Brown bear movement in an environment transformed by humans

Principal Investigator :
Dr hab. Nuria Selva
Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences

Panel: NZ8

Funding scheme : BiodivERsA
announced on 14 May 2015

The movement of animals across landscapes is crucial for many ecological processes, from individual survival to the persistence of populations. The expansion of human infrastructure, such as roads and urban settlements, creates barriers to animal movement and alters both the physical structure of the landscape and the way animals move. In this project, we have focused on brown bears in order to investigate the functional connectivity of European landscapes, i.e. the degree to which landscapes in Europe facilitate or impede the movement of individual bears and associated genes.

Fieldwork. Checking bilberry germination in labelled bear droppings. Photo by Christine SonvillaFieldwork. Checking bilberry germination in labelled bear droppings. Photo by Christine Sonvilla In humanised landscapes, long-distance movement is particularly important for maintaining gene flow between isolated populations but, at the same time, is challenging for the animals. In brown bears, usually young males are taking long trips from their place of birth to new sites in order to find a partner and reproduce. We reported the longest dispersal distance for a brown bear in central Europe (360 km straight distance), starting in the Tatra Mountains in Poland up to the Gorgany Mountains in Ukraine, thus potentially connecting the western and eastern Carpathian

population segments. During his dispersal, this bear kept away from built-up areas and had to make 21 road crossings per month on average. He was the only tracked bear crossing highways successfully, with the help of wildlife passages. He moved through four countries and crossed a border once per week, each time falling under different legislation. We reviewed 29 cases of long-distance dispersal reported for large carnivores in Europe and found that 96% were transboundary. Most cases of long-distance dispersal ended with the animal’s death before it could reproduce and, thus, could not support population connectivity. Eighty-two per cent of the confirmed deaths

were human-caused; almost half of them were legal killings. Our study emphasised the high conservation value of long-distance dispersers in large carnivore populations, as well as the urgent need to consider them as mobile conservation targets and to include wide-ranging movements in conservation policies.

Bear family (femable with cubs) eating bilberries in the Tatra National Park. Photo by Adam WajrakBear family (femable with cubs) eating bilberries in the Tatra National Park. Photo by Adam Wajrak A fundamental ecological process that also relies on animal movement is seed dispersal. Worldwide, bears dispersed seeds from over hundred fleshy-fruited plant species. Fleshy fruits represented on average 24% of the food items consumed by bears across their distribution range. For fleshy fruits, it was good to be eaten by bears, as seeds germinated better after passing through bears’ gut than when embedded within the whole fruit, and bears did not damage most seeds while eating them. We found that brown bears dispersed the vast majority of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) seeds in the Tatra Mountains. Together with two species of thrush and red foxes, they were the most efficient bilberry dispersers. We marked and monitored the fate of bear scats and detected bilberry germination in all of them. On average, we counted 154 bilberry seedlings/m2 in bear scat locations. This number doubled at scats in bear beds, suggesting that bear resting behaviour, which involves digging the soil, clearly enhanced the recruitment of bilberry.

Fleshy fruits, in particular the bilberry – detected in 56% and 42% of the bear scats, respectively – play a pivotal role in the feeding ecology of Tatra brown bears. In total, we identified 173 different food items in the diet of brown bears in Tatra, most of them of natural origin. Despite the high levels of human pressure in the region, bears still provide important seed dispersal services. We showed that brown bears are legitimate seed dispersers and highlight that the decline of brown bears may compromise seed dispersal services and plant regeneration processes, as bears are among the few megafauna species still dispersing large amounts of seeds over long distances in temperate and boreal regions.

Project title: BearConnect. Functional connectivity and ecological sustainability of European ecological networks- a case study with the brown bear

Dr hab. Nuria Selva

Kierownik - dodatkowe informacje

Professor at the Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences. Animal ecologist and conservation biologist with a focus on mammals and large carnivores in particular. She has led brown bear research at the Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) since 2007 and is currently the head of the Integrative and Applied Ecology Research Group. She has co-authored more than 100 scientific publications and participated in over 20 projects. In 2018, she received the scientific award of the President of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

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POLONEZ BIS 1 - decisions after the eligibility check

Fri, 02/04/2022 - 09:38
Kod CSS i JS

Decisions for the POLONEZ BIS 1 proposals that did not meet the eligibility criteria were sent out on 3 February 2022.

