Proposals submitted via the OSF system are first subject to eligibility check and then merit-based evaluation. The eligibility check is carried out by Discipline Coordinators and includes verification of proposal’s completeness, verification whether the proposal meets the eligibility criteria of the call, and verification of compliance of planned expenditures. After a positive eligibility appraisal, proposals are forwarded to a two-stage merit-based evaluation.
At the first stage of merit-based evaluation, applications are sent to experts who assess them individually on the basis of a summary description. Within each panel, expert teams are built, which consist of specialists in the panel's subject matter. They are scientists affiliated in Poland or abroad, researchers with recognised achievements with at least a PhD degree. Each proposal is assessed by two experts who are anonymous to the applicants. The first stage concludes with a meeting of experts and a qualitative assessment of the applications on the basis of the individual opinions of the experts and the discussion of the whole panel. The outcome of the experts' meeting is a list of proposals recommended for the second stage.
The second stage of merit-based proposal evaluation is the review evaluation, which is carried out by independent external reviewers who are not experts on the panel. The reviewers, who are specialists in the subject matter of the proposal identified by the experts, assess the proposal on the basis of a detailed description. At least two reviews are prepared for each proposal and the reviewers themselves are anonymous to the applicants. The experts then read the individual opinions of the reviewers and meet again in a plenary meeting. In the SONATA BIS, MAESTRO, SONATINA calls there is also an interview during which the managers present their project to NCN. The result of the experts' discussion is a final evaluation and ranking list of applications qualified for funding.
Detailed Procedure of Proposal Evaluation
Source: National Science Centre, https://www.ncn.gov.pl/en/finansowanie-nauki/dla-ekspertow