Research
Funding scientific research of international importance
In building its position as a research university, the University of Silesia in Katowice particularly appreciates the efforts of researchers who take care of the highest quality of their scientific output. Due to this, various initiatives which contribute to professional development of scientists and improvement of the quality of their research will be funded as part of Research Excellence Initiative.
The funding will cover projects associated with groundbreaking research of high social impact and international range. This area also includes financing research centres, which are the showcase and driving force behind the transdiciplinary research activities of our University.
Calls for proposals
‘Freedom of Research | in the City of Science’ call for applications
The ‘Freedom of Research’ call is an initiative that has enjoyed great popularity for years. A total of 430 winners were selected in previous editions.
On 12 April, the application recruitment for the ‘Freedom of Research | in the City of Science’ call began and it will last until 6 May. The new call is an important element of strategic activities carried out as part of the tasks of the European City of Science Katowice 2024.
As part of the call, you can apply for support for various research activities.
Funding may be received by employees of the University of Silesia in Katowice with an ORCID iD who have submitted a declaration of inclusion in the N number of employees conducting research activities at the University of Silesia in Katowice and have authorised the university to demonstrate their achievements for evaluation purposes. In addition, their publications or artistic achievements are affiliated to the University of Silesia in Katowice in the current evaluation (this condition does not apply to newly employed employees – up to 6 months from the date of employment).
Persons who were beneficiaries in the 4th edition of the ‘Freedom of Research’ call cannot apply for research funding under the ‘Freedom of Research | in the City of Science’.
Purpose of the call for applications
The aims of the ‘Freedom of Research | in the City of Science’ call include, among others, improving the conditions for the scientific development of employees of the University of Silesia in Katowice, scientific activation and building high-quality scientific achievements. In addition, the support obtained will enable the exploration of new research topics, dissemination and commercialisation of research results, which will ultimately increase the impact of the university’s scientific activities on the development of science in Poland and abroad. Previous editions of the call also influenced the development of international research cooperation, including with partners from the Transform4Europe alliance.
Scope of funding
A total of PLN 700,000 was allocated to finance research activities. Scientists can obtain funding for activities such as: research and consultative trips, queries, field research, purchase of the equipment and agents necessary to conduct one’s research, as well as the development of music and artistic works. Additionally, it includes the costs of translation and proofreading of texts that are to be published in highly-scored journals.
Scientists can apply for funding for research activities in the amount of up to PLN 10,000, and in the case of international cooperation – support may amount to a maximum of PLN 20,000. The implementation period of research activities is a maximum of 12 months. However, spending the funds awarded under the call will only be possible until 31 December 2024, in compliance with the spending rules set out in the regulations.
.
CONCERNING
scientific and research activities
RECRUITMENT
from 12 April 2024 to 6 May 2024
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and didactic employees | research and technical employees
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 10,000 | PLN 20,000
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD
12 months
SPENDING
until 31 December 2024
The aim of the call is primarily to improve the conditions for the artistic development of university employees and to build high-quality artistic achievements. For the university, it is crucial to implement interdisciplinary activities, explore new areas of art, disseminate the results of artistic activities, and consequently increase the impact of the university’s artistic activities on the development of art in the country and abroad, and the development of international artistic cooperation, in particular with the partners of the Transform4Europe alliance. Up to PLN 450,000 is allocated to finance the call, while the maximum amount of funding for an artistic project is up to PLN 60,000.
As part of the ‘Creative Horizon | in the City of Science’ you can apply for financing the costs necessary to create various artistic works, including the development of musical compositions and works of art, such as paintings, sculptures, murals, collages and artistic installations. Additionally, costs related to the development of literary texts, novels, cycles of poems and film scripts, music videos, animations, video and board games are also subject to financial support. Part of the call it is also the plan to finance the implementation of artistic events or a series of such events, as well as the promotion of artistic activities. A list of sample activities subject to financing is included in the competition rules and regulations. The condition for applying for funding for an artistic project is to submit an application available online on the website dedicated to the call. The applicant is obliged to declare at least one outstanding artistic achievement that he or she intends to achieve thanks to the funding. A declaration of international cooperation that can be documented is seen as additional asset of an application.