Please note that decisions of the Director of the National Science Centre are served in the form of an electronic document sent to the e-mail address provided by the applicant in the proposal. 

Information was sent from the address: ncn.wnioski@ncn.gov.pl. and contained a link to download the decision of the Director of the National Science Centre. 

The correspondence was generated automatically - please do not reply to the message you received. If you have any problems with access to the document, please contact the POLONEZ BIS Team polonez@ncn.gov.pl.

The status of your proposal application can be checked in the ZSUN/OSF system.

NCN among top Polish institutions in Horizon Europe

Wed, 02/02/2022 - 13:36
Kod CSS i JS

The European Commission has published the results of the first 23 calls in the Framework Programme Horizon Europe.

Horizon Europe is a new innovative programme launched last year to support research and innovation that aims to support fight climate change, help reach the UN sustainable development goals and simulate EU competition. The budget for 2021-2027 is over EUR 95 billion.

11 out of 86 proposals recommended for funding in the first Horizon Europe calls were carried out by the Polish research institutions which constitutes 12.79% of the total number of funded projects. The total value of projects is EUR 5.11 million which places Poland in thirteenth position among the beneficiaries from the EU (first among the “new EU states” and thirteenth in the EU).

Having received EUR 688 thousand, the National Science Centre is the second Polish research institution in terms of funding. The leader (the National Center for Research and Development) has been allocated almost EUR 2.3 million so far.

The results are now available in the form of interactive statistics.

Anti-cancer effects of anti-CD20 antibodies

Principal Investigator :
Dr hab. Magdalena Winiarska
Medical University of Warsaw

Panel: NZ6

Funding scheme : OPUS 4
announced on 15 September 2012

I first took an interest in anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies and their effects during my PhD programme. Immunotherapy with the use of such antibodies has been widely employed in the treatment of B-cell tumours, in which neoplastic cells display a CD20 molecule on their surface.

Dr hab. Magdalena Winiarska with her team. Standing from left: Katsiaryna Marhelava, Dr Iwona Baranowska, Dr Małgorzata Bajor, Kuba Retecki, Dr Marta Kłopotowska, Dr Agnieszka Graczyk-Jarzynka, Dr Klaudyna Fidyt. Sitting from left: Dr Zofia Pilch, Marta Krawczyk, Dr hab. Magdalena Winiarska, Aleksandra Kusowska.Dr hab. Magdalena Winiarska with her team. Standing from left: Katsiaryna Marhelava, Dr Iwona Baranowska, Dr Małgorzata Bajor, Kuba Retecki, Dr Marta Kłopotowska, Dr Agnieszka Graczyk-Jarzynka, Dr Klaudyna Fidyt. Sitting from left: Dr Zofia Pilch, Marta Krawczyk, Dr hab. Magdalena Winiarska, Aleksandra Kusowska. My research has focused primarily on the clinically significant processes that regulate the anti-tumour effects of anti-CD20 antibodies in mechanisms associated with the activation of complement-dependent cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Within the framework of the project funded under OPUS 4, I looked for new pathways participating in the regulation of the quantity of CD20 molecules in neoplastic cells. In recent years, we have seen the arrival of many drugs with important anti-cancer benefits, in the form of small-molecule inhibitors of kinases that take part in BCR signalling. BCR activation plays a very important role in normal B-cell growth and proliferation. Our research revealed that the inhibition of the BCR signalling pathway reduces the amount of CD20 on the surface of tumour cells and thus impairs the action of anti-CD20 antibodies. We demonstrated the existence of new BCR-associated pathways that regulate CD20 concentration in cancer cells. Our findings were published in two prestigious journals: “Leukemia” and “mAbs”, delivering clear evidence to suggest that a combined therapy with BCR signalling inhibitors and anti-CD20 antibodies should be used with great skill and caution in patients with B-cell cancers. In clinical trials currently underway, anti-CD20 antibodies, rituximab and ofatumubab, are being tested together with BCR signalling inhibitors in patients with blood cancers. It seems that because of the negative impact of these inhibitors on CD20 concentration in cancer cells and their blocking effect on NK cell activity, drugs from this group should be administered in an appropriate sequence to guarantee the best therapeutic results. It is worth emphasizing that our findings, the first to be published in prestigious oncological journals, have since been confirmed by other research teams, as well as several clinical trials. Importantly, they have also contributed to a search for new, more selective BCR pathway inhibitors.

