The projects of 139 researchers from all over Poland will be funded in this year’s Miniatura competition organised by the National Science Centre (NCN). Researchers will receive more than PLN 5.4 million to carry out their activities, such as preliminary and pilot studies, queries, scientific internships and research and consultancy trips.

The aim of the competition is to support scientific activities leading to the preparation of assumptions for a research project to be submitted to NCN or other national and international competitions. Successive laureates are announced monthly. In the September round, which is the most extensive to date, funding of over PLN 5.4 million will be allocated to 139 young researchers.

The largest share of the competition pool, as in previous rounds, will be awarded to representatives of the life sciences, who will receive nearly PLN 2.5 million for 54 projects with their participation. In turn, more than PLN 1.9 million has been allocated for 48 activities run by representatives of the sciences and technology. In addition, 37 researchers in the humanities, social sciences and arts will receive over PLN 1 million. Funds of between PLN 5,000 and PLN 50,000 can be used for preliminary research, pilot studies, queries, scientific internships, research trips or consultancy trips.

Beneficiaries come from 66 scientific institutions, most from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (7), the Karol Marcinkowski Medical University in Poznań (7), the Jagiellonian University (7) and the Warsaw University of Life Sciences (6).

The topics of their research range from new solutions to help treat civilisation diseases such as cancer and diabetes, to various aspects of optimal urban space organisation, to the impact of artificial intelligence on our lives. Several of the laureates in this round also deal with the issue of reusing waste or industrial products, reports NCN.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński