This year’s Award will have new rules and a new venue. As always, it will be presented to the best early-stage researchers, whose names will be announced on 9 October.
The NCN Award is the most prestigious distinction for early-stage researchers working at Polish research institutions. It is given in three groups of disciplines: Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST), and Life Sciences (NZ). The Award has been presented to 33 researchers since 2013, when it was conferred for the first time.
As of this year, the Award will be conferred on the new rules. The nominees will still be required to have significant research achievements evidenced by publications affiliated with Polish research institutions. The most significant modification concerns the age of potential nominees. Metrical age applied so far (candidates could not have been over 40 years of age) will be replaced by academic age (up to 12 years from the date of PhD award). The applicable period can be extended by career breaks owing to childcare or illness.
Former winners included 26 men and only 7 women. The amended terms account for the change in the research model, career breaks for family or health reasons or economic situation of researchers often forcing them to delay their research career.
Presentation of nominees and selection of winning candidates
Nominees are selected by the Chapter composed of the NCN Director and NCN Council members. They will be presented by former winners of the NCN Award, members of the Expert Team from Poland evaluating proposals submitted to OPUS, SONATA, SONATA BIS and MAESTRO, principal investigators of projects funded under MAESTRO and SONATA BIS, as well as former NCN Council members and other eminent researchers.
Award ceremony
The winners will be announced on 9 October. This year for the first time, the Award ceremony will be held at the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. So far, the ceremony has always been held at the Gallery of 19th-Century Polish Art in Sukiennice, except for the first time, when the awards were presented during the NCN Days in Silesia. The event will be streamed online.
The rules and profiles of former winners are available on our website under NCN Award.
In November and December, the NCN Award winners will deliver lectures on the Copernicus channel, in a programme launched by the NCN and the Copernicus Centre.
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