The Foundation for Polish Science has settled its second competition for the best Polish-Ukrainian research projects. As part of the FOR UKRAINE programme initiated in March 2022 aimed at supporting scientists from Ukraine cooperating with scientists from Poland, the FNP has selected three more winning pairs of scientists from Ukraine and Poland. With funding of PLN 268,800 for each project, the winners will study socially relevant issues and processes related to the war in Ukraine.
As envisioned by the FNP programme, the awarded projects will make a valuable contribution to the development of knowledge about the current challenges that Poland and Ukraine face and will answer the most pressing questions. Funding has been awarded for a period of 12 months and includes both the applicants’ salaries and costs associated with conducting the research.
– It will soon be one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and since we have launched the programme to support Ukrainian scientists to continue their research. In the first and second competitions, we granted funding to the best projects in the humanities and social sciences that can greatly develop our understanding of wartime reality. As an organization supporting science for 31 years, we are full of respect for the hard work of Ukrainian scientists who – despite all odds – develop their research projects with admirable commitment. Due to the great interest in the programme and the fact that the war in Ukraine continues, we have decided to maintain the FOR UKRAINE programme,- says Prof. Maciej Żylicz, President of FNP.
In the second competition the year-long project grants were awarded to:
- Dr. hab. Magdalena Szyszko (WSB University in Poznań) and Dr. Olena Motuzka (National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Auditing, Kyiv), project title: “Policy Communication, Tools, and Effects during the War: The case of Ukraine and Poland.” The researchers will seek to identify and evaluate changes in monetary policy in terms of communication, tools, and short-term effects during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Qualitative and quantitative tools will allow for delineating wartime policy determinants – in the invaded Ukraine and the supporting Poland – by providing a case study of policy actions and communication with society, along with an assessment of central banks’ wartime roles, including a historical perspective and short-term policy effects in both economies.
- Dr. hab. Michal Federowicz (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) and Dr. Serhii Terepyshchyi (Drahomanov National Pedagogical University, Kyiv), project title: “Democratic Values in Educational Practice: The Extended Presence of Ukrainian Children and Youth in Polish Schools after February 24, 2022.” The researchers will document social creativity emerging in schools under unprecedented circumstances and describe its interaction with institutional constraints. The School Support Center the researchers will organize will explore the creative solutions used in the education and care of Ukrainian children that were developed by Polish teachers with Polish and Ukrainian education experts. Polish teachers will receive the opportunity to conceptualize their own experiences. Moreover, they will acquire tools and resources to scale their activities. Furthermore, the project will aim to understand and interpret the complexity of the processes inherent in school ecosystems and local communities of the cities that have received refugees.
- Dr. Ewa Wroblewska-Trochimiuk (Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw) and Dr. Yana Hladyr (Kryvyi Rih National University), project title: “Visual Narratives of Civil Society: The Modern Ukraine Project.” The aim of the research is to create an archive of visual communication from selected accounts published by Ukrainian public institutions and to develop a catalog of values associated with the collected images – based on materials posted on Ukrainian social media. The researchers assume that the axiological system of the designed new Ukrainian society focuses on cultural and ideological convergence with its international audience, emphasizes its closeness to the political culture of the West, while constructing a modern image of Ukrainian society – in clear opposition to the set of characteristics attributed to the mentality of “Homo Sovieticus.”
FNP Has Been Supporting Researchers from Ukraine for a Year
The FOR UKRAINE programme was launched by the Foundation for Polish Science as a form of support for Ukrainian researchers who face war in their home country. Moreover, the programme provides an equally important opportunity to develop research of momentous social importance for Ukraine, Poland, and the whole region.
The programme is addressed to scientists and scholars with a doctoral degree, regardless of nationality, who on the day the war in Ukraine began – February 24, 2022 – were working at institutions conducting scientific research in Ukraine (including the temporarily occupied territories), who will propose a research project in the social sciences or humanities in collaboration with a scientific partner employed in Poland.
The Foundation for Polish Science has so far awarded six grants in two rounds of calls for applications in the programme. The first competition for Polish-Ukrainian scientific projects ran from April to July 2022. The second one just concluded with 101 applications, of which 91 were submitted for further evaluation. As a result of a two-stage evaluation, the international jury selected three pairs of winners, qualifying their scientific projects to receive the FNP funding.
The Ukrainian applicants’ geographical situation is broad, covering all regions of the country, including those temporarily occupied by Russia. Moreover, Polish and Ukrainian applicants represent public and private universities, institutions and NGOs that conduct large-scale research.
The call for applications in the third competition has just been opened. The deadline for applications will be April 4, 2023.
Support Researchers from Ukraine
Researchers from Ukraine still need our support to continue their scientific work. The Foundation for Polish Science at https://pomocukrainie.fnp.org.pl/ is running a special collection that everyone can join at any time.
Funds raised from the donations will be used exclusively to involve people from Ukraine to conduct projects in the FOR UKRAINE programme.
Moreover, the programme gives institutions and companies the opportunity to create partnerships with the FNP aimed at improving the situation of Ukrainian researchers or enabling them to conduct scientific projects.