The project in question was my first funded by the NCN. I carried it out in tandem with a wonderful and brilliant PhD student, Kamil Bojarczuk, who unfortunately passed away in 2020. Together with Kamil, based on this first project, we created a vibrant team that has since continued successful immunotherapy research. For a while now, we have studied the modification of NK cells and T cells by chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). We are interested both in finding new treatment goals and optimizing CAR coding vectors to enable the selective action of effector cells in the tumour environment. The research is partially funded by the European Research Council within the framework of an ERC Starting Grant.

Project title: Influence of the B cell receptor (BCR) signaling pathways on CD20 levels in tumor cells and antitumor activity of anti-CD20 monclonal antibodies

Dr hab. Magdalena Winiarska

Kierownik - dodatkowe informacje

I started independent research in 2010, heading a small research team at the Department of Immunology of the Medical University of Warsaw. Since then, my research has been funded under eight grants in which I have served as a principal investigator. My current team consists of seven postdoctoral fellows, one technician, three PhD candidates, and four students. I also cooperate with other centres, both in Poland and beyond. An important part of my mission is to promote young researchers – students, PhD candidates and young postdoctoral fellows.

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The self-education practices in 16th-century Central and Eastern Europe

Principal Investigator :
Dr hab. Valentina Lepri
the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Science

Panel: HS1

Funding scheme : MINIATURA 2
announced on 17 kwietnia 2018

In 2018, I was awarded the MINIATURA 2 grant from the National Science Centre. The name evokes something small, as if it were of little help to scholars but the truth is rather the opposite, and my experience testifies to this very well.

That year, I was completing a very challenging piece of research focused on the teaching activities of the Zamoyska Academy in the Renaissance period. I was satisfied but the work, as always happens in research, had opened a new avenue of investigation, thanks to some documents that had caught my attention. These were a series of manuscripts written by students in the 16th century during their studies abroad and now stored in important libraries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Elucidationes in sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosc [script by Jakub Kurzewski]. Archive of the Radziwiłł Family in Nieśwież; The Central Archives of Historical Record in Warsaw. Source: National Library of PolandElucidationes in sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosc [script by Jakub Kurzewski]. Archive of the Radziwiłł Family in Nieśwież; The Central Archives of Historical Record in Warsaw. Source: National Library of Poland These documents could open a novel chapter in studies into early modernity, as they had enormous potential for exploring the history of knowledge from a new angle; I was eager to see them, but they were scattered across the map of half of Europe. I looked around for a way to fund this idea and discovered the existence of Miniatura programme, designed expressly to support research projects in their early stages. What a surprise, in the country I come from, Italy, a grant so tailored to the needs of scholars does not exist and has never existed.

Luckily, my proposal was successful (its title was “Aristotelianism and self-education practices in 16th-century Central and Eastern Europe: Preliminary studies on a selection of miscellaneous manuscripts written by students during their studies abroad” ID: 417007) and for a year I travelled a lot, discovering a treasure trove of documents in various Polish, Czech and Hungarian archives.

This preliminary study clearly showed that students’ learning did not correspond to the neutral recording of the subjects of study, opening an important window onto how students migrating westwards re-elaborated knowledge, and especially the Aristotelian tradition. Such promising results also called for an in-depth study into the contribution of students to the history of European intellectual thought. Let's now go back to what I was arguing at the beginning about MINIATURA not meaning "small" at all to a scholar. By carrying out such a preliminary study financed by this grant, I had the opportunity to pave the way for the development of a broader and more ambitious research project. Starting from these results, I prepared and submitted an ERC Consolidator Grant proposal to the European Research Council under the title “From East to West and Back Again: Student Travel and Transcultural Knowledge Production in Renaissance Europe (c. 1470 – c. 1620)”. I was awarded the grant, which guaranteed me an extended period of research activity, as well as giving great impetus to my career. So, does “MINIATURA” still evoke something small? Certainly not and I am grateful to NCN for the tremendous opportunity it has provided me.

Project title: Aristotelianism and selfeducation practices in 16th-century Central and Eastern Europe: Preliminary studies on a selection of miscellaneous manuscripts written by students during their studies abroad

Dr hab. Valentina Lepri

Kierownik - dodatkowe informacje

Professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of Polish Academy of Sciences. Following her PhD defence in Florence, she completed fellowships in Germany, Poland and at Harvard University, and won a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship and a senior Fernand Braudel Fellowship at the European University Institute. She serves as the Head of the Centre for the History of Renaissance Knowledge and the principal investigator of an ERC-funded project, entitled “From East to West, and Back Again: Student Travel and Transcultural Knowledge Production in Renaissance Europe (c. 1470-c. 1620)”.

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MINIATURA 6 call is now open

Tue, 02/01/2022 - 11:58
Kod CSS i JS

The National Science Centre announces the MINIATURA 6 call for proposals for the implementation of single research activities to develop future research projects. The total budget earmarked for the call is PLN 20 million.

Under the MINIATURA 6 call for proposals, you can apply for funding to carry out preliminary or pilot studies, library and archive searches, fellowships, research visits or consultations. The basic aim of the call is to financially support research activities aimed at developing a future research project planned for submission to NCN calls or other national or international calls.

MINIATURA 6 call announcement

 

 

Contract law in the digital era – the waning of the state’s regulatory monopoly

Principal Investigator :
Dr Mateusz Grochowski
Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences

Panel: HS5

Funding scheme : OPUS 19
announced on 16 marca 2020 r.

The digital revolution, which has profoundly altered contemporary social and market relations, has also had an important impact on the realm of law. Not only does it pose a challenge to states and supranational organizations (such as the EU), which need to respond to new threats and phenomena, but it also changes traditional ways of creating legal norms. Many social and economic problems (such as, e.g. freedom of speech) are now regulated independently or co-regulated by large entities in the digital market, especially by online platforms, such as social media, sales platforms, etc.

fot. Johanna Deteringfot. Johanna Detering Funded under the OPUS scheme, the project focuses on one aspect of the phenomenon, i.e. the way in which such platforms create internal contracting norms for their users. The phenomenon is particularly evident on platforms that serve as intermediaries in online contracts (Amazon, Uber, Allegro). Entities of this kind create separate market spaces, open to the community of goods and service providers and their clients; these are heavily regulated by the platforms themselves, which, by means of internal “policies” and “terms and conditions”, specify how agreements are made and lay down the rights and duties of the parties. Social media such as Facebook or Twitter work in a similar way, although their regulations concern other issues (e.g. freedom of speech and the way in which individuals exercise their right to information). In this way, platforms create legal “microsystems”, which are often accompanied by associated mechanisms of dispute settlement (arbitration, mediation, etc.) in practice largely independent of the courts, which operate within the framework of the state’s constitutional regime.

The project intends to take a closer look at these phenomena and at the same time ask more general questions about the waning of the state’s monopoly in the creation of contract law. The project aims to settle three key issues:

  • First, it attempts to understand the scope of autonomy and the role of such platforms in creating contract law. It does so with reference to contemporary and historical processes of self-regulation (private regulation) of the market economy.
  • Second, based on empirical data (a sample of internal sets of norms created by platforms in various areas of the market), the project sets out to determine to what extent rules laid down by online platforms apply to economic and social problems (e.g. consumer protection, trust protection, anti-discrimination), which are also an important province of classical contract law.
  • Third, using Jack M. Balkin’s idea of special-purpose sovereigns, the project proposes to determine the possible sources of legitimacy for norms created by online platforms and the role of the phenomenon in a democratic legal order.

Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht (Instytut Maxa Plancka do spraw Porównawczego i Międzynarodowego Prawa Prywatnego); fot. @mpipriv.deMax-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht (Instytut Maxa Plancka do spraw Porównawczego i Międzynarodowego Prawa Prywatnego); fot. @mpipriv.de The project forms part of a more essential issue, of key importance in contemporary legal science in Europe and the US, which is concerned with the relationship between contract law and the state. Contemporary contract relations are increasingly based on various forms of self-regulation and the division of regulatory powers between the state and private entities (e.g. private entities are allowed to formulate quality standards or codes of good practices, which are subsequently recognized in different ways by the state). This opens up a number of fundamental questions about the identity of contemporary contract law and, in consequence, the need to rethink classical ideas and analytical methods that treat contract law as an expression of a uniform system of goals and values represented by state legislation.

