We are extremely happy to join in congratulating a team of doctors from Wroclaw Medical University. Thanks to the pioneering course of treatment they administered to a 40-year-old patient whose spinal cord had been severed, the man could resume walking with the help of orthopaedic equipment.

The therapy involved a method of implanting the patient’s ensheathing olfactory cells into the damaged area. The cells, normally responsible for the replenishment of frequently damaged and renewed olfactory neurons, stimulate the regeneration of the severed spinal cord; their particular properties were discovered and described by professor Geoffrey Raisman from University College London’s Institute of Neurology.

The research on the use of ensheathing olfactory cells in treating spinal cord injuries has been carried out by a team led by professor Włodzimierz Jarmundowicz in collaboration with professor Raisman. The research is co-financed by the NCN under its HARMONIA 3 funding scheme.

Paralysed man walks again after cell transplant - BBC News

The HERA (“Humanities in the European Research Area”) Network invites researchers to apply for the participation in the “Uses of the Past – Matchmaking Event” taking place in Tallinn on 29 January 2015.The aim of the Matchmaking Event is to present the Call for transnational humanities-led research proposals under the theme “Uses of the Past” to be formally announced in January 2015 and to facilitate the building of international research partnerships.

The deadline to register your interest in attending the Matchmaking Event is 5 November 2014, 14:00 CET (Central European Time).

For more information please click here: http://www.b2match.eu/hera-up-mme.

Contact

dr hab. Wojciech Sowa, tel: +48 12 341 9171

Malwina Jabczuga-Gębalska, tel: +48 12 341 9017

The National Science Centre and the CHIST-ERA consortium invite researchers to a new edition of the call for international research projects. Topics of the 2014 opportunity are: Resilient Trustworthy Cyber-Physical Systems (RTCPS) and Human Language Understanding: Grounding Language Learning (HLU).

The deadline for submitting applications is 13 January, 2015, 5 p.m. (CET).

It is also required that Polish applicants send in an initial application, along with attachments, by  20 January, 2015, using the OSF electronic submission system (www.osf.opi.org – please use the UNISONO form).

Funding:

Within this call the NCN Council has allocated 500 000 EUR for Polish research projects.

Call documentation:

1. CHIST-ERA Call 2014 Anouncement
2. CHIST-ERA Call 2014 Eligibility Requirements
3. CHIST-ERA Call 2014 Proposal Form
4. CHIST-ERA Call 2014 Financial Template
5. CHIST-ERA Call 2014 Leaflet

For detailed information please see: http://www.chistera.eu/call-2014-announcement

Applicants are also invited to use Partner Search Tool (http://www.chistera.eu/node/add/call-2014-eoi), in order to express interest either in joining a research project proposal or to search partner(s) for joining an existing proposal idea.

Contact:

dr Jakub Gadek, jakub.gadek@ncn.gov.pl, tel. +48 12 341 9152

Sylwia Kostka, sylwia.kostka@ncn.gov.pl, tel. +48 12 341 9018

Professors Janusz Bujnicki, Michał Horodecki and Marcin Miłkowski received the National Science Centre (NCN) 2014 Award. Each will receive PLN 50,000 in recognition of their excellent research achievements.

The NCN Award was founded as a form of special acknowledgement of scientific research by Polish researchers under 40. It is awarded to those who carry out basic research in Polish research centres which have resulted in publications. The Award is conferred by a jury that includes representatives of the National Science Centre and the sponsors’ representatives.

In the area of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Award was given to professor Marcin Miłkowski from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, for his original version of the computational theory of the mind, which he discusses in Explaining the computational mind, a book published by MIT Press.

For 14 years now, I have been compelled by science’s attempts to explain the operations of the human mind. In my book I seek to understand how  scientists who pursue the computational theory of the mind actually work. My point of departure was to describe the practice, said professor Miłkowski.

The Award in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences was sponsored by Meble Vox Sp. z o.o.

In the area of Life Sciences, the Award was conferred on professor Janusz Bujnicki from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw. He was awarded for designing innovative bioinformatic methods for the research of RNA-protein complexes, and for determining the structure and mechanics of the human enzymes responsible for synthesis of RNA.

