It pays to apply for the European Research Council grants, because they are prestigious and provide funding expensive research, says Prof. Maciej Konacki in a film prepared by the ERC, dedicated to the Polish winners of its programs. Prof. Konacki received the "Starting Grant" from the ERC in 2010.
The European Research Council (ERC), founded by the European Union in 2007, is the first pan-European organisation funding pioneering research.
"I use the European funds, because they are competitive, prestigious, and provide funding that is necessary to conduct expensive research" - said Prof. Maciej Konacki of the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center. In 2010, he received the "Starting Grant" for young scientists from the ERC.
Still, few Polish scientists win ERC grants. According to the data presented in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education report "Science in Poland" the success rate in" Starting Grants" awarded in the European Union is close to 11 percent. Success rate of young scientists from Poland is only 2.7 percent.
The situation is even worse in the "Advanced Grants" awarded to senior scientists to pursue more advanced studies. Here, the EU average success rate in the is more than 14 percent, and Polish success rate in this category - 1.5 percent.
In order to present the achievements of Polish scientists, winners of ERC grants, and encourage researchers to apply for European grants, the ERC has prepared a 6-minute film about the Polish winners of their competitions. The film can be viewed at: http://vimeo.com/61248104 and http://vimeo.com/60537398.
One of the winners is Prof. Maciej Konacki, who uses the ERC grant together with his students to search for extrasolar planets orbiting double stars. "To achieve this, we place a group of robotic telescopes, which will eventually form a global network" - explains the scientist in the film prepared by the ERC. He points out that Poland is currently a very good place to conduct research, because the amount of funding for research continues to increase.
Dr. Justyna Olko of the University of Warsaw received "Starting Grant" worth more than 1.3 million euros to study the Nahua Indian culture. "I applied for the ERC grant, because I was convinced that the study I proposed would be a breakthrough and it would expand the current state of knowledge on the subject" - she said.
The objective of her research is to reconstruct and understand the contact and communication between Europe and the indigenous people of the Americas. "Our research focuses on the world of Nahua Indians, their culture and language, which is now on the verge of extinction. We also examine the impact of Indian languages on the Spanish language" - explains Dr. Olko.
She points out that in this type of research, teamwork based on cooperation of European researchers and indigenous peoples is essential. "I am convinced that real progress and groundbreaking research in this field of science can only be achieved by working in a team" - emphasised Dr. Olko.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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