OPUS 20 + LAP: new ranking lists of bilateral projects with research teams from Slovenia and trilateral projects with teams from Slovenia and Austria

We have just published the most recent results of the OPUS 20 + LAP call, under which researchers at all levels of seniority vied for funding for research projects carried out within the framework of international cooperation in accordance with the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), with the National Science Centre in the role of the lead agency. Based on expert reviews, as well as the endorsement of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and, for trilateral projects, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the NCN awarded grants to 10 projects, including three trilateral proposals. Researchers will receive a total of nearly 13 million PLN in funding.

In the OPUS 20 + LAP call concluded in May, NCN experts selected 342 projects with a total budget of more than 449 million PLN, including 79 OPUS LAP proposals approved by partner institutions. Approval has already been granted by agencies representing Austria (Austrian Science Fund – FWF), the Czech Republic (Czech Science Foundation – GACR), and Switzerland (Swiss National Science Foundation – SNSF). This group is now joined by the Slovenian ARRS, which has endorsed all the proposals recommended by the NCN.

Ranking lists

Out of the ten grants, six were awarded to proposals in Physical Sciences and Engineering, three in Art, Humanities and Social Sciences, and one in Life Sciences.

One of the projects that will be carried out in bilateral cooperation with a Slovenian team under the OPUS 20 + LAP call is devoted to the “Political potential of conspiracy theories. A study of Poland and Slovenia”. Headed by Dr hab. Agnieszka Turska-Kawa from the University of Silesia, the project will examine three conspiracy theory movements, the activity of which has intensified during the pandemic: (1) the anti-Covid movement, (2) the anti-5G movement, and (3) the anti-vaccine movement. The purpose is to investigate how these initiatives are exploited in Polish and Slovenian politics and identify the factors that determine whether or not they are politically attractive. The call will also fund another project, entitled “Olfactometry in cultural heritage studies: capturing, reconstructing and conserving historic smells”, in which the Polish team will be coordinated by Dr hab. Tomasz Sawoszczuk from the Kraków University of Economics. The grant will allow Polish and Slovenian researchers to analyse the odours of sites of special importance for national cultural heritage, and use the findings to reconstruct them and create an International Archive of Historical Smells.

Decisions and their delivery

Decisions for successful and rejected proposals, submitted under the OPUS call in bilateral cooperation with Slovenian teams and trilateral cooperation with Slovenian and Austrian teams, will be dispatched on 23 July 2021. The decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to the applicant in the form of an electronic document sent to the e-mail address indicated in the proposal.

If the applicant is an entity referred to in Article 27 (1)-(7) and (9) of the Act on the NCN, the decision will only be delivered to the Electronic Inbox (ESP ePUAP) address provided in the proposal. If an applicant who is a natural person lists an ePUAP inbox in the proposal, the decision will be delivered to that address; otherwise, an e-mail will be sent to the address indicated in the proposal with an address from which the decision can be downloaded.

The decision of the NCN Director is also communicated to the principal investigator, and, where the applicant is a natural person, to the host institution in the proposal.

If you have not received a decision, please verify that the electronic address (ESP, ePUAP, e-mail) you provided in the proposal is correct. If not, please get in touch with the NCN Programme Officer assigned to the proposal in the ZSUN/OSF system.