The development of a radar to explore the Martian surface, the use of functional dyes in 3D fluorescence imaging or the creation of innovative solutions in the search for “dark matter” are topics of the projects selected for funding under MSCA-RISE programme, in which the Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences will participate! Among 823 beneficiaries from 137 countries and 74 winning projects in the last call # H2020 MSCA-RISE there are three PAS Institutes: Space Research Centre, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre. We are pleased to present these projects below!
The MSCA-RISE (Research and Innovation Staff Exchange) programme promotes international collaboration by sharing knowledge and ideas between researchers and markets around the world. First, it enables the exchange of research and innovation staff, not only among scientists, but also management, administrative and technical staff working in different countries and sectors. Secondly, it serves the exchange of knowledge and ideas that bring new solutions, products and services, and contribute to the development of innovation, advancement of the level of European research and career development of employees.
The results of the last MSCA-RISE # H2020 call were announced on 1st September 2020. Within total budget of 80 million euro more than 4,000 personnel exchanges will be financed. The full list of winning projects is available here.
Project FlyRadar – radar mission to Mars
The aim of the #FlyRadar project, the participant of which is the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN), is to develop a drone-borne P-band radar to investigate the Martian subsurface to be included in either a lander or a manned mission. The radar is able to detect features in the subsurface down to several meters, making it powerful for both resources and scientific investigations. The radar instrument have already been tested in helicopter in Morocco. In the project, the instrument will be miniaturized, placed on an adapted drone, tested in various field conditions, then validated. Scientific data interpretation will be done, and potential applications on Mars will be investigated.
The project coordinator in CBK PAN, professor Daniel Mège, emphasizes that will develop cooperation between 4 academic institutions and 3 industrial partners in France, Hungary, Italy and Poland. While the scientific partners will investigate the best sites on Mars for future radar scientific application, infer the scientific requirements, and test the radar at carefully selected field test sites on Earth, the industrial partners will build the radar and the supporting drone. The Space Research Centre will be involved in most of these operations through staff exchange, and in particular, will be in charge of the radar qualification campaign at the terrestrial analogue sites. It is worth adding that the project is led by the International School of Planetary Sciences (Pescara, Italy), and its budget is over 1 million euro.
Project Micro4Nano – the use of fluorophores in 3D imaging of biological tissues
Visualization of the processes taking place in cells and tissues is crucial for deepening the understanding of the functioning of living organisms and the search for new medications. Of the many visualization techniques, fluorescence plays a huge role. It is determined by its sensitivity, dependence on small changes in the environment, the possibility of attaching fluorescent probes to bio-particles and the availability of many types of microscopes. The #Micro4Nano project, in which the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IChO PAN) takes part, aims at developing new methods of three-dimensional visualization of large fragments of biological tissues. My team has discovered 12 new fluorescent platforms over the past decade. However, despite these advantageous features, they have not yet been used in fluorescence imaging. Under Micro4Nano, intensive use of two of my fluorophores is planned as fluorescent probes: pyrrolo [3,2-b] pyrrole and dipyrrolonaphthyridinedione . Thus, these dyes will cease to be just an academic curiosity and will become useful.– says professor Daniel Gryko, coordinator of the project in the IChO PAN.
In the opinion of the Institute, the successful factors of the application submitted under the MSCA-RISE call are primarily: the multidisciplinarity of the research project (chemistry, biology and physics), the great experience of scientists in applying for European grants and a well-chosen composition of the consortium, in particular leading experts in specific fields were of key importance for the project’s success (i.e. organic chemists, photophysicists, molecular biologists, engineers specializing in microflow). It should be noted that apart from the IChO PAN, researchers from USA, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Finland or Israel and companies such as Nanomol Technologies are participating in the grant.
Project PROBES – innovative solutions in the search for dark matter
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CAMK PAN) will be one of the 26 consortium members implementing the #PROBES project under the MSCA-RISE programme. The project explores the most fundamental issues in modern particle astrophysics, including the search for ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’. We have known for a long time that what has been observed in the Universe so far is only a few percent of everything, the proverbial ‘tip of the iceberg’. In order to shed light on the still hidden, invisible side of the universe, it is necessary to develop and use the most modern scientific methods and technological solutions to create extremely sensitive instruments for observing extremely rare and weak signals of phenomena in the universe, such as gravitational waves, dark matter or neutrinos. Under the PROBES project, leading research groups from Europe, USA, Japan and China will collaborate with companies to develop such innovative solutions.
Professor Leszek Roszkowski, PROBES coordinator in CAMK PAN and head of the AstroCeNT Department, notes that the PROBES project goals fit perfectly into the research program developed at the MAB AstroCeNT Department. I am very pleased that just a few months after its creation, the AstroCeNT team was invited to participate in this ambitious project, in cooperation with such excellent and reputable centers as CERN, MIT and many others. For us, it is not only an expression of our potential, but also an opportunity to strengthen and further develop cooperation with leading research groups in the world in such flagship areas as particle astrophysics, including neutrinos and dark matter, and the detection of gravitational waves.
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of PAS received the information about the MSCA-RISE project with a great satisfaction. We owe this success primarily to the excellent team of scientists we managed to gather at the MAB AstroCeNT Department. The team consists of specialists in theoretical physics as well as great experimenters and researchers with extensive experience in the field of observation of the universe. It is thanks to this multidisciplinary approach that it is possible to conduct research that has a chance to be successful in the international arena. – this is how the participation in the MSCA-RISE project is commented by Professor Rafał Moderski, Deputy Director in CAMK PAN.
A recipe for success
Both the authorities of the Institutes in which the above-mentioned projects will be implemented and the professors responsible for the coordination of the grants agree that the success of their applications in the MSCA-RISE programme was due to the team’s high involvement in the preparation of the project, its high level of knowledge and experience in applying for European funds. It was also extremely important to put emphasis on the multidisciplinarity of the consortium members, and at the same time on interdisciplinarity, which is to constitute a great added value of the research carried out under the aforementioned grants.
The PolSCA office expresses congratulations to all PAS beneficiaries and wishes a good luck in the implementation of projects, in the exchange of experiences and scientific ideas as well as in the mobility carried out within the programme!
Contact persons:
- #FlyRadar CBK PAN in Warsaw:
- prof. Daniel Mège: dmege@cbk.waw.pl
- Anna Długosz: adlugosz@cbk.waw.pl (Deputy Director for Project Management)
- #Micro4Nano IChO PAN in Warsaw
- prof. Daniel Gryko: dtgryko@icho.edu.pl (Director of IChO PAN)
- prof. Jacek Młynarski: jacek.mlynarski@icho.edu.pl (Deputy Director of IChO PAN)
- #Probes CAMK PAN in Warsaw:
- prof. dr hab. Leszek Roszkowski: roszkowski@camk.edu.pl (Head of the AstroCeNT Department)
- prof. dr hab. Rafał Moderski: moderski@camk.edu.pl (Deputy Director of CAMK PAN)
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Published: 2020-10-09, J. Kramarczyk
Translated: 2020-10-22, J. Kramarczyk
Visuals: @Freepik.com
