NCBR Strategic Programmes (Programy Strategiczne)

HYDROSTRATEG V

Funds Polish water and hydrology research partnerships to strengthen infrastructure and climate resilience.

HYDROSTRATEG V is the fifth call under NCBR's HYDROSTRATEG strategic programme, administered by the National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR) under Poland's Ministry of Science and Higher Education. HYDROSTRATEG addresses state-priority research challenges in water management and hydrology, as defined by Poland's State Scientific Policy. The programme uses a top-down competition structure in which NCBR specifies the research topics and challenges to be addressed; applicants must respond to those defined requirements rather than submitting open-topic proposals. HYDROSTRATEG V opened April 14, 2026, and closes July 31, 2026, with a total pool of 200 million PLN.

Eligible applicants include for-profit enterprises, research institutions, universities, and nonprofit organizations registered and operating in Poland. Individual applicants are ineligible. The programme's fifth-call designation, following four prior HYDROSTRATEG competitions, indicates an established cadence and a well-documented evaluation process at NCBR. Relevant technology areas include water resource management, flood and drought risk, hydrology modeling, water infrastructure, and related environmental engineering disciplines — all within the programme's mandate derived from Poland's national water management priorities. Per-project award sizes, minimum and maximum budget thresholds, required TRL ranges, consortium requirements, and scoring methodology are specified in call-specific PDF documentation rather than the public schedule.

Applications must be submitted through NCBR's Platforma Konkursowa (gov.pl/web/ncbr/platforma-konkursowa). HYDROSTRATEG V is one of three strategic programme calls NCBR opened in 2026, alongside AGROSTRATEG I (300M PLN, agriculture and food) and NUKLEOSTRATEG I (150M PLN, nuclear technology). Collectively, these three calls represent 650 million PLN in strategic programme funding from NCBR in 2026. Teams with prior HYDROSTRATEG participation have the advantage of familiarity with NCBR's evaluation criteria and reporting requirements, which can meaningfully improve application quality in a top-down competition structure.