The implementation period of artistic projects is a maximum of 18 months from the moment the applicant is informed about the granting of funding.
CONCERNING
artistic projects
RECRUITMENT
from 9 April 2023 to 30 April 2023
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and didactic employees
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 60,000
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD
18 months from the date of granting the funding
The 4th edition of the ‘Freedom of Research’ call for proposals has begun. It is mainly addressed to young scientists, researchers who return to conducting scientific research after a long break, as well as scientists who have not yet supervised scientific projects. The call aims to promote research activity and provide an opportunity to gain experience in project implementation. In previous editions of the ‘Freedom of Research’ call for proposals, applications were submitted by scientists representing nearly all scientific disciplines at the University of Silesia. We invite representatives of all faculties at our University to send in applications.
Purpose of the call for proposals
The goal of this year’s edition of ‘Freedom of Research’ organised under the Research Excellence Initiative, is to improve the conditions of scientific development of employees, build high-quality scientific output, disseminate and commercialise knowledge, and in consequence to increase the impact of scientific activity of the University on the development of global science. The call for proposals will contribute to establishing or intensifying international cooperation, particularly with the partners of the Transform4Europe Alliance (T4EU).
Co-financing scope from Research Excellence Initiative funds
The overall amount of money intended for funding research activities in the fourth edition of the call is up to PLN 1 million. Scientists may obtain funding for activities such as research and consultation trips, search queries, field trips, purchase of materials and reagents required to conduct their own research, and preparation of musical and artistic works. In addition, the funding covers the costs of translation and proofreading of texts to be published in high-ranking journals.
Scientists can apply for a research action fund of up to PLN 10,000, and in the case of establishing international cooperation, the fund can amount up to PLN 20,000. The realisation period of research activities is a maximum of 12 months. It will be possible to spend the funds awarded under the competition until 31 December 2024, subject to the spending rules included in the regulations.
CONCERNING
scientific and research activity
RECRUITMENT
from 27 November 2023 to 1 January 2024
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and teaching employees | research and technical employees,
who have not yet benefited from funding for research activities in the competitions listed in the regulations.
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 10,000 | PLN 20,000
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD
12 months
Employees who have been beneficiaries of previous editions of ‘Freedom to Research’ or other calls funded from the Research Excellence Initiative budget (‘Green Horizon’, ‘Post-COVID Horizon’, ‘Mobility and Science’) cannot apply for support for research activities in the 4th edition of ‘Freedom to Research’.
The ‘Equality and diversity in scientific research’ call for proposals is one of the actions implementing the Gender Equality Plan adopted at the University of Silesia in 2021.
The ‘Equality and diversity in scientific research’ call for proposals organised within the Research Excellence Initiative is to explore the research topics and development of research conducted at the University of Silesia in Katowice concerning the issues of social equality and diversity. The call for proposals is to contribute to promoting the issues of equality and diversity in scientific research, disseminate the results of such research and develop international research collaboration in this field.
Employees and PhD students may receive funding for such actions as the implementation of one’s own research, inquiries, translation or proofreading of texts, participation in international scientific conferences, consultation and study trips, research internships, as well as other actions contributing to achieving the goals of the call for proposals and to the idea of the EU’s Gender Equality Plan standpoint for 2020–2025, especially increasing the significance and visibility of the University, particularly in the Horizon Europe programme.
Scientists can apply for a research action fund of up to PLN 10,000. The realisation period of research activities is a maximum of 12 months.
CONCERNING
scientific and educational actions
RECRUITMENT
from 1 January 2023 to 15 February 2023 [end of recruitment]
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and teaching employees | PhD students
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 10,000
IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD
12 months
Following the success of the two editions of the Freedom of Research call for proposals, we are pleased to announce the start of the 3rd edition.
The aim of the undertaking organised within the framework of the Research Excellence Initiative is to improve the conditions for the scientific development of employees, build high-quality scientific output, disseminate and commercialise knowledge, and consequently increase the impact of the scientific activity of universities on the development of global science. In addition, the call for proposals contributes to the establishment and strengthening of international cooperation, in particular with Transform4Europe (T4EU) alliance partners. A total amount of up to PLN 1,000,000 has been allocated to fund research activities in the 3rd edition of the call.
