Grant from the National Science Centre for a space internship

Radosław Zajdel is in the third year of doctoral studies at the UPWr Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics. His application was submitted for the National Science Centre ETIUDA 8 grant competition for applicants with ongoing doctoral dissertation process. 84 out of 448 applicants were selected and the PhD student from UPWr will stay at German Space Agency (DLR, German: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft – und Raumfahrt) for three months, where he is going to work under the supervision of prof. Oliver Montenbruck – the initiator and head of the IGS Multi-GNSS Pilot Project (MGEX) research group operating within the framework of the International GNSS Service.

- I hope that I will make the best of this trip. The research internship will last 3 months, which in my opinion is sufficient to start cooperation, conduct preliminary analyses and show your potential to the research group with which you plan to collaborate. Of course, I would like to learn as much as possible, gain new ideas for research and publications. On the other hand, I would like the research internship to be not only an opportunity to observe how another research group is working, but a beginning of future cooperation and, consequently, larger scientific projects – says Radosław Zajdel and admits that the current model of working brought about by the pandemic teaches us how to maintain contacts remotely and work together. – I am going to join a really strong research group with considerable reputation in the scientific community. It is an amazing distinction for me that people such as the internship coordinator, prof. Montenbruck, want to share their knowledge with me.

Radosław Zajdel is going to Germany during the last year of his doctoral process, so he hopes that his work there will pay off in the next stages of his scientific career. And since the last year of the doctorate is a time to finish the work on his dissertation, he also assumes that thanks to new experience gained during the internship his paper will be more exhaustive. The IGG PhD student deals with the determination of global geodetic parameters using the Galileo satellite system. Thanks to data analysis, which helps, among other things, to increase the quality of geodetic parameters, scientists gain the possibility to understand the temporal and spatial changes occurring in the Earth's system, such as rising ocean water levels, melting glaciers and monitoring climate change.

- My Institute of Geodesy and Geoinformatics frequently achieves major and minor successes. I am in an expert research group, which is being increasingly recognized and respected in the international scientific community, mainly thanks to its more experienced employees but also more and more often thanks to its doctoral students. Nevertheless, no matter how strong your unit is, exchange with other prestigious units is key to maintaining your scientific potential, opening up to new ideas and broadening the perspectives for further activities – emphasizes Radosław Zajdel and openly expresses his joy at the NCN grant. – But it is each new experience or challenge that I am particularly happy about. They provide freshness, motivation for work and, consequently, new energy. And that's what I count on at DLR – smiles Radosław Zajdel.

The NCN grant holder is an author or co-author of scientific articles published only in leading journals of his scientific discipline. The total IF of his publications is 53.11, and the number of points from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education = 1830. As a result of the research to determine day length variability with the use of the Galileo system, he came up with a value of the anomaly in Earth rotation with drift fourteen times smaller than the same value determined with the use of the American GPS system, due to its strong resonance with the Earth's rotation. Thus, the research results have global impact and are significant for the development of various scientific disciplines in the area of ​​exact and technical sciences. He also presented them at numerous international conferences, including IUGG in Montreal, Canada (2019), Galileo Colloquium organized by ETH in Zurich (2019) and at the 21st International Workshop on Laser Ranging in Canberra, Australia (2018), and has been awarded many prestigious awards, e.g. by the European Space Agency at the Galileo Colloquium in Valencia in 2017.

The research centre where Radosław Zajdel will do the internship is an internationally renowned and dynamic institution that brings together the best scientists and the most modern equipment and technologies available within the satellite and space industry, aeronautics, transport and energy. The research internship will be conducted in the "GNSS Technology and Navigation" working group, subordinate to the Flight Control and Astronaut Training Centre (Ger. Raumflugbetrieb und Astronautentraining). The centre, operating within the DLR, is central for the coordination of German space flights. The "GNSS Technology and Navigation" group is headed by prof. Oliver Montenbruck (the total number of citations of his works is 4866, and the Hirsch index (h-index) is 37).

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