RNA molecules are extremely important both for medicine and biotechnology. Understanding their structure may contribute to the development of new drugs and new biotechnological tools. It is my dream as a scientist to make a major discovery or invent something that will benefit all humans, said professor Bujnicki.

The Award in Life Sciences was sponsored by Adamed Sp. z o.o.

In Physical Sciences and Engineering, the Award was given to professor Michał Horodecki from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, University of Gdańsk, for his discovery of the quantum state of bound entanglement and for his investigations into the non-additiveness of quantum channels’ capacity.

What gives me most joy in my job is that it is about the basics of quantum mechanics, in fact the very basics of physics. Thanks to quantum cryptography, we can go about what scientists like best: trying to understand nature, said professor Horodecki.

The Award in Physical Sciences and Engineering was sponsored by EDF Polska S.A.

Present at the NCN Award gala in Kraków's Cloth Hall was Director of the NCN professor Andrzej Jajszczyk, Chair of the NCN Council professor Michał Karoński, and Mr Jacek Guliński, Under-secretary of State in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

In a recent issue of Nature, the BOREXINO experiment team, including  prof. Marcin Wójcik, dr Marcin Misiaszek & dr Grzegorz Zuzel from Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Physics, published an article reporting direct observations of neutrinos from the first step of the proton-proton fusion process in the Sun. Direct detection of pp neutrinos is confirmation of physicists’ main theoretical models describing the Sun and its energy origins. According to these models, almost 99 per cent of the power of the Sun is generated in its core by the proton-proton fusion process. The  fusion of two protons into deuteron is a prelude to a chain of reactions that transform hydrogen into helium. BOREXINO is one of the world’s most sensitive neutrino detectors with the unique capability of low energy neutrino registration in real time. It has been working since 2007 in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory in Italy and has so far delivered information on almost the entire solar neutrino spectrum, as well as on geo-neutrinos (neutrinos produced in radioactive decays in the Earth). Presently the BOREXINO team is working on detection of neutrinos from the  carbo-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) energy production cycle, which is of great interest for bigger stars (its contribution to the total energy production may be much more significant than in the Sun) The measurement of the CNO neutrino flux, even more challenging than the measurement of pp neutrinos, will also help to solve the Sun’s metallicity problem (an abundance of elements heavier than He).

Prof. Marcin Wójcik is a grant holder of the HARMONIA funding opportunity (supporting participation of the Polish team in BOREXINO),  dr Marcin Misiaszek has been granted funding within the SONATA BIS scheme, dr Grzegorz Zuzel is both a HARMONIA and SONATA BIS awardee.

Learn more about the project: http://borex.lngs.infn.it/

Nature

Scientific American

Astronomy

Spektrum

New Scientist

Physics World

This text was based on information found on the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science's website, Jagiellonian University.

The Call 2014 of CHIST-ERA, to be published in October 2014, targets research in the following topics:

1. Resilient Trustworthy Cyber-Physical Systems (RTCPS);
2. Human Language Understanding: Grounding Language Learning (HLU).

The details of the research targeted in the call have been defined by the research community during the CHIST-ERA Conference 2014 (http://conference2014.chistera.eu/) event, an event that was open to all interested researchers. The Call 2014 pre-announcement document below (see attached file) gives an overview of the research themes that have emerged during the conference (see pages 2 to 4).

Researchers are encouraged to start discussing possible projects with prospective partners. The call will require that projects are submitted by international consortia with partners in at least three of the following countries (additional partners from other countries may be part of a consortium if they can secure their own funding):

• Austria (topics to be confirmed)
• Belgium (FNRS & FWO)
• Canada (Québec)
• France
• Ireland
• Latvia
• Poland
• Romania
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Kingdom (RTCPS topic only)

Please note that this pre-announcement is for information purposes only and does not create any obligation for the CHIST-ERA consortium nor for any of the participating funding agencies. No further information will be given until the call is published.

