Four University of Malta research projects in the areas of Natural Sciences, Engineering, ICT & Architecture, Life Sciences, and Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences respectively, are each receiving up to €60,000 (totalling €240,000) through the Research Excellence Fund.
This Fund is one of the two strands of the Internal Research Grants Programme, which supports academics in carrying out their research and acts as a springboard for additional funding from other sources.
The Research Support Services Directorate (RSSD) provides comprehensive support on all aspects of undertaking excellent research, from obtaining funding to carrying out experimental work.
RSSD manages the application process for the award of research funds allocated to University of Malta Resident Academics, which are disbursed from the yearly Government subvention to Resident Academics.
Funding is overseen by the Research Fund Committee (RFC) at the University of Malta.
The following four UM academics were awarded these funds during an award ceremony held recently :
Prof. Cristiana Sebu from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, will conduct research on Self-Screening Electrical Impedance Mammography
Dr Lalit Garg from the Department of Computer Information Systems, ICT Faculty will explore Novel Intelligent Computing Methods for healthcare requirements forecasting, allocation and management
- Dr Rosienne Farrugia from the Department of Applied Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, will study the Genomics of Rare Diseases
- Prof. Nicholas C. Vella from the Department of Classics & Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, will explore the Late Quaternary Coastal Paleoecologies of the Maltese Islands and their human impact. This research project is jointly being undertaken with Dr Ritienne Gauci from the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts.
Addressing the awardees, Pro-Rector for Research & Knowledge Transfer, Prof. Ing. Saviour Zammit, spoke about the importance of such funds in empowering researchers to take our knowledge economy to a higher level of excellence. He commented about the four individual projects chosen this year, saying that they all show a large degree of interdisciplinarity.
Meanwhile, University of Malta Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, congratulated the awardees and wished them success in their research ventures. The Rector remarked that such research improves the told quality of life of citizenry on a local level and even worldwide.