The OPUS project is an element of a broader research agenda pursued by Dr Mateusz Grochowski at the Institute of Law Studies, PAS, which includes an analysis of the mechanisms that shape contemporary contract law in an increasingly globalised market. The analysis builds on the theoretical structure of the “regulatory dialogue” of contract law between states and private entities, investigated within the framework of previous research projects funded by the NCN, as well as grants awarded to Dr Grochowski in the US, Israel and Belgium.

Project title: "Special-purpose sovereigns": online platforms and the new contract law of the digital era

Dr Mateusz Grochowski

Kierownik - dodatkowe informacje

Assistant Professor at the Institute of Law Studies, PAS, Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, and Fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. Previously, he was also a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and an Emile Noël Fellow at the New York University School of Law. He is a winner of the Professor Zbigniew Radwański Award for the best Polish doctoral dissertation on private law, the finalist of “Polityka” passports, holder of scholarships from the Foundation for Polish Science, the Minister of Science and Higher Education, and the Fox International Fellowship (Yale). He serves the deputy editor-in-chief of the “Studia Prawa Prywatnego” quarterly and is a member of the editorial board of the “Journal of European Consumer and Market Law” (EuCML) and “Rabels Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht” (RabelsZ).

fot. Johanna Detering

An international community in PRELUDIUM

Thu, 01/27/2022 - 13:20
Kod CSS i JS

The 495 winners of the last round of the PRELUDIUM call, targeted at researchers without a PhD, include nearly 40 foreigners who, thanks to NCN funding, will be able to develop their ideas in Polish research centres.

Science that leaves no-one behind

Iskandar Azmy Harahap in lab, pic. authors archiveIskandar Azmy Harahap in lab, pic. authors archive Iskandar Azmy Harahap will carry out a project that falls under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which outlines an action plan to improve the quality of life for people all over the world and sets a number of goals that promise to “leave no one behind”.

Harahap is a PhD student at the Poznań University of Life Sciences and his project focuses on the impact of dietary isoflavones and probiotics on bone health problems, such as osteoporosis and low bone mass.

Bone calcium loss represents a major social and economic problem. It affects everyone, regardless of race and sex, but bone fractures begin to become more common in those over the age of 70. Current treatment recommendations for osteoporosis in post-menopausal women include hormone-replacement therapy and medication. While oestrogen supplementation allows bone mass to increase or be maintained sufficiently, it also elevates the risk of reproductive cancers. On the other hand, currently available drugs, such as bisphosphonates, calcitonin or denosumab, are not recommended for long-term use.

For this very reason, current treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis may be inadequate and require additional support. Research data suggest that help may come from a diet that combines isoflavones and probiotics. “Probiotics may have clinical implications in the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis, while isoflavones are likely to mitigate postmenopausal symptoms”, the researcher explains. The results of his study may help find a way to maintain bone health by replacing supplementation with specific foods or safely reducing the dosage of drugs currently prescribed to post-menopausal women.

”Winning an NCN grant represents a great step forward in my research career. It is my hope that, thanks to PRELUDIUM, I will not only learn a lot but also contribute to addressing major domestic and global challenges”, Harahap emphasises.

The scientist won PLN 210,000 for a project entitled “DOBRY: [D]aidzein and pr[OB]iotic fo[R] health[Y]” Połączenie daidzeiny i Lactobacillus acidophilus w celu poprawy gospodarki wapnia i zdrowia kości” [““DOBRY: [D]aidzein and pr[OB]iotic fo[R] health[Y] bones.” Combining daidzein and Lactobacillus acidophilus to improve calcium metabolism and bone health”]

Green marketing: a new market trend

Green marketing is a concept studied by Elnur Nabivi from the University of Warsaw. The term applies to the marketing of products that are considered safe for the environment. “It covers the promotion not only of finished products, but also their packaging and any changes and modifications to their manufacturing processes. This is taken into account at all stages of product development”, explains the researcher.

Interest in ecology is on the rise and companies increasingly include environmental issues in their marketing communication. “Consumer beliefs and values are rapidly evolving, fuelled by environmental, social and political factors. Consumers are increasingly aware of issues related to the natural environment, sustainable development, animal welfare, manufacturing and labour conditions. The need for green marketing is also dictated by the increasing clout of social media”, he adds.

The most important goal of Nabivi’s project is to determine what type of environmental content published by companies on social media produces the greatest consumer engagement. The researcher will also look into the factors that encourage consumers to purchase products promoted by green marketing. He will analyse annual data on content posted by seven FMCG companies on Facebook and Twitter to identify the most engaging types of green marketing content in terms of likes, shares, retweets and comments.

