The Copernicus Award is a joint initiative of the Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej (FNP, Foundation for Polish Science) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). The award is conferred every two years to two researchers, one in Germany and one in Poland, for outstanding achievements in Polish-German research cooperation in all fields of science and the humanities. The DFG and the FNP now invite nominations for the award, which will be presented for the ninth time.

The purpose of the Copernicus Award is to recognise researchers active in Polish-German research cooperation who have reached exceptional achievements in their field as a result of that cooperation. In particular, researchers are expected to have rendered outstanding services to Polish-German research cooperation by bringing together complementary skills, expertise, and resources in order to jointly address research problems. The results of such cooperation should be of significant relevance for the respective research community and have future potential to open up new perspectives in the respective research field or also beyond.

The award is granted on the basis of an open competition that invites nominations from all fields of science and the humanities. The prize money of €200,000 is donated in equal shares by the DFG and the FNP, and the award is divided equally between the two recipients. Funds should be used to intensify Polish-German research cooperation.

Members of the Polish and German academic communities are invited to nominate candidates. Only researchers who have at least a doctoral degree and are currently working at universities and/or research institutions in Germany and Poland are eligible to nominate candidates. Self-nominations will also be considered. To be eligible, candidates must also have at least a doctoral degree, work at a public university and/or a research institution in Germany or any entity belonging to the higher education and science system in Poland, lead a research team at a Polish or German research institution, and be engaged in ongoing research projects. Nominations of female researchers are encouraged.

Nominations must contain the following documents in English:

• An appraisal (description of achievements with regard to German-Polish research cooperation).
• Curricula vitae in tabular form (max. two pages).
• A list of up to ten publications based on verifiable joint research in support of the achievement(s).
• An additional independent letter of reference for each pair of researchers when the nomination is submitted by a third party, two independent letters of reference for self-nominations.

The jury evaluates the merit of nominations based on the academic excellence of joint achievements and the success of the cooperation, both with special relevance to the respective subject area. The jury consists of six jury members – renowned researchers from the German and Polish academic communities. In order to cover all fields of science and the humanities represented by the candidates, up to four associate jury members may additionally be appointed.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Tuesday, 20 July 2021. Nominations must be submitted electronically using elan, the DFG’s submission portal: https://elan.dfg.de/en.

Registration

If you are using the elan portal for the first time, please register before 6 July 2021. This applies to nominations by third parties. For self-nominations, both cooperation partners must be registered in elan. Please also indicate your subject area and select the call “Copernicus Award 2022” during the registration.

Submission

To start the online form for the submission process, please select in the navigation bar “Proposal Submission” and go to “Nominations”. In order to complete the submission process, the electronic compliance form (Quittung) needs to be printed out, signed and the hardcopy must be mailed to the following address:

• Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
  PED
  Kennedyallee 40
  53175 Bonn
  Germany

Please also send a scan of the signed electronic form as PDF to Stephanie Lass 
(stephanie.lass@dfg.de ).

The prize winners will be announced within nine months from the nomination deadline. The award ceremony will take place in Poland in June 2022.

Further Information

For more information about the Copernicus Award please visit:

• www.dfg.de/copernicus_award
• www.fnp.org.pl/en/oferta/the-polish-german-scientific-award-copernicus

Submission portal for nominations:

• https://elan.dfg.de/en

For technical assistance, please contact the elan hotline:

• Phone +49 228 885-2900
  elan-helpdesk@dfg.de

DFG programme contacts:

• Dr. Annina Lottermann
  phone +49 228 885-2802
  annina.lottermann@dfg.de
• Stephanie Lass
  phone + 49 228 885-2442
  stephanie.lass@dfg.de

FNP programme contact:

• Dr. Monika Biłas-Henne
  phone + 48 604 129-087
  bilas@fnp.org.pl

The DFG takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding, which can be downloaded at: www.dfg.de/privacy_policy

Please forward this information to the persons nominated whose data you upload. Insofar as there is a legitimate interest (e.g. secrecy), the persons nominated by you must be informed not later than when the decision to nominate is being published.