2016ANNUAL REPORT 2015 Supporting the best, so they can become even better FOUNDATION 2016FOR POLISH SCIENCE ANNUAL REPORT The IRAP, TEAM, TEAM TECH, TEAM TECH Core Facility, FIRST TEAM, POWROTY/REINTEGRATION, HOMING programmes are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Smart Growth Operational Programme. Contents 6 About the Foundation 8 The FNP Authorities 9 The FNP Staff 12 Letter from the Chairman of the Foundation’s Council 14 Letter from the President of the Board 18 Calendar of Events 20 FNP 2016 in Figures 22 PROGRAMMES OF THE FOUNDATION 26 Prizes and Stipends 27 FNP Prize 29 Sabbatical Fellowships for MISTRZ/MASTER winners 30 START Programme 35 Alexander von Humboldt Polish Honorary Research Fellowship 36 COPERNICUS Polish-German Scientific Award 37 Poland-U.S. Science Award 38 Leszek Kołakowski Honorary Fellowship 39 Support for Development of New Research Organizations 40 International Research Agendas Programme 42 Support for Research Projects 43 HOMING Programme 46 POWROTY/REINTEGRATION Programme 48 FIRST TEAM Programme 51 TEAM Programme 55 TEAM TECH and TEAM TECH Core Facility Programme 59 Publications 60 MONOGRAPHS Programme 62 Ongoing Programmes (without new calls for applications) 63 MISTRZ/MASTER Programme 64 IDEAS FOR POLAND Programme 65 Programmes financed from the Innovative Economy Operational Programme 66 Other Initiatives 67 The RRI Tools Project 68 Smart Growth Operational Programme Technical Assistance 69 The Foundation’s Evaluation Activity Contents 70 ABRIDGED FINANCIAL INFORMATION AND INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S OPINION 80 SUPPLEMENT (about our beneficiaries, initiatives and projects) 82 Investing in the Game Called Life – interview with Prof. Jan Kozłowski (Karolina Duszczyk) 84 Light That Changes Matter – interview with Prof. Marek Samoć (Karolina Duszczyk) 87 The Quantum Technology Revolution and Physics – interview with Prof. Józef Spałek (Karolina Duszczyk) 90 Human Judgments, Morals and Competences – interview with Prof. Bogdan Wojciszke (Karolina Duszczyk) 93 Prof. Dietl: With the status of a foundation we can offer MagTop researchers higher pay (Ludwika Tomala) 97 25 Years of the Foundation for Polish Science 98 Flexibility and Independence – interview with Prof. Maciej Żylicz (Piotr Kieraciński) 104 The FNP’s Birthday: photo report FOUNDATION FOR POLISH SCIENCE ANNUAL REPORT 2016 Supporting only the best, so that they can become even better The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) has been ac- The Foundation’s founding capital of 95 million zlotys tive since 1991. It is a non-governmental, apolitical, non- originated from the Central Fund for the Development of profit organization with a mission to support science. It is Science and Technology, which was liquidated in 1990, the largest Polish non-governmental source of funding for whereupon the capital was directed to the FNP by a deci- research. The Foundation carries out its statutory tasks by: sion of the Polish parliament. Effectively increasing these • supporting leading scientists and research teams, funds by way of investment, for example in bonds, invest- • assisting innovative projects and the commercialization of ment fund units and shares, enabled the Foundation to scientific discoveries and inventions. build a stable and secure financial base. Thanks to the funds raised from financial market operations, the Foun- The Foundation operates in accordance with its guiding dation had allocated a total of more than 484 million zlo- motto: Supporting only the best, so that they can become tys to science by the end of 2016. The value of the Founda- even better as well as the following principles: tion’s own funds is currently 299 million zlotys (status as of • support is provided directly to scientists and research 31 December 2016). teams, • all grants, prizes and stipends are awarded by way of In 2003-2004 the Foundation received extra funding for a competition, supporting science on the basis of the Act of 29 March 2000 • the leading criterion in awarding support is scientific ex- Amending the Act on Commercialization of Enterprises. cellence, That act stated that 2% of the revenue obtained from pri- • the achievements and output of FNP competition en- vatizing State Treasury companies was to be added to the trants is evaluated by scientists respected in their fields Foundation’s assets. The resulting amount of 51.7 million - both Polish and international (peer review method), zlotys was used to form a separate fund earmarked for fi- • support is provided according to the “hard money” prin- nancing stipends for young scientists (START programme). ciple (high selectivity when choosing recipients). In 2007 the Foundation received supplementary funding for its POWROTY/HOMING programme from