Professor Tomasz Dietl, the new Chair of the NCN Council, is the first guest of the NCN podcast in 2025. In an interview with Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz, he spoke about the priorities of the Council as well as his own experiences as a researcher and ERC grant winner.

Polish polar researchers have launched the BERA research infrastructure, enabling the collection and analysis of samples from various regions of Norway’s Svalbard and facilitating their transport to Poland. Polar research has been an important research area for Polish scientists for years and is also funded by the National Science Centre.

The European Research Council has awarded Proof of Concept grants. One of the recipients is Prof. Kinga Kamieniarz-Gdula from the Adam Mickiewicz University, laureate of our SONATA BIS programme.

Dr Marek Wagner from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT and Japanese researchers highlight the potential of the type 2 immune response, previously associated with fighting parasites, in slowing the development of melanoma. Their article was published in “Nature”.

Seven Polish-Czech projects and two trilateral research projects performed in collaboration with research teams from Czechia, Germany and Slovenia were recommended for funding under Weave-UNISONO. Polish researchers will perform projects with funding of over 9.5 million zlotys. The successful research teams are based in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Katowice.

"Now that I have my own projects, I am free to plan my days. I can work on the cliffs of Estonia one week and Spitsbergen sea ice the next”, says Dr Zuzanna Świrad. The winner of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme sat down with Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz to talk about her research and her work-life balance.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a wonderful New Year

On 20 December 2024, the Minister Dariusz Wieczorek officially appointed new members of the NCN Council. On the first day, the first meeting was held, during which Prof. Tomasz Dietl was appointed as the new President.

“Despite various difficulties, I have been more able to spread my wings here”, says Prof. Anna Matysiak. The economist and demographer from the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Warsaw tells Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz about her research, the research conditions she has found in Poland, and the best ERC application strategy.

Dr Anna Kula-Pacurar from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, in cooperation with scientists from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development and the Belgian KU Leuven, wins a Weave-UNISONO grant to work on a research project aimed at developing new HIV treatments.