The Polish Institute of Advanced Studies (PIASt) began functioning within the structure of the Polish Academy of Sciences on 2 January 2017. We caught up with its director, Prof. Przemysław Urbańczyk, to discuss the Institute’s objectives.

The aim of the paper is to provide hints on how to read Acemoglu and Robinson’s institutional hypothesis. First, we recall the meaning of their inclusive and extractive institutions. Then, we classify and compare the concept to certain approaches present in development economics. Additionally, we outline the perspective of historical research of institutions, raising the approach of historical natural experiments and comparative methods. We claim in the paper that to understand Acemoglu and Robinson’s institutional hypothesis and their strong rejection of other hypotheses on economic development one has to turn back to the basic notion of institutions. We argue that the authors of Why Nations Fail are focused on considering formal institutions only, which impoverishes the research perspective presented in that book.

The article is dedicated to the problems of the functioning of people with disabilities in the Polish penitentiary system. It present theoretical considerations, regarding the nature of imprisonment, adaptation problems, types of adaptation strategies, therapeutic system and its limitations, as well as premises for the implementation of own research.

The article is a modified Polish version of my Director’s report published in the “Annual Report 2017–March 2018” of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (www.iimcb.gov.pl). After 20 years of being in charge of the Institute and a few months before the end of my final term as its director, I summarize our achievements, failures, lost opportunities and recall how it all began. I also give the names of people who formed organizing team of the Institute in the nineties, names of the first International Advisory Board members and names of the Institutes’ directors who will be in charge of it since July 2018.

In this paper we described three Art & Science projects organized by the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology (Polish Academy of Sciences), Marcel Nencki Foundation for the Support of Biological Sciences and the Art Department of the University of Rzeszów. First project, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Nencki Institute, was entitled “Biological imaging: inspiration by invisible world” and took place in Mikołajki in 2017. Next two projects were relating to “Art of Biodiversity” (Rzeszów, 2018) and “Power of Biological Structures” (Przeworsk, 2019). The aim of the projects was to introduce ideas of modern experimental biology to artist. All symposia/workshops were followed by few exhibitions at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Art Department of the University of Rzeszów, etc. Some of paintings originated during these projects established Nencki Art Collection, collection of modern art at Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology.

The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, one of the largest nonacademic biological research centres in Poland, celebrates its 100th anniversary. The Institute was established in 1918 by the Scientific Society of Warsaw. In 1945, after World War II, it was re-established in Łódź and in 1952 incorporated into the newly founded Polish Academy of Sciences. During the period of 1953–1955 a newly erected building at 3 Pasteur Street in Warsaw became the home of the Nencki Institute. Today, the Nencki Institute strives for excellence in basic research in the broad sense of biological sciences. Neurosciences and biological and molecular basic of civilization diseases represent two main research areas of the Institute in the context of the society needs to improve the quality of life. One of the strategic activities of the Institute is investments in bio- imaging.This has recently resulted in inclusion of the Institute in the EUROBIOIMAGING project of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). An excellent example of a synergy of basic and innovative studies is the Neurobiology Centre established at the Nencki Institute in 2010–2013 as part of a strategic project entitled the CePT. Additionally, the Nencki Institute trains nearly 200 PhD students under various programmes, including the H2020.

The activity of territorial self-government shaped institutionally during the development process is characterized by a significant scope of care for the financial situation, which determines the efficiency of its functioning. The general availability of public services is a condition for the assessment of the activities of municipalities (powiats, voivodeships). Institutional economy as a real one, takes into account an integrated point of view. The aim of the study is to present the territorial differentiation of the eff ectiveness of communes’ activities in the context of institutional economics and to present the possibility of using a synthetic measure in this process. The synthetic measure of development fluctuated within the limits of 0.30 – Wąchock (Starachowice poviat, urban-rural commune) to 0.41 – Ostrowiec Św. (Ostrowiecki poviat, urban commune) in 2009, 0.32 – Łączna (Skarżysko poviat, rural commune) to 0.40 – Starachowice (Starachowice poviat, municipal commune) in 2015. The results of the analysis confirm the existence of small differences in the assessment of development communes of the Kamienna Basin. This approach allows the assessment of municipalities using one size and allows you to organize the analyzed objects in terms of the considered phenomenon.

The Department of Theology Section in Tarnów was established formally as a result of transformation of The Institute of Theology in Tarnów. This Institute was founded in 1822 for educating the clergy serving Tarnów diocese and its activities were always strongly connected to the Seminary in Tarnów. Since the communists took control over our country in 1945, the Institute existed only formally, but in fact, it was always identified with The Seminary in Tarnów.

Bishop professor habilitated doctor Józef Życiński, who was at that time the Tarnów bishop, transformed the Institute of Theology into the Theology and Pastoral Institute and strongly contributed to its aggregation to the Theology Department of the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Kraków in 1993. Since then, the graduates of the Institute have had the opportunity to obtain the MA degree in theology. Thanks to efforts of bishop doctor Wiktor Skworc, the Congregation of the Catholic Education established the Department of Theology Section in Tarnów of the Pontifical Academy of Th ology in Kraków (WTST) instead of the Institute.

In 2007 the Department of Theology Section in Tarnów obtained the rights to confer a PhD degree in theology. Since the aggregation of the Institute of Theology Section in Tarnów to the Theology Department of the Pontifical Academy of Thology, about 90 to 100 students receive their MA degrees annually. Approximately, half of this group consists of the secular and another half of the monastic. Since the beginning, the number of secular candidates accepted, has always been limited. There are the following profiles to choose from: sacerdotal, pastoral and catechetical, social and charity.

The scientific journal of the Department is „Tarnowskie Studia Teologiczne” – „Tarnów Theology Studies” issued half a year.

