We are happy to announce that SWPS University, as one of two non-public higher education institutions in Poland, has been granted close to PLN 12 million from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the program Regional Excellence Initiative. In total, 30 higher education institutions received funds for strategic initiatives from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Our project titled “Support for the research strategy of SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities for the years 2019-2022, in the area of social sciences (psychology, sociology and political science)” has been awarded PLN 11,985,347.
SWPS University’s Research Strategy 2019-2022
The winning project, comprising strategic initiatives in the discipline of social sciences, in particular psychology, sociology and political sciences, will be implemented at our Warsaw campus. The above-noted disciplines have been included in the strategy of the Mazovian Province (central Poland) as one of the research and development specializations for the region.
The project is a great opportunity to develop an effective model of cooperation and financing related to research and development at SWPS University. It will also contribute to the multifaceted development of our research and innovation centers. A part of the grant, PLN 6 million, has been earmarked for SWPS University’s Research Development Fund. It will be used to finance theoretical and applied research and purchases of new laboratory equipment. The remaining funds will enable integration and coordination of a research network, organization of training sessions, participation in conferences and visits in other research centers as well as knowledge brokering services provided by our Center for Knowledge Transfer.
Moreover, the grant will support international exchange and mobility of academics and publication of monographs and articles in international academic journals. The implementation of the project will take four years, from January 2019 to December 2022.
Thanks to the Regional Excellence Imitative, SWPS University will consolidate its position as a leading research center in the area of social sciences in the Mazovian Province and will be able to support theoretical and applied research projects and improve its laboratory infrastructure.
Professor Grzegorz Sędek, Vice-Rector for Research at SWPS University
Regional Excellence Strategy
The aim of the Regional Excellence Strategy, developed by the Ministry of Sciences and Higher Education, is to support strategies of research and development, commercialization of research results and intensive development of higher education institutions across Poland. The competition was open to higher education institutions with a research and development potential in a given region. The requirement was that universities were authorized to grant academic degrees and titles in certain disciplines. The intention was to support all regions of Poland and various scientific disciplines. The disciplines invited to compete included:
- humanities, social sciences and arts
- life sciences
- science and engineering.
However, the focus on the disciplines varied from region to region, which was dictated by the research potential in the given discipline and the regional specializations, i.e. the economic and research priorities identified for a given region.
The top four provinces, in terms of the number of applications submitted for the competition, included the Mazovian Province (10 applications), Silesia (9), West-Pomeranian (7) and the Lubusz Province (7). The winners comprised higher education institutions of diverse profiles, including arts, humanities, social sciences, technical, medical, economic and marine.