The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) launches the second edition of NAWA Urgency Grants. Funding of up to PLN 300 thousand can be granted to research projects that will contribute to solving current scientific problems of key importance to society.
The NAWA Urgency Grants programme supports the international cooperation of research teams or the international mobility of researchers in response to sudden, important and unforeseen social, civilisation and natural events with global or regional implications.
‘NAWA Urgency Grants enable researchers to collect scientific data, gain new knowledge or study the effects or significance of a phenomenon or event as quickly as possible after its occurrence. This way, the NAWA programme improves the scientists’ chances to solve current research problems and respond to new challenges faced by our civilisation,’ says NAWA Director Dr. Grażyna Żebrowska.
The NAWA Director emphasises the simplified grant application procedure. ‘The submissions made by scientists are evaluated on an ongoing basis, and the decision whether to grant funding is made swiftly. The average time the applicants had to wait for a response in the first edition of the programme was 22 days. So scientists do not have to wait long to obtain funding for those stages of their research projects that require their reaction,’ says NAWA Director Dr. Grażyna Żebrowska.
The NAWA Urgency Grants programme supplements the existing offer of grants for scientists. Applications submitted under the programme have to cover research activities which – on account of the need to react promptly – cannot be financed based on other funding mechanisms, because applying for grants from standard sources could mean wasting a unique opportunity to solve a major problem. In addition, the project has to involve as a key element international cooperation of a project group or international mobility of scientists for the purpose of achieving the goals of the project. Projects under the programme may last between 3 and 12 months.
The call for applications for the second edition of NAWA Urgency Grants is open in two periods: from 13 April to 30 June 2021 and from 1 September to 30 November 2021. Applications have to be submitted via NAWA’s IT system at www.nawa.gov.pl.
The budget of the programme’s second edition amounts to PLN 5 million. The maximum amount of funding granted to a project is PLN 300 thousand.
The first edition of the programme was announced in autumn 2020. As a result, ten projects from among 84 submissions received funding. Nine of the winning projects involved studies related to the COVID-19 pandemic and one was devoted to the protection of the UNESCO World Heritage site in Tarnowskie Góry.