Prof. Anetta Undas
Prof. Anetta Undas, researcher from the Institute of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University Medical College, was elected as the new President of the NCN Council at the Council’s session of 6 June.
Professor Anetta Undas is an internal medicine physician, specialising in the diagnostics and treatment of thromboembolic disorders. Her research interests, on the boundary between basic and clinical research, centre on the genetic and environmental regulation of blood coagulation and atherosclerosis. She has identified a new risk factor for arterial and venous thromboembolic events, i.e. the pro-clotting properties of fibrin, and created a unique centre for fibrin research in Poland, where she focuses on rare thrombophilia occurring in our country.
Anetta Undas heads the Department of Thromboembolic Diseases at the Institute of Cardiology at Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków. She is a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU) and the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), as well as Academia Europaea. She has sat on expert teams at the NCN and the European Research Council and has been a member of the NCN Council since 2016.
The NCN Council sets out basic research priorities, making sure they are well-aligned with Poland’s development strategy, lays down the terms and conditions of NCN’s calls for proposals and their budgets, and announces competitions for doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships. It also appoints expert teams in charge of peer review and announces competitions for the role of NCN Director.
The NCN Council consists of 24 researchers appointed by the Minister of Science and Higher Education. Council members are elected for a four-year term and half of the Council is replaced every two years. A fresh intake of candidates for the 2024-2028 term will be announced in the coming weeks. More information will be published in the Public Information Bulletin of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The term of the President of the NCN Council lasts (at most) two years and cannot be extended beyond the deadline for the replacement of half of the members. The members elect their President from among themselves. Prof. Robert Hasterok from the University of Silesia in Katowice, who headed the Council since December 2022, decided to step down from office. Prof. Anetta Undas will now take over and head the body until December 2024.
Since the establishment of the NCN, its Council has been headed by, in chronological order, Professors Michał Karoński from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Janusz Janeczek from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Małgorzata Kossowska from the Jagiellonian University, and Jacek Kuźnicki from the International Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw.