More ERC grants for UW researchers, the commissioning of the new building in the upper courtyard, the international Annual Meeting of the 4EU+ Alliance at the University are events that made University of Warsaw end another year on a high note. We write about them and more in the latest issue of the university magazine “UW”.

At the end of September, the most important annual meeting of the 4EU+ Alliance was held at the University of Warsaw for the first time. 250 representatives of the seven partner universities came to Warsaw. During the event, UW took over the presidency of the Alliance (“Warszawski Annual Meeting”, p. 2).

In the autumn, a building in the upper courtyard was opened after major reconstruction, which will serve UW students and administrative employees. Units providing services to Polish and international students will have their headquarters there. At the end of the year, a contract was signed for the construction of another investment – a teaching building in Powiśle (“Dopełnienie kampusu”, p. 6).

Two of our researchers have been awarded prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants. Prof. Adam Izdebski from the Faculty of „Artes Liberales” received the first Synergy grant in the history of the UW, and Prof. Małgorzata Kot from the Faculty of Archaeology received the only Consolidator grant awarded to a Polish scientific institution this year. Both of them will be researching the past – Prof. Adam Izdebski the closer past, and Prof. Małgorzata Kot the past dating back to the beginnings of humankind. We write about their projects in the articles “Zrozumieć pandemie” (p. 20) and “Pytania o ludzki gatunek” (p. 22).

In the issue, you will also read about the research of Prof. Wiktor Lewandowski from the Faculty of Chemistry, which combines photonics, nanotechnology and chirality. For his scientific achievements, he was awarded the NCN Prize in the category of science and technology (“Odkrywać niezauważone”, p. 24).

We also write about research into bio-behavioural matching between caregivers and children (“W jednym rytmie”, p. 19), Poland’s only heavy-ion cyclotron at the UW (“W świecie przyspieszonych cząstek”, p. 26), and new hydrogels that can serve, for example, as modern dressings (“Samonaprawiające się hydrożele”, p. 27).

In this issue, the full line-up of our regular columnists also share their thoughts on university and scientific issues.