We have the great pleasure to announce the first round of results in the OPUS 24+LAP/Weave call for proposals submitted in cooperation with Luxembourg partners. Successful Polish teams will work on 2022 Ukrainian war testimonials and new diagnostic techniques and treatments for cardiovascular disease.
The Russian invasion in Ukraine started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and military conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. In 2022, the terror and ravages of war spread to the entire country, starting a wave of migration on a scale unprecedented since WWII, with many people displaced within and outside Ukraine. In this context, researchers faced a challenge of developing approaches to handling documentary and research material obtained in a situation of ongoing conflict. The goal of a project conducted by Dr Anna Wylegała from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Science in cooperation with a team led by Prof. Machteld Venken from the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History of the University of Luxembourg will be to collect, store and publish such 2022 war testimonials. The researchers will publish an edited and ethical database of recordings collected by international teams in various locations in Luxembourg, Poland and Ukraine. The project was awarded nearly 2.1 million zlotys in funding under the art, humanities and social sciences panel of the OPUS 24+LAP call.
Cardiovascular diseases, i.e. various disorders of the heart and the blood vessels, have long ranked as the most common cause of mortality in Poland. The situation can be improved thanks to new advancements in early detection techniques and treatments. A research team headed by Dr hab. Michał Mączewski will work on an OPUS LAP project at the Medical Centre of Postgraduate Education, in cooperation with Yvan Devaux, PhD, from the Luxembourg Institute of Health. The team will look into the molecular mechanisms behind right ventricular failure, focusing in particular on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) as a potential biomarker and treatment target. The project is likely to contribute to the development of new therapies and diagnostic techniques for use in human patients. The project was selected under the life sciences panel of OPUS24+LAP and awarded nearly 2 million zlotys in funding.
Lead Agency Procedure – LAP
In the latest OPUS 24+LAP/Weave call, which concluded in May, the NCN received 1921 proposals with a total budget of nearly 2.7 billion zlotys. Researchers could request funding for projects conducted without international partners, as well as bi- or trilateral LAP projects involving foreign cooperation or access to large international research equipment. The call was open to researchers at all career levels.
LAP is a new proposal evaluation standard adopted by European research-funding institutions, designed to facilitate the funding application process for international research teams and streamline proposal review.
OPUS LAP projects were reviewed at the same time and by the same expert teams as other OPUS proposals, but also underwent an additional evaluation that looked at the research record and the previous projects of the principal investigators in foreign partner teams. Experts also made sure that the contribution of all teams to the project is balanced and complementary.
Decisions and their delivery
All the positive and negative decisions for OPUS LAP proposals qualified for funding under OPUS 24 in bilateral cooperation with the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) have already been sent out. Please remember that the decisions of the NCN Director are delivered to the applicant electronically, to the e-mail address indicated in the proposal.