Scientific activity

For 55 years, i.e. since the Institute came into existence, a scientific title of Professor has been conferred on 25 researchers, and a degree of D.Sc. on 45 scientists. Moreover, since 1971, 178 scientists have been awarded a Ph.D. degree (in 149 case as a result of research done at the Institute).

The Institute has been cooperating with Poland's pharmaceutical industry for many years. This cooperation consists in research and systematic testing of new products and generic drugs, as well as in giving lectures and training in pharmacology.

Since 1984 the Institute has organized Winter Schools dedicated to the latest achievements and directions in the development of neuropsychopharmacology all over the world. Participants of these schools are scientists workers of the Institute and researchers from centres cooperating with the Institute and from similar institutions. Up to the present twenty seven such schools have been organized.

The Institute has been implementing long-term collaborative scientific projects with a number of foreign research centers. The most comprehensive ones have been carried out jointly with the Psychopharmacologic Laboratory at the Roskilde Psychiatric Hospital (Denmark), the CNR Institute of Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology in Rome (Italy), the Max Planck Psychiatric Institute in Martinsried (Germany), the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen (Germany), the Department of Physiology, University of Heidelberg (Germany), the Department of Neurochemistry, Philipps University in Marburg (Germany), the Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, Free University in Berlin (Germany), the Department of Comparative Psychology and Physiology of the Nijmegen University (the Netherlands), the Department of Toxicology, University of Cagliari (Italy), the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg (Germany), the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Philipps University in Marburg (Germany), the Rudolf Magnus Institute, University Medical Centre in Utrecht (the Netherlands), the Department of Psychiatry, Medical Centre of the Vanderbilt University in Nashville (USA), the Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University in Atlanta (USA), the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (USA), INSERM, the French Institute of Hygiene and Medical Research in Montpellier (France), the Institute of Biochemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged (Hungary), the Research Laboratory Novartis in Basel (Switzerland), the International Research Institute Servier in Coubervoie (France), the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague (Czech), Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University of Gottingen (Germany), Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Ulm (Germany), Institute of Medicinal Chemistry, Losanna University of Technology (Switzerland), the Laboratory of Endocrinology, Semmelweis University od Medicine in Budapest (Hungary), and the Pavlov State Medical University of Saint Petersburg (Russia).
This multilateral cooperation has already brought about a number of important joint publications and an exchange of scientists.

The exchange of scientists in the years 1986-2009 resulted in 89 long term scientific visits abroad, 605 short-term visits and 962 attendances at foreign congresses and symposia. In the same period, 533 foreign visits were paid to the Institute's departments and laboratories.

In the years 1955-2009, 5173 papers were published (of which 2979 were original) and 20 patents were granted to the Institute's scientists.

Up to the present the Institute's researchers have received, among others, two prizes of Prime Minister of Poland for outstanding scientific achievements, three prizes of the International Anna Monika Foundation, four Jędrzej Śniadecki's prizes from the Medical Division of the Polish Academy of Sciences, eleven prizes of the Scientific Secretary of the Polish Academy of Sciences, eleven scientific prizes of the Medical Division of of the Polish Academy of Sciences, three Prime Minister's prizes for outstanding doctoral dissertations, five prizes of the T. Browicz's Fund of the Medical Division of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU), one prize of the Aurelia Baczko Foundation, nine prizes of the Polish Society of Pharmacology, one prize of the Polish Society of Endocrinology, one diploma honoris causa Award of the European Federation of Pharmacological Societies, one Honorary Award of the Aurelia Baczko Foundation, three Copernicus prizes of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU) and city of Cracow, one Prix Leonardo - Magna cum Laude (for screenplay and animation of the picture: The Neuronal Activity of Antidepressiva), sixteen scholarships of Foundation for Polish Science for Young Scientists, and one prize of Minister of National Education.