The National Centre for Science (NCN) has published the results of the OPUS 24+ LAP competition, in which researchers at all stages of their careers could apply for funding for projects carried out in international cooperation under the WEAVE programme.

Research projects involving Polish-Austrian cooperation were evaluated based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP), in which NCN acted as the lead agency and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) accepted the results of NCN’s evaluation. 

The winner of the competition was Dr Agnieszka Tomala from the Kraków University of Technology, who, together with Prof. Carsten Gachot from the Vienna University of Technology, will carry out a project entitled Future generation of bioactive laser-structured biomaterials based on Ti/HAp/MXene. 

Their research responds to the challenges of an increasingly ageing population and the observed increase in the frequency of orthopaedic implants. 

The research aims to develop a novel composite biomaterial that will significantly improve the biocompatibility and durability of surgical implants. 

NCN will allocate more than PLN 1.7 million to fund the Polish part of the project.