Polish-Russian Youth Exchange 2020
The competition "Polish-Russian Youth Exchange 2020" received the fewest (39) applications in its history. Applicants requested funding for their projects in the total amount of PLN 2,458,485.86, which gives an average of PLN 63,038. The highest amount applied for was PLN 195,566, and the lowest PLN 20,520. Applications provided for an exchange of 1,572 young Poles and Russians together with their tutors.
The ranking of the proposed topics was as follows:
1. "Our planet, our place, our responsibility. How youth in Poland and Russia can care for the future of Earth" – 13 applications.
2. "Where there are no words, music will speak. The place of music in our lives" – 12 applications.
3 "To stop reading books is to stop thinking" What do Polish and Russian Nobel Prize winners in literature teach us? – 6 applications.
4. "Is sole entrepreneurship an attractive career choice for young people in Poland and Russia" – 5 applications.
5. "The limits of my language are the limits of my world" – Ludwig Wittgenstein. How to teach a foreign language and what does knowing it bring us in the modern world – 3 applications.
Most applications came from Wielkopolskie Voivodeship – 8, followed by Pomorskie Voivodeship – 6, Warmia and Mazury – 5, 4 applications each from Kujawsko-Pomorskie and Śląskie Voivodeships, 3 applications from Mazowieckie Voivodeships, 2 each from Opolskie and Lubelskie Voivodeships and 1 each from Dolnośląskie, Świętokrzyskie, Łódzkie, Zachodniopomorskie and Małopolskie Voivodeships. As far as Russian partners are concerned, three areas traditionally dominated: the Kaliningrad Oblast – 14 partners, St. Petersburg – 8, Moscow and Moscow Oblast – 7, two partners each represented Archangelsk and Nizhny Novgorod, and the rate was completed by Chita, Yaroslavl, Omsk, Orel, Izhevsk and Bryansk.
One application was rejected at the stage of formal assessment, and out of 38 sent for consideration by the Competition Commission, at its meeting in April, 30 projects were recommended for co-financing. Finally, on the basis of the decisions of the Director of the Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding, it was decided to co-finance 21 projects for a total amount of PLN 1,199,342.14. The grants ranged from PLN 31,498 to 88,000.
Due to the continuing state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent closure of borders, it proved impossible to implement the projects to which co-financing was granted in 2020. The director of the CPRDU offered the applicants the possibility to postpone the implementation of the winning competition projects until 2021. The willingness to carry out their projects in 2021 was expressed by 20 out of 21 applicants who were awarded co-financing.