Dear Madam/Sir, Colleagues,

The Committee on Materials Engineering and Metallurgy of the Polish Academy of Sciences began the year 2025 with hopes for a new start in its interactions with the National Science Centre, to which five issues troubling the materials engineering community in the country were presented. These included (i) the problem of the lack of a preamble for Panel ST 11, which, along with descriptors, is one of the main parameters qualifying project proposals; (ii) the issue of the project manager’s declaration regarding the scientific discipline practiced, which should match that reported for evaluation purposes; (iii) the ongoing problem of directing proposals from the fields of chemistry or physics to Panel ST 11; as well as (iv) the issue of the panel composition responsible for evaluating proposals and recommending them for funding, and the associated (v) incompetence and unreliability of certain reviews.

The response that the Committee and the Polish Society for Materials Science, as representatives of the entire materials engineering community, received from the Chairman of the NCN Council, Prof. Tomasz Dietl, reflected NCN’s reluctance to engage in any dialogue, as well as a lack of understanding of the essence of the Materials Engineering discipline. This response completely disappointing and in a consequence all contact with the NCN Council was frozen.

In June, as a result of the election for Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the status of a Corresponding Member in the Department IV of Technical Sciences in the discipline of Materials Engineering was obtained by Prof. Mirosława El Fray from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, who joined the members of the Committee.

The Committee of Materials Engineering and Metallurgy as well as the Committee of Mechanics of the Polish Academy of Sciences organized a joint meeting at the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. This new initiative was primarily aimed at strengthening the impact on the scientific community working in the two overlapping scientific disciplines. Another important aspect of the meeting was to become familiar with the main research areas and operating principles of the Solaris Centre and the potential cooperation in the field of materials research and characterization, as well as access to the technical resources of the Centre. As a result, a willingness was declared to jointly apply for funding for the purchase of equipment dedicated to research in both mechanics and materials engineering. The coordination of all activities was undertaken by a committee member, who is also the Director of the Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering of PAN, Dr. hab. Joanna Wojewoda-Budka.