Infrastruktura - Środowisko - Energia
Dodatek promocyjno-reklamowy do "RZECZPOSPOLITEJ".
20 grudnia 2006 r.

po polsku

The value of every nation lies in its young, intelligent and active people

10 years of Nowicki Foundation

The origins of Nowicki Foundation date back 10 years when Professor Maciej Nowicki, scientist, minister in the transformation period and expert in many international institutions, was awarded "Der Deutsche Umweltpreis" - the biggest environmental protection prize in Europe. Already while being awarded the prize, Professor Nowicki said that he would use a substantial part of the prize money (350 000 German Marks) to establish a foundation to support the best environmental studies graduates in Poland since, as he said, "the greatest value of every nation lies in its young, intelligent and active people".

For the past 10 years, the Nowicki Foundation has been organizing every year an all-Poland competition to select 15-17 laureates. They were indeed the best students of the year, with average marks of around 4.4-4.9 and excellent knowledge of foreign languages. Their masters dissertations were nearly of a doctoral level.

The competition prize was a 6-12 month scholarship abroad (1000 euros per month). Naturally, the resources committed to this goal by Professor Nowicki would have finished a long time ago if it had not been for the unexpected and immense help from the German foundation Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU). Given the noble aim to which the prize money was devoted, DBU assigned a total of 3.5 million German Marks to support the initiative. From then on it became a joint scholarship programme, an excellent example of the Polish-German cooperation.

Around 1500 laureates benefited from the programme by completing their research stays in Germany. It was particularly advantageous for them to expand their knowledge with practical experience in the best scientific institutions, companies or administrative bodies of one of the world's leading countries in the area of environmental protection. It is worth emphasizing that young Poles were always perceived as highly educated, intelligent, friendly and unpretentious. They were excellent ambassadors of Poland, reinforcing the positive image of their country and offering professional cooperation based on partnership in the future.

Almost all trainees returned to Poland. Half of them pursued a scientific career (33 persons were awarded a doctoral degree) and over 30% is now employed in consulting and production companies. Only 10% of them works in the administration.

The Foundation stays in contact with its laureates. Three-week annual seminars organized every autumn bring scholars together and help tighten links between them. A result of these events is the creation of the "Environment for Environment" association which has recently showed its potential by organizing a high-level scientific conference entitled "Innovation in environmental protection". In Professor Nowicki's opinion, these young people constitute now the strongest and most versatile group of professionals in this field in Poland. Now they are taking over the professor's initiative to promote the best. Thus, the seed planted 10 years ago now produces fruit a hundredfold. n

www.fundnowickiego.pl