General Information
Bilateral cooperation with national academies of sciences and their equivalent units is based mainly on agreements with 66 institutions (more than 20 of which exist over 20 years) from 41 countries. Such collaboration involves conducting joint research projects, organizing study visits, establishing joint commissions, teams, or expert groups, as well as providing scholarship and training programs for junior researchers.
The Academy’s units have signed ca. 740 agreements with foreign research centers. Basing on these agreements, the Academy’s research centers and foreign scientific institutes are able to develop and implement joint research projects.
Furthermore, the Academy acts as a coordinator of academic cooperation of all its centers, a number of institutions of higher education and affiliated institutes with foreign partners. Collaboration between centers and individual scholars, in turn, develops steadily and independently of formal agreements.
As for multilateral cooperation, the Polish Academy of Sciences is a member of the European Science Foundation (ESF), the European Federation of National Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA), the InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP); it develops collaboration with the NATO Scientific Directorate. The Academy coordinates activities resulting form Poland’s collaboration with the International Center for Mechanical Sciences (CISM) in Udine, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg (Austria), and the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in Trieste and New Delhi. The Academy‘s centers and their scholars participate in the research programs implemented by UNESCO, WHO, UNIDO and other UN-based organizations, as well as projects coordinated by the International Agency for Atomic Energy (IAEA), the European Center for Nuclear Studies (CERN) and the International Center for Nuclear Research in Dubna. More and more frequently the Academy’s research teams together with their colleagues from EU countries carry out joint research undertakings co-financed under the Framework Programs or participate in EUREKA projects.
The tradition of establishing foreign PAN centers continues. Their purpose is to promote the achievements of Polish science, help establish contacts with foreign partners and facilitate academic cooperation. A number of research programs are conducted by the Academy’s polar stations on Spitsbergen and King George Island (the Antarctic).
The Academy has initiated the establishment of international research institutions in Poland, for instance, the Stefan Banach International Mathematical Center, the International Center of Biocybernetics, the International Laboratory of High Magnetic Fields and Low Temperatures, the French-Polish Center of Plant Biotechnology, the International Center for Ecology, and the UNESCO-sponsored International Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology involved in improving the qualifications of both Polish and foreign scholars and researchers.
As is traditional, the Polish Academy of Sciences coordinates the cooperation of the Polish scientific community with international scientific organizations such as the International Council for Science (ICSU), all its scientific unions and the majority of affiliated organizations and committees. The collaboration with these organizations is carried out by the National Committees established by the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences, or the Academy’s Scientific Committees.
