The Jagiellonian University is one of the greatest winners of the Sonata Bis 3, Harmonia 5 and Maestro 5 contests. Our scholars received 14,575,509 PLN and will conduct 13 research projects. The same number of grants was also awarded to scholars from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The third place is held by the University of Warsaw with 11 projects. The National Science Centre awarded a total of 115 grants in the conclusion of this year’s contest on 23 January 2014. 803 applications had been submitted in all three academic fields 1) humanities, social studies and art studies, 2) life sciences, 3) exact and technical sciences.

In the Harmonia contest, 3 university projects were awarded, with grants amounting to a grand total of 2,042,779 PLN. The contest is intended for scholars who aim to collaborate with foreign partners.

In the Sonata Bis programme, 8 projects will be funded with a sum of 9,609,530 PLN. This contest is restricted to applicants who have received their doctoral degree no earlier than 12 years before the submission of application. The scholars compete for the funding of projects in which they have planned to create a new research team under their own supervision.

The third contest – Maestro – is intended for experienced scholars and is devoted to projects aimed to realise pioneer and interdisciplinary research. Nearly 3 million PLN was awarded to Professor Jacek Młynarski from the Faculty of Chemistry for the project: “A Lesson from Nature: the Esters of Pyruvic Acid in Enantioselective Synthesis.”