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Isidora Kešelj and Milica Radaković, winners of the national scholarship “For Women in Science”

On December 25, 2023, the national awards “For Women in Science” for 2023 were awarded, and out of three, two winners are from the Faculty of Sciences. The awards were given to: Ana S. Dobrota, Isidora Kešelj and Milica Radaković.

Isidora Kešelj is Assistant Professor in the field of Animal Physiology at the Department of Biology and Ecology, and her work is based on finding solutions for male infertility.

Our focus is on men and we treat male infertility. We want to see how it can be solved and the government is supporting our research. The projects we implement are also supported by the government. In the world of science, women have their place. There are a lot of us in Serbia.

Isidora Kešelj

Milica Radaković works at the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, dealing with climate and environmental change research, and this award will contribute to further advancement of her work.

The award means a lot to me and contributes to expanding my knowledge of science and my results even more.

Milica Radaković

The National Awards ceremony within the thirteenth cycle of the L’Oréal-UNESCO program “For Women in Science” was organized by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation, the Commission of the Republic of Serbia for Cooperation with UNESCO and the L’Oréal Balkan company. Through this program, female scientists receive funds for the realization of their research projects (€5,000 each).

Previously, Marija Lesjak and Snežana Papović from the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Environmental Protection, Mirjana Ćuk and Nevena Veličković from the Department of Biology and Ecology and Jelena Aleksić from the Department of Mathematics and Informatics have received this scholarship.

Achievements,

Six new projects financed within the PRIZMA program of the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia

As part of the PRIZMA program, the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia will finance 97 projects in the next three years in which 898 researchers from 91 scientific research organizations will participate. Six projects led by the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad have been accepted for financing, of which five are in the field of science and mathematics and one is in the field of artificial intelligence:

  • “Global and local analysis of operators and distributions” (GOALS) led by Prof. Dr Nenad Teofanov
  • “LArge SCale and Distributed Optimization” (LASCADO) led by Prof. Dr Nataša Krejić
  • “Mathematical Models of Fluid Flow with Variable Viscosity” (FluidVarVisc) led by Prof. Dr Marko Nedeljkov
  • “Integration of Biological Responses and PBTK Modeling in Chemical Toxicity Assessment: A Case Study of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA)” (ToxIN) led by Prof. Dr Nebojša Andrić
  • “Natural based efficient solution for remediation and revitalization of contaminated locations using energy crops” (ReNBES) led by Prof. Dr Snežana Maletić
  • “Graphs in Space and Time: Graph Embeddings for Machine Learning in Complex Dynamical Systems” (TIGRA) led by Prof. Dr Miloš Radovanović
Achievements

New project of HORIZON EUROPE Innovation actions – “Restore4Life”

“Restoration of wetland complexes as life supporting systems in the Danube Basin (Restore4Life)” is a HORIZON EUROPE Innovation Action project in which our Department is a partner. The coordinator of this international project is Dr Mihai Adamescu, head of the research center for systemic ecology and sustainability from Romania, while the coordinator of the project for the Faculty of Sciences is Prof. Dr Dušanka Cvijanović. This project under the project name HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01; Action: HORIZON-MISS-2022-OCEAN-01-02 will be implemented in the period from 2023 to 2027.

Achievements

Gastronomy students at the culinary competition “Food Vision by Open Balkan – Open Balkan Chef Culinary Challenge 2023”

In the organization and under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, the Government of Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia, and within the implementation of the Open Balkan initiative, the second event “Wine Vision by Open Balkan” was held from November 16 to 19, 2023.

As part of this event, the first competition of professional chefs and young chefs was held under the name “Food Vision by Open Balkan – Open Balkan Chef Culinary Challenge 2023”. The quality of the competition was strengthened by the renowned international judges, with exceptional culinary experience; Dragan Unić (president of the team of judges), Daniel Schade, Dominique Grandjean, Franciane Tartari, Daniel Ayton, Miroslav Kubec, Martina Events and Saso Dravinec.

