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An international team of experts including, among others, recipients of grants from the European Research Council (ERC) from leading European research institutions- has completed the evaluation of applications submitted by 28 top Polish universities as part of the second "Excellence Initiative- Research University" competition. The first edition of the competition took place in 2019. In this current edition, the application from the Medical University of Białystok (MUB) was ranked by the international panel of reviewers as one of the best in the country, securing the university a place among the 10 prestigious winners. MUB is the only medical university in this group, as well as the only institution located east of the Vistula River.

On Thursday, November 5, 2026, a gala was held at the Kubicki Arcades in Warsaw, attended by the Minister of Science and Higher Education, Marcin Kulasek PhD, the Ministry’s leadership, and representatives from the universities participating in the competition. During the event, international experts commended the highly ambitious university development program proposed by the Medical University of Białystok. The primary author of the proposal, the Rector of the Medical University of Białystok, prof. Marcin Moniuszko, shared his immediate reactions to the competition results:

This is arguably one of the best days in the history of the Medical University of Białystok, and I can hardly hide the fact that it is one of the happiest professional days of my life. I am immensely pleased that recognized authorities, representing outstanding scientific institutions from across Europe, have highly rated the Medical University of Białystok’s development program for the next six years. This is a great honor, but also a significant commitment. To give just a few examples: we will establish an international centre that integrates multi-omic and clinical data, which will serve to create a "Factory for Clinically Validated Medical Algorithms" and the CEENEMA project- a Central and Eastern European Multi-omic Cancer Map. We will launch a Centre for Demographic Resilience, building upon our extensive existing experience with adult population cohorts, while also extending our observations to the pediatric population in the northeastern region of Poland through the NEBICO cohort. Leveraging our region’s unique location, we will establish a Centre for Research on Resilience to External Threats (geopolitical, environmental, and infectious), which will serve as a European laboratory for resilience against crisis factors. We will form new interdisciplinary research teams, introduce new fields of study, and open our Doctoral School even more widely to the international candidates. All of this is taking place within the framework of the NEREI (North-East Research Excellence Institute) regional alliance, for which I have invited the Podlaskie Voivodeship, the Białystok University of Technology, the University of Białystok, and the Polish Academy of Sciences to join as partners. We also aim to support the economy of our region and the country by revolutionizing at least a portion of the food production and processing market, shifting it toward high-margin functional foods. And these are just a few of the many ideas and proposals we have for our university and our region. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the entire MUB community, and in particular to those members of the academic, teaching, and administrative staff who supported me in preparing the competition proposal.

IDUB is a program that supports universities with the greatest research and teaching potential. Through additional funding, the program’s beneficiaries can enhance the quality of their research and education, develop their capabilities, and compete more effectively with top universities in Europe and worldwide. These extra resources will enable the institutions to invest even more boldly in research excellence. According to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, this represents an investment not only in the development of individual universities but also in the competitiveness of the entire Polish science and higher education system.

In addition to the prestigious status of a "research university," the winners will receive a 10% increase in their core funding. These resources will be used to develop research potential, internationalize operations, improve the quality of education for students and doctoral candidates, and carry out ambitious scientific projects.

The winners of the second edition of the "Excellence Initiative- Research University" program are: AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Gdańsk University of Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Medical University of Białystok, University of Warsaw  and University of Wrocław.