Changes at UPWr: Leading Research Teams

In his order, the Rector has established Leading Research Teams (LRTs) and their leaders. LRTs will be both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, operating outside the structure of institutes, departments and faculties. Their aim will be to obtain funds from external sources and develop seven disciplines evaluated at UPWr.

Tasks of Leading Research Teams

• interdisciplinary academic and research cooperation
• sustaining high academic standards
• representing the University at home and abroad
• developing scientific cooperation with Universities in Poland and abroad
• intensive search for external funding of academic and research activities

Below, we present the leaders of 15 LRTs at UPWr and the scope of their research.

Technology of food and nutrition

Research carried out by the team will concern food modification. This is achieved by adding components which influence physical and chemical properties of food, as well as its sensory and nutrition features. This kind of food will be obtained with the use of, among other things, by-products of food industry. The team will work on new technological solutions and confirm in vivo the effects of particular components and finished products.

The team will focus on the creation and optimization of food enriched with bioactive compounds (fruit, vegetables and their marc and herbs), listed as functional food with programmed pro-health properties. It will also work on new technological solutions, including nanotechnologies, for producing food of high pro-health potential.

Veterinary science

The research area will include: examining new pathogens of farm and free-living animals as well as pathogens transferred in food, finding out about new mechanisms of microorganism virulence as well as mechanisms of immune responses to pathogenic microorganisms, creating new cell and animal models used in cancer research, identification of new cancer markers, researching new natural and synthetic compounds of anti-microbiological, anti-cancer and immunomodulatory properties.

The team will be active in the fields connected with improving effectiveness of conservative and surgical therapy of animals and increasing precision of clinical and laboratory diagnostic tools. It will monitor animal health in whole populations, as well as monitor and treat wild animals and endangered species, seeking possibilities of saving them.

The team will conduct studies on animal diseases as models for translational research (i.e. preparing lab research for clinical application). The research will be carried out on animal models and cell lines, and its results will be able to be applied in medicine as preclinical studies for humans in the areas of cardiology, neurology, oncology and autoimmunological diseases.

Biological sciences

The team’s research will mainly concern biological activity of plant compounds as well as new compounds obtained in the processes of isolation, biocatalysis and synthesis. The results could be applied in pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and fodder industries.

The key research areas of the team will include: biotechnological use of yeast, filamentous fungi and bacteriophages, using plants and genetic engineering for improving properties of flax, metabolic engineering of microorganisms, utilizing food and farming waste as substrates in biotechnological processes, creating effective formulations in the treatment and prevention of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and metabolic diseases, and biotechnological methods of obtaining diet supplements.

The team will research mechanisms of molecular deficiencies in stem cells and their consequences in physiological processes of the organism. Applying epigenetic and immunogenetic tools as well as advanced molecular and pharmacological anti-aging techniques (dealing with the loss of body’s ability to regenerate) the scientists will examine the pathways regulating these processes.

Animal science and fishing

The team will deal with the whole poultry-production chain focusing on things such as increasing pro-health properties of meat and modulation of bioingredients naturally present in it, influence of bacteriophages on the microbiome of broilers’ digestive system, recognizing protective properties of selected fructans coming from bacterial fermentation of oil plants in connection with chickens’ digestive systems and their meat, use of fodder additives in poultry farming, utilizing by-products of meat industry with a large share of bioactive components in connective tissue.

In the nearest future the team is planning studies to assess possibilities of using biocarbon as an active fodder and bedding additive in husbandry, ecological chicken breeding with the use of mobile henhouse systems and functional additives to fodder obtained from apples and haskap berries with innovative supercritical CO₂ extraction methods and subcritical H₂O extraction ones.

Agriculture and gardening

The team will carry out projects in the following areas: the influence of climate change on natural ecosystems and agroecosystems, influence of purposeful farming and protective efforts in agriculture on saving Earth’s natural resources and on climate, changes in sorption and desorption cycle in polluted soils in the context of global warming, ensuring high quality agricultural products, technologies of remediating chemically polluted soils.

The focus of the team’s research will be on: qualities of plant materials with special regard to bioactive and pro-health substances, using various methods of drying and other technologies of preserving plant materials, seeking for molecular markers connected with quality characteristics of plant materials, possibilities of growing highly adaptable and thermophilic plants.

Civil engineering and transport

The team’s goal is to understand the implications of global changes in the Earth system for its rotation, gravitational field, precise positioning and navigation, deformation of Earth’s crust and the state of the atmosphere. It will develop quality, reliability and integrity of satellite observation techniques, positioning, global geodetic reference frames for monitoring changes in the Earth system and remote sensing methods of environment monitoring, particularly anthropogenic and natural deformations of Earth’s surface.

Environmental engineering, mining and energetics

The team will deal with low-emission and waste-free valorization of biowaste and biomass in high-quality solid and gas fuels as well as other products of high use value. The team’s main areas of research will include: bioconversion and thermal conversion of waste and biomass, utilizing the products of these processes for soil remediation, limiting emissions from industry and farming, circular economy in farming and agri-food industry.

The research carried out by the team will address the need for solutions regarding adaptation to climate change, limiting the impact of rapid urbanization and counteracting environmental pollution. The main focus will be on: integrated methods of obtaining and retaining water in urban areas, assessing the impact of athropopressure on the circulation of water in agricultural ecosystems, purifying water and sewage from specific kinds of pollution, with special regard to alternative methods of purification, and applying the algorithms of computational intelligence to environmental analysis and to diagnostic processes of technical infrastructure systems.

Schedule

• 27th March –Ministry of Science and Higher Education announces competition “Excellence Initiative – Research University”, which is an opportunity for UPWr to gain status of a research university.
• From 1st May academic degrees and titles are awarded in new disciplines (however, until 1st October – that is the date when the new University statute enters into force, no proceedings will be initiated for awarding any degrees or titles)
• 31st May is the deadline for establishing Leading Research Teams, recruitment rules and programme for the doctoral school
• 24th June – deadline for submitting applications to obtain the status of a research university
• 30th June – deadline for the Senate to appoint the University Council
• Between July and September – recruitment for the International Interdisciplinary Doctoral School
• Till 30th September the faculties will function in the present structures. After this date, faculty councils and deans will cease to be part of university authorities. The competences of the faculty councils will be taken over by the Senate and the competences of deans – by the Rector.
• From 1st October the new statute enters into force; university majors will be allocated to particular disciplines
• In the last quarter of 2019 results of the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” competition will be announced
• On 31st August 2020 the terms of rectors and senate come to an end
• On 1st January 2021 first part of evaluating the quality of academic activities will begin – for period the 2017-2020; Council of Academic Excellence will replace the Central Commission for Degrees and Titles