The results of the ‘Freedom of Research — 3rd edition’ call for proposals, which was very popular with the University’s researchers, are in. Out of 203 researchers who applied for funding for various scientific activities, 103 successful applicants (more than half of the applications) were selected after the evaluation process.
The largest number of applications granted funding came from the Faculty of Humanities (24%), the Faculty of Science and Technology (20%), the Faculty of Natural Sciences (15%) and the Faculty of Social Sciences (15%). The level of applications submitted was exceptionally high, so this year, funding for research activities was awarded to researchers whose applications were assessed by experts as having a score of at least 13 points (i.e. 65% of the points possible to obtain).
The funded projects included applications from 21 disciplines run at the University, making a significant contribution to the development of each discipline.
An important aspect of the evaluation process was the declaration of international cooperation, which allows the visibility of research carried out at the university to be strengthened and new projects to be initiated. Nearly 76% of the successful applicants declared in their applications that they would cooperate with scientists from abroad, which will have a positive impact on the development of international scientific exchange and on the research level of the projects carried out.
Due to the great interest of scientists in the 3rd edition of the call, the members of the evaluation team decided to reduce the amount of funding in some justified cases to allow a wider range of scientists to obtain support. At the same time, the amount of funding was increased by nearly PLN 300,000, which will allow more research projects to be implemented. The total amount of funding awarded for research activities is nearly PLN 1.3 million.
From among the winners of the competition (outside artistic disciplines), 27% declared that they had published an article worth min. 100 points according to the list published by the Ministry of Education and Science, 36% wanted to publish an article worth min. 140 points, and 15% with a value of 200 points. 12% of all awardees representing arts-related disciplines declared the intention to create an artistic work, including, among others, a musical composition, a photographic exhibition, or a documentary film.
Funding obtained by scientists within the ‘Freedom of Research — 3rd edition’ call will enable the implementation of interesting, interdisciplinary research projects, contributing to the development of priority research areas of the University of Silesia and to the diversification of the research being conducted.
Winners list (PDF file, 454 KB)
