Polish researchers will carry out 29 projects in cooperation with partners from Austria, Belgium-Flanders, the Czech Republic and Switzerland thanks to funding from the OPUS 26+LAP/Weave grants. In total, they will receive more than PLN 42.3 million from the NCN (National Science Centre) to carry out their research.
OPUS is the largest grant competition of the National Science Centre, in which any researcher can submit an application, with no restrictions on age, experience and title or degree.
According to NCN reports, researchers can apply for funding for projects conducted in Polish institutions, with or without foreign partners, as well as for projects that require the use of large international research facilities. OPUS competitions are announced twice a year, in spring and autumn. In the latter, the competition introduces the LAP track, which allows applications for funding for projects implemented in international cooperation with research teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Belgium-Flanders under the Weave program.
The OPUS 26+LAP/Weave competition received 1737 applications for a total amount of almost PLN 2.6 billion. In the first round, grants with a total budget of PLN 441 million were awarded to 267 researchers. In the second round, 36 Polish teams joined the list of laureates, who will be involved in the implementation of 29 international projects with a total value of more than PLN 42.34 million.
“28 of the qualified projects are bilateral collaborations with partners from Austria, Belgium-Flanders, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, and one project is trilateral – it will be carried out jointly by researchers from Poland, Belgium-Flanders and Switzerland. 10 of the selected projects involve research in the humanities, social sciences and arts, 11 in science and technology and 8 in life sciences. 5 projects will be implemented on the Polish side by groups of entities,” reads the NCN announcement.
The work of Polish scientists in the winning projects is funded by the National Science Centre, the work of Czech researchers by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR). The Austrian part of the projects is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the work of researchers from Belgium-Flanders is funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and researchers from Switzerland by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
More about OPUS 26+LAP/Weave grants:
https://www.ncn.gov.pl/en/ogloszenia/konkursy/opus26
Source:
https://www.ncn.gov.pl/aktualnosci/2024-07-12-wyniki-opus26-lap