The SONATA BIS 15 grant provides funding for qualified research project costs, which are divided into direct and indirect costs. While no minimum or maximum total grant amount is specified per project, the overall budget for this call is
170 million PLN.
Eligible and Ineligible Costs
Eligible Costs (Qualified Costs) are those that are:
- Necessary for project implementation.
- Incurred during the eligibility period (from the NCN Director's funding decision becoming final until project completion).
- Purposeful and economical.
- Identifiable and verifiable.
- Compliant with applicable regulations (internal, NCN's, and public aid rules if applicable).
Ineligible Costs include, but are not limited to:
- Reserves, interest on debt, penalties, fines, and legal costs.
- Value Added Tax (VAT) if the implementing entity can recover it.
- Fees for publication reviews.
- Leasing of scientific research equipment.
- NCN scientific scholarships, doctoral scholarships, and costs of reduced teaching load (if the entity applies for public aid).
- Article Processing Charges (APCs) in
hybrid journals.
- Other publishing fees (e.g., editorial, translation, editing, reprints, color figures in print, submission fees) for publications covered by the Open Access Policy, with the specific exception of APCs for publications compliant with Open Access Policy Paths 1 and 3.
- Salaries for administrative and financial staff (including outsourced accounting).
- Renovation or adaptation costs for premises.
- Property taxes, utility fees (electricity, heating, water, gas, telecom, postal, courier – unless specific external services).
- Cleaning and security costs.
- Property insurance, including civil liability insurance for medical experiment participants.
- Handling and administrative fees (including bioethics/animal ethics committee consents).
- Bank charges (e.g., for opening/maintaining bank accounts for the project).
- External audit costs.
- Costs of organizing conferences, workshops, seminars, or meetings (excluding personnel costs for these).
- Subscriptions (excluding data and data access costs).
- Individual membership fees in organizations.
- Costs related to obtaining scientific degrees or titles.
- Publication costs or open access data sharing costs (unless explicitly allowed as external services).
Cost Categories
1. Direct Costs: Directly related to project implementation, including:
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Salaries and Scholarships:
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Principal Investigator (PI) Salary: Up to
190,000 PLN per year for full-time employment. The PI cannot receive other NCN direct-cost salaries, salaries from another employer, or social security retirement benefits simultaneously. This can be planned for a period shorter than the project duration, with proportional reduction.
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Post-doctoral (Post-doc) Salary: Up to
140,000 PLN per year for full-time employment. Specific eligibility criteria apply (see Eligibility Requirements). Higher amounts may be justified if specific circumstances warrant it and are approved by the Expert Team. Total post-doc employment cannot exceed twice the planned project duration.
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Specialist Auxiliary Position Salary: Up to
100,000 PLN per year for full-time employment. Max one such position per project, but can be split among multiple individuals if total employment doesn't exceed project duration.
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Additional Salaries: For other research team members (excluding students/doctoral students, except for PRELUDIUM/SONATINA calls). Can be based on employment or civil law contracts. Specific monthly limits apply depending on team size and PI salary status (detailed for MAESTRO in general cost catalog, but general allowance applies here).
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Salaries and Scholarships for Doctoral Students and Students: Doctoral student engagement for at least 36 months is mandatory.
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Scientific Apparatus, Equipment, and Software Purchase.
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Materials and Minor Equipment.
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External Services.
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Business Trips, Visits, and Consultations.
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Collective Contractors.
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Other costs essential for the project and compliant with the cost catalog.
2. Indirect Costs: Indirectly related but necessary for project implementation.
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Open Access Indirect Costs: Up to
2% of direct costs, allocated exclusively for open access publishing or research data sharing.
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Other Indirect Costs: Up to
20% of direct costs. These can also cover open access publishing/data sharing.
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For Public Aid Applicants: Total indirect costs (including Open Access) are capped at
20% of direct costs. In this case, certain direct cost categories (materials, minor equipment, business trips, visits/consultations, collective contractors, other) are excluded from the base for calculating indirect costs.
- The implementing entity must agree with the PI on the utilization of
at least 25% of the general indirect costs generated in the project.
Co-financing / Matching Funds
- There are no mandatory co-financing or matching fund requirements explicitly stated for the applicant's contribution beyond the costs associated with the 'senior researcher' position (which is not relevant for SONATA BIS) and the 25% utilization of indirect costs by the implementing entity in agreement with the PI.