National Science Centre (NCN) Poland organized an official kick-off meeting of the projects awarded to fellows in POLONEZ BIS call 1 on 12-13 December 2022 in Krakow.  This meeting provided opportunities for the fellows and mentors from various part of the Poland to interact with each other.  More than 60 researchers including the fellows and mentors were attending the event and had a first opportunity for networking among themselves.  

The event started with a former POLONEZ fellow sharing his experience and success he achieved so far through the various funding opportunities of NCN.  Following a researcher development framework (RDF) was introduced and offered at a free of cost to the fellows for focusing on improving their skills.  The emphasis on improving as a researcher with time for achieving an excellence through developing the necessary skills was instructed by the representatives from vitae UK, an organization that developed this RDF.  Furthermore, the NCN representatives provided a detailed presentation on selecting a open access journal for publishing the research articles through the project funding.  Also, the steps to be considered in data management plan for the project was also explained for the fellows.  
The available assistances to the fellows in selecting their intersectoral secondment and actions to be taken for promoting their project were explained by NCN representatives.  Finally the fellows, mentors, NCN representatives got an opportunity to smile for POLONEZ BIS group photo.  
More information on the event can be found on NCN website (in Polish): LINK

Sundar Rathnarajan, PI of the project got an opportunity presented his project “NanoSeaCon” to general public. “Stacja Innowacja” is an informative program in TVP Polonia that presents recent advances in every discipline of science and technology for a wider range of audience.  Team Stacja Innowacja visited ZUT campus this week and recorded an episode of this show in Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering together with project PI dr. Sundar Rathnarajan and his mentor prof. Pawel Sikora.

Dr. Rathnarajan was presenting the need and scope of seawater-mixed concrete in nations that suffer extremely severe shortages of freshwater supply. He elaborated the severity of the freshwater shortage for domestic supplies during the drought period in India and also highlighted the requirement of huge quantity of concrete production in the country as a part of fast economical growth in recent decades.  The potential of using blended cements and seawater-mixed concrete for various concrete applications was explained. Dr. Rathnarajan mentioned the role of POLONEZ BIS program funded through NCN and EU in motivating him to pursue his post-doctoral research in Poland.  Also, he appreciated how the NCN’s partner search tool helped him to collaborate with Prof. Sikora with a common research interest on making nano-modified concretes with seawater.
Further information about the date of broadcast of this episode in TVP Polonia will be updated later in this website

The project 'NanoSeaCon' started on October 1, 2022 under the supervision of Prof. Pawel Sikora. The Principal investigator of the project, Dr. Sundar Rathnarajan is formally employed in West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin to carry out the research focusing on developing sustainable nano-modified concrete mixed with seawater.