Announcing institution:

Foundation for Polish Science

Purpose of the competition:

Honoring the most talented young scholars and encouraging their further scientific development by allowing them to devote themselves fully to research work.

In accordance with the rules and regulations applicable to candidates applying for the upcoming competition, the scholarship can be awarded only once.

For whom?

The scholarship may be applied for by persons who meet all of the following conditions:

• are doctoral or postdoctoral students in Poland or perform R&D work in Poland in an entity one of whose statutory objectives is to conduct scientific research or development work;
• they can demonstrate documented scientific achievements;
• have not exceeded the age of 30 in the year of application (in the current year they are those born in 1992 and later). This age may be extended:
  • to women on account of childbirth and persons who have adopted a child - 1 year for each child,
  • on account of a break in academic work (by up to 2 years) for detailed information, please refer to the Regulations of the START program and the Instructions for preparing the application,
  • the grounds for extending the age indicated above are not cumulative.

Information and rules of the call:

• One may be awarded the START scholarship only once.
  The scholarship is awarded for a period of 12 months.
  The scholarship may be used towards a freely chosen goal. The FNP requires the grantee to carry out research in the period of receiving the scholarship.
  Under the START programme, honours are also conferred on candidates whose research achievements have received the highest notes from reviewers, and have been found outstanding.
  Under the programme, the FNP may award a supplementary travel grant for short study visits to one or two research centres abroad. Those study visits should serve the purpose of initiating cooperation and learning the methods of research work at those centres. The aforementioned persons will be selected from among the candidates who have expressed their will to benefit from such a visit in the scholarship proposal, and have attached required documents (see details in the terms and conditions of the START programme and in the Guidelines on drawing up proposals).
  The principal criterion in review of proposals is the quality of research and originality of the candidates’ research achievement, evaluated based on the documents attached to the proposal. Significant bearing on the note will also have the candidate’s research plans for the year to come, described in the proposal.

Additional information about the competition:

• Proposals submitted in the START funding proposal will also be consider in the Professor Barbara Skarga Scholarship Competition, for a given year’s laureates of the programme. The winner of the competition may be a person who boldly moves across frontiers between domains in their research, opening up new perspectives and creates new values in scholarly investigation. The scholarship paid to such a person will be increased.
• The FNP awards also distinctions to outstanding candidates whose research achievements were assessed the highest by the call reviewers in three fields: humanities and social sciences, life and medical sciences, and physical sciences and technology.
• As part of the START programme, the Prof. Adam Sobiczewski Fund has also been established. Its aim is to co-finance selected scholarships of the highestranked START programme laureates working in the fields of science: theoretical physics, mathematics and astronomy.
• Since 2022. under the START programme, the scholarship with distinction named after prof. Wacław Szybalski has been granting to an outstanding young scientist conducting research in biotechnology, genetics, or molecular biology. 

Form of submitting proposals:

The procedure of proposal submission has two stages:

1. On line registration of candidates: sending in electronic versions o the proposal, publication and other required annexes to the address: wnioski.fnp.org.pl/.

2. Sending a printout of the proposals with all signatures to the address of the Foundation for Polish Science. 

Information on drawing up proposals

• Technical guidelines:
  • the proposal should be signed by the candidate and the applicant’s representative (as for our University, the Vice-Rector for Research is the representative);
  • in the entry form, fill the applicant’s (institution’s) data blank with the following data: Prof. dr hab. Piotr Kuśtrowski, JU Vice-Rector for Research and the address: Jagiellonian University, ul. Gołębia 24, 31-007 Krakow;
  • please avoid using block letters in the proposal. First names, surnames and proper names should be capitalised. Title/degree to be entered using an abbreviation, e.g.: mgr; mgr inż.; dr; dr inż.; lek.; dr n. med. etc.; o
  • Once the proposal has been filled out and confirmed, the applicant’s data cannot be modified.
• Technical guidelines concerning annexes:
  • All annexes shall be in a pdf format and shall be attached to the proposal solely in electronic form.
  • Files names shall be given in accordance with the guideline on drawing up proposals, i.e. each file name begins with the candidate's surname, and after a dot goes a document type, e.g.: Kowalski.CV, Kowalski.List, Kowalski.opinion, for details go to instrukcji przygotowania wniosku., pp. 11-12.
  • File names given to the annexes of the electronic version of the proposal should not include Polish diacritics.
  • Annexes other than those enumerated in the Guidelines on drawing up proposals should not be attached to the proposal.

Application deadline:

31 October 2022 (CWN deadline 17 October 2022)

JU internal regulations:

Pursuant to the Order no 56 of JU Rector 11 July 2016 on: The procedure for drawing up and implementing projects funded from external sources at Jagiellonian University persons interested in entering the call are asked to submit at the RSC:

• by 17 October 2022 - the final version of the proposal (electronic version, sent in as a pdf file to the address of the call assistant at the RSC)
• by 25 October 2022, a proposal printout in one copy alongside annexes as required sent in electronic version to the address of the call assistant at the RSC. The proposal should be signed by the candidate, their academic supervisor and the head of JU organisational entity (i.e. dean or director / head of other organisational entity).
• Please note: If both the candidate and candidate’s academic supervisor have a qualified electronic signature, they can use it to sign the proposal form. Then, the proposal form along with annexes, signed by the candidate, candidate’s academic supervisor and head of JU organisational entity (Dean, Director/Head of other organisational entity) shall be sent to a call assistant at the RSC. The approved by JU authorities proposals will be delivered by a call assistant at the Research Support Centre to candidates in order to upload the proposals to the FNP system using the wnioski.fnp.org.pl/ website.
• The candidate must send electronically the complete proposal form along with required annexes in the FNP system.
• Whereas, the proposal forms with required signatures in a paper version shall be sent to the FNO by the RSC.

More information:

CWN information with details and deadlines

Foundation for Polish Science