The NCBJ and Dr Jacek Gajew­ski awar­ded the Cry­stal Brus­sels Spro­uts Prize

The Cry­stal Brus­sels Spro­uts Prize is awar­ded by a jury appo­in­ted by the Natio­nal Con­tact Point for Rese­arch Pro­gram­mes of the Euro­pean Union. The prize is given for suc­ces­ses in the rese­arch and inno­va­tion fra­me­work pro­grams of the Euro­pean Union. On Decem­ber 18, 2020, at the remo­tely orga­ni­zed Gala, the NCBJ had rece­ived the award in the „science – rese­arch insti­tute” cate­gory, and Dr Jacek Gajew­ski rece­ived an indi­vi­dual award.

„We are happy and hono­red to rece­ive this award” – said the direc­tor of the Natio­nal Cen­tre for Nuc­lear Rese­arch, prof. Eng. Krzysz­tof Kurek (https: //y­outu. be/nFFu­p3fX1sk? t=2079). „Inter­na­tio­nal coope­ra­tion and Euro­pean pro­jects are par­ti­cu­larly impor­tant to us. We are mostly phy­si­ci­sts, and without inter­na­tio­nal coope­ra­tion, phy­sics sim­ply would­n’t exist. Euro­pean pro­jects also allow us to deve­lop „big” science, which is basic science, and real inno­va­tion and tech­no­lo­gi­cal bre­ak­th­ro­ughs relate to basic rese­arches. NCBJ deve­lops both. ”

The NCBJ is among the three leaders of scien­ti­fic insti­tu­tions when it comes to the effec­ti­ve­ness of obta­ining grants from the Hori­zon 2020 pro­gram. This year, the Cry­stal Brus­sels Spro­uts Prize in the science cate­gory went to two others from „the Big Three” scien­ti­fic insti­tu­tions: the Uni­ver­sity of War­saw and the Insti­tute of Bio­or­ga­nic Che­mi­stry of the Polish Aca­demy of Scien­ces.

Two win­ners rece­ived an indi­vi­dual award in 2020 (https: //y­outu. be/nFFu­p3fX1sk? t=5412). It is a prof. Mag­da­lena Król from War­saw Uni­ver­sity of Life Scien­ces – SGGW and Dr Jacek Gajew­ski, repre­sen­ta­tive of the NCBJ Direc­tor and coor­di­na­tor of inter­na­tio­nal pro­jects. It is a great distinc­tion that the scien­ti­fic direc­tor is among the win­ners. The Direc­tor of the Natio­nal Con­tact Point for Rese­arch Pro­gram­mes of the Euro­pean Union, Dr Eng. Zyg­munt Kra­siń­ski com­men­ted on this fact: „The role of science mana­gers, the role of tech­no­logy bro­kers is cru­cial in this inno­va­tion rese­arch mar­ket as well as in the glo­bal mar­ket. The­re­fore, I am very ple­ased that the win­ners of the indi­vi­dual prize in this year’s com­pe­ti­tion are both a world-class rese­arch leader and a rese­arch mana­ger. It is a sign of the times, and these pro­fes­sions sho­uld work clo­sely toge­ther”.

When rece­iving the award, Dr Jacek Gajew­ski, said: „With the great will of our direc­tors – cur­rent and pre­vious – we suc­ce­eded to build teams at the Insti­tute, to han­dle write and imple­ment these grants, and I thank them most, because without them I would not have done any­thing myself. Toge­ther we have over 100 inter­na­tio­nal pro­jects. I would also like to draw atten­tion to cer­tain sys­tem solu­tions that con­tri­bute to suc­cess. We have an inter­nal „Future leaders” pro­gram, in which we edu­cate not only future scien­ti­fic leaders but also pro­ject mana­gers.

We sin­ce­rely con­gra­tu­late Dr Jacek Gajew­ski and all who con­tri­buted to the acqu­isi­tion and imple­mentation of the grants which are the reason for the award of the Insti­tute.