Announcing institution:

Narodowe Centrum Nauki

Subject of the competition:

National Science Centre (NCN) has announced a call for basic research projects under the PRELUDIUM programme for projects carried out by persons at the beginning of their academic career who are not PhD holders.

Deadline for submitting proposals to the NCN is 15 June 2023, 4 p.m.

The deadline for delivery of the proposals’ final versions to the call assistant at the RSC is 5 June 2023, 3:30 p.m.

General terms of drawing up proposals:

• A project may be implemented over a period of 12, 24 or 36 months.
• Funding amounts may not exceed:
  o PLN 70,000 per project in projects carried out over 12 months,
  o PLN 140,000 per project in projects carried out over 24 months,
  o PLN 210,000 per project in projects carried out over 36 months
• The number of project team members must not exceed three (not applicable to joint contractors), and a person holding the academic degree of habilitated doctor or the academic title/title of professor may appear in the proposal -only as a mentor.
• A mentor may not use, in any way whatsoever, the funds allocated for the implementation of a project. In particular, project funds may not be used to cover the costs of remuneration for the mentor and their business trips, including participation in conferences or seminars. 
• Remuneration of up to PLN 1,500 per month may be planned for the research team, i.e. Principal investigator and (optionally) co-investigator;  Payment of remuneration may be made on the basis of contracts of employment or civil-law contracts.
• The principal investigator shall spend at least 50% of the project’s time on the territory of the Republic of Poland, and shall be available for the project’s host entity. This requirement does not apply to travel documented by business trips directly related to the implemented project as well as holidays, time off work and other absences from work regulated by generally applicable regulations. 
• The entity is obliged to keep documentation allowing clearly state that the Principal Investigator fulfills the above condition. 
• One can be indicated as a principal investigator in a given call only in one proposal. This means that a person may only once be included as principal investigator and only in one funding scheme in the current call edition: (OPUS/PRELUDIUM).
• Total cost of the research equipment to be purchased (fixed assets) may not exceed 30% of the requested funds. Please list purchase of computers or software (licence for over 12 months) under the heading of costs of research equipment, devices and software. 
•  
  Direct costs may not cover the costs of publishing research articles nor costs of making research data available in open access. Calculating open access costs as direct costs shall result in rejecting the proposal at the stage of formal eligibility check. Article Processing Charges in hybrid journals, as defined in the NCN Policy of open access to publications are in no way eligible (including under indirect costs).
• PLEASE NOTE: costs of publishing a monograph resulting from a research project implementation do not count as eligible costs unless and until positively evaluated in the review process by the NCN.  
•  
  PLEASE NOTE: In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pursuant to a Resolution adopted by the NCN, proposals submitted to the National Science Centre must not provide for any collaboration between Polish and Russian entities.  Where any such collaboration is planned, the proposals shall be rejected as ineligible.
• A purchase of a qualified electronic signature should be included in the project’s budget under direct costs, amounting ca. PLN 370 (a signature valid 2 years + validity extension kit valid 2 years). The cost should be listed under the heading of “other direct costs — other expenses”.
• The project’s budget should account for the amount of VAT (VAT is an eligible cost), please use gross amounts in the cost estimate.
• Indirect costs: they are expenditures connected with the research project indirectly, but indispensable to its implementation, which include:
  • Open Access indirect costs in the amount up to 2% of direct costs, which may be directed exclusively toward the costs related to the making available publications or research data available in open access. Please include these costs in the planned budget in the maximum possible amount;
  • other indirect costs in the amount up to 20% of direct costs, which may be directed toward the costs related to the project indirectly, including also costs of making publications or research data available in open access.
• Basic data of the entity (JU) required for the completion of the NCN funding proposal are available on the website of the RSC

Proposal submission procedure:

The PRELUDIUM 22 call admits only of proposals submitted in electronic form. The proposal alongside the required annexes shall be submitted in electronic form by the principal investigator in the OSF (Zintegrowany System Usług dla Nauki/Obsługa Strumieni Finansowania) system.

• by 23 May 2023, the draft version of the proposal in the form of a pdf file generated from the OSF system (the draft version means at least the need to complete at lest the sections: Applicant, Principal Investigator / mentor / investigator, Research Plan, Cost Estimate and its justification),
• • by 5 June 2023, (by 3:30 p.m.)
  • final version of the proposal in the form of a pdf file generated by the OSF system: select option ‘Print PDF’ named in accordance with the template: Surname and forename of the principal investigator, name of the programme, date of the document, (Kowalski_Jan_PRELUDIUM_22_05-06-2023), signed with a qualified electronic signature by the head of the JU organisational entity, i.e. dean or director/head of other organisational entity,
  • document generated by the OSF system in the form of a pdf file: “Confirmation of proposal submission by the principal investigator/authorised representative”,
  • a signed scan of the document generated by the OSF: “Confirmation of proposal submission by the principal investigator” signed by the principal investigator with a handwritten signature or with an electronic qualified signature
  • a research project registration form, filled out in the JU Project Zone system available at https://strefaprojektow.uj.edu.pl/ (not applicable to proposals for which an agreement on collaboration of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of the requested research project has been submitted alongside the registration form at the RSC), 

• where JU acts as leader in the project: 
  • an agreement on collaboration of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of the requested research project (drawn up by the NCN), to be downloaded from the OSF system (under tab “Host entities”) in the form of a PDF file,  
  • a declaration to the agreement on collaboration of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of the requested research project (as per the template attached as Annex 1 to the Communication); 
  • a research project registration form, filled out in the JU Project Zone system:
  where JU acts as partner in the project:
  • o an agreement on collaboration of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of the requested research project (drawn up by the NCN) in the form of a PDF file, sent by the project's leader, 
  • a declaration to the agreement on collaboration of a group of entities for the purposes of completion of the requested research project (as per the template attached as Annex 1 to the Communication); 
  • a research project registration form, filled out in the JU Project Zone system: