FNP will guarantee national funding for NOMATEN Centre of Excellence

The project of creating a Centre of Excellence in new materials NOMATEN, prepared in NCBJ, will receive funding from Foundation for Polish Science – as predicted by the agreement signed in Warsaw on September 6th. According to the rules of MAB PLUS competition, the proposal to FNP was submitted by two scientific leaders of the project: prof. Sergio Bertolucci, and prof. Paweł Sobkowicz. The competition was addressed towards beneficiaries of the Teaming programme, led by the European Commission.

Prof. Sergio Bertolucci, former Research Director at CERN, acting as the leader of International Science Committee of NOMATEN project and prof. Paweł Sobkowicz, acting as First Manager of the Project and Director for Organization of Scientific Activity, will together organize a Centre of Excellence in NCBJ, that will research new materials meant to operate in extreme conditions. The project of the Centre NOMATEN was the winner of last year’s first phase of the European competition Teaming for Excellence, acquiring mean for substantive and business preparation of the proposal that will be reviewed in the second phase. Formal requirement for final qualification of the project is a guarantee of co-funding said project from national funds. For this purpose Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) has organized a competition International Research Agenda PLUS for beneficiaries of first phase of competition Teaming for Excellence. NOMATEN project, which is being prepared in NCBJ with contribution of international partners: French research organisation CEA (Commissariat à l’energie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) and Finnish VTT enterprise (Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy, specialised in R& D activities), has been qualified in MAP PLUS competition for being funded by FNP. On September 6^th president of FNP prof. Maciej Żylicz, NCBJ Director prof. Krzysztof Kurek and project leaders’ representative prof. Paweł Sobkowicz have signed an appropriate agreement in Warsaw. The Foundation will provide over 44 mln zł for creation the Centre and conducting its activities under the condition, that in during the first phase of implementation, lasting 18 months and funded with 1,5 mln zł, the applicants will present a candidate for the Director of the Centre, who will be accepted by FNP. This candidate must be a world-renowned scientist with experience in leading research teams. Indeed, the requirements of the Foundation are high, but they are understandable, since the newly created research institution is supposed to become a European leader of research on its topics.

For more information on the NOMATEN project and the qualification to second phase of the Teaming for Excellence competition visit the NCBJ announcement of 8^th Sebtemper 2017 and on the project’s website.