The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) announced the list of the hundred most talented Polish scientists under the age of thirty on Monday. The winners of the competition in the START 2025 program will receive scholarships worth a total of over PLN 3 million.
FNP has awarded scholarships to young Polish scientists for the 33rd time. The winners were selected in a multi-stage competition, in which the quality of their scientific achievements to date was assessed. Each of the researchers recognized by FNP will receive an annual scholarship of PLN 30,000, and the total amount for them is over PLN 3 million, the foundation announced on Monday.
In this year's edition of the competition, 725 applications were submitted to the FNP. Of the 100 laureates (67 men and 33 women), 32 people had a doctorate at the time of submitting their applications. The winners most often represent biological, medical and earth sciences (30 scholarships); chemical and materials sciences (23 scholarships); humanities and social sciences (18 scholarships); technical sciences (17 scholarships) and physical and mathematical sciences (12 scholarships). The most awarded young scientists are represented by the University of Warsaw (15), the Jagiellonian University (14), the Polish Academy of Sciences (13).
Since 2009, FNP has also awarded distinctions to program participants whose research achievements have been assessed by the competition reviewers as outstanding. The scholarships of these individuals will be increased to PLN 38,000. This year, the distinctions were awarded to: Jędrzej Chrzanowski, MD (Medical University of Lodz, Faculty of Medicine) – natural and medical sciences, Jakub Zakrzewski (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Faculty of Chemistry) – chemical and materials sciences, Sebastian Borówka (University of Warsaw, Center for New Technologies) – technical and exact sciences, and Michalina Kowala (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Faculty of Law and Administration) – humanities and social sciences.
The START program also awards the Barbara Skarga scholarship. As we read in the announcement, it can be received by a person whose research “distinguishes itself by boldly crossing the boundaries between different fields of science, opening new research perspectives and creating new values in science”. This year, it was awarded to Alexandra Staniewska from the Faculty of Anthropology and Cultural Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.
In turn, Stanisław Kurdziałek from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw received the Prof. Adam Sobiczewski distinction, awarded by the FNP since 2015. It is an expression of recognition for a scientist conducting research in the field of mathematics, theoretical physics or astronomy, who has scientific achievements of “exceptionally high quality”.
In this year's competition, for the fourth time, a scholarship with distinction named after prof. Wacław Szybalski was awarded to an outstanding young scientist conducting research in the fields practiced by the founder – i.e. biotechnology, genetics or molecular biology. The laureate of the distinction was Paulina Kamińska (Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw).
“Supporting young scientists is an investment in the future of science and innovation. The winners of this year's competition in the START program prove that in Poland we have great research potential and creativity at a world level. We are proud that we can accompany the scholarship holders in the development of their scientific careers and we believe that their achievements will contribute to real changes in many areas of life,” said the President of the Management Board of the Foundation for Polish Science, Prof. Maciej Żylicz, quoted in the release.
The scholarships in the 2025 competition will be financed from the FNP budget, by private and institutional donors (TVN Foundation and PKO Bank Polski Foundation) and from payments of 1.5% of income tax.
The full list of winners is available on the website of the Foundation for Polish Science. Applications for the next competition will be accepted in the autumn of this year.
START is the oldest scholarship program for young scientists in Poland. Since 1993, FNP has awarded a total of 3.6 thousand people and granted 4,236 scholarships (in the years 2002-2015 it was possible to receive a scholarship twice) with a total value of over PLN 99.5 million. (PAP)
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