The researchers of the Institute of Physics, Belgrade, a national institute of the Republic of Serbia, have again been remarkably successful – they won as many as seven projects approved for funding within the programme ’Ideas’ of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia. According to the final ranking lists announced by the Science Fund on 30 November, this represents the highest number of projects headed by researchers from an institution in Serbia, and in addition to our institute, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Novi Sad won seven projects.
’Ideas’ has so far been the largest programme of the Science Fund launched intending to fund excellent science through projects which will, as the website states, influence the development of science and research. The approved projects are classified into four fields (natural, technical-technological, biomedical and social sciences and humanities), and their total budget is 29,999,198.17 euros.
To receive the funds, there were 9096 researchers from 202 scientific research organizations who applied with 917 project proposals. Within the evaluation procedure, conducted in two stages, 105 projects were selected for funding, in which 1,064 researchers from 98 scientific research organizations will participate.
According to the number of approved projects, there are five institutions on the list after the Institute of Physics and the Faculty of Sciences of Novi Sad which won five projects each (The Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Institute for Biological Research ’Siniša Stanković’, School of Medicine, Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade). Three organizations won four projects each (Vinča Nuclear Research Institute, the Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy and Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy), while two won three projects each (the Faculty of Biology and Faculty of Political Sciences). The other NGO won two or fewer projects (8% won 2 projects; 25% won 1; while 55% of institutions do not manage any projects, but participate in at least one).
When it comes to projects that will be conducted at the Institute of Physics, their total budget is 1,801,422.57 euros. The projects are classified in the fields of natural (5) and technological-technical sciences (2), and they will be implemented in cooperation with researchers from seven other institutions (Institute for Biological Research ’Siniša Stanković’, Institute for Multidisciplinary Research (IMSI), Vinča Nuclear Research Institute, Faculty of Engineering University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, School of Medicine and Faculty of Dental Medicine in Belgrade). Similarly, in addition to their own, the researchers from the Institute also participate in another approved project of the Faculty of Biology of the University of Belgrade.
Seven projects approved within the ’Ideas’ programme of the Science Fund, headed by the researchers of the Institute are as follows:
- APPerTAin-BIOM – Atmospheric pressure plasmas operating in wide frequency range – a new tool for production of biologically relevant reactive species for applications in biomedicine – Nevena Puač, PhD,
- CompsLight – Control and manipulation of light in complex photonic systems – Dragana Jović Savić, PhD,
- NOVA2LIBS4fusion – Novel approach to laser induced breakdown spectroscopy diagnostics of fusion reactor plasma facing components – Milivoje Ivković, PhD,
- EGWIn – Exploring ultra low global warming potential gases for insulation in high-voltage technology: Experiments and modelling – Saša Dujko, PhD,
- QGHG-2021 – Quantum Gravity from Higher Gauge Theory – Marko Vojinović, PhD,
- NOOM-SeC – Nano-objects in own matrix – Self composite – Nebojša Romčević, PhD и
- SimSurgery – Multiphysics Software Package for Simulation of Electrosurgical Procedures – Marija Radmilović-Rađenović, PhD
In each of the previous programmes of the Science Fund, the researchers of the Institute of Physics also managed to win the funding – four projects of the researchers of the Institute have been funded within the PROMIS programme, one within the Program for Development of Projects in the Field of Artificial Intelligence and one within the Special research program on COVID-19. Therefore, following the announcement of the ’Ideas’ programme results, there will be 13 projects which will be realized at the Institute of Physics, Belgrade funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia.