In early April, the National Centre for Nuclear Research hosted the launch of the 4NEW project, which aims to support the development of skills and human resources for the nuclear sector in Poland. As part of the project, a delegation from the NCBJ and the project leader from the Silesian University of Technology had the opportunity to meet with Swedish partners involved in the skills support programme for the nuclear energy sector. This is an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience that will be invaluable for Poland, where this branch of the energy sector is just emerging.

In June, the latest edition of the Global 2000 list, compiled by the Center for World University Rankings and featuring the world’s top universities, was published. In this year’s ranking, the National Centre for Nuclear Research remains among the top 4.2% of universities worldwide and occupies a high seventh place in Poland.

In June, a team from the National Centre for Nuclear Research took part in the International Invention and Innovation Show in Katowice. This is one of Europe’s most important events dedicated to innovation, inventions and modern technologies. The innovative solutions developed at the NCBJ were honoured with prestigious awards.

As in previous years, the awards of director of Department of Fundamental Research for scientific achievements and science outreach in 2025 were presented. On June 1, 2026, a special departmental colloquium was held, during which the awards were presented and the winners lectured on their honored achievements.

The 12th edition of the Polish Chemistry Congress will soon take place in Warsaw. The National Centre for Nuclear Research has assumed honorary patronage of this prestigious event. One of the topics covered during the congress will be nuclear energy and its application in the chemical industry.

Dr Eng. Hisham Elgendy from the National Centre for Nuclear Research has received funding under the MINIATURA 10 programme run by the National Science Centre. The grant will enable the development of nuclear technologies for future space propulsion systems.

An international team of scientists, including Aleksander Augustyn, a fourth-year doctoral student at the Doctoral School of the National Centre for Nuclear Research, has directly observed the exceptionally rapid alpha decay of tellurium-104 for the first time. The results of the study, published today in the prestigious journal Nature, show that this unstable atomic nucleus decays in a matter of nanoseconds. Tellurium-104 is the fastest known alpha emitter from the ground state.

Due to their high strength and thermal stability, refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCA) can be used in applications where components are exposed to extreme conditions. However, a thorough understanding of their properties and behavior during operation is necessary before they can be implemented. A team of scientists from the NOMATEN Centre of Excellence and Materials Research Laboratory at NCBJ combined experimental methods with computer simulations to study the MoTaW alloy.

Scientists from the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) have investigated the properties of a new scintillation material that could be used in advanced radiation detectors capable of simultaneously distinguishing between several types of radiation. The research results were published on 26 March 2026 in the international journal *Journal of Instrumentation* (DOI: 10.1088/1748-0221/21/03/P03049).

An international team studying data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope concludes the mission detected a rare, unusually luminous supernova. The researchers say it likely received its power-up from a supermagnetized neutron star born in the stellar collapse that triggered the explosion. An astrophysicist from the National Centre for Nuclear Research took part in the project.