From the Faculty of Sciences, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Chair of Gastronomy in the category “Best Young Chef” – preparation of a traditional dish in a modern way, 6 undergraduate and master students participated, who achieved outstanding results, entering the top nine and winning the following awards:

  • Milica Petrušić, gold medal, first place;
  • Saveta Bikić, silver medal, second place, and award for the most promising young chef;
  • Milana Čugalj, fourth place;
  • Filip Vitomirović, sixth place;
  • Mihailo Mlabaša, eighth place;
  • Andrija Kocić, ninth place.

The proud mentors of the students were: Dr Bojana Kalenjuk Pivarski and Goran Radivojević, with the assistance of colleagues Velibor Ivanović and Stefan Šmugović.

Achievements

New Horizon Project “Engaging Approaches for Meaningful Climate Actions – CLEAR CLIMATE”

The new Horizon project “Engaging Approaches for Meaningful Climate Actions – CLEAR CLIMATE” was launched. It is a joint initiative that aims to develop innovative approaches and services for communication about significant actions to combat climate change. For the first time, a project like this is coordinated by our faculty, and we are proud to present you our esteemed partners:

  • Wageningen University, The Netherlands
  • Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Spain
  • SWPS University, Poland
  • Stichting Climate Adaptation Services, The Netherlands
  • Predictia Intelligent Data Solutions, Spain
  • CESIE, Italy
  • Loughborough University, United Kingdom
  • Previsico Limited, United Kingdom
  • University of Development Studies, Ghana

Over the next four years, we will be committed together to solving the pressing challenges of climate change through innovative research and collaboration.

Achievements

New Erasmus+ project: SciMag – Science&Math educational games from preschool to university

Within the Erasmus+ call KA220-SCH – Cooperation partnerships in school education, the project “Science&Math educational games from preschool to university (SciMag)” was approved.

Game-based learning is the approach on which the project is based, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinarity and cooperation in science learning  at all levels of education. The coordinator of the project is the University of Rijeka, Croatia, and the University of Novi Sad is participating as a partner. The team members are from the Faculty of Science, the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management and the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Environmental Protection. The project manager is Prof. Dr Milica Solarević, from DGTH, and team members are Prof. Dr Sanja Belić with DH and Prof. Dr Smiljana Đukičin Vučković from DGTH. The project will last three years (September 1, 2023 – August 31, 2026), the EU Grant amounts to EUR 250,000 (Project number: 2023-1-HR01-KA220-SCH-000165485).

Achievements,

The Project ‘Stone Monument Ensembles and the Climate Change Impact’ (STECCI)

As of September 1, 2023, the Faculty of Sciences University of Novi Sad officially started the implementation of this scientific research project financed within the EU Program for Research and Innovation ‘Horizon Europe’ (2021-2027) titled ‘Stone Monument Ensembles and the Climate Change Impact’ (STECCI). The project was rated as outstanding by the evaluators of the European Commission and the Horizon Europe Program with 14 out of 15 possible points.

The project will certainly arouse the interest of those who know what ‘stećci’ are, as well as of all those who will be acquainted with this type of medieval tombstones for the first time, getting to know their unique shape and ornamentation, and exceptional cultural and documentary value, rightfully included in the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites.

The research topic is very up to date because it is about the climate change impact on cultural heritage monuments, here specifically on ‘stećci’ (medieval tombstones), including anthropogenic threats, environmental threats, neglect of cultural heritage, etc. Furthermore, the research that will be carried out within the project is especially multidisciplinary because it holistically combines different scientific disciplines and expertise. The topic of ‘stećci’ is more than relevant for the geographical coverage of our region, where ‘stećci’ are a unique phenomenon – countries of the Western Balkans, Ex-Yugoslavia countries: predominantly Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, while the international partners are from France, Germany, Austria and from Malta.

Under the coordination of the University of Sarajevo, UNSPMF is a partner in a very compact international consortium that combines all relevant scientific disciplines: climatology, social sciences, digitization, economics, creative industries, preservation and conservation of cultural heritage applying the newest approaches. The added value of the project is the active involvement of citizens in the project (Citizen Science).