The results of the study should tell us how to implement the ideas of green marketing in social media communication and provide more data on consumer expectations. “I want to know to what extent it makes sense for companies to implement green marketing strategies and to identify the chief factors that shape consumers’ buying decisions”, Nabivi emphasises.

Entitled “Wdrażanie Koncepcji Zielonego Marketingu Poprzez Działania w Mediach Społecznościowych" [“Implementing Green Marketing through Social Media Activities], his project was awarded nearly PLN 140,000 in funding.

A purely philosophical project

What is the ontological status of being? What is the essence of a fictional entity? Can a fictional being cause or alter something in the real world? These are but some of the questions asked by philosophers in the context of fictional entities that abound in literature.

Hicham Jakha from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, who is particularly interested in contemporary analytic philosophy, will investigate Roman Ingarden’s solution to the problem of the existence of fictional entities. “My project is purely philosophical and draws mainly on literary criticism and aesthetics. I am trying to include the phenomenological ontology of Roman Ingarden in contemporary analytic ontologies of fictional entities”.

For Ingarden, a fictional being is first and foremost an intentional entity. It owes all of its features and its entire being to the intention and linguistic consciousness of the author. The fictional entity is initially dependent on the author who creates it, and later on readers who are able to grasp the meaning of linguistic expressions; as such, it is neither real, existing in time and space, nor merely mental, existing only in the mind. “Many contemporary analytic philosophers have already adopted certain elements of Ingarden’s ontology; my role will be to examine his vision of fictional beings with reference to the shortcomings of the analytic ontologies of such entities”.

This strategy allows certain problems that recur to be avoided in the analytic philosophy of fiction, which treats fictional beings alternately as either Platonic entities or mere artifacts.

Entitled ”Problem przedmiotów fikcyjnych w ontologii Romana Ingardena i metafizyce analitycznej [“The Problem of fictional entities in Roman Ingarden’s ontology and analytic metaphysics”], the project was awarded more than PLN 66,000 in funding.

A history of the European spruce bark beetle

Spruce forests represent 6% of all forests in Poland. One of the worst pests which destroys thousands of trees of this species every year is the European spruce bark beetle.

Even though spruce trees can be found all over Poland, the populations of the European spruce bark beetle in the north and the south of the country are markedly different. The main objective of a project conducted by Anastasia Mykhailenko from the Jagiellonian University is to estimate how rapidly their genome accumulates mutations. To do so, the team will grow several families of the beetle in order to obtain genome sequences from parents and offspring and detect new mutations, which will then allow them to calculate the rate at which new alleles show up across the genome.

Mutation rate is one of the most important parameters in population genetics; it allows us to calculate the time at which a given species began to expand and determine how its size has changed over time. If we know the mutation rate, we can also present our calculations in the form of years and population numbers.

Bark beetle populations in the south of Europe differ genetically from those further up north. The same phenomenon can also be observed in Poland. Polish beetle populations living in the south of the country are genetically closer to southern European populations, while those identified in the north share more affinities with the Scandinavian region. “The genetic variation between these populations is rather low. The differences that we do observe, however, probably reflect the history of the species”, the researcher explains.

Coupled with the accurate timing of chromosomal inversions, the demographic history of the European spruce bark beetle will lay the groundwork for further research on the impact of changes in population size on genetic variation and the adaptation of the insect. “Our study may serve as an example for scientists studying other forest pests. Our mutation and recombination rate estimates should attract particular interest”, she adds.

The researcher won more than PLN 207,000 in funding for her project, entitled ”Tempo mutacji u kornika drukarza” [“Mutation rate in the European spruce bark beetle”]. If you want to learn out more about the insect, visit: https://genomicsofoutbreaks.com/

The National Science Centre has been supporting young researchers for many years. To serve as a principal investigator under a PRELUDIUM grant, the applicant must not hold a PhD degree (and does not even need to be a PhD candidate); the topic of the project may, but does not need to, be related to the subject of a future PhD dissertation. In the round that just concluded in November 2021, the NCN selected nearly 500 projects with a total budget of more than 77 million zlotys. Several other PRELUDIUM projects were discussed HERE. A new round of the call will be launched in March.

