Research on environmentally friendly methods for enhancing soil properties, utilising waste generated in other sectors of the economy, will be funded under the Weave-UNISONO programme. The project will be carried out jointly by researchers from Poland and Germany.
The 2023 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development emphasises that contemporary modernisation efforts should focus on eliminating poverty in all its forms, while simultaneously pursuing a range of economic, social and environmental goals. One of the recommendations outlined in the agenda, in the context of the state and use of the planet’s resources, is to produce new materials, wherever possible, from waste generated in other sectors of the economy. The aim is to advance a circular economy.
This objective is embodied in the project entitled “Impact of Novel Synthesized Eco-friendly Hydrogel Composites from Insect Breeding Waste on Soil Hydraulics, Stability and Fertility,” which has received funding under the Weave-UNISONO call. The research will be conducted by a team led by Dr. hab. Katarzyna Szewczuk-Karpisz from the Bohdan Dobrzański Institute of Agrophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with a partner team from the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University in Hanover, headed by Professor Stephan Peth. The researchers will work on environmentally friendly hydrogel composites made from waste generated by the insect farming industry. They will investigate their impact on soil properties and plant growth. Their goal is to develop composites with enhanced capacity to mitigate the negative effects of drought and to improve the efficiency of degraded soil reclamation. The budget for the Polish part of the project amounts to nearly 1.1 million PLN.
The proposal was evaluated by the German Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft as the lead agency. The National Science Centre accepted the results of this evaluation and awarded funding to the Polish team.
Weave-UNISONO and Lead Agency Procedure
Weave-UNISONO is a result of multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies associated in Science Europe and aims at simplifying the submission and selection procedures in all academic disciplines, involving researchers from two or three European countries.
The winning applicants are selected pursuant to the Lead Agency Procedure according to which one partner institution performs a complete merit-based evaluation of proposals, the results of which are subsequently approved by the other partners.
Under the Weave Programme, partner research teams apply for parallel funding to the Lead Agency and their respective institutions participating in the programme. Joint research projects must include a coherent research program with the added value of the international cooperation.
Weave-UNISONO is carried out on an ongoing basis. Research teams intending to cooperate with partners from Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are urged to read the call text and apply for funding.