University of Warsaw

The University of Warsaw, established in 1816, is Poland’s largest university. It employs over 6,200 people and educates almost 53,700 undergraduate and graduate students in 19 faculties. In the EURYKA project, the work will be conducted by the Youth Research Centre (OBM) which forms part of the Institute of Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Re-socialization. OBM is both a research center and an academic unit. During last 24 years, OBM conducted several research and specializes in Polish youth, including such issues as value studies, education, unemployment, participation, social and educational exclusion, life styles and other fields. Members of the OBM team served as experts and evaluators for governmental and non-governmental institutions, such as Ministry of Education, The Chancellery of the Prime Minister, National Agency of EU programmes (Youth, Erasmus +). Members of the OBM team were country coordinators of EU-funded projects (GAPP, EAL-NET).

Marcin Sinczuch is the principal investigator of the Polish team. He is a sociologist specialized in youth studies with a special focus on issues such as culture, communication, education and school-to-work transition. Sinczuch obtained his PhD at Warsaw University (Institute of Sociology) in 2002. Since 2003, he holds the position of adjunct at the Youth Research Center, Institute of Applied Social Sciences of the University of Warsaw. He teaches sociology (methodology, youth studies, youth and military) and cultural anthropology. He has participated in many European projects on youth, career paths, science, research and development. Selected projects include: the project on “Human Resources in Research and Development: Monitoring System on Career Paths and Mobility Flows (MOMO)”; and the project “EAL-NET” (introduction of ALMA LAUREA system at selected European universities). He has also been the country coordinator of GAPP project (‘‘Gender Awareness Participation Process’’, EU FP6). Parallel to his research activities, Sinczuch works as an expert at the Ministry of Education, and an expert at Ministry of National Defence. He is also a former member of the Board of Experts on Youth Research (Council of Europe) and country correspondent of the European Knowledge Centre for Youth Policy (Council of Europe) member of consulting board of Youth in Action/Erasmus + Programs (Poland), and a Member of the Board of Sociology of Youth and Education Section (Polish Sociological Association). 

Ewa Giermanowska  is a senior lecturer and researcher at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw, (now the Department of Preventive Functions of Social Policy; before the Centre for Youth Studies). She has PhD in Sociology since 2000. She will bring into the project extensive knowledge on issues pertaining to shaping the new labor relations, young people entry on the labor market, employment of persons with disabilities, the quality of higher education. The issue of entry of young people into the labor market is her main focus since the beginning of her scientific activity in the Youth Problems Research Institute and the Institute of Applied Social Sciences. She has carried out empirical projects on unemployment of young people in local communities. She also works on non-standard forms of employment and the use of this type of contracts in relation to school leavers, graduates and other people. In her publications, she has analyzed issues such as social exclusion, the role of social capital and occupational integration of marginalized groups in the labor market. She basically deals with the effects of youth unemployment on local social policy, the consequences of jobs shortage and employment in non-standard forms for public policies and the pension system. She was an expert and a consultant to many national and international projects relating to young people, such as the project “The White Paper on Polish Youth” which formed the basis for drafting the state strategy towards the youth and project “The Youth Policy of the City of Warsaw”. She has delivered numerous papers and given expertise to national and international organizations on social policy issues including child labor, youth and accidents at work, disabled youth at work, work in the informal economy, quality of employment). Currently, she is engaged in a research team appointed by the Ombudsman dealing with youth unemployment in Poland. Finally, she participates in a project on reconciling professional and family roles by young parents in Poland.