Financing institution:
National Science Centre
Subject of the competition:
National Science Centre NCN has announced the IMPRESS-U call, which aims to support the scientific potential in Ukraine and open new opportunities for cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian scientists with scientists from the USA and the Baltic States. The call is carried out in a multilateral collaboration under the IMPRESS-U programme pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure (“LAP”) with the National Science Foundation (NSF) acting as the lead agency in charge of merit-based evaluation of proposals.
The goals of the IMPRESS-U programme are to:
- support excellence in science and engineering research, education and innovation through international collaboration
- promote and catalyse integration of Ukrainian researchers in the global research community.
The call for proposals at the lead agency (NSF) will be open by 31 December 2025 (continuous call).
Information on drawing up proposals:
- IMPRESS-U launched by the NCN is open to domestic basic research proposals for projects on subjects specified in the terms of the lead agency’s call for proposals launched by the NSF.
- The call for proposals is addressed at research teams from Poland which will conduct joint research together with research teams from Ukraine and the United States (optionally from Lithuania, Latvia and/or Estonia) within the framework of a joint research project.
- Joint research projects must be carried out by a Polish research team and partner research teams. Each research team must identify its principal investigator in the proposal.
- Joint projects must include a coherent research programme and must build on a well-balanced and complementary contribution from all research teams involved in the project.
- The Polish part of the project must be performed over a period of 24 months.
- Both the minimum and maximum amount of funding is not specified (the cost estimate presented in the Polish part of the research project must be justified by the subject and scope of research and based on genuine calculations).
Partner institutions:
- National Science Foundation, NSF (Stany Zjednoczone), acting as lead agency,
- US National Academy of Sciences (US NAS) - for researchers from Ukraine,
- Research Council of Lithuania (LMT),
- Latvian Council of Science (LCS),
- Estonian Research Council (ETAG).
Requirements for the principal investigator:
- The principal investigator must hold at least a PhD degree.
- One may act as principal investigator in the IMPRESS-U call only once.
- The person indicated as the principal investigator in a domestic proposal may not be a person who, at the time of submitting the proposal, is planned to carry out a research activity in the proposal submitted under the MINIATURA call and for which the funding decision has not become final.
- The principal investigator may only be employed over the entire course of the project’s implementation at the entity planned as the host entity, pursuant to a contract of employment for at least half time of the full-time work.
- The principal investigator shall spend at least 50% of the project’s duration on the territory of the Republic of Poland. This period includes business trips essential to the implementation of the project, especially related to field research, participation in research conferences and archive searchers.
- There are no restrictions as to the total number of proposals pending evaluation/recommended for funding/research projects under way, in which one is identified as the principal investigator. However, proposals submitted to IMPRESS-U will be counted towards the limits applicable to other NCN calls for research projects.
Terms of funding:
- Under the IMPRESS-U call, funds can be applied for to cover salaries for members of the research team, salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students, purchase or manufacturing of research equipment and other costs crucial to the research project.
- The budget for the Polish research team in the joint proposal must be the same as the budget in the domestic proposal in the OSF submission system.
- 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).
- 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. Please include these costs in the planned budget in the maximum possible amount.
Basic data of the entity (JU) required for the completion of the proposal are available on the website of the RSC
Rules, deadlines and form of submitting proposals:
- International level
Joint proposals must be drafted according to the terms of the NSF applicable to the EAGER call (see: NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) and Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) and must include the documents required by the NSF
Complete joint proposals must be submitted to the NSF by the coordinating applicant affiliated in the United States of America within the timeframe required by the NSF.
Complete joint proposals must be submitted to the NSF by the coordinating applicant affiliated in the United States of America within the timeframe required by the NSF.
- Domestic level:
Domestic proposals under the IMPRESS-U call are submitted only in electronic form to the NCN via the OSF submission system, as soon as possible following the submission of a joint proposal to the lead agency, however, not later than within 7 calendar days.
In accordance with the requirements of the NCN, Polish research team submits a domestic proposal via the OSF system, accompanied by a joint proposal in the same version as the version submitted to NSF.
Foreign research teams apply in parallel under the IMPRESS-U programme for funding for the implementation of a joint project to their respective partner institutions, in accordance with the requirements set by individual partner institutions.
JU internal regulations:
Pursuant to the Ordinance no. 129 by JU Rector of 10 November 2022 on: The procedure for drawing up and implementing projects funded from external sources at Jagiellonian University and hiring and rewarding personnel of the project, persons interested in entering the call (not applicable to JU MC) are asked to deliver to the RSC at least 10 days before the date of submitting the proposal:
- a proposal draft, Polish electronic version sent as a pdf file to the address of the call assistant at the RSC for the purposes of review and verification of formal eligibility;
- a Research Project Entry Form and a VAT Eligibility Form filled out in the electronic system JU Project Zone
Upon verification by the RSC and completion of work on the proposal, please send to the address of the call assistant at the RSC:
- a 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 project principal investigator, name of the programme, document’s date (Kowalski_Jan_IMPRESS-U_10-09-2023), signed with a qualified electronic signature by the head of JU organisational unit acting as a host entity (that is Dean, Director/Head of other organisational unit);
- a document generated by the OSF: “Confirmation of submitting the proposal by the representative of the entity”;
- a signed scan of the document generated by the OSF: “Confirmation of submitting the proposal by the Principal Investigator” or a document signed with a qualified electronic signature.
PLEASE NOTE: The information provided in domestic proposals and in joint proposals must be consistent. Joint proposals annexed to domestic proposals must be consistent with joint proposals submitted at international level.
We encourage you to consult your proposal with the project assistant at the RSC.
Additional information
RSC Information