO. The maximum budget of the Polish research team is not pre-determined; however, the justification of the expenses versus the scope of tasks is assessed by an international expert team.

Research teams from Poland may receive funds to cover salaries of the research team members, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software as well as other costs crucial to the research project.

The proposal may be rejected as ineligible if an unreasonable budget is planned and/or discrepancies occur between the costs of projects carried out by Polish research teams in the NCN proposal and in the joint proposal.

When developing the budget, it is necessary to remember the following:

• the budget of the Polish research team in the joint proposal must be consistent with the budget in the NCN proposal in the OSF submission system;
• the budget in the joint proposal must be provided in EUR and in the NCN proposal in the OSF submission system, in PLN, rounded down to the nearest integer; 
• the budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal must be calculated at the following exchange rate: 1 EUR = 4. 6976 PLN

Indirect costs must not exceed 20% of direct costs. Additionally, indirect costs of up to 2% of direct costs may be spent on open access to publications and research data. At the project implementation stage, the host institution will arrange with the principal investigator in the project for the distribution of at least 25% of the indirect costs’ value.

Research projects carried out by the Polish research teams will be funded by the NCN as long as the foreign partners receive funding for the same projects.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of research team members. To find out more on the costs of salaries and scholarships, please read the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under multilateral collaboration UNISONO.

Post-docs in the project must be recruited in an open call procedure.

Names of researchers recruited in an open call procedure, including post-docs, must not be disclosed in either joint or NCN proposals. To find out more on the employment of post-docs, please read the “Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO”.

Yes, they can. For more information, please go to the State Aid rules.

• International Level

The evaluation process consists of a single stage. Joint proposals are subject to an eligibility check performed by the NCN, other members of the JPI Urban Europe network and the Secretariat of the BTC ENUTC call.

Joint proposals that have been found eligible are subject to merit-based evaluation performed by an international expert team according to the rules laid down in the call procedure .

• National Level

NCN proposals are subject solely to an eligibility check carried out by the scientific coordinators.

The eligibility check of NCN proposals involves verification of proposal for completeness, compliance with all terms set forth in the call documents and Resolution No 28/2022, including compliance of the budget with the Annex “Costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre in international calls carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO”.

PLEASE NOTE: The information provided in NCN proposals and in joint proposals must be consistent and joint proposals annexed to NCN proposals must be the same as joint proposals submitted at international level.

Only joint proposals that have been found eligible are subject to merit-based evaluation. Merit-based evaluation is performed by an international expert team elected by the research-funding agencies participating in the BTC ENUTC call, according to the rules laid down in the call procedure.

The results of the call “Building transformation capacity through arts and design: Unlocking the full potential for urban transitions” will be announced in September 2023. Firstly, the call results shall be communicated to the scientific coordinators. Polish research team will be notified of the results by way of the NCN Director’s decision.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements as regards actions performed by the NCN, applicants may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.

Together with other European cOAlition S agencies, the National Science Centre has drafted its open access policy. In accordance with its vision of open access to research results and publications, the NCN requires that all research results should be made available in full and immediate open access. In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes as compliant with its open access policy:

• publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
• publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals), as long as the Version of Record (VoR2) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM3) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;
• publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry).

Papers must be published using the CC-BY licence (in the case of transformative journals, the CC-BY-SA licence can also be used). Furthermore, the CC-BY-ND licence may be used (regardless of the publication route chosen).

More information on the terms/ guidelines of open access publication can be found here, as amended.

Furthermore, please read the Instructions: Open Access.

For more information on the call, please go to the website of the JPI Urban Europe network.

The terms and regulations on awarding NCN funding under the call are laid down in Annex to NCN Council Resolution No 28/2022 of 2 March 2022.

Should you have any questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail or by phone:

The National Science Centre:

• Dr Katarzyna Jarecka – Stępień, scientific coordinator, katarzyna.jarecka-stepien@ncn.gov.pl (before calling, make an e-mail appointment)
• Alicja Dyląg, International Cooperation Department, alicja.dylag@ncn.gov.pl,

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Call Secretariat:

Formas, Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development, btc_enutc@formas.se

UEFISCDI, Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (proposal submission system, technical support), elena.simion@uefiscdi.ro

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the call: Building transformation capacity through arts and design: Unlocking the full potential for urban transitions, read the call documents, in particular:

1. the call text (Building transformation capacity through arts and design: Unlocking the full potential for urban transitions) on the website of the JPI Urban Europe network
2. Terms and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded or co-funded under international calls launched by the National Science Centre and carried out as multilateral collaboration UNISONO

Before submitting an NCN proposal to the National Science Centre at national level:

1. make sure that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Checking the proposal for completeness in OSF submission system with the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button shall not guarantee that information entered is correct and the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
3. download the confirmation of proposal submission which must be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the host institution;
4. upload the signed confirmation of proposal submission.

Once the proposal is completed and all the required annexes attached, use the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button to submit the proposal to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system.