NCN MAESTRO 18: PLN 30 Million for Pioneering Basic Research (Closed 15 September 2026)

NCN MAESTRO 18: PLN 30 Million for Pioneering Basic Research (Closed 15 September 2026)

MAESTRO is the National Science Centre’s (NCN, Narodowe Centrum Nauki) scheme for experienced researchers proposing pioneering research, including interdisciplinary work that is significant for the development of science, goes beyond the current state of the art, and may result in scientific discoveries. This page records the terms of MAESTRO 18, a completed competition, for applicants reviewing the call or documenting a past opportunity. NCN’s official MAESTRO pages still identify edition 18 as the latest announced edition; they do not announce a later round. The deadline below is therefore retained as the real closing date, and this page is marked as a historical reference rather than an open grant listing.

NCN launched MAESTRO 18 on 15 June 2026. The application form became available in the OSF system on 29 June 2026, and the submission deadline was 15 September 2026 at 2 pm CEST. The call budget was PLN 30 million. Applications are no longer being accepted for this edition. NCN said results would be published within six months of the proposal submission date, by March 2027 at the latest; that is the remaining official milestone for MAESTRO 18.

Key Details at a Glance

What MAESTRO Funds, and How It Differs From NCN’s Other Schemes

MAESTRO sits at the top of NCN’s domestic ladder. OPUS is open to essentially any researcher with a doctorate; SONATA and SONATA BIS target early- and mid-career investigators building their first independent teams; PRELUDIUM funds people before or around the doctorate. MAESTRO is reserved for researchers who have already led multiple funded projects and accumulated international standing, and it asks them to propose work that would be difficult to justify under a normal risk calculus.

The subject matter is basic research only. Proposals may be submitted to any of the 26 NCN panels, grouped as HS (humanities, social sciences and art sciences), ST (physical sciences and engineering), and NZ (life sciences). The panel is chosen by the principal investigator at submission and cannot be changed afterwards — a proposal can be rejected outright for landing in the wrong panel, which makes the choice a real strategic decision rather than an administrative checkbox. Interdisciplinary proposals can name auxiliary panels, and where they do, the Expert Team chair may bring in an individual review from a member of another Expert Team.

Duration is fixed to one of three options: 36, 48 or 60 months. There is no minimum or maximum project budget. That freedom is not an invitation to inflate: NCN states plainly that the budget is subject to both an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation, and that a proposal may be rejected if it plans unreasonable costs. The relevance of costs to the subject and scope of the research is one of the explicit evaluation aspects.

Who Counts as a “Well-Established and Outstanding Researcher”

This is the gate that stops most would-be applicants, and it is arithmetic rather than judgement. The principal investigator must hold at least a PhD and, in the proposal submission year or within the preceding 10 years (extendable by evidenced career breaks under the call’s terms), must have:

• had at least five papers published in renowned Polish or international academic press or journals;
• acted as principal investigator in at least two research projects funded under national or international calls — which includes managing or coordinating a research group’s work in international research projects or programmes;
• met at least three of the following: membership of the scientific committee of at least one prestigious international conference; publication of at least one monograph; presentations at prestigious international conferences; receipt of an international award or prize; membership of prestigious associations, international scientific organisations or academies; other significant scientific achievements.

For research in art, an alternative route applies: an author of works of art of international significance, or works significant for Polish culture, who has actively participated in international exhibitions, festivals or artistic events in fine arts, music, theatre or film.

There is also a repeat-applicant rule with teeth. A researcher who has already managed a MAESTRO-funded project may only apply again if they are an ERC grant winner, or if they submitted an ERC proposal within the past five years that was evaluated at least in stage I of that call. In effect, NCN treats a serious ERC attempt as evidence that you are still operating at the level MAESTRO is built for.

Host Institutions, Residency and the Proposal Limits

Proposals are submitted by an eligible entity, not by the individual alone — although a natural person is among the eligible applicant categories listed in the NCN Act. The list also covers universities; federations of science and higher education entities; institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences; research institutes; international research institutes operating in Poland; the Łukasiewicz Centre and Łukasiewicz Research Network institutes; the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education; the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences; scientific libraries; scientific and industrial centres; companies operating as research and development centres; groups of at least two such entities (or one such entity with at least one company); and legal entities with a registered office in Poland.

Two obligations bind the principal investigator personally. They must be employed at the host institution on at least a part-time contract for the whole project (the exception is recipients of a pension under the social insurance scheme), and they must reside in Poland for at least 50% of the project duration and be available to the host institution, excluding evidenced project-related travel, holiday and other lawful absences. If you are planning to hold this grant while spending most of the year abroad, the scheme does not accommodate that.

The submission limits matter too. No one may manage more than one MAESTRO-funded project at a time. Within a single call edition — here MAESTRO 18 and SONATA BIS 16, which close on the same day — the same person may be named principal investigator on only one proposal; if they appear on more, the one submitted to OSF earliest is the one accepted. No proposal within an edition may duplicate research tasks. Separately, the total number of NCN projects a researcher manages plus NCN proposals pending evaluation or recommended for funding in which they are PI must not exceed two, rising to three if at least one of those is an OPUS LAP proposal or a call run with a foreign research-funding agency. Several NCN instruments — PRELUDIUM BIS, DIOSCURI, TANGO, ARTIQ, MINIATURA, NAWA research components, FUGA, UWERTURA, ETIUDA, and the Ukraine programmes — sit outside these limits.

