OPUS gagnant !

OPUS gagnant pour le LBCMUn nouveau projet en collaboration avec l'Université de Wroclaw (Pologne) et l'équipe d'Izabela Michalack.

Big money for big research !

Perovskites, environmental use of algae, silica quantum dots or research into post-mining areas are some of the projects carried out by the WUST-originating winners of the latest edition of the competitions OPUS and Preludium of the National Centre for Science. 18 of our scientists received nearly 15 million PLN of funding for their research.

Held twice a year, Preludium and Sonata are the most popular competitions organised by the National Centre for Science. In the current edition, Polish researchers were awarded over 390 million PLN.

Every scientist could enter the OPUS programme and apply for funding of a project lasting from one to three years. Thirteen people from the Wrocław University of Science of Technology were awarded under the programme.

Then, Izabela Michalak, PhD, DSc, university professor from the Faculty of Chemistry has obtained 785 thousand PLN to use for the project "Environmentally friendly technologies of utilising seaweed biomass for products useful for sustainable agriculture and biosorbents used to remove ions of heavy metals from the environment".

Green algae collected from the Baltic Sea, as well as brown algae and red algae from the coast of Brittany (in collaboration with University of Southern Brittany, France), will be used to produce biostimulators of plant growth, nanoparticles of metals, ingredients of fertilisers, and biosorbents that will remove ions of toxic metals from the environment.

Under the project, we will also propose a method for the valorisation of algae belonging to particular communities - explains Izabela Michalak, PhD, DSc.