Seven bilateral Polish-Czech research projects and two trilateral projects performed in collaboration with research teams from Czechia, Germany and Slovenia were recommended for funding under Weave-UNISONO. Polish researchers will perform projects with funding of over 9.5 million zlotys. The successful research teams are based in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Katowice, and represent all three discipline panels: Physical Sciences and Engineering; Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences and Life Sciences.
In Physical Sciences and Engineering, grants were awarded to four bilateral projects and one trilateral project submitted by teams from Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovenia. Polish scientists will work in tandem with their Czech partners on research problems such as: the composition of innovative recycled cements with low environmental footprint (PI: Dr inż. Radosław Mróz from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków); the development of quantum light sources for applications in sensing and imaging, thermal management, and quantum technologies (PI: Dr hab. Tomasz Antosiewicz from the University of Warsaw); the development of vitrimers (polymer materials) from renewable building blocks (PI: Dr hab. inż. Szczepan Bednarz from the Kraków University of Technology); theoretical approaches to the modern geometrical aspects of linear operators: matrix representations and numerical ranges (PI: Prof. Yuriy Tomilov from the Institute of Mathematics, PAS). The trilateral Polish-Czech-Slovenian project, headed by Prof. Wojciech Święszkowski from the Warsaw University of Technology, aims to create and test the properties of a new hybrid biodegradable material that combines metallic-glass precursors and crystalline powder as an additional phase for a range of medical applications.
Two bilateral projects and one trilateral project won grants in Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences. Dr Agnieszka Przybył from the University of Wrocław will head the Polish part of a project looking into the dynamics of the disappearance of ritual sites from the landscape and changes in their perception by successive prehistoric populations. Another project, dealing with the “images and histories of black towns”, a group of historians, ethnographers and artists-researchers will focus on the industrial and post-industrial traditions and the cultural identity of the Polish and Czech parts of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The Polish team will be led by Dr hab. Marta Tomczok from the University of Silesia in Katowice. Dr hab. Tomasz Olejniczak from the Kozminski University in Warsaw, in collaboration with research teams from Germany and Czechia, will carry out a trilateral research project on practices of and relations between enterprises in the European Eastern Bloc and China after the WW II. Their research will explore industrial enterprises in the mechanical engineering and machine-building sector, in particular international relations between them in the period of transformation to socialism.
The only grant in Life Sciences went to Dr hab. Małgorzata Zakrzewska and her team from the University of Wrocław. In cooperation with Czech scientists, they are aiming to develop short DNA oligonucleotides (aptamers) that selectively interact with FGF receptors (proteins responsible for transmitting information between the cells of higher organisms). The results of their project will lay the groundwork for possible future applications of aptamers in, e.g. cancer treatments and regenerative therapies.
Bilateral proposals were evaluated by the Czech partner agency, Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), while the German agency, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) evaluated trilateral Polish- Czech-German projects. The National Science Centre and the other partners approved the results under the terms of the Weave-UNISONO programme.
Ranking list no 6/2024 (GAČR as lead agency).PDF
Ranking list no 7/2024 (DFG as lead agency).PDF
Ranking list no 8/2024 (GAČR as lead agency).PDF
Weave-UNISONO and Lead Agency Procedure
The Weave-UNISONO call is based on multilateral cooperation between the research-funding agencies that constitute the Science Europe association. It aims to simplify submission and selection procedures for research proposals drawn up by researchers from two or three different European countries in any discipline of science.
The selection process is based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), under which only one partner institution is responsible for merit-based review, while the rest simply accept the results.
Under Weave, partner research teams apply in parallel to the lead agency and their relevant domestic institutions. Their joint proposal must include coherent research plans and clearly demonstrate the added value of international cooperation.
The Weave-UNISONO call accepts proposals on a rolling basis. Polish teams wishing to partner up with colleagues from Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium-Flanders are encouraged to read the call announcement carefully and submit their funding proposals.