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Lighthouses of scientific excellence: the first call for Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence in Poland
Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) and National Science Centre Poland (NCN) open the first call for Dioscuri Centres of Scientific Excellence (DC) in Poland. Dioscuri is a programme devised by MPG to support the development of lighthouses of scientific excellence in Central and Eastern Europe by promoting outstanding researchers who want to conduct their research in this region. Following a bottom-up and sustainable approach, it strives to establish future-oriented research fields and international standards of scientific quality. Dioscuri serves to strengthen the European Research Area as a whole and to expand the foundations for long-term economic and social prosperity in Europe.
The joint calls by MPG and NCN are designed to establish Centres of Scientific Excellence at Polish Host Institutions. The work of the Centres will be accompanied by Partners from German universities or research institutions in order to strengthen scientific exchange between Poland and Germany. These Partners will promote the Centres’ structural development and integration in scientific networks. Each DC may decide to expand this partnership tool and turn it into an Advisory Board.
DCs are expected to conduct top-class internationally competitive and innovative research. Each of them will be funded with up to € 300 000 p.a., initially for five years. This amount will be part of a larger package involving substantial additional funds, infrastructure, scientific equipment, and a long-term perspective for the principal investigators at the respective Host Institutions (to be arranged individually between selected candidates and their Host Institutions).
In the first call up to a total of 3 centres will be established in the fields of Natural Sciences and Technology, Life Sciences, and Humanities and Social Sciences.
The wish to set up Centers in their organizational structure has been expressed by 54 Polish scientific units, in 21 scientific disciplines specified by NCN. One of the research organizations that can potentially host the Dioscuri Center is RIC Pro-Akademia - the only research organisation in Poland that has expressed its wish to create a Dioscuri Center in the area of "Products and processes engineering".
- We hope that the program, organized in cooperation with the Max Planck Society, will contribute to the growth of international mobility and will attract world class scientists to Poland. Thanks to the creation of Dioscuri Centers of Excellence, research will be possible at the highest level, and our country will become an interesting proposition for the development of research careers – stresses prof. Zbigniew Błocki, NCN Director.
The candidate in the competition may be an outstanding scientist who has received a Ph.D. in the last 15 years. Applications must be submitted jointly by the researcher and the academic institution - e.g. RIC Pro-Akademia, which will host Dioscuri Scientific Excellence Center. It can not, however, be the institution in which the researcher was employed during the last 2 years before submitting the application.
Detailed information on the competition is available on the National Science Center website. Our offer for potential candidates is described here.
Candidates who are interested in collaboration with us and joint submission of a proposal are kindly requested to fill in our online preliminary application form by 22nd December 2017.
We invite you to collaboration!