Nearly 668 million PLN for basic research under OPUS 18, PRELUDIUM 18, SONATA 15 and PRELUDIUM BIS

Once again, we are pleased to announce the results of three flagship calls for proposals: OPUS, PRELUDIUM and SONATA and for the first time, the results of the PRELUDIUM BIS call addressed to PhD students. Researchers submitted 4524 proposals, for a total of over 3.2 billion PLN, under the calls. Experts recommended 809 projects for funding, with a total value of 667 745 974 PLN, of which, on average, 18% will be funded.

The objective of the PRELUDIUM BIS scheme is to support PhD student education by funding scholarships and research projects conducted by researchers at the beginning of their research career as part of their PhD dissertation, as well as financing 3- to 6-month foreign fellowships to support young researcher mobility. Under the first edition of the call, which is co-launched by the NCN and the National Agency for Academic Exchange (the “NAWA”), 255 proposals were submitted, of which 96 were awarded funding of almost 47 million PLN. The funding will start in October 2020. 

"PRELUDIUM BIS is an elite track for PhD schools that provides an opportunity for stable funding over a period of 4 years during which PhD dissertation can be completed", says Professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the NCN, "We were surprised by how few proposals we had received in the first edition of the call as compared to what we had expected. Nevertheless, we are hoping to receive more and more proposals with the new editions of the call coming.”

The OPUS call for proposals is targeted at a wide range of researchers. There are no restrictions on the stage of their research career or research experience. The call has always attracted a lot of attention. The NCN received 2133 proposals for a total of almost 2.2 billion PLN. Following the evaluation procedure, 350 research projects were recommended for funding, totalling to 460 million PLN. Under the PRELUDIUM call for proposals, funding can be pursued by researchers who have not yet earned a PhD degree, while the subject of their project does not have to be related to the subject of their doctoral dissertation. Researchers submitted 1146 proposals for a total of nearly 170 million PLN to eighteenth edition of the call. 205 of them, with a total value of nearly 32 million PLN, were eventually recommended for funding. The SONATA call for proposals is addressed at researchers with a PhD degree conferred to them within 2 to 7 years before the proposal submission year. The purpose of the call is to support researchers at the beginning of their research career who intend to carry out innovative basic research projects using modern research facilities and/or original methodology. 990 proposals were submitted to the fifteenth edition of the call, for a total value of almost 730 million PLN. 158 projects were awarded funding for a total of almost 130 million PLN.

Today, we are sending the funding decisions for proposals that qualify for funding as well as those that do not qualify for funding under the calls. Decisions by the NCN Director in an electronic format are served to the applicant’s e-mail address specified in the proposal. In the case of proposals submitted by entities referred to in Article 27 (1) – (7) and (9) of the NCN Act, decisions by the NCN Director are served to the Electronic Correspondence Register (ESP ePUAP) address specified in the proposal. If natural persons - applicants/principal investigators specify their ePUAP address in the proposal for service of documents, decisions are served to that address. If natural persons - applicants/principal investigators do not specify their ePUAP address in the proposal for service of documents, decisions are served by way of a message with an electronic address sent to the address specified in the proposal, from which the decision by the NCN Director can be downloaded.

Funding decisions by the NCN Director are additionally forwarded to the principal investigator and, if the applicant is a natural person, to the host institution named in the proposal.

If no decision has been received, it is recommended to check whether the ESP (ePUAP) address specified in the proposal is correct and if the address is incorrect, contact the NCN Program Officer in charge of the proposal specified in the ZSUN/OSF system. 

The winning projects under OPUS 18, PRELUDIUM 18, SONATA 15 and PRELUDIUM BIS – ranking lists.