Renewed team of the PolSCA Office!

News

We are pleased to announce that on 1st October 2020, Ms Joanna Komperda was entrusted with tasks as an expert of the PolSCA Office. Such strengthening the PolSCA Team is a positive result of the recruitment process completed in summer this year. Thanks to this, the PolSCA Office will be able to carry out its tasks more efficiently – especially towards the scientific community of the Polish Academy of Sciences – at the arrival of the new Horizon Europe framework program.

Who we are?

Dr. Tomasz Poprawka is a graduate of the Poznan University of Life Sciences where he obtained his master’s degree in biotechnology. In the years 2002–2003 he participated in the ‘Advances Studies in Molecular Biotechnology’ program at the University of Ghent in Belgium. In 2004, he started his four-year doctoral studies at the John Innes Center in Norwich in Great Britain. After receiving his PhD from the University of East Anglia, he moved to the National Institute of Basic Biology in Okazaki (Japan) as part of the JSPS scholarship. In 2010, he returned to Poland and joined the team of the Foundation for Polish Science, where he was involved in overseeing the implementation of programs financed from FNP own funds and programs financed under the ERDF, i.e. he coordinated the work of two teams implementing projects financed under EU structural funds for years 2014-2020. Since November 2018, he has been part of the PolSCA team in Brussels, where as an expert he was involved in monitoring science, research and innovation policy at the European Union level. In June 2020, he began a 4-year term as the Director of the Polish Science Contact Agency in Brussels.

Dr. Justyna Kramarczyk is an expert in the Polish Science Contact Agency in Brussels since June 2020. Justyna is is a doctor of social sciences with professional experience in multinational environment. She graduated in sociology and administration at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. She is experienced in carrying out research and communicating its results – she has participated in numerous research projects (e.g. in 2015-2018 she was the head of the grant of the National Science Center devoted to the slow life phenomenon), the results of which she presented during many international scientific conferences. As an expert, she is in charge of monitoring following areas of the research and innovation’ s EU policy: scientific mobility (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions #MSCA), higher education (# Erasmus +, #European Universities), social sciences and humanities (#SSH) , gender equality (#GenderEquality), cooperation between science and society (e.g. #Missions). In addition, she is responsible for the administrative support and communication activities under which she takes care of the PolSCA’s website and FB profile.

Joanna Komperda holds a master’s degree in history of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She was a CLIOHRES.NET scholarship holder. For several years she was involved in a number of documentarian projects dealing with social history of Central Europe in the 20th century, when she cooperated – among others – with The Foundation of the KARTA Centre and History Meeting House in Warsaw. Between 2012 and 2019 she was working for National Science Centre, one of Polish funding agencies, supporting basic research, where she was involved in two scientific networks: Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe and ERA-NET COFUND BiodivERsA. Since 2015 she was managing the POLONEZ mobility programme – under MSCA Cofund of Horizon 2020 – with a budget of approx. 21 M EUR. At the PolSCA Office’s activities, Joanna monitores EU R&I policy in areas such as: scientific excellence (European Research Council #ERC), regional policy and in the field of innovation (European Innovation Council #EIC). In addition, she is the leading expert at the PolSCA team in the areas of climate science and biodiversity, environment and bioeconomy (clusters 5 and 6 of Horizon Europe).

Polish Science Contact Agency in Brussels – main tasks

The PolSCA office carries out its statutory tasks mainly by promoting, facilitating and developing the participation of the Polish scientific community in European projects and initiatives, and in particular – by increasing the participation of scientific communities associated with the Polish Academy of Sciences in the European Union framework programs. These goals are achieved through a range of possible tasks, including:

  • monitoring of EU policies in the field of research and innovation and the transfer of this knowledge to the scientific community in the country,
  • promotion and expert support for the participation of Polish partners in the framework program,
  • cooperation with national and international organizations operating in the research and innovation area,
  • organization of events that are a forum for open exchange of knowledge and experience.

These activities will be crucial in the perspective of the next several months, i.e. during the preparation and launch of the first calls under the next EU framework program for research and innovation – Horizon Europe. In the light of this, the PolSCA intensively monitors current works on Horizon Europe, but also ongoing updates in Horizon 2020 (e.g. EU Green Deal Call). These actions are implemented in conjunction with the efficient translation of acquired knowledge into stakeholder environments, especially within the Academy. It is worth adding that it will be helpful to strengthen existing and develop new communication channels and structures within the Polish Academy of Sciences, i.e. dedicated network for EU framework programme experts as well as a selection of thematic expert networks. We hope for adequate involvement of project support offices – as well as researchers themselves – in searching for the possibilities of participating in planned calls. The PolSCA activities will be shaped by partner dialogue with the scientific community in Poland, and in particular with the Polish Academy of Sciences.


We encourage you to follow the activity of the PolSCA Office on our website, as well as on the Facebook profileIf you want to receive similar information and to be regularly updated via PolSCA Office, subscribe to our newsletter!

Published: 2020-10-08, T. Poprawka

Translated: 2020-10-22, T. Poprawka

Visuals: @Freepik.com


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