SONATA 21

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

1. universities;
2. federations of science and higher education 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 of 2024, item 534);
5. international research institutes established pursuant to separate acts, operating 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 of 2024, items 925 and 1089);
   • 5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network;
   • 5c. Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education operating pursuant to the Act on the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education of 13 September 2018 (Journal of Laws 2024, Items 570 and 1897);
6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences;
7. other institutions 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 within the meaning of the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 498);
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences within the meaning of the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796);
11. scientific libraries;
12. companies operating as research and development centres within the meaning of the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovative Activity of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 706 and of 2022, item 1079);
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 another organisational form than laid down in sections 1-13.

Researchers with a PhD degree conferred within 2 to 7 years before the proposal submission year (i.e., between 1.01.2018 and 31.12.2023) are eligible to act as a principal investigator in a project submitted to a SONATA call. In specific cases, this period can be extended (by long-term (in excess of 90 days) documented sick leaves or physiotherapy leaves granted on account of being unfit to work. In addition, this period may be extended by the number of months of a childcare leave granted pursuant to the Labour Code and in the case of women, by 18 months for every child born or adopted child, whichever manner of accounting for career breaks is preferable).

The scientific track record of the principal investigator must include at least one paper published or accepted for publication. For research in art, the principal investigator must have at least one paper published or accepted for publication or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art.

The scientific track record must be presented from a period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (starting from 2015). In specific cases, this period may be extended.

The principal investigator is required to spend at least 50% of the project duration period in Poland or at the foreign division of the participating entity, and be available to the participating entity. The foregoing obligation does not apply to evidenced project-related business trips or holiday, time off work and other absence from work governed by the applicable laws.

The principal investigator for the Polish research team must be employed at the host institution for the Polish part of the research project for the entire project duration period pursuant to at least a part-time employment contract. The employment requirement does not apply to persons receiving pension under the social insurance scheme.

Restrictions on submitting proposals are laid down in Chapter III of the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects.

One can act as the principal investigator of a project submitted to SONATA only once.

A researcher can be named as the principal investigator in only one proposal which means that in the present edition of NCN calls, a researcher can be named as the principal investigator in a SONATA or OPUS or OPUS LAP proposal only once.

Proposals covering research tasks overlapping tasks specified in another proposal submitted earlier may only be submitted after the NCN Director’s decision to refuse funding has become final, subject to §22.

An NCN Council member must not be named as the principal investigator or research team member or mentor in a proposal submitted during their term of office as the NCN Council member. A researcher who no longer sits on the NCN Council can be named as the principal investigator in a proposal at least 4 months* after the date of their ceasing to act as the Council member.

* This condition must be met on the end date of the call for proposals.

The total number of NCN projects managed by a researcher and proposals submitted to the NCN pending evaluation or recommended for funding in which that researcher is named as the principal investigator, must not be more than two, or three if the researcher manages at least one project funded under an international NCN call or has submitted at least one proposal to an international NCN call.

The table below illustrates the eligible funding requests.

Explanation:

¹Project management applies to the period from the date of signing the funding agreement under NCN calls until the date of submitting the final report on the project performance.

²The limit applies to proposals pending evaluation or recommended for funding.

³ Research projects or proposals under NCN calls: OPUS, PRELUDIUM, SONATINA, SONATA, SONATA BIS, MAESTRO and research projects under HARMONIA, SYMFONIA, Covid 19.

⁴The calls launched by the NCN in collaboration with foreign research-funding agencies include:

• calls launched under EU-funded programmes, e.g., ERA-Net and European Partnerships (UNISONO, POLONEZ, POLONEZ BIS);
• non-EU-funded calls launched by the networks of research-funding institutions, including within the framework of LAP cooperation (OPUS LAP/ WEAVE, WEAVE UNISONO, IMPRESS-U);
• bilateral calls of the NCN and foreign partner institutions (GRIEG, POLS, IDEALAB, BEETHOVEN, BEETHOVEN CLASSIC, BEETHOVEN LIFE, CEUS, MOZART, ALPHORN, DAINA, SHENG).

The limits do not apply to:

• PRELUDIUM BIS, Dioscuri, TANGO and ARTIQ proposals/ projects,
• MINIATURA proposals/ research activities,
• NAWA proposals/ research components,
• FUGA and UWERTURA fellowships,
• ETIUDA scholarships, and
• NCN Programmes for researchers from Ukraine to continue research in Poland and NCN special scholarship programme for Ukrainian students and early-stage researchers.

Basic research proposals may be submitted to the call in any of 26 NCN panels within three areas:

• HS – Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences;
• ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering;
• NZ – Life Sciences.

Proposals are reviewed within the panels to which they have been submitted (e.g., HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. The panel cannot be changed once the proposal has been submitted. If an incorrect panel is selected, proposals may be rejected.

Under the call, projects can be carried out over the period of:

• 12 months,
• 24 months,
• 36 months.

The terms of the call do not specify the maximum number of research team members.

Apart from the principal investigators, research tasks in the projects may also be performed by co-investigators, including students, PhD students and post-docs. Senior researchers must not be involved in research projects covered by SONATA proposals.

A post-doc type post is a full-time post, scheduled by the project’s principal investigator for a person who has been conferred a PhD degree in the year of employment in the project or within 12 years before 1 January of the year of employment in the project (the period may be extended by evidenced career breaks, in accordance with the section on the costs of the regulations on awarding funding).

A post-doc must have been conferred a PhD degree by an institution other than the one employing them at this position. Otherwise, they must have completed a continuous and evidenced research fellowship of at least 9 months during their studies at the doctoral school, doctoral studies or after being conferred their PhD degree at an another institution than the participating entity for the project and outside the country in which their PhD degree was conferred. A prospective post-doc must be selected in an open call.

PhD students/ students who will be NCN scholarship recipients in the project, must be recruited in an open call procedure.

The rationale of involvement of individual members of the research teams in the project is evaluated by the Expert Team. The proposal must include the description of competencies and tasks of individual members of the research team. For more information on the budget for salaries and scholarships, please refer to the section on the costs of the regulations on awarding funding.

The budget is an important aspect of the proposal and is subject to an of eligibility check and merit-based evaluation.

The project budget must be well-justified as regards the subject and scope of research, based on realistic calculations and must specify the expenditures to be covered by the NCN (eligible costs). The terms of the call do not specify the total maximum or minimum amount of the project costs that can be requested, however an unjustified budget may result in the proposal being rejected.

According to the Regulations, the project budget (eligible costs) includes direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include funds for:

1. remuneration for the principal investigator;
2. remuneration for co-investigators in the project:
   • full-time employment of post-docs,
   • salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students,
   • additional remuneration for members of the research team; if the principal investigator is not to be employed full-time in the project, their remuneration is paid from the pool allocated for additional remuneration;
3. costs of reduced obligatory teaching load: an institution that employs the principal investigator pursuant to a full-time employment contract may be provided with funds to cover the reduction by 50% of principal investigator’s obligatory teaching load;
4. purchase of research equipment, devices and software;
5. purchase of materials and small equipment;
6. outsourced services;
7. business trips, visits and consultations;
8. compensation for collective investigators and
9. other costs crucial to the project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

Indirect costs include:

• indirect costs of up to 20% of direct costs that may be spent on the costs that are directly related to the project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data,
• indirect costs of open access of up to 2% of direct costs that may only be spent on open access to publications and research data.

For entities applying for state aid, indirect costs including indirect costs of open access and other indirect costs, must not exceed a total of 20% of the direct costs.

During the project implementation, the host institution must agree with the principal investigator the coverage of at least 25% of the indirect costs. Any expenditure made from that amount must be eligible.

For more information on the eligibility of the costs, please go to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

Open access publication of research results

Applicable version of 10 July 2025

Pursuant to the Open Access Policy all research results must be, if possible, made available in immediate open access.