the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism. In 2008 it launched programmes financed by structural funds available under Measure 1.2 “Strengthening the human resources poten- tial of science” of the Innovative Economy Operational Pro- gramme. As a beneficiary of the IE OP’s key programmes, the FNP received 421 million zlotys (this funding was spent in 2007-2015). In addition, thanks to funding from the Hu- man Capital Operational Programme (Measure 4.2 “Devel- opment of R&D system staff qualifications and improving the awareness of the role of science in economic growth”), the Foundation implemented the SKILLS project from 2011, assigning more than 35 million zlotys for this pur- pose in 2010-2015. 6 FOUNDATION FOR POLISH SCIENCE ANNUAL REPORT 2016 About the Foundation The year 2016 saw the launch of new programmes financed from the Smart Growth Operational Programme (Measure 4.4 “Increasing the human potential in the R&D sector” and Measure 4.3 “International Research Agendas” [IRAP]). The total amount of funding earmarked for these programmes is 1,147.9 million zlotys (532 million for the IRAP and 615.9 million for the other programmes). Since 2005 the Foundation has enjoyed the status of a pub- lic benefit organization, which entitles it, among other things, to accept donations from private individuals of 1% of their personal income tax for its statutory activity. The funds obtained from such donations are directed towards supplementing the stipends for beneficiaries of the com- petitions for young scientists – in 2006-2009, these were stipends for scientists returning from abroad (POWROTY/ HOMING programme), and from 2010 – stipends for the most outstanding beneficiaries in the START programme’s competition. In recent years the Foundation has also re- ceived several donations from individual benefactors. All of these funds are passed on to the beneficiaries of FNP programmes. Taking care to ensure that its activities remain transparent, the Foundation publishes extensive information on its ac- tivity in the form of Annual Reports. Every year its financial statements are audited by renowned auditing companies. The Annual Reports and information on activity are avail- able on the Foundation’s website. 7 FOUNDATION FOR POLISH SCIENCE ANNUAL REPORT 2016 The FNP Authorities The Executive Board of the Foundation President Prof. Maciej Żylicz Deputy President Prof. Włodzimierz Bolecki Deputy President Tomasz S. Perkowski, PhD The FNP’s Council and Board (from the left): W. Tygielski, L. Gradoń, T. Perkowski, A. Łuszczyńska, M. Żylicz, M. Nowakowska, W. Krzyżosiak, J. Kotwica, W. Bolecki, K. Wysokiński. The Foundation’s Council Term of office from 1 September 2012 to 31 August 2016 Chair Prof. Andrzej Jerzmanowski Deputy Chair Prof. Irena E. Kotowska Members Prof. Leon Gradoń Prof. Henryk Koroniak Prof. Marek Z. Świtoński Prof. Karol I. Wysokiński Prof. Wojciech Tygielski Term of office from 1 September 2016 to 31 August 2020 Chair Prof. Leon Gradoń Deputy Chair Prof. Wojciech Tygielski Members Prof. Aleksandra Łuszczyńska Prof. Jan Kotwica Prof. Włodzimierz Krzyżosiak Prof. Maria Nowakowska Prof. Karol I. Wysokiński 8 FOUNDATION FOR POLISH SCIENCE ANNUAL REPORT 2016 The FNP Staff as of 31 December 2016 Programme Division Michał Pietras Adam Zieliński Director of the Programme Division Deputy Director of the Programme Division Tomasz Poprawka, PhD Programme Promotion Section Deputy Director of the Programme Division Marta Michalska-Bugajska Head of Section Programme Coordination Section Beata Frączak, PhD Zofia Matejewska Head of Section Dominika Wojtysiak-Łańska Monika Biłas-Henne, PhD External Cooperation Section Krystyna Frąk Katarzyna Pronobis Dariusz Łukaszewski, PhD Eng. Head of Section Anna Raiter-Smiljanic, PhD Joanna Rutkowska, PhD Agnieszka Kossakowska Julia Zimmermann Justyna Motrenko Grażyna Żebrowska, PhD International Research Agendas Section Kinga Słomińska Head of Section Contracts and Payments Section Dorota Sierak Maria Pawłowska, PhD Deputy Director of the Programme Division Judyta Węgrzyn, PhD Jagoda Brewczak Aleksandra Kowalska Viktoryia Molenda Lidia Rachocka Magdalena Sordyl Ewa Śliwowska Małgorzata Świtalska-Bury Emilia Wojewoda 9 FOUNDATION FOR POLISH SCIENCE ANNUAL REPORT 2016 The FNP Staff The FNP Staff. Planning, Analysis And External Audit Finance And Accounting Division Division Wanda Krzemińska Director of Finance and Accounting, Chief Accountant Aneta Antolak Director of Planning and Analysis Accounting and Tax Section External Audit Section Monika Wolińska Deputy Director of Finance and Accounting Irmina Sitnicka Head of Section Dorota Komosa Katarzyna Lechicka Iwona Pachnowska Monika Machnikowska Małgorzata Pieńkowska Marcin Marcinków Jakub Rytka Katarzyna Siemieńczuk Planning, Analysis and