It is the fifth anniversary of the first two Dioscuri Centres for Scientific Excellence in Poland. Forum Akademickie featured an interview with Aleksandra Pękowska and Grzegorz Sumara, Dioscuri Centre leaders, who discussed the work conditions in Poland, achievements and plans for the next five years.
Dioscuri is a programme devised by the Maxa Planck Society (MPG) to support the development of scientific excellence centres in Central and Eastern Europe by promoting outstanding researchers who want to conduct their top-notch research in this region. Owing to the programme, eight early-stage researchers have returned to Poland to establish eight Dioscuri Centres modelled on the world’s best solutions, in cooperation with the German mentoring institutions.
The first two Dioscuri Centres were launched in the Nenecki Institute, PAS in the late 2019 and early 2020. Dr Aleksandra Pękowska has been appointed head of the Dioscuri Centre for Chromatin Biology and Epigenomics and the Centre for Metabolic Diseases has been headed by Dr hab. Grzegorz Sumar. Pursuant to the programme, both centres have recently been funded to continue their operation for the next five years.
“Dioscuri grants provide the resources needed for salaries, research and publications. Because it is easy to transfer funds from one budget item to another, top specialists can be recruited and lab needs rearranged during the project. We can use more dynamic research group management methods adopted by the top U.S. institutions,” they say, adding that “the grant extension have obviously allowed us to believe in a more stable development perspective, which – in turn – made us engage in more ambitious and challenging projects that have already resulted in publications in prestigious academic press/ journals, such as Cell Stem Cell, Genes & Develoment, EMBO Molecular Medicine or EMBO Reports.”
They have also pointed out a widely-understood environment affecting the conditions of work in Poland and complementary role of domestic grant programmes in the operation of the Dioscuri centres.
“The dynamic operation of the National Science Centre has been an unquestionable asset and incentive for our return to Poland,” Aleksandra Pękowska and Grzegorz Sumara point out, adding that “the NCN is currently the main basic research funding agency in Poland that supports high quality solutions, introducing the best Western standards to Poland while, at the same time, promoting and nurturing cooperation between national and international research institutions.”
In their summing up of five years of Dioscuri Centres’ operation in Poland, the scientists highlight the importance of decent funding for the National Science Centre as well as urgent and comprehensive improvement of the researcher and research institution support and evaluation system. The whole text is available on the website of Forum Akademickie.
In July 2024, the German-Polish Action Plan” was signed by the governments of Poland and Germany to strengthen closer cooperation in social and economic life. In the science section of the document, the signatories expressed their wish to “provide a strong foundation for science, research and innovation through joint investment in order to secure prosperity, competitive strength and the technological sovereignty of Poland, Germany and Europe,” and the Dioscuri Centres were referred to as “setting the benchmark for scientific excellence, promote brain circulation within Europe and develop the “European Research Area” further.”
Dioscuri call winners: