On Wednesday, 13 May the Ministry of Science and Higher Education announced the results of the competition for National Leading Research Centres (Krajowe Naukowe Ośrodki Wiodące - KNOW). Another four units received this elite status, raising the total number of its holders to ten. This time the Ministry awarded leaders in the area of biological sciences, earth sciences and life sciences, who will receive additional grants of up to 50 million zlotys.   

The new ‘flagships' of Polish Science include the Jagiellonian Scientific and Business Consortium for Biomolecular and Cellular Research (Cell-Mol-Tech), which gained the status in the field of biological sciences and is a joint project of the JU Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology and the Jagiellonian Centre of Innovation. The Consortium conducts unique interdisciplinary research in the area of biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology, as well as molecular and cellular biology, funded by more than 120 different research grants. The research topics include the causes of periodontosis or the mechanisms of staphylococcal infections. The Molecular Bioenergetics Group, which belongs to the Consortium, is one of the world leaders in the area of cellular respiration research.

The collaboration between the world class scientists and innovation managers allows the research results to find practical application as soon as possible. The Jagiellonian Centre of Innovation is one of the most effective research support and implementation institutions in Poland. More than a dozen companies are involved in its technological park. The Centre has also established JCI Venture – a seed fund which has enabled the establishment of 10 companies, which have received 11 patent applications and patents for their technologies since 2007. 

The KNOW status will enable the creation of several new research groups, raising the most successful researchers' salaries and employment of the most talented doctors and professors from Poland and abroad. The Consortium will also organise internships and work placement for students in the firms implementing the research results. Good cooperation between researchers and innovative companies will create a local job market for biological study programmes graduates.

Applying for KNOW status is only possible for the units that conduct highest quality research, are entitled to award academic degrees, run doctoral programmes of study related to the conducted research and provide students with the highest quality of education. The list of the awarded units has been published on the website of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

The granting of KNOW status to the best research centres is part of the higher education system reform of 2011. This was the second edition of the competition. The results of the first one were announced in 2012, when six units were selected as National Leading Research Centres, including three in the field of exact sciences and three in the area of broadly understood medical sciences. They include the Research Consortium of the JU Medical College Faculty of Medicine and the Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Marian Smoluchowski Kraków Research Consortium "Matter-Energy-Future", whose member institutions include the JU Facutly of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science and the JU Faculty of Chemistry.