 

A good start for young researchers

Mon, 01/24/2022 - 09:15
Kod CSS i JS

More than half of all NCN funds awarded last year went to young scientists. In the last six years, entry-level researchers have received a total of over 3.75 billion zlotys in funding. NCN grants give them an opportunity to strike out on their own and become independent sooner than they otherwise would.

The National Science Centre organises calls open to researchers at all levels. Its portfolio includes programmes targeted at those who are just starting out on their career, calls for mature researchers, as well as general calls, in which younger researchers compete against more experienced peers.

A recent report prepared by the Analysis and Evaluation Team shows that, over the past six years, the NCN has dedicated over 3.75 billion zlotys in funding to support the growth of young researchers who have not yet earned their PhD or have done so up to 7 years earlier; this represents as much as 46 percent of the entire call budget of the NCN over that period.

“Our proposal review system, which prioritises quality over quantity in assessing the applicants’ research record, is favourable to young researchers. They take part in calls that are specifically addressed to their group, but also successfully compete with more senior researchers in other programmes”, says Professor Zbigniew Błocki, Director of the National Science Centre, and goes on to add that he is “impressed by the statistics”.

For instance, in the OPUS calls that ended in 2021, young researchers accounted for 18 percent of all successful applicants; 26 percent were researchers without a habilitation degree.

Thanks to funds from different NCN calls, young researchers all over Poland get a chance to carry out their projects, set up their own research teams, receive PhD scholarships, work in Polish research centres and, in cooperation with the National Agency for Academic Exchange, complete fellowships at major foreign research centres.

In 2021, nearly 827 million zlotys were awarded for projects, scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships for young researchers under domestic and international calls, nearly 51 percent of the total sum paid to all applicants in that period. The Centre decided to support young researchers by selecting 845 projects submitted in calls targeted specifically at this group and 629 more submitted to general calls open to applicants at all levels. The total budget of PRELUDIUM, PRELUDIUM BIS, SONATA and SONATINA was 331 million zlotys, while that of projects run by young researchers under calls like OPUS, SONATA BIS, MINIATURA, BEETHOVEN and DAINA equals 247 million. Postdocs and PhD scholarships were funded by the NCN with, respectively,  117 and 131 million.

“Funding young researchers in NCN calls” – a report [in Polish] prepared by the Analysis and Evaluation Team.

The deadline for submission under the SONATINA 6 call, targeted at researchers who earned their PhD no earlier than 3 years ago or are planning to defend their dissertation by June this year, is open until 15 March. In February, the NCN is scheduled to launch MINIATURA 6, followed by PRELUDIUM 21 (for applicants without a PhD) and OPUS 23 (for applicants at all levels) in March.

Global Code of Conduct adopted by NCN

Mon, 01/17/2022 - 13:22
Kod CSS i JS

The National Science Centre has adopted global code developed by an EU initiative to prevent the export of unethical research practices to low- and middle-income countries. From now on, researchers applying for NCN funding will have to apply the Global Code of Conduct to their projects.

The Global Code of Conduct was launched in 2018 as a result of the TRUST project (Creating and enhancing TRUSTworthy, responsible and equitable partnerships in international research) funded by the EU Research and Innovation Programme (Horizon 2020). The goal of the project was to prevent ethics dumping by improving the implementation of high ethical standards in research around the world.

The phenomenon of ethics dumping broadly refers to the exportation of ethically unacceptable and non-compliant research practices to poor countries. These involve carrying out research without ethical approval or insurance for harm that may occur during a study. These include conducting tests that exploit vulnerable populations or undertaking research in a low- and middle-income country that would normally be prohibited in a high-income one with stringent regulations.

Thanks to the TRUST project a code addressing the unevenness in ethical and legal research standards has been developed. The TRUST project utilised a new framework based on the values of fairness, respect, care and honesty. The GCC covers all research disciplines. It is also an educational tool, since the practice of ethics dumping could also be unintentional, for example, when there’s insufficient expertise among researchers and in research support systems.

The National Science Centre has joined the other 11 adopters of the Global Code of Conduct. The NCN includes the provisions of the Global Code Conduct in its call documents. At the proposal submission stage, each applicant must complete the ethics issues form that includes references to the GCC.

Guidelines for Applicants to Complete the Ethics Issues Form in the Proposal including references to the GCC

Global Code of Conduct website

The TRUST project info