Experts evaluated the quality and usefulness of the research conducted in the TEAM POIG and WELCOME programmes of the Foundation for Polish Science. They found that most of the projects they examined met very high global scientific standards.
An international group of experts assessed the TEAM POIG and WELCOME programmes of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP), which were financed through EU structural funds and completed in December 2015. Their main task was to evaluate the scientific quality of the funded projects. The evaluators?specialists in the bio/info/techno fields covered by the projects?were tasked with determining the importance of the research for the development of the given field of science and the contribution to scientific development made by the team leader and the other researchers participating in the project.
The experts? findings confirmed the high scientific value of the projects conducted in the two programmes, as well as their great importance for the growth of young researchers. The WELCOME programme, aimed at a smaller group of researchers and offering higher levels of funding over a longer project implementation period, was particularly highly rated. According to the reviewers, both of the programmes enabled valuable research and building of stable research teams. They also greatly contributed to increasing the attractiveness of Poland as a location for conducting research projects at a competitive, international level.
The TEAM POIG and WELCOME programmes were implemented by the Foundation for Polish Science in 2008?2015 as part of the EU?s Innovative Economy Operational Programme. The TEAM POIG programme offered support for projects pursued with the involvement of undergraduates, PhD students and postdocs in the finest research teams in Poland. In the TEAM POIG competitions, 73 projects won funding totalling over PLN 150 million. In the WELCOME programme, funding was provided for projects conducted by distinguished foreign scientists creating research teams at Polish institutions, as well as Polish scientists returning to Poland from a stay abroad. A total of 11 projects were funded in the WELCOME programme in a combined amount of over PLN 60 million.
A summary of the evaluation of the TEAM POIG and WELCOME programmes (in English) is available here.
More information available from Marta Łazarowicz-Kowalik, Programme Evaluation and Analysis Coordinator: lazarowicz@fnp.org.pl
Fot. Olga, CC License