Announcement of the PRELUDIUM 20 call for proposals

Please note that the Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects have been updated as follows:

1. Provisions concerning residence of the principal investigator in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period have been clarified: § 12 of the Regulations. The principal investigator must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution. This period includes evidenced project-related business trips and holiday governed by labour law;
2. Provisions specifying the amount of indirect costs have been amended as follows: “Indirect costs are costs that are related indirectly to the research project and essential for it to be implemented. Indirect costs include:

• indirect costs of open access of up to 2% of direct costs that may be spent on open access to publications and research data;
• other indirect costs of up to 20% of direct costs that may be spent on costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data”.
• The cost of open access cannot be financed as direct costs. If the costs of open access are planned as direct costs, the proposal will be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

Proposals in the call may be submitted by any entity defined in the Act on the National Science Centre (NCN), namely:

1. universities;
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 separate Acts, operating 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 of 2019, 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 within the meaning of 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 within the meaning of 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 centres 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 their registered office in Poland;
14. natural persons; and
15. companies conducting research in another organisational form than laid down in sections 1-13.

A person who is not a PhD holder on the proposal submission date may act as the principal investigator in a project submitted under the PRELUDIUM call for proposals. The subject of the project may, but does not have to, be connected with the subject of a PhD dissertation.

One can act as the principal investigator under the PRELUDIUM call for proposals only once.

Please note: The principal investigator must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration period and be available to the host institution. This period includes evidenced project-related business trips and holiday governed by labour law.

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

In a specific edition of calls, the same person may be named as the principal investigator in one proposal only, i.e. in this edition of NCN calls, the same person may be named as the principal investigator only in an OPUS proposal or PRELUDIUM proposal.

Proposals may be submitted to the call covering basic research in any of 25 NCN panels comprising three groups:

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

Proposals are reviewed within the panels (e.g. HS1, ST1, NZ1). The principal investigator selects the panel. If an incorrect panel is selected, proposals may be rejected.

The subject of the project may, but does not have to, be connected with the subject of a PhD dissertation.

Under the call, funding may be requested for research projects to be carried out over the period of:

• 12 months,
• 24 months,
• 36 months.

The research team includes:

1. principal investigator;
2. mentor; and
3. (optionally) co-investigator who is at most a PhD holder.

The proposal must include a description of the qualifications and tasks of particular members of the research team whose relevance for the project will be reviewed by the expert team. 

The budget for remuneration is described in detail in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.  

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research and must be based on reasonable calculations.

The maximum funding cannot exceed:

1. 70,000 PLN for projects lasting 12 months;
2. 140,000 PLN for projects lasting 24 months; and
3. 210,000 PLN for projects lasting 36 months.

The project budget includes direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

1. remuneration of up to 1,500 PLN per month for the research team, i.e. the principal investigator and (optionally) co-investigator;
2. purchase or construction of research equipment, devices and software: the costs of research equipment, devices and software to be purchased or constructed cannot exceed 30% of the funds applied for in the research project;
3. purchase of materials and minor equipment”?;
4. outsourced services;
5. business trips, visits and consultations;
6. compensation for collective investigators; and

7. other costs crucial to the project which comply with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

PLEASE NOTE: The cost of article publishing or making research data available in open access cannot be financed as direct costs. Such costs can only be financed as indirect costs (with the exception of services described in Point 2 (5) (2) of the Regulations). Pursuant to the Open Access Policy of the NCN, article processing charges in hybrid journals are not eligible (i.e. cannot be financed as either direct or indirect costs). If the cost of open access is planned as a direct cost, the proposal will be rejected at the stage of eligibility check.

PLEASE NOTE: The costs of publication of monographs resulting from research projects, 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)) may only be incurred following a positive review by the NCN.

Indirect costs are costs that are related indirectly to the research project and essential for it to be implemented. The maximum amount of indirect costs is:

• 2% of direct costs that may be spent on open access to publications and research data;
• 20% of direct costs that may be spent on the costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data.

The indirect costs are calculated on all direct costs, including research equipment, devices and software. During the project’s implementation, the host institution must agree coverage of at least 25% of the indirect costs with the principal investigator.

If unjustified costs are planned, a proposal may be rejected.

More on costs in NCN-funded research projects.

Together with other European research-funding institutions, the National Science Centre is a member of cOAlition S. Therefore, the NCN has adopted an “Open access policy” pursuant to which all research results stemming from NCN-funded research projects must be made available in immediate open access.

In accordance with the principles of Plan S, the National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes as compliant with its open access policy:

1. publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
2. publication in subscription journals (hybrid journals), as long as the Version of Record (VoR) or the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) is published, by the author or publisher, in an open repository immediately upon the article’s online publication;
3. publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements, inscribed in the Efficiency and Standards for Article Charges registry (ESAC-registry). 

More information on open access publication can be found here.

Please note that the cost of open access to publications and research data cannot be financed as direct costs.

