DOCTORAL STUDENTS FROM COMENIUS UNIVERSITY RECEIVE RESEARCH GRANTS
Bratislava, 3 April, 2023: Comenius University Bratislava has been supporting research work of young scientists with CU Grants for 27 years. This year, it distributed 211,750 euros among 214 projects, allocating an average of almost 1,000 euros per project.
In 2023, 415 doctoral students applied grants, most of them from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics and the Faculty of Medicine, like in previous years.
Jana Urbánková from the Faculty of Pharmacy will study the knowledge and attitudes of Slovak adolescents about medicines, their risks and their safe and correct use. She wants to find out where they source information about medicines and whether they consult their parents or experts about their use. She will verify whether a brief, interactive explanation by a pharmacist influences the subject’s attitude. Her intention is to design a school lesson for adolescents based on the research.
Daniel Kyselica from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics wants to research the motion of objects in space, especially space debris from satellites or asteroids. He plans to employ machine learning to extract information about the properties of the objects and their rotation from the light curves including the light intensity of the objects. This information can be used to predict their future behaviour and facilitate removal.
Pavel Danihel from the Faculty of Management will study both the negative and positive impacts of the pandemic and of the energy crisis on small and medium-sized enterprises. The driving force of the economy, small and medium-sized enterprises are threatened by such unpredictable phenomena. „The research will also research the use of traditional and less traditional forms of state aid, including the Recovery and Resilience Facility, to restore financing of the enterprises,“ says the PhD student.
Monika Šmeringaiová from the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences will investigate whether and how state family policy affects child births. In her research she will compare OECD countries and focus on the family policy in Slovakia and Czechia. „I study the agenda of government cabinets, which address family policy in different ways,“ explains Monika.
In his project, Richard Hlušek from the Faculty of Natural Sciences aims to establish the number of bus and rail connections among all municipalities in Slovakia. Based on this data, he will map country-wide public transport availability . The output of his research will include a model for residents that calculates how long it will take them to get to their destination from, for example, their place of residence.
„Every year, the university allocates approximately a quarter million euros to support the science and research of our youngest scientists - doctoral students. I hope that the grants will make them happier and will encourage them to continue their scientific endeavours. Science is fascinating and I hope many of them will decide to continue doing research after their study, expanding he ranks of passionate researchers,“ says the rector of CU, Marek Števček.