The National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes for scientific articles as compliant with its Open Access Policy:

1. publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
2. publication in subscription journals (in which the articles require payment of a subscription fee) and/or hybrid journals (in which some of the articles are open access and some require payment of a subscription fee); in case of publishing in subscription-based model, it is advisable that Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM, i.e. the final manuscript version created by the author, including all the revisions introduced after the peer review, and accepted for publication in the journal; other terms: postprint or author’s accepted manuscript) or preprint, be made available in the repository listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR); if the AAM/preprint is not made available, it will not affect the acknowledgment of expenses or the settlement of the project;
3. publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements (which are available within limited time in accordance with the applicable agreements between national publishing consortia; journals covered by Polish transformative agreements are listed on the website of the Virtual Library of Science.

Manuscripts must be published under the following licences:

• Route 1: Creative Commons (CC) licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies
• Route 2: Version of Record (VoR, i.e. manuscript version published in a journal with its own typeface and branding; other terms: published version or publisher’s pdf), AAM or preprint should be made available in the repository using CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies
• Route 3: CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies.

Eligibility of Article Processing Charges (APC):

The costs are eligible for each publication route and each CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open licence policies. The NCN does not recommend incurring APC for articles published under Route 2, if the AAM or preprint can be made available in the repository at no charge.

The data underpinning scientific publications, whether in open or closed access, resulting from the project must be well-documented pursuant to the standards of the machine or manual findability, accessibility, interoperability or reusability (the so-called FAIR Data). Where possible, data must be made available in the repository using CC0 or CC BY 4.0 licence. Other licences can also be used as long as they ensure an equivalent level of data openness and reusability as CC0 or CC BY 4.0.

The term “data” is understood as data collected and unprocessed as well as data generated and analysed, other than scientific publications. The definition comprises all forms, both digital and non-digital.

The information required in the proposal:

The information below must be entered in English.

1. details of the principal investigator, including:
   • information on their academic and research career and research experience as well as 1-10 publications; for research in art, 1-10 most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art;
   • information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls or other national or international calls in the proposal submission year and over the period of 10 years before to the proposal submission year (including applicable breaks);
2. key information on the proposal and host institution for the project (also in Polish);
3. work plan (also in Polish);
4. information on the co-investigators’ work in the project;
5. summary of the project;
6. abstract for the general public (also in Polish);
7. short project description with bibliography (no more than 5 pages, A4, project literature does not count towards the page limit);
8. full project description with bibliography (no more than 15 pages, A4, project literature does not count towards the page limit);
9. information on research projects carried out in international cooperation and benefits of such cooperation (required only if research is carried out in international cooperation);
10. information on ethics issues in research; and
11. information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project, as required by the proposal; and
12. project budget drafted pursuant to the Regulations.

In the Osoby wskazane we wniosku [Individuals identified in the proposal] tab, enter the data of all persons who have been involved in the preparation of the proposal or will be involved in the project performance. At this point, enter the names of all persons whose data (name, affiliation) has been entered in other parts of the proposal. The applicant is required to notify such persons that their details have been disclosed in the proposal and will be processed by the NCN. This section is not subject to a review.

Proposals in the call may include application for state aid, except where funding is requested by an individual. For more details, please visit the State Aid website.

In the case of research projects carried out in a host institution for which project funding will constitute state aid, funds for students and PhD students can only be planned in the form described in the category “salary for students and PhD students” in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation.

An eligibility check is carried out by the coordinators. Only complete proposals that comply with the requirements of the call text are eligible for a merit-based evaluation. A proposal may also be rejected as ineligible at the later stage of evaluation.

