Launched in February 2024, Aurora’s first Call for Incentive and Collaborative Research Projects (Hvatastyrkir fyrir rannsóknasamstarf) received 26 high-quality applications from all institutions within Aurora, gathering the expertise of 87 research groups from diverse disciplines. Seven projects made the final cut and will receive funding of an average of €15,000 per project, three of those involve the University of Iceland.
- Bing Wu, Professor in Environmental Engineering at the University of Iceland leads the MIMIC project collaboration in the field of Environment, researching Transport and Adsorption Behaviours of Microplastic Fibres in Membrane Biofilm Reactors along with the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and the University of Rovira i Virgili in Spain.
- Jón Ólafsson, Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Iceland, is part of the research collaboration Ecodelib on Deliberation for Ecological and Sustainable Universities along with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This research collaboration is led by University Paris-Est Créteil in France.
- Ólöf Guðný Geirsdóttir, Professor in Nutrition at the University of Iceland participates in the research collaboration Nutriage24 on Healthy eating: A cross-cultural analysis of the social and nutritional conditions of aging the Czech Republic, Iceland, and Spain along with University of Rovira i Virgili in Spain. The collaboration is led by Palacký University in the Czech Republic.
Funded projects will begin in autumn 2024 and run for the next two years.
VOLCOM Summer School granted funding
Rikke Pedersen, Project Manager at the University of Iceland and leader of NordVulk (Nordic Volcanological Center), has, furthermore, been granted funding to host the VOLCOM Summer School on Volcanoes and Science Communication for early-stage researchers in partnership with The University of Naples Federico II in Italy and The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This is one of two summer schools that Aurora has decided to fund in this round of applications.
These grants will be allocated annually for the next three years and the next deadline for applications will be advertised in Ugla early 2025.
Here is the list of successful projects. Detailed information for each project will be made available soon on the Aurora website. The criteria for the funding of these research proposals includes their scientific quality, originality and feasibility. Projects also had to demonstrate their added value for the Aurora 2030 programme, in particular their potential to create scientific communities, and, if relevant to their topic, to contribute to the Aurora educational hubs.
The 2024 Call for Incentive and Collaborative Research Projects has been created under the Academic Collaboration and Community Building of the Aurora 2030 programme supported through the European Universities Initiative by the European Commission. This annual call aims to offer opportunities for young and established academics to further increase research cooperation within Aurora universities.