Announcement of the MAESTRO 12 call

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

1. Higher Education entities,
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 2019, item 1183, as amended),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1350, 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, item 534, 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 Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1350, 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 of 2019, item 1183, as amended),
11. scientific libraries,
12. companies operating as R&D centre within the meaning of the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovative Activity of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 1402, as amended);
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,
14. natural persons and
15. companies conducting research in another organisational form than laid down in sections 1-13.

Under the call, proposals may be submitted in which the principal investigator is at least a PhD holder who, in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year:

1. had at least five papers published in renowned Polish or international academic press/journals,
2. acted as the principal investigator in at least two research projects funded in national or international competitive calls for proposals; acting as a principal investigator is also to be understood as managing/ coordinating the work of a research group in international research projects or programs;

PLEASE NOTE:

MINIATURA, UWERTURA, ETIUDA and FUGA are not calls for research projects.

3. fulfilled at least three of the criteria below:
   
   1. has been a member of a scientific committee of at least one renowned international conference,
   2. has published at least one monograph, 
   3. has presented papers at renowned international conferences, 
   4. has received an international award or prize, 
   5. has been or was a member of renowned associations, international scientific organisations or academia,
   6. has other significant scientific achievements,

and in the case of research in the field of arts, a person who is an author of works of art of international significance or works significant for the Polish culture and has actively participated in international exhibitions, festivals, artistic events in fine arts, music, theatre and film.  

Scientific achievements should cover the period of the last 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (as of 2010). In specific cases, the period can be extended (§ 8 (6) (a) of the Resolution on the terms of the MAESTRO call).

PLEASE NOTE!

At least five papers specified by the principal investigator’s scientific achievements section should have been published in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (as of 2010).

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

No person may act as a principal investigator in more than one research project financed under the MAESTRO call. Acting as a principal investigator refers to the period from the date of signing the funding agreement to the date of submitting the final report on the project.  

The principal investigator must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period. This period includes business trips necessary for the project, in particular involving fieldwork, participation in conferences and/or library and library and archive research.

The principal investigator must be a person employed by the host institution for the research project under an employment contract at least on a half-time basis for the entire project duration period.

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of 25 NCN panels within the three core areas:

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

In the call, research projects may be planned for a period of 36, 48 or 60 months.

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. The project budget must be 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 minimum or maximum amount of funding to be applied for.

Eligible costs in the project include direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include funds for:

1. salaries:

• full time remuneration: funds may be acquired for full-time employment of the principal investigator or post-doc(s),

• additional remuneration for members of the research team,
• salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students,

2. purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices and software,
3. purchase of materials and small equipment,
4. outsourced services,
5. business trips, visits and consultations,
6. compensation for collective investigators, and
7. other costs crucial to the research project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

Indirect costs may not exceed 20 per cent of direct costs.

Additionally, indirect costs of up to 2% of direct costs may be spent on Open Access to publications and research data.   

The budget must be compliant with the regulations applicable to the costs planned for the project, including the costs for the budget for remuneration and scholarships, specified in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

If an unjustified budget is planned, the proposal may be rejected.

PLEASE NOTE!

Pursuant to the Order of the NCN Director, the Open Access Policy at the NCN has been adopted, concerning open access to publications resulting from the research projects, scholarships and fellowships as well as research activities funded or co-funded by the National Science Centre.

PLEASE NOTE!

The costs of publication of monographs (as defined in §10 of the Regulation on evaluation of the quality of research activity issued by the Minister of Science and Higher Education on 22 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 392)) containing project results are not eligible until positively reviewed by the NCN.

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

However, pursuant to the Regulations, the call is open to proposals in which the tasks to be performed under the project include:

1. creation of new full-time post-doc type post or posts for the total period of at least 36 months pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre;
2. engagement of PhD student or PhD students, for the total period of at least 36 months pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre;

A post-doc type post is a full-time post designated by the principal investigator for a person who has been awarded a PhD degree within 7 years before joining the project. This period may be extended pursuant to the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

PLEASE NOTE!

Researchers who have been awarded a PhD degree by the host institution for the project cannot be employed as post-docs.

Under the MAESTRO call, research teams may include persons employed at the specialist supporting position. Specialist supporting positions are full-time employment positions planned by the principal investigator for a person involved in solving research problems related to the project, with specialist knowledge and experience, such as lab-manager, senior technician, etc..

However, the rationale of involvement of individual members of the research team in the project shall be evaluated by the expert team. The project must include the description of competencies and tasks to be performed by individual members of the research team. The detailed information on the budget for remuneration and scholarships can be found in the Types of costs  in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

Please note that NCN scholarship recipients or persons employed as post-docs in the project must be selected in an open call.

Yes, unless funds are applied for by a natural person. Detailed information can be found in the State aid section.

If a project is carried out in an entity, for which funding constitutes state aid, funds for students and PhD students may be only be planned as remuneration for students and PhD students specified in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

In the case of entities applying for state aid, the costs of research equipment, devices and software qualify as eligible costs to the extent and for the period in which they are used for the implementation of the research project. If the research equipment and devices are not used for the research project purposes over the entire period of use, only depreciation costs corresponding to the period of project’s completion, calculated pursuant to the accounting regulations, are deemed eligible costs.

