The National Science Centre (NCN) has announced the results of the OPUS 27 and PRELUDIUM 23 competitions. As many as thirteen researchers from Poznań University of Technology have received funding for projects!

Winners of the OPUS 27 competition:

• Prof. Jakub Bernat, Faculty of Control, Robotics, and Electrical Engineering – Interaction of magnetorheological elastomers with magnetic materials in applications for soft robotics (in partnership with the Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences).
•  Aleksander Hejna, PhD, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering – Chasing degradation – exploring beneficial effects of thermal and thermomechanical modification of plant-based materials used in polymer composites (in partnership with SBŁ – Institute of Polymer and Dye Material Engineering).
• Dominik Łuczak,PhD, Faculty of Control, Robotics, and Electrical Engineering – A step toward self-aware electric drives.
• Prof. Łukasz Klapiszewski, Faculty of Chemical Technology – A new generation of environmentally friendly foaming and anti-aging additives for asphalt applications: experimental and modeling studies (leader: Lublin University of Technology).
• Prof. Katarzyna Siwińska-Ciesielczyk, Faculty of Chemical Technology – Design, characterization, and mechanism description of heterostructural semiconductor materials for photocatalytic systems and dye-sensitized photovoltaic cells (in partnership with Adam Mickiewicz University and Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa).
• Prof. Marta Szachniuk, Faculty of Computing and Telecommunications – RNA structure modeling focused on functional motifs.

Winners of the PRELUDIUM 23 competition:

• MSc Eng. Aleksandra Domke, Faculty of Chemical Technology – Noble metal nanoparticles (Pt, Au) and natural coating agents – the key to hemodialysis membranes with enhanced functionality.
• MSc Eng. Adam Grzywaczyk, Faculty of Chemical Technology – The impact of cytostatic drugs present in the environment on Gram-negative bacteria: adaptation mechanisms and implications for microbial resistance.
• MSc Eng. Amelia Klimek, Faculty of Chemical Technology – Carbon materials decorated with quantum dots – synthesis and characterization.
• MSc Eng. Adam Maćkowiak, Faculty of Chemical Technology – The effect of adding electroactive compounds to electrolytes on lithium ion diffusion during graphite intercalation.
• MSc Eng. Agnieszka Rybarczyk, Faculty of Chemical Technology – Nanozymes as synthetic alternatives mimicking natural biocatalysts: synthesis, characterization, and application in removing micropollutants from aquatic environments.
• MSc Eng. Małgorzata Wasilewska, Faculty of Computing and Telecommunications – Security of federated learning algorithms using radio environment features in next-generation edge computing systems.
• MSc Eng. Piotr Wyrwiński, Faculty of Computing and Telecommunications – New architectures and algorithms for neurosymbolic deep learning.

The success rate for Poznan University of Technology in the OPUS 27 competition was 25%, while in PRELUDIUM 23, it was 18.42%.

In the OPUS competition, the university was awarded a total of PLN 7,565,077, and in the PRELUDIUM competition, PLN 1,149,575, bringing the total funding for this round to an impressive PLN 8,714,652.