The Polish Academy of Sciences’ newly-created Bureau for Scientific Excellence will be focusing on helping researchers file ERC grant applications. The Academy has a big role to play here, because we pursue fundamental research and have certain advantages that other institutions do not – says Prof. Paweł Rowiński, Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

In this text are shown the chosen specific manifestations of rhetoric used by NCN experts in the evaluation of grant applications. The subject of analysis are the phrases and expressions contained in the opinions of requests in competitions FUGA (national competitions for internships after obtaining a doctoral degree, postdoc position), which are characterized by ambiguity and commonness. Makes it difficult to incorporate them in re-applying for the grant. Moreover, some of them express patronize attitudes towards potential applicants and their advisors. As an example one could present an expression: „as for pedagogue she has a good achievements”.

The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.

Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.

Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.

W ciągu ostatnich dwóch dekad polskie uczelnie i instytuty badawcze dokonały znacznego postępu w umiędzynarodowieniu swojej działalności. Polska Akademia Nauk również podjęła wiele działań wzmacniających współpracę między badaczami i badaczkami z PAN a ich partnerami za granicą.

Over the past two decades, Polish higher education institutions and research institutes have made significant progress in internationalizing their activity. Likewise, the Polish Academy of Sciences has taken many steps to boost the collaboration between the PAS researchers and their partners abroad.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) typically generate income from two main sources; student

fees and research income. In contrast, the predominant waste streams in HEIs tend

to include; (1) assignment/examination mark submission process, (2) photocopying process

and (3) the funding application process. Unintended internal process complexities and barriers

typically aggravate the challenges already inherent in the research grant application

process. Although Lean Six Sigma (LSS) has been adopted by a number of HEIs in Ireland,

very few have adopted an integrated LSS approach for waste reduction in the research grant

application process. To identify barriers and waste in the research grant application process

within an Irish HEI in an EU environment, the authors used an online survey deployed to

240 academics and researchers. The survey response rate was 13%. The participating HEI

in this pilot study generated an annual income (including student fees and research income)

exceeding e240 million for the academic year 2017/2018. Using an LSS lens, this paper identified

the primary waste in the research grant application process from an academic and

researcher perspective to be; editing and revising applications, liaising and communicating

with collaborators and waiting for information. Organised thematically, the main barriers

were strategic thinking, collaborator identification and co-ordination, eligibility, process,

time and support & mentoring. The results from this study can be used to inform the next

stage of the research where empirical studies will be carried out in other HEIs to develop a

practical roadmap for the implementation of LSS as an operational excellence improvement

methodology in the research grant application process.

Geological and Mining Law enforced in Poland does not provide adequate regulations assuring financial means for a mine closure and mined land rehabilitation. The gradual accumulation of funds within a framework of a mine rehabilitation fund may not provide the full coverage of costs of all the necessary works in the event the exploitation is terminated before lifting all minable resources.

Regulations defining the duties of mining enterprises lack specific preclusions related to assurance of financial means for mine closures in the event a mining license is issued by a staroste (prefect). To address this problem a simplified estimation method for establishing closing costs is put forward in the first stage. This is based on unified indicators related to deposits’ reserves or acreage used for mining activities.

The equivalent of the closure costs established in this manner shall be paid to an escrow account on a similar basis as means of rehabilitation funds are put aside. However, paying the entire amount either in one (preferably) or two instalments is recommended. The introduction of this recommendation requires an amendment to the Geological and Mining Law as well as securing appropriate competences in staroste’s offices along with a convincing communication campaign.

According to the Grant Map of the Ministry of Development (MoD) as of March-April 2017, there were 1716 urban regeneration (revitalization) projects implemented in Poland between 2007-2013. Data from 11 voivodeships (out of 16 regions NUTS 2 in Poland) and 977 projects was sufficient to provide a representative sample (56,9% of projects presented in the Grant Map). The main methods used in the article included observation and review of MoD statistical data and literature on the subject. As observed by the author, between 2007-2013 the definition of urban regeneration (revitalization) was only mentioned in one of the footnotes to the housing guidelines, which was a poor legal basis for the regional managing authorities. Similarly, there was no solid basis in the strategic documents (national) for that period: they did not provide any definition of revitalization. It was in the interest of the beneficiaries, as well as – partly – in the interest of those managing authorities to satisfy the local needs, especially those needs which were not considered the result of the shift to the post-industrial era, but rather as a result of numerous institutional and political events.

Due to these features, the period 2007-2013 was dominated by infrastructure projects aimed at the quality of life but also efficient in terms of spending European money. It seems that there was an agreement between regional managing authorities and the benefi ciaries (potential voters) as to the way of spending the revitalization funding. This was understood differently at national level, but because institutions at this level were not involved directly in the urban regeneration (revitalization), their influence on regional units was minor. Even more so because the managing authorities were also interested in speeding up the process of spending European resources.