From 21 October to 25 November 2014 the project team of the first edition of the all-Poland science and education project called ADAMED SmartUP covered over 5,200 km visiting the 20 best high schools in 18 Polish cities. Meetings with over 1,500 students took place in Warsaw, Łódź, Lublin, Kielce, Krakow, Bielsko-Biała, Opole, Wroclaw, Żary, Poznan, Zamość, Bydgoszcz, Toruń, Gdynia, Gdańsk, Radom, Białystok and Olsztyn.

“Through the cycle of meetings with the pupils we wanted to reach the most talented young people and encourage them to take part in the recruitment for our programme. ADAMED SmartUP was created by the Adamed Group Foundation to support the scientific development of talented youth in the scope of exact and natural sciences. There is a lot at stake – the award will be the participation in a 2-week-long innovative scientific camp as well as a 10-month knowledge-based care in the form of educational coaching. The best will be granted scientific scholarships tailored to their individual needs,” explains Anna Kosińska, Project Manager of ADAMED SmartUP project.

Each of the meetings had a different character; however, they had one common element – the Polish high schools students who took a scientific career very seriously. They asked endless questions. They were interested in the kind of tasks they needed to do, the type of puzzles they had to solve to make it to the next stage of the programme, or the form of the scholarship for the laureates. The young people surprised with their maturity and determination and the meetings only confirmed that they know perfectly how much time and effort is needed to achieve success. They are also aware that their chances to develop their own passions will be higher if they take part in this type of initiative.