Becoming a research university through Leading Research Teams

• The decision to create the Leading Research Teams was right. It concentrated the potential that was previously dispersed in individual departments. 
• From 2019 to date, Leading Research Teams have acquired a total of over PLN 97 million. 
• International projects involving members of research teams account for 96% of international projects at the university 
• The impact of the Leading Research Teams’ scientific activity on the functioning of society and the economy is an area that will largely affect the result of the next IDUB competition.

In 2019, on the initiative of the current rector prof. Jarosław Bosy, the Leading Research Teams and their leaders were appointed. They operate within disciplines and interdisciplinarily, outside the structures of institutes, departments and faculties. They were created to obtain external funds for the university, to develop interdisciplinary scientific and research partnerships with universities in Poland and abroad, and to further develop scientific disciplines. 

Today, UPWr has eight disciplines: civil engineering, geodesy and transport, environmental engineering, mining and energy, biological sciences, agriculture and horticulture, food and nutrition technology, veterinary medicine, animal husbandry and fisheries, socio-economic geography and spatial management.

Leading Research Teams are also the key to the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences gaining the status of a research university in the future. As Prof. Anna Chełmońska-Soyta, vice-rector for internationalization, says, the decision to create Leading Research Teams was right: – It allowed to concentrate the potential that was previously dispersed in individual departments and gather the best scientific minds around the leaders. Thanks to the Leading Research Teams, the critical mass needed to implement groundbreaking ideas has been achieved. 

The evaluation report is clear: Leading Research Teams work

Leading Research Teams were appointed for four years. After more than two years in operation, an evaluation was carried out covering the period from May 31, 2019 to December 31, 2021. Dr. Katarzyna Krauzy-Dziedzic, head of the Science Department at UPWr, which has been associated with the research teams from the very beginning, emphasizes that in order to maintain transparency, the evaluation was carried out by an external unit with the substantive participation of external experts with international scientific experience, recognized in the field represented by a given Leading Research Teams. 

–  After receiving the evaluation report, leaders also received recommendations from the Council of Leading Research Teams, based on the report, indicating the direction in which the given team is to develop further. The process of evaluating the Leading Research Teams, both for us and on a national scale, was something new and unique. This experience has taught us a lot, and the conclusions drawn will allow us to consciously and responsibly fulfill the strategy of our university to obtain the status of a research university – says Dr. Katarzyna Krauzy-Dziedzic. 

At the beginning, the research team’s leaders received financial support, although in a sense these were funds that they obtained themselves. Establishing the teams was important to assess the application submitted by UPWr in the competition "Initiative of Excellence – Research University" (IDUB), which took place in 2019. The funds for creating the Leading Research Teams came from the money brought by taking part in IDUB – UPWr took 12th place among 20 of the largest universities in the country, increasing its subsidy by 2%, so by approx. PLN 3.2 million for 6 years. Thus, the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences gained time and money for transformation. 

Although today the research teams are starting to support themselves by obtaining external funding, the funds from the subsidy still help teams in transition periods between projects. The total internal funds allocated to the teams in 2020 and 2021 amounted to PLN 2.65 million. In addition, the money obtained from the subsidy finances the Doctoral School, the Young Minds project and supports scientists who come to UPWr from other centers in Poland and abroad. 

Leading Research Teams obtained almost PLN 100 million in external funding 

As the evaluation report states, for the period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021, the average amount of funds obtained per one team member for research and development projects was close to  PLN 286,000, and the sum of funds obtained from external sources for the implementation of projects both domestic and international was almost PLN 74 million. 

And since the beginning of the teams operation, from 2019 to today, the Leading Research Teams have acquired a total of over PLN 97 million. The effects of research projects financed from external sources are significant and described in highly rated scientific journals. Such publications are a prestige that makes it easier to reach for further projects – nearly PLN 1.8 million from IDUB funds has been allocated for publications of the research teams in 2020-2021. 

– We focus on projects, because it is the main determinant of the success of research teams, and thus the university. Our recognition is measured by the strength of the projects and consortia we join – Dr. Katarzyna Krauzy-Dziedzic, head of the Science Department at the University of Wrocław, who is responsible for the formal organisation of the teams. 

In total, during the evaluated period, members of the research teams published as many as 1,307 publications and were involved in 110 projects, including 16 international ones. Since the evaluation, the number of projects has increased. 

What is particularly important, the creation of Leading Research Teams made it possible to direct the scientific potential to international projects. All projects under the Horizon Europe program and its predecessor Horizon 2020 are submitted and currently implemented by Leading Research Teams’ members – for a total amount of approximately PLN 10.6 million. In 2022, as many as 26 applications were submitted in the Horizon Europe competitions. 

– We focus on projects, because it is the main determinant of the success of research teams, and thus the university. Our recognition is measured by the strength of the projects and consortia we join – Dr. Katarzyna Krauzy-Dziedzic.