Researchers can obtain funding for such activities as research and consulting trips, queries, field research, purchase of materials and reagents necessary for their own research, and development of musical and artistic works. Funding also covers the costs of translations and proofreading of texts for publication in high-scoring journals. Researchers can apply for funding of up to PLN 10,000 for research activities, and in the case of international cooperation, assistance may extend to PLN 20,000. The implementation period of research activities is 12 months maximum. Funds awarded under the competition will be available for spending until 30 November 2023.
In the first two editions of ‘Freedom of Research’, researchers representing all scientific disciplines at the University of Silesia submitted their applications. 160 researchers took part in the first call for proposals and 125 received funding for their research activities for a total amount of more than PLN 1 million, while the second edition attracted 210 researchers, of whom 118 became laureates, receiving support in a total amount of more than PLN 1,230,000.
Applications for funding may also be submitted by laureates of one of the previous editions of the competition, who have already completed their projects and sent in reports confirming the achievement of publication or artistic results. Employees who were beneficiaries in both the previous editions of the ‘Freedom of Research’ are not eligible to enter the third edition of the call.
CONCERNING
research activities
RECRUITMENT
from 28 December 2022 to 29 January 2023 [end of recruitment]
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and didactic employees | research and technical employees
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 10,000 | PLN 20,000
IMPLEMENTATION PERIOD
12 months
The goal of the 2nd edition of the Freedom of Research within the Research Excellence Initiative is to further improve conditions of scientific development of our employees, creating academic achievements of high quality, promoting and commercialise knowledge, and as a result, increase the influence of the University’s scientific activity on the development of world science. The call for proposals contributes to establishing or intensifying international cooperation, particularly with the partners of the Transform4Europe Alliance. A total sum of PLN 1,200,000 is devoted to funding research activities within the call for proposals.
The support covers such activities as: research and consultative trips, queries, field research, and development of music and artistic works. Additionally, it covers the purchase of materials and agents necessary to carry out one’s own research as well as costs of translation and proofreading of texts that are to be published in highly scored journals. Scientists applied for a research action fund of up to PLN 10,000, and in the case of establishing international cooperation, the fund could amount up to PLN 20,000. The realisation period of research activities is a maximum of 12 months. The call for proposals concluded on 10 January 2022.
Winners of the 1st edition who have already sent a report confirming the achievement of the declared results along with their accounted projects could apply as well.
We remind you that scientists representing all scientific disciplines realised at the University of Silesia applied for the 1st edition of the Freedom of Research. The call for proposals featured 160 scientists, 125 of which has received funding for scientific activity; the total sum amounted to over PLN 1,000,000.
CONCERNING
research activities
RECRUITMENT
from 26 November 2021 to 10 January 2022
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and teaching employees | research and technology employees
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
realising research activity – PLN 10,000
in the case of establishing international cooperation – PLN 20,000
REALISATION PERIOD
12 months
The call for applications entitled “Green Horizon” was launched in connection with the most important contemporary ecological and climatic challenges, as well as green deal strategy in the region, Europe and around the world. It concerns the funding of research activities related to the subject of environmental and eco-friendly transformation. The goal of the call for proposals is to support the interdisciplinary research activities of employees of the University of Silesia in international cooperation, which contribute to increasing the real impact of scientific activity of the University on its external surroundings.
The call for proposals could be attended by interdisciplinary project teams, which also included scientists from outside the University of Silesia, and in particular researchers representing renowned foreign scientific institutions. Under the call for proposals, the team will have financial resources at their disposal to perform activities, which will result in creating an international partnership, as well as preparing and submitting an application for the funding of a research project under the Horizon Europe programme.
The call for applications entitled “Green Horizon” is funded under Research Excellence Initiative programme and with resources from the “One University – Many Capacities. Integrated Programme” project.
The requests for funding research activities were submitted by the team leader via the online form.
The projects that have received funding got more than 60% of the total points to obtain.
