The competition “Freedom of Research – 2nd edition” has been resolved. The competition met with great interest of scientists who received support for such activities as: research and consultation trips, queries, field research, developing musical and artistic works, as well as co-financing of the purchase of materials and reagents necessary for conducting their own research. Co-financing also covers the costs of translation and proofreading of texts intended for publication in highly rated journals.
The competition applications were assessed in terms of scientific standards, interdisciplinarity and innovation of research activities, compliance of the research subject with the Priority Research Areas, the impact of the declared results on the evaluation of the University of Silesia’s scientific activity, and declared international cooperation. The team for evaluation established at the Scientific Board of the Research Excellence Initiative conducts a substantive evaluation of the submitted applications. The team recommended 118 out of 210 submitted applications from 24 scientific disciplines for funding. The most popular disciplines were biology (over 12% of all applications), literary studies (11%), chemistry, and philosophy. The artistic disciplines such as music, fine arts and art conservation, film and theatre have a significant representation as well – they constituted nearly 12% of the winning projects. A total of PLN 1,233,890 was allocated for the implementation of projects this year, with the average amount of co-financing granted for one application amounting to PLN 10,500. It is worth noting that more than half of the co-financed applications assume international cooperation, including partners from universities associated with the European alliance Transform4Europe – it was one of the important aspects of this year’s edition of the competition.
“Freedom of Research” is another activity carried out as part of the Research Excellence Initiative programme.
