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• WEIG - a new measure for efficiency of research grant is introduced. • Grants for young scientists are more efficient than for experienced researchers. • ERC and NSC preserved overall efficiency while increasing their budgets year by year. • Polish NSC grants are more efficient than European Research Council projects. • The source data and results are publicly available. We propose WEIG – Wroclaw Effectiveness Indicator for Grants. This new scientometric measure is an aggregated quality measure of scientific papers published with the grant support divided by its budget. Several WEIG variations have been considered with respect to journal quality indicators like Impact Factor (IF), Article Influence Score (AIS), and Average Journal Impact Factor Percentile (IF%). Projects from two public agencies were analysed utilising the WEIG measures: European Research Council (ERC) and National Science Centre, Poland (NSC). The studies revealed that NSC grants are overall more effective than ERC ones, constantly 2–3 times more for Physical Sciences and Engineering (PE). There are four NSC panels distinctively more efficient than their counterparts in ERC: Mathematics (PE1), Fundamental Constituents of Matter (PE2), Computer Science and Informatics (PE6) and Universe Sciences (PE9). The most efficient NSC funding schemes are Etiuda, Preludium, and Harmonia. The higher average effectiveness of programmes aimed at young scientists has been observed: the ERC Starting Grants have greater effectiveness than Advanced Grants. Both agencies manage to keep overall efficiency regardless of increasing their budget over the years. Limitations of the proposed approach to assess project effectiveness, especially for Social Sciences and Humanities, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Karkonosze National Park is affected by long-distance metal air transport of anthropogenic contamination as well as by tourist activity. Therefore, concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn were evaluated in soil as well as in vital and non-vital fronds of Athyrium distentifolium Opiz collected in the middle of the growing season from glacial cirques in the Karkonosze. Additionally, fronds of the same species turning brown in autumn were collected from the same sampling sites. The health of ferns was impacted by the contents of Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in fronds, which may indicate that A. distentifolium uses elements accumulated in its tissues as defence against pathogens. Individuals from higher altitudes contained higher concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Fe and Pb than those from lower altitudes. Autumn fronds of A. distentifolium contained a significantly higher concentration of Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Pb than vital summer fronds, which may indicate sequestration of these elements in senescing fronds probably to remove potentially harmful metals. Non-vital ferns were a better accumulator of Pb than vital ones, while both types of ferns accumulated Mn in a similar way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]