ETIUDA 5 call concluded with € 2.4 million for young researchers’ scholarships

On 26 July, the National Science Centre decided on the results of the 5^th edition of the ETIUDA funding opportunity. This year, the agency will contribute nearly € 2.4 million contribute to doctoral scholarships. 389 researchers have submitted their applications, and 97 will receive funding.

ETIUDA is a funding opportunity offering doctoral scholarships, addressed to researchers working on their dissertations. Laureates will receive a monthly salary of ca € 1,000 and will visit a foreign research centre of their choice as fellow.

In the fifth edition of the programme, we have decided to increase the scholarships by € 360 as compared with previous years, said professor Janusz Janeczek, chair of the Council of the NCN. This will enable young scholars to devote their full time to their research, and thanks to the fellowship component they will be able to work under the supervision of the best specialists in their respective fields.

It is paramount for our community to cooperate more closely with partners from abroad. The mobility and cooperation between different centres is a key element in the success of ambitious research projects, added professor Zbigniew Błocki, director of the NCN. This is why we are trying to provide the new generation of researchers with the conditions that will help them develop their contact networks and navigate comfortably in an international environment.

Applicants in ETIUDA 5 have represented different research disciplines. Submissions have been sent from large and small academic centres alike. Also the profiles of research centres chosen by the applicants as hosts of their fellowship visits are vastly diverse: they range from universities and research institutes to private-owned R&D businesses.

In the domain of Life Sciences, 112 proposals have been received, whereas the funding of nearly € 695 thousand will be distributed among 27 projects. One of them is the project by Bronisława Szarzyńska-Zawadzka, MSc, of the Institute of Human  Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences. The researcher from Poznań will investigate genetic factors in acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children. The project has been awarded over € 26,000, and the researcher will go for a scholarship at the Center for Medical Genetics Ghent.

120 proposals have been submitted in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Funding will go to 30 of them, with a total budget of almost € 719 thousand. The list of successful projects includes, for instance, the research proposed by Michał Żmuda, MA, of the University of Rzeszów, on the relation between digital games and literary tradition. The author will be fellow researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen, and the project’s budget is € 25,000.

Most proposals, as many as 157, have sent researchers representing Physical Sciences and Engineering, where the total funding of ca € 958 thousand will be shared by 40 winners. One of them is Ewelina Witkowska, MSc, of the Lodz University of Technology. The researcher, with interest in organic electronics, will investigate polymer electroluminescent diodes. Her project has been granted funding of € 26,500, and she will carry out her research at the laboratories of the Belgian company Imec Vzw.

List of awarded projects.