One more hard rule: proposals must not provide for any collaboration between Polish and Russian entities. Where such collaboration is planned, the proposal is rejected as ineligible.

What the Money Pays For

MAESTRO funds a team, and the composition rules are prescriptive. In addition to the principal investigator, research tasks may be carried out by post-docs, senior researchers, people in specialist supporting positions, PhD students, students and other co-investigators. The involvement of post-doc(s) and/or PhD student(s) for a combined total of at least 72 months is obligatory — a requirement that shapes the budget more than any other single rule.

A post-doc position is full-time and reserved for someone awarded a PhD in the year of employment or within 12 years before 1 January of that year (extendable by evidenced career breaks). Crucially, a post-doc must have received their doctorate from an institution other than the one employing them in the role, or have completed a continuous, evidenced fellowship of at least nine months at another institution in another country than where the PhD was conferred. Post-docs must be recruited through an open call.

A senior researcher is a full-time position, co-financed by the host institution, for someone whose PhD was conferred at least seven years before the submission date and who brings expertise and competencies the project needs. A specialist supporting position covers roles such as lab manager, senior technician or statistical analyst.

Scholarship and salary ceilings are set centrally. Doctoral scholarships under the Act on Higher Education and Science may reach PLN 6,500 per month. NCN scholarships for students or PhD students may reach PLN 5,000 per month, as may salaries paid under employment or civil-law contracts (not both at the same institution). The total a student or doctoral student receives across NCN-funded projects must not exceed PLN 8,500 per month; doctoral students already holding a doctoral-school scholarship or other funding may receive up to PLN 3,000 per month more within that ceiling.

Direct costs also cover research equipment, devices and software; materials and small equipment; outsourced services; and business travel. Indirect costs may reach 20% of direct costs, with a further up to 2% of direct costs designated specifically for open access to publications or research data. For entities applying under state aid rules, all indirect costs together must stay within 20%. During implementation, the host institution must agree with the principal investigator on the distribution of at least 25% of other indirect costs.

What Changed in This Edition

NCN flags four modifications for MAESTRO 18, and the first is the one that will catch people out.

Applicants must now disclose retracted papers. The requirement covers all researchers whose academic and research track record appears in the proposal, including senior researchers, and spans the submission year plus the full period over which listed publications were published or accepted — which must be no less than 10 years before the submission year. Reasons for retraction must be given where applicable. Start compiling this now if any co-investigator’s publication list is long; it is not a field you want to complete from memory at 1 pm on deadline day.

The other three: post-doc eligibility is now defined as a PhD conferred in the year of employment or within 12 years before 1 January of that year; new review panels are in place, which is directly relevant to panel selection; and the open access policy has been updated (version of 10 July 2025). Under that policy, results should be made openly available where possible, via journals or platforms registered or pending registration in DOAJ, via repositories listed in OpenDOAR for author accepted manuscripts or preprints, or under transformative agreements. The policy does not apply to monographs, monograph chapters or peer-reviewed collected works.

How Proposals Are Evaluated

Every proposal first passes an eligibility check performed by NCN Coordinators; only complete proposals meeting all the call’s terms progress. A proposal can still be rejected on eligibility grounds later, during merit review.

Merit-based evaluation runs in two stages, carried out by Expert Teams appointed by the NCN Council together with external reviewers who are not Expert Team members.

• Stage I — Two Expert Team members independently draft individual reviews based on the proposal and its annexes, excluding the full project description. For interdisciplinary proposals naming auxiliary panels, the chair may request an additional review from another Expert Team. At the first panel meeting the team compiles the list of proposals advancing to stage II.
• Stage II — At least two external reviewers assess the proposal and annexes, excluding the short project description. At the second panel meeting the Expert Team interviews the principal investigator, then produces a ranking list of proposals recommended for funding.

The interview is the feature that most distinguishes MAESTRO from routine grant competitions, and it deserves preparation on its own terms. Evaluation focuses on: compliance with the basic research criterion; the principal investigator’s compliance with the well-established and outstanding researcher criterion; the quality and innovative nature of the research; the project’s impact on the advancement of the discipline; feasibility; the principal investigator’s scientific achievements; other projects they have run with NCN or other funders; the relevance of costs to the research; and the development of the proposal and its compliance with the call text.

Results are published on the NCN website and delivered as a decision of the NCN Director within six months of the submission date, and by March 2027 at the latest. Applicants may appeal to the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council where the call procedure was breached or another formal infringement by NCN occurred.

Application Process Recorded for the Archive

The MAESTRO 18 application window is closed. The steps below describe the process specified by NCN for this edition; they are useful for understanding the competition record and may help researchers prepare if NCN announces another round, but they do not reopen this one. NCN required electronic submission through the OSF system, using the MAESTRO 18 form available from 29 June 2026. Applicants had to send a complete proposal by 15 September 2026 at 2 pm CEST.

