Researchers from the Jagiellonian University – Collegium Medicum (UJ CM) are among the laureates of the latest National Science Centre competitions: OPUS-28 and SONATA-20. The published ranking lists confirm the awarding of funding for the implementation of their innovative research projects.

The OPUS competition is aimed at researchers at every stage of their career who have at least one published scientific paper. It enables the financing of both national projects and those carried out in international cooperation or using international research infrastructure. In the OPUS-28 edition, funding totalling over PLN 448 million was awarded to 234 national projects.

Among the laureates of the OPUS-28 competition from UJ CM are:

• Dr. Iwona Bielska (Institute of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences UJ CM) with the project “Research on barriers and opportunities in accessing healthcare services in hospital emergency departments by refugees from Ukraine in Poland (EDURef)” – funding amount: PLN 2,338,402.
• Prof. Przemysław Błyszczuk (Department of Clinical Immunology and Transplantology, Faculty of Medicine), who received support for two projects:
  “Identification of early biomarkers and molecular targets for therapeutic interventions in right ventricular dysfunction” (UJ CM as leader) – funding amount: PLN 3,999,404.
  “Combating hypoxia to prevent right ventricular heart failure in experimental pulmonary hypertension – the role of energetics and sex – a step towards personalized therapy (H-RVF)” (partner in a consortium) – funding amount: PLN 3,719,100.
• Dr. hab. Monika Marcinkowska (Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy) with the project “Autophagy-controlled selective protein degradation as a potential therapeutic strategy in the treatment of inflammatory diseases” – funding amount: PLN 3,367,932.
• Dr. Peter van Dam (Center for Digital Medicine and Robotics UJ CM) with the project “Inverse modeling of repolarization heterogeneity to determine arrhythmogenic risk” – funding amount: PLN 1,011,746.

In the SONATA-20 competition, which supports individuals starting their scientific careers, two projects from UJ CM were also distinguished:

• Dr. Kornelia Kliś (Department of Neurosurgery and Neurotraumatology, Faculty of Medicine) with the project “The relationship between hemodynamic parameters and protein expression in the dome of an intracranial aneurysm” – funding amount: PLN 953,430.
• Dr. Anna Górska (Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy) with the project “Investigation of the properties of polymer membranes as personalized dressing materials for hard-to-heal wounds obtained by 3D printing technique” (project carried out as a partner in a consortium) – funding amount: PLN 1,638,160.

It is worth noting that these successes are possible, among other things, thanks to the increasing use of the modern laboratory infrastructure of the Center for the Development of Therapies for Civilization and Age-Related Diseases (CDT-CARD) in planned research tasks.

Full ranking lists are available on the National Science Centre website.

Researchers from the Faculty of Pharmacy at UJ CM have achieved significant success, securing funding for their research in the National Science Centre competitions. The total amount of funding awarded to them is PLN 5,006,092.
Congratulations to the laureates from the Faculty of Pharmacy and all awarded researchers from UJ CM!