Announcement of the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative

NCN proposals may be submitted by the entities specified in Article 27 (1) (1) – (2), (1) (4) – (5) and (1) (7) of the Act on the National Science Centre , i.e.:

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);
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2010, item 1350);
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);

   5b) institute operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network;

6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences;
7. other entity involved in research independently on a continuous basis;
8. group 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. research centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010;
10. scientific libraries; and
11. legal entities with registered office in Poland.

The principal investigator in the Polish research team must be at least a PhD holder when submitting a proposal. The PI will manage the work of the Polish research team. The PI’s scientific achievements must include at least one paper published or accepted for publication. For research in art, the PI must have at least one paper published or accepted for publication or at least one artistic achievement or achievement in research in art. Scientific achievements must be presented for the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (starting with 2010). This period may be extended in the cases specified in the Resolution laying down the terms of and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks to be carried out by the Polish research teams, funded by the NCN under the DAINA 2 Polish-Lithuanian Funding Initiative, (Chapter VI point 6.8 a)).

PLEASE NOTE!

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 archive research.

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

The funding proposals for a joint research project must be submitted by the Polish and Lithuanian research teams to NCN and RCL, respectively.

1. First, an NCN proposal must be submitted to NCN by 15 September 2020, 16:00 CEST in an electronic format, via the ZSUN/OSF system available at www.osf.opi.org.pl. .

PLEASE NOTE:

Information in the NCN proposal must be consistent with information in the JPD. In the case of discrepancies, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check. 

Once the proposal has been submitted to the ZSUN/OSF system, the Polish principal investigator must generate a PDF version of the complete proposal and deliver it to the Lithuanian partner to be submitted to the JUNKIS system.

2. Then, the Lithuanian applicant submits the proposal to RCL via the JUNKIS system available at http://junkis.lmt.lt, by 22 September 2020, 16:00 EEST. The complete proposal that has been submitted to the ZSUN/OSF system must be annexed to the proposal submitted to the JUNKIS system.

Yes. Restrictions to submitting NCN proposals are detailed in Chapter V of the Resolution laying down the terms of and regulations on awarding funding for research tasks to be carried out by the Polish research teams, funded by the NCN under the DAINA 2 Polish-Lithuanian Funding Initiative.

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of 25 NCN panels. NCN panels are divided into 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:

• 24 months
• 36 months.

The joint project description (JPD) drawn up jointly by Polish and Lithuanian research teams and CVs of the principal investigators together with the lists of publications in the ZSUN/OSF system must be in English.

Information in the JPD must be consistent with information in the appropriate sections of the NCN proposal submitted to the ZSUN/OSF system and annexes thereto.

There is a strict limit of 30 pages for the JPD (page size: A4, font: Times New Roman, font size: 11, line spacing: 1, left-right margins: 2 cm, top-bottom margins 1,5 cm). File with the JPD exceeding the 30-page limit will not be accepted by the ZSUN/OSF system. 

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).

If an unjustified budget is planned and/or discrepancies are found in the project costs of the Polish research team in the NCN proposal and the JPD, the proposal may be rejected.

The budget for the Polish part of the project throughout its performance must be at least 150,000 PLN. There is no maximum limit for funding (the project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research).

Eligible costs are subdivided into direct and indirect costs.

Direct costs include funds for:

1. salaries:

• full time remuneration: funds 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 material and small equipment,
4. outsourced services,
5. business trips, visits and consultations (PLEASE NOTE: The costs of consultations and visits of Lithuanian partners who at the same time receive project funding from RCL are not eligible),
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 under the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative, including:

i.   costs of purchasing data/databases or access thereto,

ii. specialist publications/teaching aids, and

iii. costs of publishing the results of research. The cost of publication of monographs may be incurred once positively reviewed by the NCN.

Indirect costs may 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.