The call materials listed the terms and conditions, regulations on awarding funding and eligible costs, proposal form template, submission procedure, and instructions for completing the OSF form. Applicants were advised to obtain cost data from the host institution and learn its internal approval process, especially the timing for authorised representatives’ signatures. A group of Polish entities had to prepare a research project cooperation agreement. When the achievements section included accepted but unpublished papers, publisher acceptance letters were required.

The proposal included Polish and English titles and abstracts, including public-facing abstracts in both languages, short and long project descriptions, a Polish and English work plan, research team details, budget, data management plan, and information about ethical issues and required permits or approvals. Clinical trials involving a medicinal product or medical device also required a detailed justification of their non-commercial nature. The principal investigator’s achievement record required selected papers and, where relevant, attached publication PDFs. The new retracted-paper disclosure applied to researchers whose track records were included, including senior researchers; reasons for retraction were to be stated where applicable.

Before submission, NCN advised applicants to check that all proposal sections and annexes were correct and in the required language. The OSF completeness check did not guarantee that content was accurate or that the right attachments were present. The final version had to be disabled for editing, the submission confirmation downloaded for signature by the principal investigator and authorised representative or representatives, and the signed confirmation uploaded. Only after these checks did the applicant send the proposal electronically using “Wyślij do NCN” (“Send to NCN”). These details are specific to MAESTRO 18; any future call may revise its form or procedure.

For a future proposal, the enduring preparation lesson is to build a coherent case for ambitious basic research and demonstrate how the team can deliver it. MAESTRO evaluates the scientific quality and innovative nature of the work, its likely effect on the discipline, feasibility, the principal investigator’s record, the handling of prior projects, and whether the requested costs fit the research. A strong plan connects each task to a method, each role to necessary expertise, and each budget item to the work. The required participation of post-docs and/or PhD students for at least 72 months combined should be designed into the project rather than added at the end. NCN evaluates whether each team member’s employment is justified.

Points to Check in the MAESTRO 18 Call Record

Because this edition has closed, these are retrospective checks on the published rules rather than live application instructions. They also identify details that should be checked afresh against any later NCN call text.

• Eligibility evidence: the PI needed a PhD, at least five qualifying papers, leadership of at least two funded research projects, and at least three distinction criteria within the stated period. Career breaks could extend the period when documented under the terms.
• One proposal across the paired edition: MAESTRO 18 and SONATA BIS 16 had the same deadline. A person named as PI in multiple proposals in that edition could have only the earlier-submitted proposal accepted.
• Panel selection: the PI selected from the NCN panels, and the panel could not be changed after submission. The official call warns that an incorrect panel may result in rejection.
• Retracted-paper disclosure: applicants had to disclose retracted papers for the researchers whose records were included, including senior researchers, and explain reasons where applicable.
• Team composition: post-docs and/or PhD students had to contribute at least 72 months in total.
• Submission validation: the OSF completeness check did not guarantee that information was correct or attachments complete.
• Signatures: the signed submission confirmation had to be uploaded before the proposal was sent to NCN through OSF.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to be Polish, or work in Poland already? Nationality is not a criterion. What binds is the host institution and residency: the principal investigator must be employed at an eligible Polish host on at least a part-time contract for the project’s duration and must reside in Poland for at least half of it.

Is there a maximum I can request? No. NCN sets no minimum or maximum project budget for MAESTRO 18. The call budget as a whole is PLN 30 million, and unreasonable costs are grounds for rejection — so the discipline has to come from your own justification.

How many projects will be funded? The call announcement states the PLN 30 million budget but does not state a target number of grants. Awards depend on the proposals received and the ranking list produced by the Expert Team.

Can applied or translational work be submitted? No. MAESTRO 18 funds basic research, and compliance with the basic research criterion is the first item on the evaluation list.

When will I know the outcome? Within six months of the submission date, and by March 2027 at the latest.

Is another MAESTRO round open? No later MAESTRO edition is announced on the NCN official call pages linked here. MAESTRO 18 is closed. Do not rely on the past mid-September schedule as a new deadline; wait for an official NCN announcement and check its terms. The MAESTRO 18 repeat-applicant rule stated that a previous project manager could apply again if they had won an ERC grant or submitted an ERC proposal in the past five years that reached at least stage I. A future edition may change that rule.

Official Links and Contacts

• MAESTRO 18 official call page (English): https://ncn.gov.pl/en/ogloszenia/konkursy/maestro18
• OSF submission system: https://osf.opi.org.pl
• National Science Centre: https://www.ncn.gov.pl/en
• Enquiries: [email protected]

This is an archive of the MAESTRO 18 terms, not an invitation to apply: its deadline has passed. The official call page links to the binding terms and conditions, funding and cost regulations, panel list, proposal form, scholarship rules, state-aid guidance, data-management and ethics instructions, and evaluation procedure. For any future edition, rely on that edition’s published documents. The English page is the NCN source used for this entry; NCN notes that the Polish resolution prevails where the auxiliary English translation differs.