MINIATURA

MINIATURA 10

Funds compact Polish projects for single scientific actions, pilot experiments, or research mobility.

MINIATURA 10 is the current rolling edition of the National Science Centre (NCN) micro-grant scheme, providing 5,000–50,000 PLN to fund a single discrete scientific action — a pilot study, preliminary research query, research visit, foreign consultation, or conference attendance. Projects last up to 12 months. The total budget for MINIATURA 10 is 20,000,000 PLN, distributed on a rolling basis. Unlike NCN's batch competitions, MINIATURA accepts submissions continuously from 2 February to 31 July 2026, with results expected by November 2026. A mentoring allowance of 1,500 PLN is available within the grant.

The key eligibility rule is that the applicant must have obtained their PhD on or after 1 January 2014, and must not simultaneously hold a principal investigator role on any other active NCN grant — the latter being the most common disqualifier. The applicant must also be in full-time employment at the host institution at the time of submission. Applications are submitted through the host institution via the NCN OSF portal; individual applications are not accepted. For-profit entities and non-academic organisations are ineligible.

MINIATURA is explicitly designed to fund a single action rather than a sequence of activities or a full research project, so the scientific justification must be tightly scoped. Because submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis and the total pool is fixed at 20,000,000 PLN, early submission is advisable to avoid exhaustion of regional or disciplinary allocations. Applicants who need to test a new research direction, establish an international collaboration, or gather preliminary data before submitting to a larger NCN scheme will find MINIATURA the most accessible entry point.