The Foundation for Polish Science for the 27th time awarded START scholarships for the most talented young scientists from all over Poland. This year, 100 young researchers will receive scholarships. The amount of the annual scholarship is 28 thousand PLN, and the total amount of the START scholarships in 2019 is PLN 3 million.

The winners of the 2019 competition were selected from among 899 candidates. The average age of the laureates is 29 years, and 60% of the winners have a PhD degree (the average age of obtaining a PhD in Poland is about 35 years).

Since 2009, the Foundation has also been awarding distinctions to the candidates in the START program, whose research achievements have been rated outstanding by the competition’s reviewers. Scholarships for these outstanding scholars will be increased to PLN 36,000. This year, the distinctions were received by: Agata Perlińska and Michał Parniak-Niedojadło from the Center of New Technologies at the University of Warsaw, Dr Eng. Rafał Szabla from the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw and Michał Włodarczyk from the Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Mechanics of the University of Warsaw.