English 
Polish 
The Crystal Brussels Sprouts Prize is awarded by a jury appointed by the National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union. The prize is given for successes in the research and innovation framework programs of the European Union. On December 18, 2020, at the remotely organized Gala, the NCBJ had received the award in the „science – research institute” category, and Dr Jacek Gajewski received an individual award.
„We are happy and honored to receive this award” – said the director of the National Centre for Nuclear Research, prof. Eng. Krzysztof Kurek (https: //youtu. be/nFFup3fX1sk? t=2079). „International cooperation and European projects are particularly important to us. We are mostly physicists, and without international cooperation, physics simply wouldn’t exist. European projects also allow us to develop „big” science, which is basic science, and real innovation and technological breakthroughs relate to basic researches. NCBJ develops both. ”
The NCBJ is among the three leaders of scientific institutions when it comes to the effectiveness of obtaining grants from the Horizon 2020 program. This year, the Crystal Brussels Sprouts Prize in the science category went to two others from „the Big Three” scientific institutions: the University of Warsaw and the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Two winners received an individual award in 2020 (https: //youtu. be/nFFup3fX1sk? t=5412). It is a prof. Magdalena Król from Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW and Dr Jacek Gajewski, representative of the NCBJ Director and coordinator of international projects. It is a great distinction that the scientific director is among the winners. The Director of the National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the European Union, Dr Eng. Zygmunt Krasiński commented on this fact: „The role of science managers, the role of technology brokers is crucial in this innovation research market as well as in the global market. Therefore, I am very pleased that the winners of the individual prize in this year’s competition are both a world-class research leader and a research manager. It is a sign of the times, and these professions should work closely together”.
When receiving the award, Dr Jacek Gajewski, said: „With the great will of our directors – current and previous – we succeeded to build teams at the Institute, to handle write and implement these grants, and I thank them most, because without them I would not have done anything myself. Together we have over 100 international projects. I would also like to draw attention to certain system solutions that contribute to success. We have an internal „Future leaders” program, in which we educate not only future scientific leaders but also project managers.
We sincerely congratulate Dr Jacek Gajewski and all who contributed to the acquisition and implementation of the grants which are the reason for the award of the Institute.