PLEASE NOTE!

All documents concerning proposals for state aid must be signed with a qualified electronic signature in the PAdES format.

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

Eligibility check is carried out by the scientific coordinators. Only complete proposals that comply with all the requirements of the call announcement are accepted for merit-based evaluation. A proposal may also be rejected as ineligible at the later stage of evaluation. 

Merit-based evaluations is performed in two stages.

At the first stage, proposals undergo a preliminary evaluation based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description. The preliminary evaluation consists in:

• individual reviews drafted by two members of the Expert Team and
• Expert Team’s verdict at the first meeting consisting in discussing the individual reviews.

In the case of a proposal which is assigned an auxiliary review panel specifying disciplines other than the NCN panels to which the proposal is submitted, the chair of the Expert Team may decide to seek a second opinion from a member of another Expert Team.

After the discussion on all proposals, a ranking long list of proposals approved for the second stage of merit-based evaluation is drafted.

At the second stage, proposals undergo specialist evaluation based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description. The specialist evaluation consists in:

• individual reviews drafted by at least two reviewers who are not members of the Expert Team evaluating the proposal at the First Stage,
• Expert Team’s verdict consisting in discussing the individual reviews and
• results of an interview with the principal investigator by the experts. 

After the discussion on all proposals, a ranking short list of proposals recommended for funding is drafted.

An interview with the principal investigator is held at the second stage of merit-based evaluation in English and is planned for January/ February 2021.

Additional information on the proposal evaluation procedure can be found in the Detailed procedure of evaluating proposals by the expert teams.

PLEASE NOTE!

The short and full project descriptions must be drawn up in English only.

In the evaluation of proposals, the following criteria are reviewed in particular:

1. whether or not the criterion of basic research has been met;,
2. whether or not the principal investigator fulfils the criterion of advanced researcher laid down in §6 of the Resolution on the terms of the MAESTRO call,
3. quality of research or tasks to be carried out,
4. pioneering/ innovative nature of the research problem addressed,
5. project’s impact on the advancement of the scientific discipline,
6. scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals,
7. evaluation of other projects carried out by the principal investigator and funded by the NCN or from other sources,
8. evaluation of feasibility of the project’s completion,
9. relevance of the planned costs to the subject and scope of the research and
10. additionally, development of the proposal and fulfilment of other requirements of the call announcement.

PLEASE NOTE!

Appropriate reference to the ethics issues in research to be carried out and development of the data management plan will be evaluated at the first and second stage of evaluation.

PLEASE NOTE!

Proposals with a zero score or “no” decision agreed by the Expert Team in any reviewed criterion may not be recommended for funding. It does not apply to the data management evaluation criteria or evaluation criteria of ethics issues in research.

Proposals are evaluated by inter-panel teams (consisting of experts from respective panels, i.e. HZ, ST or NZ).

In the case of a proposal which is assigned an auxiliary review panel specifying disciplines other than the NCN panels to which the proposal is submitted, the chair of the Expert Team may decide to seek a second opinion from a member of another Expert Team.

Experts are selected by the NCN Council from among eminent 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 shall be evaluated pursuant to the Criteria for evaluating proposals submitted under the MAESTRO call.

The call results will be announced on the NCN’s website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision of the NCN Director within 6 months of the proposal submission date, by March 2021 at the latest.

For more information on the call, read the Information for applicants on the NCN's website.

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone: +48 12 341 90 00.

Read our Call schedule and Schedule of international programs for 2020 and follow us on our website.

If you are intending to submit a proposal to the MAESTRO 12 call for research projects for advanced investigators aiming to conduct pioneering research, including interdisciplinary research, which is significant for the development of science, goes beyond the current state of knowledge and may result in scientific discoveries:

1. read all call documents included in the call announcement, in particular:

1. Resolution on the terms of the MAESTRO call,
2. proposal form template where you can find out about information and annexes needed to complete the electronic proposal form in the ZSUN/OSF system,
3. Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects,

2. find out about the proposal submission procedure,
3. decide how long the project is to be: 36, 48 or 60 months,
4. obtain data from the applicant 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 institution to confirm submission of the proposal),
5. draw up:

• in English

1. a summary of the research project,
2. short and full project descriptions,
3. information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project,
4. information on the ethical aspects of the project,  including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the project in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices adopted for a specific academic discipline,

• in Polish and in English: project title, research plan including research tasks, project’s abstract for the general public,

6. when the proposal is submitted by a group of entities, draw up a Research project cooperation agreement, and
7. acquire and prepare letters of acceptance from publishers confirming that the paper has been accepted for publication (when the scientific achievements section includes papers accepted for publication but not published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to NCN:

1. check if all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Verification of the proposal for completeness in the ZSUN/OSF submission system by pressing the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button does not guarantee that all information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable editing of the final version of the proposal to NCN;
3. download the confirmation of proposal submission to be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the host institution and
4. upload the signed confirmation of proposal submission.

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

Upon the end of the call for proposals:

1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out,
2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision of the NCN Director will be announced,   
3. if the proposal is qualified for funding, a funding agreement will be entered into and
4. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement

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.