When developing the budget, it is necessary to comply with the regulations applicable to the costs planned for the project, remuneration and scholarships, specified in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative. The rules for awarding NCN scholarships are laid down in the Regulations on awarding scholarships.

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

1. NCN proposals must specify the budget for tasks to be performed by the Polish team together with justification of individual cost categories; a JPD – for the tasks to be performed by the Polish and Lithuanian research teams together with justification of individual cost categories;
2. the budget in the NCN proposal must be specified in PLN; in the JPD – in EUR;
3. the budget planned for the Polish team in the JPD must be consistent with the budget in the NCN proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system. The justification of costs planned for the Polish research team in the NCN proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system must be consistent with the justification of costs in the JPD (the justification may be copied from the NCN proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system to the appropriate section of the JPD);
4. exchange rate to calculate the budget of the Polish part of the project in the joint proposal: EUR 1 = PLN 4. 5234 (exchange rate published by the National Bank of Poland on 22 May 2020);
5. the minimum funding for the Polish part of the project throughout its performance: PLN 150,000; and
6. the maximum funding: not specified (the costs must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research).

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

PLEASE NOTE!

• if the costs planned for Polish research teams in the JPD are not justified in detail, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check; the merit-based evaluation of proposals submitted to DAINA 2 is carried out on the basis of the joint project description and covers (inter alia) evaluation of justification of the costs planned for the Polish part of the research project as regards the subject and scope of research, hence justification of the costs planned for the Polish research team in the joint project description must be comprehensive, detailed and identical to the justification of the costs in the ZSUN/OSF system. It is not enough to provide the justifications in the budget completed in the ZSUN/OSF system only as the budget presented in the ZSUN/OSF system is not subject to merit-based evaluation performed by the experts. If the costs in the JPD are not justified, the proposal may be rejected;
• in the case of discrepancies between the costs planned for Polish research teams in the NCN proposal and the JPD, the proposal may be rejected at the stage of eligibility check;
• 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;
• 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, the rationale of involvement of investigators in the project is evaluated by the expert team. The project must include the description of competencies and tasks to be performed by individual members of the expert team.

Please remember that:

• NCN scholarship recipients or persons employed as post-docs in the project must be selected in an open call;
• persons to be selected in an open call procedure, including persons to be employed as post-docs and remunerated from the NCN budget must not be named in either NCN proposals or JPD;
• researchers who have been awarded a PhD degree by the host institution for the project cannot be employed as post-docs.

No.

In DAINA 2, proposals are subject to a parallel eligibility check and merit based-evaluation performed by NCN and RCL. A parallel evaluation means that each agency performs a separate eligibility check and merit-based evaluation. Proposals submitted to RCL are evaluated pursuant to the rules applicable at RCL, whilst proposals submitted to NCN, pursuant to the rules applicable at NCN. Funding is awarded to proposals recommended for funding by both NCN and RCL. 

ELIGIBILITY CHECK

Eligibility check of NCN proposals is carried out by the coordinators and comprises:

1. verification of proposal’s completeness;
2. verification whether the proposal meets all the eligibility criteria set forth in the resolution and call announcement;
3. verification whether the expenditures outlined in the NCN proposal and JPD, as regards the Polish part of the research project, conform to the principles set forth in the Annex on the costs in research projects funded by the NCN under the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative;
4. the data in the JPD must be identical to information in the NCN proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system.

A proposal may also be rejected as ineligible at the later stage of evaluation. 

MERIT-BASED EVALUATION

Only complete proposals that comply with all the requirements of the Resolution and call announcement and are approved as eligible by both NCN and RCL are accepted for merit-based evaluation.

Merit-based evaluation at RCL is performed in two stages according to the rules of RCL:

1. qualification carried out by the Expert Team established by NCN. Information in the NCN proposal and annexes thereto are evaluated. Each NCN proposal is evaluated independently by two members of the Expert Team.

PLEASE NOTE!