In the Accession Treaty of 16 April 2003, Poland agreed to adopt euro as its national currency, but the date of this adoption was not specified. The financial crisis in several countries of the Eurozone, in response to the world financial crisis in 2008, reduced drastically the public support in Poland for the replacement of the zloty by the euro. This article has two objectives. One is to assess the net costs, economic and political, for Poland remaining long outside the Eurozone. In this assessment the analysis includes also two official reports by National Bank of Poland, the country’s central bank, published in 2009 and 2014. The other objective is to note and assess the reforms which have been undertaken by member states of the Eurozone in response to this crisis, in order to maintain and enhance financial stability and economic effectiveness of the rules adopted at the start of the Eurozone on 1 January 1999. The author suggests to consider and adopt additional reforms. Discussed is also the USA experience with its own monetary union, and the potential influence on policy developments in the EU of increasing global competitive pressures from China and India.

Professor Lech Wojtczak spent his entire scientific life at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, where he worked since 1947. He is the author or co-author of two hundred scientific papers, promoted 15 doctors of science, was the Full Member of PAS and has been awarded with several prizes and honors. Among his students are three successive directors of the Nencki Institute, the authors of the present article. Scientific interests of Professor Lech Wojtczak were always dealing with bioenergectics, a discipline that he led in Poland and Eastern-Central Europe. In particular, his studies focused on the role of fatty acids and their derivatives on bioenergetics, on the regulatory role of surface potential of biomembranes on enzymatic and transport activities, on the regulatory role of calcium and magnesium in mitochondria, on the role of free oxigen radicals in bioenergetics, etc. Apart from being a great scientist, Lech Wojtczak was also a fantastic teacher, and an excellent scientific supervisor. Being well recognized in the world, he was placing members of his research group in foreignlaboratories, as well as was sending tchem to courses and conferences. This was opening their minds to the world, and to other cultures, and allowed Lech Wojtczak to form from his collaborators the next generation of good scientists and future leaders. The list of the most important pupils of Professor Wojtczak is given in the article. Lech was also excellent in social contacts, and in creating a friendly atmosphere. Together with his wife Anna, they kept an open home, often inviting collaborators to parties that usually led to long scientific discussions. With the sudden death of Pofessor Lech Wojtczak Polish science suffered a great loss. This eminent researcher, the father of Polish bioenergetics, but also a warm and modest person, will be dearly missed.

Professor Jerzy Vetulani passed away on the 6th of April 2017. He was born on 21st January 1936 in Kraków. In 1957 he earned his B.A. in Biology and in 1963 in Chemistry from Jagiellonian University. He began to work in 1957 at the Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków and got a PhD in 1966. Prof. Vetulani did Habiltation in Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy in Wrocław in 1976. His scientific career throughout all extremely active scientific life was connected with the Institute of Pharmacology. He became Head of the Department of Biochemistry in 1976 and from 1994 until 2002 he was the Deputy Director for Science Affairs and from 2002 Vice Chairman of the Scientific Council. He was elected Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received a Doctor honoris causa degrees from the Medical University of Silesia and the Medical University of Łódź. He published about 240 original scientific papers in the areas of neuropharmacology and neurobiology. He was exceptional neuropharmacologist. His research, conducted together with Fridolin Sulser and his group allowed to obtain interesting data that repeatedly administered antidepressants induce adaptive changes in the noradrenergic system and to formulate a hypothesis on the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs suggesting “downregulation” of β-adrenergic receptors. His research interests included neuropharmacology of addiction, neurodegeneration and mechanisms of memory. He was an excellent academic, admired and followed by many pharmacologists and neuroscientists. Professor Vetulani was also very active in the area of popularization of neuroscience. He was, a superb, provocative and witty speaker, someone who everybody wanted to hear. Professor Vetulani had the soul of the artist. In the late sixties, he was an announcer and one of the creators of famous Polish Kraków cabaret “Piwnica pod Baranami” (1954–1961) and more recently a regular participant in other cabaret “Gadający Pies”. Professor Jerzy Vetulani had many different talents and accompanying him always intellectual perversity and above all sense of freedom and independence.

Communication with authorities belongs to a field of research with a long and intensive research tradition. The present paper focuses on the process of understanding in oral institutional communication. It will present some mechanisms by which common understanding is achieved by using different resources. In contrast to the numerous papers dealing with written institutional communication, little work has been carried out on conversations in the administration. Based on Becker-Mrotzek’s (1999, 2001) classification of oral institutional communication into three different types: discourse on con-sultation, objection and application, the present paper focuses on data collection interviews or application discourses (Ger. Datenerhebungsgespräche), which form “the major part of citizen-administration-discourses” (Becker-Mrotzek 1999: 1399). Despite the frequency of these types of discourse, they are the subject of remarkably few studies.

This presentation outlines the movement of the contemporary Church away from the institutional ecclesiology. Within the context of the post-conciliar ecclesiology and being inspired by the thought of Y. Congar, I have developed 5 principles of reform (the Word of God and liturgy, love and witness, anthropological, ecumenical, interreligious). I have also submitted a few practical indications of this reform (tradition and modernity, unity with a whole, freedom and moral standards, respect for the transcendental reality) in order to perform it. The reform of the Church properly understood becomes her development, which should be seen as a long process, inscribed in the history of the Church as well as in the life of a believer. In their everyday life today’s mystics follow this way of the Church’s development and of their own conversion. Mysticism is not just for those who have been specially elected, but by the grace of Baptism, every Christian is called to holiness and to the practice of mysticism. Even not being aware of it, many are practicing it. Thus those principles and indications of the ecclesial reform also apply to our everyday life of following Christ in his Church.