POLONEZ – more than just a fellowship (2015-2021)

The arrival in Poland of 109 outstanding scientists, new research teams, projects carried out at Polish host institutions, and an opportunity to use the success as a stepping-stone to further research grants. These are but some of the outcomes of the MSCA POLONEZ programme that has just ended.

This page is about the already completed POLONEZ programme. For information on the current POLONEZ BIS programme, go to www.polonezbis.eu

Co-funded by the European Commission and the National Science Centre, the POLONEZ programme provided talented and experienced researchers with an opportunity to move to Poland and gave them the financial independence necessary to conduct basic research at the host institution of their choice.  Three calls, announced in 2015 and 2016, allowed 109 Fellows from 28 countries around the globe to be recruited, who were then hired for full-time positions at 49 Polish institutions for a period of 12 or 24 months.

In accordance with the bottom-up principle adopted by the NCN, the subject matter of the research project was chosen by each researcher individually. Thanks to the generous funding, many were able to set up new research teams, hire collaborators and present their research results at international conferences. Many also received other grants to conduct further research soon after the end of the fellowship.

Apart from the opportunity to carry out their research projects, POLONEZ also provided the Fellows with a chance to develop their soft skills, which may not be directly related to research as such, but will definitely prove useful in their further careers. A series of training courses and workshops tackled subjects such as teamwork, communication, management and intellectual property rights. The programme also featured meetings with business people, which allowed our Fellows to step outside the academic bubble and forge new contacts.

To find out about the research projects, the perspective of research partners and host institutions, as well as the personal experiences of our Fellows, read: “The POLONEZ experience – why it matters”.

Several Fellows also agreed to speak on camera about their experience of POLONEZ. You can watch the interviews in a short video here: “Meet the Fellows”

Thanks to the success of the first edition, the POLONEZ programme will be continued for another round. Again co-funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND grant, the POLONEZ BIS research and training programme will welcome 120 new researchers to Poland in 2022-23.

POLONEZ in figures

CONTACT:

polonez@ncn.gov.pl

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665778.