Project duration: September 1, 2023 – August 8, 2027

The project leader at UNSPMF is Prof. Snežana Radulović, Ph.D. from the Department of Biology and Ecology, and the wider team of researchers including almost all departments of UNSPMF: Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Department of Physics, Office for International Cooperation and Projects, which is an excellent example of interdisciplinary cooperation at the Faculty itself.

The role of researchers from UNSPMF is twofold – in addition to the relevant research contribution, UNSPMF is in charge of a unique work package called “Dissemination, communication and exploitation of project results”, which is an added value of participating in the project, bearing in mind how important scientific communication and raising awareness of the significance of this project is – both among professionals and the general public.

Achievements, ,

New virtual exchange established via COIL Connect in March 2023

The Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad has established the first virtual exchange collaboration via COIL Connect network with The Catholic University of Manizales, Colombia.

The virtual exchange collaboration will be realized through General English classes and English for Geosciences classes by our professor Stanka Radojičić from the Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management and Adriana Maria Ramirez Garcia, a professor at the Catholic University of Manizales, Colombia. The overall topic of the collaboration will be UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 15 ‘Life on Land’ which will connect 14 Health (Bacteriology) students from the Colombian university and 14 + 9 students of Geography and Geoinformatics from the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. Students will examine and compare the realization of this UN goal in their countries and present at the final online mini-conference. The collaboration will be done through joint tasks synchronously and asynchronously using a variety of digital tools.

Stanka Adriana 1-minStanka Adriana 1-min
Stanka Adriana 2-minStanka Adriana 2-min
Achievements

European Commission – Innovation Radar Prize 2022

Our institution, University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences (UNSPMF) participates as a project partner within the EU H2020 ASCAPE project. ASCAPE has not only been listed in the EU Innovation Radar catalogue, but is was also selected for the short-list of the top 10 innovations during this year’s EU Innovation Radar Prize competition, under the Kickstarter category.

The ASCAPE Innovation, a Healthcare Open AI Platform, allows data collected and held at different hospitals and primary care centres as well as personal wearable devices, room sensors, and environmental or other relevant data to be used for training high-precision ML models which can provide personalised predictions about an individual’s healthcare progression, as well as evidence-based health intervention recommendations. It has been validated in the context of automated cancer patient monitoring with ML models trained from some of Europe’s leading hospitals and health services innovators. For further information, see https://ascape-project.eu.

Achievements

“Lara” from the Faculty of Sciences Won the First Place in Europe

Last year in October, the team from the Faculty of Science “Pannonian Crew”, consisting of Aleksandar Rončević, Mihailo Milenković, Petar Kapriš and Vladimir Krsmanović, all attending Computer Science Program, won the first place in the national competition for best technological innovation in the category of student innovations. They developed the innovation “Lara” – a system for automatic accident detection and rescue of sailors, which consists of hardware and software systems.

These talented young people, Computer Science students, had contacts with associations such as Maker even as high school students, when they studied and expanded their horizons and ambitions through extracurricular activities. This victory gave them additional confidence that the real potential of their idea was recognized, which paved the way for a much broader dimension of the process of innovation creation. Young researchers’ plan is to continue with the development of the idea and to test it on real ships soon.

Here’s the good news about Lara again!

POPRI International is an international competition for innovations and business ideas. The competition is held every year as part of the EUSAIR Forum which was held in Tirana this year.

The 7th Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) is an annual forum dedicated to connecting the countries of the Adriatic-Ionian region. The event itself provides an opportunity to promote projects for the development of the region, as well as for connecting young people and presenting their ideas to influential people from the region.

As part of the delegation from our country, the PMF Student Team and their Lara Project, won the first place in the competition of the 9 best teams from each country in the region. It is important to mention that our high school team, which competed in the second category, also won gold.

The competition was opened by Giuseppe Di Paola (European Commission Policy Coordinator, EUSAIR DG Regio) and Edona Bilali, Albanian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Startups.

Welcoming speeches at the award ceremony were given by Mirela Koci (Auleda – Local Economic Development Agency), Tanja  Kožuh (Primorski Tehnološki Park) and Ruta Zarnauskaite (Head of the Research and Innovation Department of the European Commission).

Achievements