Guidelines for appealing against the NCN Director’s decisions

Pursuant to Article 33 (2) of the Act on the National Science Centre, a party (applicant) can only appeal against the NCN Director’s decision in the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements. A formal infringement means errors in the call procedure involving non-application or misapplication of provisions according to which the evaluation of proposals submitted under NCN calls is organised and conducted, i.e. applicable laws, NCN Council Resolutions and Orders by the NCN Director.

It is possible to resubmit a proposal comprising research tasks overlapping with research tasks specified in the proposal which is subject to the appeal procedure once the appeal procedure has been completed (and if the decision is repealed and the proposal is submitted for re-evaluation, once the evaluation procedure has been completed).

An appeal must be lodged through the Director of the National Science Centre within 14 days of the date the decision is served.

Due to the pandemic, appeals must be lodged electronically and signed with a qualified electronic signature or sent via the ePUAP system to the address of the electronic delivery box of the National Science Centre (/ncn/SkrytkaESP).

In the event of natural persons who have no Confidential Profile and qualified electronic signature, an applicant can sent a scan/photograph of the appeal signed by hand to the following e-mail address: biuro@ncn.gov.pl, in which case the appeal must include a consent for letters to be served in an electronic format, by means of electronic communication, to the address specified in the proposal.

Please remember that only an applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director.

• In the case of proposals submitted by an entity referred to in Article 27 (1) (1) – (7) and (1) (9) of the Act on the National Science Centre of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2018, Item 947, as amended), the principal investigator is not a party to the appeal procedure. An appeal must be lodged and signed by the authorised representative(s) of the applicant.
• In the case of proposals submitted by a natural person, the principal investigator is a party to the appeal procedure and may lodge an appeal.

If an appeal is lodged by the principal investigator who is not a party to the appeal procedure, the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council shall issue a decision discontinuing the appeal procedure.

Please remember that, as before:

• if an appeal is lodged (served) before the date of issue of the NCN Director’s decision, a ruling shall be issued declaring the appeal inadmissible on the grounds of lacking the subject of the appeal,
• if an appeal is lodged (served) before the date of receipt of the NCN Director’s decision, it shall be deemed served in violation of the deadline followed by an issue of a relevant ruling,
• if an appeal is lodged (served) upon the lapse of 14 days of the applicant’s receipt of the decision, it shall be deemed served in violation of the deadline followed by an issue of a relevant ruling.

The Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council shall decide on the appeal within 3 months of the date on which the appeal was lodged.