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This year’s ceremony for the presentation of the Copernicus Award in Warsaw at the beginning of June was once again held as an in-person event. DFG President Katja Becker and her Polish counterpart Maciej Żylicz of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) presented awards to Krystyna Radziszewska (University of Łódź) and Sascha Feuchert (Justus Liebig University Giessen) for their outstanding collaboration in the field of Holocaust studies. 2020 winners Stefan Dziembowski (University of Warsaw) and Sebastian Faust (Darmstadt University of Technology) likewise received their awards in person at the ceremony: they had previously only received virtual recognition for their joint research achievement in Theoretical Cryptography.

The event started with introductory words by FNP President Żylicz, DFG President Becker and Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, the German Ambassador in Warsaw. In her welcoming speech, Katja Becker paid tribute to the far-reaching achievements of the award winners. The DFG President also emphasised the particular importance of academic cooperation between Germany and Poland in view of the current situation in Europe. Afterwards, the award winners then gave their acceptance speeches and presented their research to the audience, first Krystyna Radziszewska and Sascha Feuchert, then Stefan Dziembowski and Sebastian Faust.

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The award ceremony took place in the delightful ambience of the Baroque moated castle set amid Warsaw’s Łazienki Park in front of around 70 invited guests. In addition to the award winners, their families, companions and cooperation partners, numerous high-ranking guests from Polish and German science organisations attended the event. For those who were unable to be there in person, the event was broadcast on FNP’s YouTube channel. It was the first time that two cohorts of winners were combined at a single Copernicus Award ceremony, giving this year’s event a distinctive touch.

Every two years, the DFG and FNP confer the Copernicus Award on a German-Polish partnership for outstanding achievements in research and collaboration. The prize money of €200,000 is donated by the DFG and the FNP in equal shares and divided evenly among the award winners. The award ceremony is held alternately in Germany and Poland.

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DFG President Katja Becker also made the most of her trip to Warsaw to meet with the chairs of all of the DFG’s Polish partner organisations. Talks with the FNP, the National Science Centre (NCN) and the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) focused on expanding institutional cooperation and preparing for the next Polish-German Science Meeting in Berlin in October. One key issue at a meeting with German Ambassador Freytag von Loringhoven at the residence of the German Embassy in Warsaw was the implementation of further joint activities with the DFG on site in Warsaw, since German-Polish scientific relations are one of the main pillars in the bilateral relations between the two countries.