OPUS Grants for Research Institutions in Poland

The National Science Centre (the “NCN”) has launched the OPUS 30 LAP/Weave call for research projects. The call is open to proposals for research projects carried out in international bilateral or trilateral cooperation under the Weave programme as well as projects carried out with the use of large international research equipment by the Polish research teams. The call is addressed at researchers at researchers at any stage of their academic careers, who are planning:

• research projects without foreign participation (OPUS proposals),

EXAMPLE: A research project carried out by a research team affiliated with a Polish institution.

• research projects implemented by Polish research teams with the use of large international research equipment (OPUS proposals),

EXAMPLE: A research project carried out by a research team affiliated with a Polish institution, using data from the Gaia space mission launched by the European Space Agency in 2013.

• research projects with participation of foreign partners that do not apply for funding for that purpose under the Weave programme (however, foreign teams may apply for funding under other research-funding programmes that are not co-launched by the NCN pursuant to the LAP under the Weave programme) (OPUS proposals),

EXAMPLE: A research project carried out by a research team affiliated with a Polish institution (applying for NCN funding of the Polish part of the research project), in partnership with Spanish partners that seek independent funding for the Spanish part of the project from other sources.

• research projects in additional partnership with foreign partners that do not apply for funding for that purpose under the Weave programme and with additional use of large research equipment (OPUS proposals),

EXAMPLE: A research project carried out by a research team affiliated with a Polish institution (applying for NCN funding for the Polish part of the research project), using data from the Gaia space mission launched by the European Space Agency in 2013, in partnership with Spanish partners that seek independent funding for the Spanish part of the project from other sources.

• research projects within the framework of LAP cooperation under the Weave programme, i.e., in cooperation with foreign research teams from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg or Belgium-Flanders that seek parallel funding of the projects from their respective research-funding agencies under the Weave programme, i.e., to FWF, GAČR, ARIS, DFG, SNSF, FNR or FWO (OPUS LAP proposals),

EXAMPLE: A research project carried out by a research team affiliated with a Polish university (applying for NCN funding of the Polish part of the project) in partnership with a German research team that seeks funding from the DFG within the framework of the Weave programme.

• research projects within the framework of LAP cooperation under the Weave programme, in partnership with foreign partners that do not seek funding for that purpose under the Weave programme or with the additional use of large research equipment (OPUS LAP proposals).

EXAMPLE: A research project carried out by a research team affiliated with a Polish institution (applying for NCN funding of the Polish part of the project) in partnership with a German research team applying for DFG funding within the framework of the Weave programme and in partnership with Spanish partners that seek independent funding for the Spanish part of the project from other sources.

International cooperation is not mandatory under OPUS 30 and proposals submitted in partnership with foreign partners will not be given preferential treatment over proposals submitted without such partnerships.

The call budget is PLN 550 million.

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the OSF submission system (https://osf.opi.org.pl/en/) pursuant to the proposal submission procedure.

The proposal form will be accessible in the OSF submission system as of 17 September 2025, and the deadline is 15 December 2025, at 2:00 p.m.

OPUS LAP proposals drafted by a Polish research team in partnership with foreign research teams must be submitted via the OSF submission system by 15 December 2025, at 2:00 p.m. Furthermore, each foreign research team involved in a project within the framework of Weave cooperation, must also submit a funding proposal, including a set of required documents, to its respective research-funding agency, by the date and according to the terms specified thereby. Proposals must be submitted as follows:

• research teams from Austria: to the FWF;
• research teams Czechia: to the GAČR;
• research teams from Slovenia: to the ARIS;
• research teams from Germany: to the DFG;
• research teams from Switzerland: to the SNSF;
• research teams from Luxembourg: to the FNR; and
• research teams from Belgium-Flanders: to the FWO.

The call results will be published as follows:

OPUS proposals

within 6 months of the proposal submission date by the end of June 2026

OPUS LAP proposals

within 11 months of the proposal submission date, depending on the date the evaluation is approved by the partner institutions from the other countries by the end of November 2026

Call timeline for OPUS LAP proposals:

• in partnership with foreign research teams from Austria, Czechia, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders: end of July 2026
• in partnership with foreign research teams from Slovenia and Germany: end of October 2026

Significant modifications

• the principal investigator is required to spend at least 50% of the project duration period in Poland or at the foreign division of the participating entity, and be available to the participating entity;
• the qualifications and scientific achievements of the principal investigator will not be evaluated by external experts; 
• the post-doc’s remuneration rate has been updated to PLN 140,000 - 210,000 per year;
• it is no longer required to justify post-doc’s remuneration over PLN 140,000 per year;
• the post-doctoral fellowship can now be pursued during the course of studies and its duration has been reduced from 10 to 9 months;
• there is a new maximum limit on salaries and scholarships for students and PhD students of PLN 8,500 for each student or PhD student under NCN-funded research projects;
• the doctoral scholarship rate has been increased to PLN 6,500;
• the restriction on receiving NCN full-time salary alongside pension benefits has been extended to include equivalent foreign benefits (the modification applies to all types of full-time salaries for principle investigators, post-docs, senior researchers, and supporting staff);
• the policy of open access publication of research results has been updated;
• the definition of a collective investigator has been modified.