Polish researchers will carry out 16 projects in cooperation with partners from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland thanks to funding from the OPUS 26+LAP/Weave programme, the National Science Centre announced. In total, Polish teams will receive almost PLN 29.8 million in the autumn edition.
The winning projects prepared in bilateral or multilateral research collaborations, were divided into three disciplinary groups: humanities, social sciences and the arts; natural sciences and engineering; and life sciences.
Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts
In Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, funding was awarded to 2 projects with a total budget of nearly 4 million zlotys. One grant went to a Polish-German project headed by Prof. Adam Izdebski from the University of Warsaw, which will look into why some societies have succeeded and survived for hundreds of years, while others have failed. The researchers will analyse the crisis and reconstruction of the social and ecological systems of Brandenburg and Greater Poland between 1200 and 1800, focusing on internal factors (institutions, cultural and material resources, political stability) and external factors that impact the state system, both environmental (climate, epidemics) and international (wars, markets).
Natural Sciences and Engineering
In Physical Sciences and Engineering, funding was awarded to 11 projects worth more than 17.8 million zlotys. One project, entitled ”Continuous protein crystallization process”, headed by Prof. Dorota Antos from the Rzeszów University of Technology, will work in tandem with researchers based in Germany and Austria to develop a novel method of obtaining and purifying recombinant proteins (necessary, for instance, for diagnostic and therapeutic applications), based on crystallization, which will enable them to be produced efficiently and sustainably at a lower cost. The new method is expected to increase the availability of these proteins to low- and medium-income countries so that they can also reap the benefits of advancements in contemporary medicine.
Life Sciences
In Life Sciences, funding was awarded to 3 projects with a total budget of nearly 8 million zlotys. One grant went to Dr Aleksandra Rutkowska from the Gdańsk Medical University, who will head a team of Polish researchers, in partnership with a German team, in a project entitled “Mechanisms in the pathogenesis of CNS diseases induced by viral infections”. Specifically, the researchers will try to determine whether an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection can be associated with the development of multiple sclerosis. Their research may contribute to our knowledge of how the virus leads to long-term problems in the central nervous system and potentially change our understanding of autoimmune diseases.
OPUS and OPUS LAP results
The OPUS LAP results for bilateral projects carried out in partnership with German teams and, for trilateral projects, with Austrian and Czech teams, are the last announcements for the OPUS 26+LAP/Weave call.
A total of 1737 proposals with a total budget of nearly 2.6 billion PLN were submitted to the NCN under the OPUS 26+LAP/Weave programme. Results for OPUS LAP projects performed in cooperation with partners in Austria, Belgium-Flanders, the Czech Republic and Switzerland were announced in July, with 29 international projects worth more than 42.34 million zlotys joining the ranks of Weave winners.
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