The National Science Centre has launched the 8^th edition of three of its most popular funding schemes. From 15 September until 15 December 2014, researchers may apply for grants under the following funding programmes:

1. OPUS 8, intended for a wide range of applicants, irrespective of their research experience (proposals submitted under this scheme may include the purchase or construction of research equipment);
2. PRELUDIUM 8, aimed at pre-doctoral researchers beginning their career in research;
3. SONATA 8, addressed to emerging researchers with a doctorate that has been held for a maximum of 5 years.

Please note that calls for proposals with results published after 31 December 2014 no longer admit applications from entities legally categorised as entrepreneurs.

The National Science Centre, in cooperation with the German Research Foundation (DFG), has launched BEETHOVEN – a call for proposals from German-Polish research teams. Under this new arrangement, Polish and German researchers active in the field of the humanities and social sciences may jointly apply for funding of projects that meet the criteria of basic research.

The call is open until 10 December 2014. To learn more about the call, its content, specific conditions and requirements, see the topics below:

1. Call text
2. Project template
3. Information for applicants
4. Evaluation sheet for reviewers

Detailed information for Polish applicants: http://ncn.gov.pl/ogloszenia/konkursy/beethoven1.

Research projects on Alzheimer’s Disease financed by the NCN have been added to the International Alzheimer’s Disease Research Portfolio database, launched in 2010 as a joint collaboration between the National Institute of Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association. The IADRP brings together funded research supported by public and private organizations in the United States and other countries. It enables both researchers and organisations supporting research on Alzheimer disease to asses opportunities in which to collaborate and coordinate in a collective effort to advance AD research.

For more information please click here: http://iadrp.nihlibrary.com/.

It is with nearly € 8.2 M that the National Science Centre is awarding six laureates of its just-concluded SYMFONIA 2 call for proposals.

59 principal investigators competed for funding of their projects under the SYMFONIA 2 scheme, which welcomes research projects carried out by collaborating research teams that combine theories, approaches, techniques and tools from two or more research domains. Funding was awarded to six eminent researchers, whose research stands out for its quality and boldly transcends borders between different research fields.

Cross-domain research is crucial to the advancement of science. Thanks to the combined efforts of researchers representing different disciplines and the use of various methods and research tools, we get a whole new scientific quality and a fresh outlook on research problems, said professor Andrzej Jajszczyk, director of the National Science Centre.

The largest share of funding (over € 1.6 M) has been granted to researchers from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology. The team, led by dr Marcin Nowotny, will conduct comprehensive interdisciplinary studies of Mitochondrial RNA decay and surveillance.

More than € 1.5 M in financing is the sum given to the project titled The role of antimicrobial protein-chemerin in skin pathophysiology, led by dr hab. Joanna Cichy from the Faculty of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University. Only slightly less  funding is to provide prof. Tadeusz Holak and his team from Jagiellonian University’s Faculty of Chemistry with the means to study transient protein states in designing small-molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions.

For ca. € 1.4 M prof. Marek Figlerowicz and his team from the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, will carry out the project Dynasty and population of the Piast State in view of integrated historical, anthropological and genomic studies.

Dr Bartosz Grzybowski will study the development of “Computational Chemical Linguistics” and its applications to the efficient planning of multistep chemical syntheses. The NCN will contribute € 1.3 M. The project will be carried out at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. The same academic unit is represented by another SYMFONIA 2 laureate: dr hab. Dorota Gryko, with over € 700,000 in funding, she will examine the behaviour of vitamin B12 as a delivery vehicle for antibacterial oligonucleotide analogues.

We are happy that among the laureates of SYMFONIA 2 are young yet very experienced researchers who themselves are Principal Investigators to large research teams. It is proof of the great potential of Polish researchers, said prof. Michał Karoński, chair of the NCN Council.

The call was open to projects which provided new full-time employment for at least two researchers with a PhD and employment for at least four doctoral candidates. Under the SYMFONIA 2 call, applicants could also seek funding for research equipment worth up to PLN 500,000 (ca. € 118,000) for projects in the fields of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences and Engineering, and up to PLN 150,000 (ca. € 36,000) in the field of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.