International Relations Office organised the Welcome meeting for incoming Erasmus+ students on Friday, November 1st 2019 at the Faculty of Sciences.

Erasmus+ students were welcomed by prof. Srđan Rončević, Vice Dean for Science, International Cooperation and Development and Gordana Vlahović, Head of International Affairs. During the meeting, Ivana Pejović, International Relations Officer gave a presentation about the Faculty of Sciences and other practical information related to student life in Novi Sad. Erasmus+ students shared their first impressions about studying in Novi Sad and also had the opportunity to chat with Erasmus+ coordinators in a non-formal atmosphere.

This winter semester the Faculty of Sciences has received 6 students from Spain, 1 student from the Czech Republic and 1 student from Austria within Erasmus+ Programme.

Prof. Dr. Ritva Kantelinen and Zinab Elgundi, PhD student from the School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education of the University of Eastern Finland visited the Faculty of Sciences University of Novi Sad from 14th until 18th October 2019. The visit was organized as part of the international cooperation within the Erasmus+ Programme.

The guests were welcomed and hosted by professors Dr. Ljiljana Knezevic, Dragana Vukovic Vojnovic and Stanka Radojcic from the Centre for Languages for Specific Purposes. During the visit Ritva and Zinab gave lectures to local students about the Finish educational system and language education. In addition, the purpose of the visit was to extend and improve the cooperation in the field of foreign language education.

On last day of their visits colleagues from Finland had a meeting with the International Relations Office of the Faculty of Sciences in order to discuss about possibilities to enhance the cooperation and implement further joint activities. Many good ideas have been shared and the new calls for projects were identified. Looking forward to continuation this excellent collaboration with UEF!

A project with an interesting acronym – G-BiKE, COST Action Genomic Blodiversity Knowledge for Resilient, is a newly funded project of the European Union with the aim to connect scientists, managers and users of natural wealth across Europe in order to emphasize the importance of applying scientific knowledge of genetics and genomics in the conservation of plant and animal life.

Although today genetic information can be obtained for most of the organisms, standardisation of the protocols for detecting and monitoring species’ genetic diversity and their adaptive potential is still missing. The main idea of the G-BiKE project is to establish the usage of genomic knowledge as a standard tool in the environmental protection programmes, in order to ensure the persistence of populations and species.

As the acronym of the project alludes to a bicycle, the main idea of the project is to connect two wheels, one symbolising scientists and the other all the practitioners directly involved in the application of ecosystem protection programmes. The project started with a meeting in Brussels attended by 45 scientists from 27 European countries. Serbia was represented by three scientists: Prof Dr Mihajla Djan, full professor at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad, Dr Nevena Velickovic, assistant professor at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad and Dr Srdjan Stojnic, research associate at the Institute of Lowland Forestry and the Environment in Novi Sad.

Scientific programme of the Action is divided in five thematic units which are organized as working groups. The team from Serbia will participate in the working group focusing on the implementation of genetic markers as indicators for monitoring the state of natural populations. The work of this group will result in a unique database including the species of the European continent which are crucial for the development of genetic and genomic markers and the list of areas of special importance for the implementation of environmental protection measures (the areas which are prone to fast changes or which represent cross-border areas of species distribution).

Dr Cristiano Vernesi from Italy was appointed as the Action Chair, and during the first meeting other leaders were appointed, including a representative from Serbia – dr Nevena Velickovic who was appointed as the Science Communication Manager.

Note:

The project was obtained within the COST programme. COST is an intergovernmental framework for European cooperation in the domain of science and technology which opens space for the projects, which have already been financed at the national level and involve at least five institutions from the programme member countries, to be coordinated at the European level. COST programme financially supports the collaboration activities such as organising conferences, seminars, working group meetings, meetings of the executive boards of individual projects within the programme, participation in summer schools, as well as travel expenses for short-term scientific visits.

Download call

7 open PhD positions are available in the framework of the Marie Curie EID (European Industrial Doctorate) BIGMATH – “Big Data Challenges for Mathematics”, at Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy), TU Eindhoven (The Netherlands), IST Lisbon University (Portugal), Faculty of Sciences University of Novi Sad (Serbia). The PhD students will spend at least 18 months in an industry in a country different from the enrollment center. Applicants to each position must have not spent more than 12 months in the last 3 years in the country of the recruiting center. Salaries comply with the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-ITN general standards.

The calls for recruitment at TU Eindhoven (2 positions – deadline Dec 5 2018) and University of Milan (2 positions – deadline Dec 31 2018) have already been published. The other calls will follow soon.

The mathematical fields of research involved in the project are mainly: Statistics, Numerical Optimization, Large Scale Linear Algebra.

For information and requirements of the specific calls please visit the web page
http://itn-bigmath.unimi.it

Interview with Professor Milica Pavkov Hrvojević, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, was published at the official COST Web page.