Proposals approved as eligible are subject to a merit-based evaluation performed in two stages:

Merit-based evaluation

Proposals are subject to a merit-based evaluation performed in two stages by the Expert Teams (whose members are selected by the NCN Council) and external experts who are not Expert Team members:

Stage I: Evaluation by an Expert Team formed by the NCN Council, based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description. Individual reviews are drafted by two members of the Expert Team acting independently. In the case of a proposal which is assigned an auxiliary NCN Review Panel specifying disciplines covered by other NCN review panels than the one to which the proposal was submitted, the Chair of the Expert Team may decide to seek another review from a member of another Expert Team (interdisciplinary proposals).

Then, based on the discussions, a list of proposals recommended for Stage II of evaluation is compiled by the Expert Team at the first meeting.

Stage II: Proposals are submitted to at least two reviewers who make individual reviews based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description. Then, based on the reviews of the reviewers and discussions at the second meeting, a ranking short list of proposals recommended for funding is compiled by the Expert Team at the second meeting.

To find out more on the proposal evaluation procedure, please read the Proposal evaluation procedure for the Expert Teams.

Proposals are reviewed within the panels to which they have been submitted (e.g., HS1, ST1, NZ1). The panel is selected by the principal investigator. The panel must not be changed once the proposal has been submitted. Auxiliary NCN Review Panels allow to choose experts and reviewers to perform the merit-based evaluation of proposals. The Chair of the Expert Team may decide that interdisciplinary proposals be subject to another review by an expert from another panel.

The evaluation of proposals is particularly focused on:

1. compliance with the basic research criterion;
2. quality and innovative nature of research or tasks to be performed;
3. impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
4. assessment of the feasibility of the research;
5. scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals;
6. assessment of the results of research projects conducted by the principal investigator, funded by the NCN or from other sources;
7. relevance of the costs to be incurred with regards to the subject and scope of the research and
8. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements of the call text.

The proposal evaluation criteria are available here.

Proposals with a zero score or “no” decision agreed by the Expert Team in any reviewed criterion (except for the data management and ethics issues in research) must not be recommended for funding.

A merit-based evaluation is performed by the Expert Team pursuant to the terms of the call and evaluation criteria laid down in the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre.

Expert teams are selected by the NCN Council in accordance with the document Expert Team of the National Science Centre – formation and appointing. Experts are outstanding Polish and foreign researchers who are at least PhD holders. Expert Teams are established for each call edition. The composition of the Expert Team is subject to the number and subjects of proposals submitted to each panel.

Proposals are reviewed by Expert Teams within the review panels (HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. The panel must be changed once the proposal has been submitted. If an incorrect panel is selected, proposals may be rejected.

The call results are 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 date, by the end of June 2026.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements related to actions performed by the NCN, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council.

For more information on the call, please read the Information for applicants on the NCN website and Guidelines for applicants to complete SONATA 21 proposals. Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail at: informacja@ncn.gov.pl

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the SONATA 21 call:

1. read all call documents included in the call text, in particular:
   • terms of the SONATA 21 call;
   • proposal form template where you can find out about information and annexes needed to complete the electronic proposal form in the OSF submission system;
   • Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre;
   • proposal submission procedure;
   • Guidelines for applicants to complete the proposal in the OSF submission system;
2. obtain data from the host institution for the project that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal and project performance (cost planned in the project, procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the entity to confirm submission of the proposal);
3. if a group of Polish entities applies, a research project cooperation agreement must be drafted;
4. acceptance letters from publishers must be prepared to confirm that the paper has been accepted for publication (when the scientific achievements section includes papers accepted for publication that have not been published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. check that the information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. The verification of the proposal for completeness in the OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that the information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. check if the tabs have been completed in the correct language, as required by the proposal form template;
3. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
4. download and sign the confirmation of proposal submission (principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the entity);
5. attach the confirmation of proposal submission with a signature.

Once the proposal is completed and relevant annexes attached, the proposal must be submitted to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system using the Wyślij do NCN [Send to NCN] button.

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out;
2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision by the NCN Director will be announced;
3. if a proposal is recommended for funding, a funding agreement for a research project will be entered into; and
4. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on the implementation of research projects, fellowships and scholarships.

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 must be lodged within 14 days of the effective delivery of the decision.