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Call for Applications for the 2022 START Competition

The Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) announces the call for applications for the START competition, in which young researchers can win a scholarship for outstanding scientific achievements. Recruitment will be conducted until November 22, 2021.

The FNP START scholarship is a prestigious award for the most talented young researchers, granted in recognition of their scientific achievements. The competition is open to researchers from all fields who in the year of application are under 30 years of age.

The competition considers especially the quality and originality of the candidate’s scientific achievements to date and the most important research achievement.

In previous years, the annual individual scholarship amounted to PLN 28,000. The scholarship may be used for any purpose.

The START programme also awards distinctions to candidates whose scientific achievements are assessed as outstanding by the reviewers.

Applications submitted to the START competition are also considered in the competition for the Professor Barbara Skarga Scholarship. A scholarship holder in this competition may be someone whose research is distinguished by boldly crossing boundaries among various fields of science, opening new research perspectives, and creating new values in science.

Since 2015, the FNP also awards the Professor Adam Sobiczewski Prize, which applies to winners who conduct high-quality scientific research in mathematics, theoretical physics, or astronomy.

In the 2022 START competition, applicants can receive for the first time the Professor Wacław Szybalski Scholarship*, which will be awarded for innovative achievements in biotechnology, genetics, or molecular biology, namely in scientific fields practiced by the scholarship founder. The award has been established by Professor Wacław Szybalski’s bequest.

The scholarships of the additionally awarded winners will be increased.

Moreover, the START programme offers travel scholarships in the form of funds for a visit to a research center abroad selected by the applicant.

We encourage young researchers interested in participating in the competition to read the Start Program Regulations and Application Preparation Instructions on the program website. Among other detailed information on the stages of the competition procedure, the two documents include evaluation criteria and the method of submitting applications, along with rules on awarding travel scholarships.

Applications for the START 2022 competition can be submitted from September 24 to November 22, 2021. Results will be announced in the second quarter of 2022.

Scholarships in the 2022 START competition will be financed both from the FNP budget and from funds donated by companies, institutions, private donors, and 1% income tax contributions. The partners of the program are the National Bank of Poland – as part of the economic education program – and the PZU Foundation.

Please note that according to the rules, the START scholarship may be awarded only once.

We wish all candidates good luck!

*Professor Wacław Szybalski (1921–2020), born in Lviv, was an outstanding Polish scientist, geneticist, and precursor of modern biotechnology and molecular biology. His pioneering research created new fields of science, including synthetic biology and gene therapy. He worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, among other places. For his outstanding achievements, Szybalski received honorary doctorates from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, the University of Gdańsk, the Medical University of Gdańsk, the Gdańsk University of Technology, and the Jagiellonian University. He was also honored with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta awarded by the President of Poland.

For more information about the profile and achievements of Professor Wacław Szybalski, please see the video at this LINK.