POLONEZ launched 3 globally advertised calls for research proposals open to scientists of any age, nationality or discipline. Candidates were also free to choose the host institution in Poland, which designated a mentor and provided hosting arrangements compatible with the scope of the planned research. Fellows were selected in a two-stage, transparent, merit-based evaluation process based on international peer-review. Apart from the scientific potential of the proposal, and the demonstrated excellence of the candidate, the reviewers also assessed the proposed hosting arrangements and planned impact of the fellowships. Out of the 1151 submitted proposals, the POLONEZ funded 109 excellent scientists from 28 countries and placed them in 49 Polish host institutions. This result exceeded the number of originally planned fellowships by 19 (21%).
The POLONEZ Coordination team at the National Science Centre provided support and an online helpdesk for all researchers, first for the applicants during the selection stage, and later on for the funded Fellows throughout the duration of their individual fellowships.
The programme implemented excellent working conditions inclusive of a competitive salary with full health and social security benefits and a research grant to cover relevant direct costs of research and dissemination of results. Notably, 85 (78%) of the Fellows decided to hire co-investigators and created over 188 new jobs in research.
The research component of each POLONEZ fellowship was complemented by a comprehensive training programme enhancing both research-related and transferable skills, organised and funded by the NCN. The delivery of the transferable skills training was procured to CRAC/Vitae Ltd UK, and encompassed 336 hours of custom-made workshops across five thematic areas: Personal Effectiveness, Working with Others, Management, Communication and Intellectual Property. All the components of the training were delivered in a timely manner and evaluated positively by the attendees.
The POLONEZ Fellows also experienced and benefited from intersectoral and international exposure during study visits, which helped create and support links between academia, business and other non-academic sectors. Most of these (48%) were visits to non-academic institutions in Poland, 41% took Fellows to organisations in Europe and 11% - outside the EU countries. In some cases the study visits proved to be an excellent bridge for the Fellows towards the next step in their research career.
As POLONEZ was a mobility programme supporting 109 independent small research projects, its scientific results, exploitation and dissemination are spread across many disciplines and therefore not easy to define. At the time of this report (July 2021), however, over 470 open access publications generated by POLONEZ Fellows were registered in the OpenAIRE database.
POLONEZ combined new and promising research talent with the inspiring environment of top Polish institutions and boosted the two-way transfer of ideas and good practices.The objectives of the programme have been achieved. The feedback collected from Fellows via surveys confirmed the success and impact of this EU programme.
