Two research projects involving researchers from Poland and Switzerland have received funding in the Weave-UNISONO competition. The scientists will analyze discussions on generative artificial intelligence in social media and work on personalizing proton therapy for cancer treatment.
The Weave-UNISONO competition is the result of a multi-stakeholder collaboration between research funding institutions gathered in the Science Europe association. It was announced to simplify the procedures for the composition and selection of research projects in all scientific disciplines involving researchers from two or three European countries.
The tenth ranking list of the current competition edition has just been announced. Previous rounds identified projects carried out by Polish researchers in collaboration with scientists from Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Germany. This time, two Polish-Swiss initiatives will be funded.
Ph: National Science Centre
Research on AI Discussions in Social Media
Dr. Marcin Koszowy from the Warsaw University of Technology, in collaboration with researchers from Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, will examine patterns of objections and counterarguments in discussions about generative AI and large language models on social media.
To do so, they will draw on a post (and comments on it) by business journalist Parmy Olson, which discusses the production of a demo version of Google’s Gemini multimodal artificial intelligence model.
While the post does not explicitly take a stance, its content and style suggest an implicit argument that the demo was misleading. Comments on the post include counterarguments, such as one suggesting that the demo misrepresented current technological capabilities, while another acknowledges Olson’s possible underlying viewpoint. The Polish part of the project has been granted over 1.4 million PLN by NCN.
Advancing Personalized Proton Radiotherapy
Dr. Antoni Ruciński from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN), along with partners from the University of Zurich, will conduct research to enhance the personalization and effectiveness of proton radiotherapy in cancer treatment. The project has received 3.3 million PLN in funding.
Researchers aim to apply nanodosimetric computational methods in therapy planning, taking into account very small physical quantities, and then verify them experimentally. This approach will allow for more accurate predictions of how radiation will affect both cancerous and healthy cells, ultimately enabling better treatment planning for patients and more precise radiation dose determination in the future.
“This nanoscale approach to treatment planning could lead to more accurate predictions of how radiation affects both cancerous and healthy cells during radiotherapy,” explains Dr. Ruciński. The new methodology will be validated using real-world patient treatment outcomes from Switzerland. If successful, the project could revolutionize how proton radiotherapy is planned and conducted.
Opportunities for International Collaboration
The Weave-UNISONO competition is open on a continuous basis. Polish teams wishing to collaborate with partners from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, and Flanders (Belgium) can apply. Winners are selected based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), where one partner institution is responsible for the full scientific evaluation of the application, while the other partners accept the results of this evaluation.
Under the Weave program, research teams submit funding applications simultaneously to the lead agency and their respective national institutions. Joint projects must present coherent research plans that clearly demonstrate the added value of international cooperation.
For more details, visit the National Science Centre’s website.