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

During the first meeting, following a discussion, a list of proposals recommended for the second stage of merit-based evaluation is compiled. Then, the proposals are subject to:

2. specialist evaluation. The proposals are sent to at least two external reviewers who perform their reviews on the basis of information in the NCN proposal and annexes thereto.

On the basis of the reviews performed by the external reviewers, the Expert Team compiles a list of proposals recommended for funding during the second meeting. 

The list of proposals recommended for funding by the NCN Expert Teams is the basis for the final ranking list compiled pursuant to comparison of the results of merit-based evaluation performed by NCN and RCL. Funding in DAINA 2 is awarded to projects recommended by both NCN and RCL.

Once the final ranking list is compiled based on the comparison of the results of merit-based evaluation performed by NCN and RCL, information on the results of merit-based evaluation in DAINA 2 will be made available in the ZSUN/OSF system and communicated to the applicants electronically by way of a decision of the NCN Director.

Additional information on the proposal evaluation procedure at the NCN can be found in the Detailed procedure of evaluating proposals by the expert teams under the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative.

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

1. whether or not the criterion of basic research has been met, as defined in Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act;
2. quality of research or tasks to be carried out,
3. innovative nature of the research problem addressed,
4. project’s impact on the advancement of the scientific discipline,
5. scientific achievements of the principal investigators of the Polish and Lithuanian research teams, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals,
6. evaluation of other projects carried out by the principal investigators of the Polish and Lithuanian research teams and funded by the NCN or from other sources,
7. evaluation of feasibility of the project’s completion,
8. justification of the costs as regards the subject and scope of research;
9. whether or not international cooperation is complementary and legitimate for the research project
10. development of the proposal and fulfilment of other requirements of the call announcement.

The proposal is evaluated pursuant to the proposal evaluation criteria applicable to the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative.

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 or evaluation of justification of the costs as regards the subject or scope of research applicable to the Lithuanian research teams.

Proposals are evaluated by the 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  may be evaluated by inter-panel teams (HS, ST or NZ).

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.

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact the NCN officers:

Coordinator for Physical Sciences and Engineering  

Dr inż. Ewelina Szymańska-Skolimowska

e-mail: ewelina.szymanska-skolimowska@ncn.gov.pl

Coordinator for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences:

Dr Ulana Gocman

e-mail: ulana.gocman@ncn.gov.pl

Coordinator for Life Sciences:

 Dr Jadwiga Spyrka

email: jadwiga.spyrka@ncn.gov.pl

General affairs:

Magdalena Dobrzańska-Bzowska,

email: Magdalena.Dobrzanska-Bzowska@ncn.gov.pl

Dr Magdalena Godowska,

e-mail: Magdalena.Godowska@ncn.gov.pl

Contact person at RCL:

Asta Aleksandraviciene,

e-mail: asta.aleksandraviciene@lmt.lt

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 DAINA 2 Funding Initiative:

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

1. Resolution on the terms and regulations of awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre under the DAINA 2 Polish-Lithuanian Funding Initiative;
2. Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre under the DAINA 2 Funding Initiative ;
3. Joint project description;
4. NCN proposal form template, where you can find out about information and annexes needed to complete the electronic proposal form in the ZSUN/OSF system;

2. find out about the proposal submission procedure;  
3. decide how long the project is to be: 24 or 36 months;
4. obtain data from the host institution 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:

• joint project description in English jointly with the Lithuanian research team,
• when the proposal is submitted by a group of Polish entities, a Research project cooperation agreement, and
• 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 by 15 September 2020, 16:00 CEST.

Once the proposal has been submitted to the ZSUN/OSF system, the Polish principal investigator must generate a PDF version of the complete proposal and deliver it to the Lithuanian partner to be submitted to the JUNKIS system by 22 September 2020, 16:00 EEST.

Upon the end of the call for proposals:

1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out by NCN and RCL,
2. after the second stage of evaluation, the funding decision of the NCN Director will be communicated to the applicant,
3. if the proposal qualifies 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.