– We’re glad that the teams are joining up to conduct interdisciplinary research, and that  more and more such projects are being submitted. The latest example is SYMBIOREM, a project revolving around reducing environmental pollution through innovative bioremediation processes. Projects in which UPWr is the leader of an international consortium also deserve mention, such as GATHERS for remote geodetic techniques: radar (InSAR), laser (LiDAR) and navigation (GNSS) for the study of ground deformation and seismic risk assessment, and the SEASONED project aimed at creating a sensory analysis of food with a focus on novel food – says Dr. Katarzyna Kopańczyk, head of the Department of International Research Programs, hoping that the experience gained in leading coordination & support projects – which are carried out in smaller consortia, consisting of 5-8 partners, will soon make it possible to acquire a large research project in the research & innovation category implemented by partners from over a dozen countries. 

Almost 100% of international projects at UPWr are carried out by Leading Research Teams

The successes of the research teams is also measured through the prism of obtaining large research projects, carried out in multi-centre consortia and financed from the outside. Gaining such projects is a great challenge not only for Polish scientists, but also for teams from other countries that joined the European Union after 2004. In this context, UPWr has a unique position – thanks to the Leading Research Teams actively operating on an international arena, it ranks second in the Lower Silesia region in terms of the amount of funds obtained from the Horizon Europe program. It is also one of the two beneficiaries who won the project as a leader. 

– We are also very active in international programs co-financed by the National Science Center (NCN) and the National Center for Research and Development (NCBiR). Leading Research Teams are currently implementing research projects for a total amount of PLN 8.2 million, of which the National Science Center funded PLN 4.6 million, and the National Center for Research and Development funded PLN 3.6 million. These are both bilateral and multilateral projects, and each of them strengthens the position of the Leading Research Teams on an international arena – says the head of the Department of International Research Programs. 

As emphasized by Dr. Krauzy-Dziedzic, the latest data also show that Leading Research Team members are also successful in applying for national projects of the National Science Center. The total amount of funds obtained from the National Science Center amounts to PLN 43.3 million, and more than half of the amount obtained, i.e. PLN 26 million, comes from OPUS projects. 

According to Dr. Kopańczyk, an important element of the Leading Research Team’s work and UPWr as an institution, is to create research conditions that attract the best scientists, also from abroad. In 2021, three different teams applied to programs financing postdoctoral fellowships, such as MSCA-PF, or Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Postdoctoral Fellowships, or the POLONEZ BIS program of the National Science Centre, of which one application received funding. This year, there were already nine such applications. However, the results of these activities will not be known until February next year. 

– Currently, we are on the brink of major changes, because the term of office of Leading Research Teams ends on May 31, 2023, but this doesn’t mean the end of them. On the contrary – the evaluation showed us that the Leading Research Teams have fulfilled their role. 

– In the context of obtaining funds for projects, they are at the forefront of the university. Those acquired by Leading Research Teams account for 73% of national NCN projects and 96% of international projects, says Dr. Katarzyna Krauzy-Dziedzic, emphasizing that the university is entering a new stage, including ensuring greater independence for the teams and reconstructing the internal financial system. 

– An important stage in the development of the research teams should be creating stronger research centres, for which infrastructural reinforcement will be needed. Thanks to such centres, teams of strong researchers will attract scientists from Europe and the world to work together based on modern and unique research infrastructure. Some teams already do this, others we are strengthening, e.g. through the Center for Innovative Technologies project – adds prof. Anna Chełmońska-Soyta, who supervises the activities of the Leading Research Teams and manages the IDUB project on behalf of the university. 

– The greatest progress is born at the meeting point of distant scientific fields. The idea of a project combining veterinary medicine with geodesy to monitor migration of infectious diseases is a great example – says Prof. Chełmońska-Soyta. 

Towards becoming research university 

The Leading Research Teams have just had their third birthday and, as the vice-rector for internationalization, prof. Chełmońska-Soyta says, thanks to the evaluation and other collected data, it was possible to see and evaluate the work of the research teams’ in numbers. However, the reports do not contain information on the scientific value achieved.

– That is why we are thinking of organizing a scientific session in which each of the leaders would talk about how groundbreaking the projects implemented by the teams and the ideas of the scientists who create them are. Perhaps it is too early to talk about it, but we are hungry for this knowledge, curious of the scientific achievements and the impact they will have on society and the world around us – concludes Prof. Anna Chełmońska-Soyta, emphasizing that it is this impact of scientific activity on the functioning of society and the economy that will largely affect the result of the next IDUB competition.

Receiving the title of a research university by the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences would be tantamount to the possibility of raising the level of quality of scientific activity and the level of quality of education, and, as a consequence, increasing the international importance of the university's activity and its significant impact on the progress of world knowledge.

• 

  The Best Polish Invention award is ours!

  Dr. Agnieszka Krawczyk-Łebek from the Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis was awarded the Gold Medal at the 16th International Exhibition of Inventions 'IWIS 2022', while the title of Best Polish Invention was awarded to new flavonoid glycosides with potential antimicrobial activity that she managed to obtain using biotransformation.

• 

  UPWr part of SusPlant international project

  The researchers involved in the project will investigate consumer attitudes and preferences towards innovative food products, including meat substitutes, in the societies of participating countries – Sweden, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Moldova. The joint efforts aim to discern consumer attitudes towards new products on the market and facilitate the composition of a healthy and balanced diet.