Between September 2023 and September 2024, a project financed by the EEA Grants (Iceland-Liechtenstein-Norway grants) and Norway (Norway grants) is being implemented at the Faculty of Medicine of UPJŠ in Košice. The project is a collaboration and knowledge transfer concerning research conducted at universities in Slovakia and Iceland on the topic of “Genomic instability and cancer GenICa” (“Bilateral relations and common knowledge between Slovakia and Iceland research at Universities on the topic of “Genomic instability and cancer GenICa”). The project was presented by RNDr. Martina Šemeláková, PhD., a researcher from the Institute of Medical Biology at the Faculty of Medicine in UPJŠ, who is responsible for the project.
How did you come to organize this project? Were your previous collaborations also involved?
Thanks to the cooperation which we had initiated in the past, we established coordination between experts, scientists and university lecturers from the University of Iceland in order to enable further participation in the creation of this project. Of course, the sympathy, openness and friendliness between the staff members of both universities played an important role in the willingness to cooperate. The ambition of the project was to ensure a higher level of cooperation between institutions. One example of this type of improvement is the so-called university “roadmap” strategy designed to achieve a specific goal, such as obtaining scientific grants or establishing shared infrastructure by connecting individual departments and working groups within individual faculties and in the university. The results of this cooperation can be evaluated over time based on the number of submitted international research projects at our university and their success rate. By setting such a goal, we aimed to get to know the different research teams, gain a better understanding of the infrastructure and thereby identify ways of achieving success.
Who from UPJŠ is involved in this project? How is their cooperation going?
Due to their joint scientific efforts in the field of tumour studies, higher education lecturers and researchers of the Faculty of Medicine, primarily from the Institute of Medical Biology, the Institute of Pharmacology and the Associated Tissue Bank (a scientific-research workplace performing activities in the field of regenerative medicine) are participating in the project. However, other employees of institutes at the Faculty of Medicine at UPJŠ will also participate in other activities such as the conference and the joint preparation of the project.
Meetings between project organisers are carried out in the form of on-line meetings and two in-person working meetings. One such meeting will be held in Slovakia in June 2024 where we will present the research, teaching activities and organizational structure of our university.
“Working together for a green, competitive and inclusive Europe“
What will be the result of this project?
The goal of the initiative is to strengthen bilateral relations between donor and recipient countries. We plan to achieve this by establishing and expanding bilateral cooperation based on common activities (seminars and an international conference), meetings and discussions which will lead to the strengthening of shared knowledge between researchers in Slovakia and Iceland. One of the tasks of the project is to ensure the exchange of experience, research procedures and knowledge in the scientific field. The project’s activities are aimed at improving the mutual education of doctoral students, researchers and lecturers and creating a basis for further partnership between Slovakia and Iceland.
Part of the project will be the strengthening of cooperation primarily in the field of studying genomic instability and cancer in the context of its occurrence in the population of Slovakia and Iceland and with regard to ecological conditions, pollution impacts and lifestyles.
The primary goal of the initiative is to build bilateral cooperation based on shared activities that will lead to the strengthening of common knowledge between researchers in Slovakia and Iceland. In the course of performing individual work tasks, we will improve personal relationships and learn about the research tasks of individual work groups, including their potential and capacities, and identify opportunities for future scientific cooperation. One of the tasks after the end of the project will be the preparation of documents for an international research project and joint research in the field of tumour therapy.
You mentioned a meeting in Slovakia. When and where will it take place and who will attend?
The Student International Scientific Conference is planned as part of the project, and it will take place under the auspices of the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of UPJŠ, prof. MUDr. Peter Jarčuška, PhD., in the High Tatras in June 2024. The conference will be an opportunity for our doctoral students and young scientists to present the results of their research activities to date. The conference will also be unique in terms of the participation and presentation of researchers and doctoral students from the University of Iceland and will feature lectures from invited experts from important institutions. The guest speakers are graduates of our university and currently hold important positions in research centres and universities around the world. Their scientific work is also a legacy of our alma mater.
Invited lecturers:
Dr. Madžo J., Director of the Bioinformatics Center, Coriell Institute for Medical Research, Philadelphia, NJ, USA;
Dr. Starková J., academic staff at Charles University in Prague; head of the metabolic group, which is part of the CLIP Laboratory Center (Childhood Leukemia Investigation Prague), Clinic of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and FN Motol, Prague, CZ.
Name of the bilateral initiative: “Bilateral relations and common knowledge between Slovakia and Iceland research at Universities on the topic of “Genomic instability and cancer GenICa”
Initiative number: FBR-PDI-012 Implementation period: 10th of September 2023 – 9th of September 2024
Partners:
Objectives of the initiative: building bilateral cooperation based on joint activities (seminars, conferences), meetings and discussions, which will lead to the strengthening of common knowledge between researchers in Slovakia and Iceland.
Contribution amount: €67,379.20
Funding source: Bilateral initiative “Bilateral relations and common knowledge between Slovakia and Iceland research at Universities on topic “Genomic instability and cancer “GenICa” is implemented thanks to the financial support of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA and Norway Grants.