CONCERNING
interdisciplinary research activities
RECRUITMENT
from 8 June 2021 to 31 August 2021 [end of recruitment]
BENEFICIARIES
interdisciplinary project teams operating within the University or new interdisciplinary project teams created for the purpose of this call for applications
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 120,000
PROJECT DURATION
until 30 June 2023
MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT EFFECTS
significant publication, submission of project application
in international programme Horizon Europe until 30 June 2023
The call for applications entitled „Post-COVID Horizon” has been launched in connection with the most important contemporary challenges in the context of the coronavirus pandemic and necessity for the society to adapt to the new conditions. It concerns the funding of research activities with significant impact on the functioning and civilisation development of the society. The goal of this call for proposals is to support interdisciplinary research activities of employees of the University of Silesia who undertake actions to explore the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic at various level of its impact, including multi-dimensional psychological, social and technological support, as well as effective means of combating the effects of coronavirus pandemic.
The call for proposals could be attended by interdisciplinary project teams, which also included scientists from outside the University of Silesia, and in particular researchers representing renowned foreign scientific institutions. Under the call for proposals, the team will have financial resources at their disposal to perform activities, which will result in creating an international partnership, as well as preparing and submitting an application for the funding of a research project under the Horizon Europe programme.
The call for applications entitled „Post-COVID Horizon” is funded under Research Excellence Initiative programme and with resources from „One University – Many Capacities. Integrated Programme” project.
The requests for funding research activities were submitted by the team leader via the online form.
The projects that have received funding got more than 60% of the total points to obtain.
CONCERNING
interdisciplinary research activities
RECRUITMENT
from 8 June 2021 to 31 August 2021 [end of recruitment]
BENEFICIARIES
interdisciplinary project teams operating within the University or new interdisciplinary project teams created for the purpose of this call for proposals
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 120,000
PROJECT DURATION
until 30 June 2023
MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT EFFECTS
significant publication, submission of project application
in international programme Horizon Europe until 30 June 2023
The recruitment in the first competition entitled „Freedom of research” as part of Research Excellence Initiative has ended. It enjoyed great interest among our academics and researchers. 160 scientists applied for the competition, including 50 on the last day of recruitment. The submitted applications for research activities concern all disciplines represented at the University of Silesia.
The initiative enjoyed the biggest interest among scientists conducting research in such fields as psychology (13% of all applications), materials engineering (also 13% of all applications) and biological sciences (8% of all applications). Over 10% of applicants are scientists representing different disciplines of art.
In the first edition of „Freedom of research” call for proposals, the requested amount was PLN 1,819,927.04.
Purpose of the call for applications
Scientific development of employees, building highly ranked scientific output, as well as dissemination and commercialisation of knowledge are the main assumptions of call for proposals entitled “Freedom of research”. You can receive funding in each discipline as part of this competition – not only for any type of research, but also for proofreading, translation, scientific trips, research visits and conferences.
Terms of participation include: presentation of one evaluation achievement from the last 3 years and declaration that the results of research related to the awarded funding will be published. Scientists can receive up to PLN 20,000, until the funds have been completely used up.
FAQ
Can a publication declared in the application have more than one author (the applicant)?
Yes, publications with several authors as a result are permitted.
Can an application be submitted by a research team?
Application in the call is submitted by a single scientist. However, research activities can be carried out by a research team.
Can I apply for the funding of scientific research whose subject is the same as in another grant?
Yes, you can apply for such funding, with the reservation that the requested costs cannot be covered under a different grant, so as to avoid double funding.
How can the result declared in an application be settled?
After obtaining the journal’s decision on accepting the article declared in the application for printing, the beneficiary shall immediately notify Science Department about this fact via the online reporting form available on the website of the initiative.
In the case of funding above PLN 10,000, the situation is analogous. Settlement is carried out by providing information about achieving the declared additional result to the Science Department. The beneficiary will be informed that the research activity has been settled by e-mail.
What will happen in the case when a journal has rejected the publication declared in the application?
In the case of any problems with publishing an article/monograph, every effort should be made to release the publication in a different journal/publishing house with the same number of Ministry of Science and Higher Education points as declared in the funding application.
CONCERNING
single research activity
RECRUITMENT
from 2 November 2021 to 30 November 2020 [completed]
BENEFICIARIES
research employees | research and teaching employees
MAXIMUM FUNDING AMOUNT
PLN 20,000
photo from the archive of Dariusz Ignatiuk | Centre for Polar Studies