Information to be provided in the proposal:

PLEASE NOTE: The following information must be provided in English:

1. details of the principal investigator, including information on his/her academic and research career and research experience as well as up to 10 papers published in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable breaks); for research in art, up to 10 of the most important papers published or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year; information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable breaks) and research project management in that period funded under other national and international calls;
2. details of the mentor, including information on his/her academic and research career and research experience, including 1-10 papers published over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year (including applicable breaks); for research in art, 1-10 of the most important papers published or accepted for publication or artistic achievements and achievements in research in art in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year; information on research project management or other research funding under NCN calls in the proposal submission year or over the period of 10 years prior to the proposal submission year and research project management in that period funded under other national and international calls;
3. basic information on the proposal and host institution for the project (also in Polish);
4. work plan (also in Polish);
5. information on the scope of work carried out by the co-investigators in the project;
6. summary of the project;
7. abstract for the general public (also in Polish);
8. short project description with bibliography (no more than 5 pages, A4);
9. full project description with bibliography (no more than 15 pages, A4);
10. information on the ethical aspects of the research;
11. data management plan (DMP) concerning data generated or used in the course of the research project;
12. project budget; and
13. details of co-investigators.

PROPOSAL FORM

Proposals in the call may include an application for state aid, except where a natural person applies for funding. More information can be found in the State aid section.

In the case of research projects carried out in entities for which project funding will constitute state aid, funds for students and PhD students can only be planned in the form described as “salary for students and PhD students” in the Types of costs in research projects funded by the NCN.

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

Eligibility checks are carried out by the coordinators. Only complete proposals that comply with all the requirements set out in the call announcement can be accepted for merit-based evaluation.

Proposals approved in the eligibility check are subject to merit-based evaluation performed in two stages:

• qualification check performed by the expert team appointed by the NCN, based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description.

Each proposal is evaluated by two members of the expert team acting independently. Then, based on the discussions, a list of proposals recommended for the second stage of evaluation is drafted by the expert team at the first meeting.

• specialist evaluation of proposals recommended for the second stage of evaluation. Proposals are addressed to at least two external reviewers and evaluated thereby based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description.

Based on the reviews drafted by the external reviewers, a ranking list of proposals recommended for funding is drafted by the expert team at the second meeting.

Additional information on the proposal evaluation procedure can be found in the Detailed procedure for evaluating proposals by the expert teams and in the tutorial video.

Please note: A proposal which contains at least one auxiliary NCN Review Panel other than the one to which the proposal was submitted, which has been specified by the chair as requiring an additional individual review shall be deemed an interdisciplinary proposal. In well-justified cases, interdisciplinary proposals shall be subject to an additional expert review at the first stage of evaluation.  

The evaluation of proposals focuses in particular on:

1. compliance with the criteria for basic research laid down in Article 2 (1) of the NCN Act;
2. the scientific quality and innovative nature of the research or tasks to be performed;
3. the impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
4. assessment of the feasibility of the research;
5. the scientific achievements of the principal investigator and mentor, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals;
6. assessment of the results of research projects conducted by the principal investigator, funded by the NCN or from other sources;
7. the relevance of the costs to be incurred with regards to the subject and scope of the research; and
8. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements set forth in the call announcement.

Please note: The NEW detailed proposal evaluation criteria are now available.

Merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed by the expert team and reviewers. Experts are selected by the NCN Council from among outstanding 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. During the specialist evaluation, proposals recommended for the second stage of evaluation are reviewed by external reviewers.

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

Read the Information for applicants available on the NCN's website.

Should you have any more questions or queries, please contact us by email: informacja@ncn.gov.pl or by phone:

If you plan to submit a proposal in the PRELUDIUM 20 call:

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

1. terms of the PRELUDIUM 20 call;
2. proposal form template, where you can find out about information and annexes needed to complete the electronic proposal form in ZSUN/OSF;
3. Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre;
4. proposal submission procedure.

2. obtain data from the host institution for the project 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) or authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal); if the applicant is a group of Polish entities, a research project cooperation agreement must be drafted;
3. prepare acceptance letters from publishers confirming that the paper has been accepted for publication (when the scientific achievements section includes papers accepted for publication that have not been published yet).

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN:

1. make sure that all information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Please note that the Sprawdź kompletność [Check completeness] button in ZSUN/OSF allows you to find out whether or not all sections of the proposal have been completed but does not provide a guarantee that all information entered is correct and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. make sure that all tabs have been completed in the correct language;
3. disable the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
4. download the confirmation of proposal submission – to be signed by the principal investigator and authorised representative(s) of the host institution; and
5. upload the signed confirmation of proposal submission.

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

Once the call for proposals has been closed:

1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out;
2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision will be announced and delivered by the NCN;
3. if the proposal is recommended for funding, a funding agreement will be entered into;
4. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement and Regulations on the implementation of research projects, fellowships and scholarships.

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.

Please read the rules according to which personal data are processed by the NCN.