The Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) and the Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN, Poland) will launch this year, for the first time, two joint calls to fund basic research projects carried out by Spanish and Polish research teams, within the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed between the two agencies.

These two calls will be based on the “Weave Lead Agency Procedure (LAP)” scheme, which will allow researchers from both countries to submit joint proposals within a coordinated evaluation framework, following a bottom-up approach open to all scientific areas. The planned options are:

• A call with the AEI as lead agency, through the 2026 Knowledge Generation Projects call (PID2026). Bilateral proposals will be submitted under this call, whose submission period is expected to run from 3 to 24 November 2026. Each Polish group must submit to the NCN the proposal previously submitted to the AEI under its FLAMENCO call, which will serve to fund the Polish participants in the best-evaluated proposals.
• A call with the NCN as lead agency, through the OPUS 32 call, which is expected to open on 15 September 2026. In this case, the Spanish groups must submit to the AEI a copy of the scientific-technical proposal, and the AEI will fund the selected Spanish teams through its internationalisation calls.

The publication of the national calls, together with the forms and templates required for submitting applications, will take place in accordance with the schedules set out by each agency.

Researchers must meet the requirements and procedures established by each funding agency in order to be eligible. For the purposes of Spanish participation, the AEI considers it incompatible to participate simultaneously as PI in a proposal submitted to the PID2026 call and, at the same time, in a proposal submitted to the OPUS32 call. Should an applicant apply to both calls as PI, the corresponding applications will be declared ineligible by the AEI.

The AEI will publish additional information on the participation of Spanish teams in the International Calls section of its website.