On Tuesday 17 December 2024, University of Malta Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella presented this year’s Research Excellence Fund awards to five UM academics.
These funds will cover the expenses of one project in each of the following thematic areas: Arts & Humanities; Engineering, ICT & Built Environment; Medical & Health Sciences; Natural Sciences & Knowledge Sciences; and Social Sciences & Education.
The Funds being awarded to each project are up to a maximum of EUR 60,000, and the projects concerned are to be executed over a period of two years commencing in 2025.
The Research Excellence Funds are administered by the Research Fund Committee. Award decisions are based on the review reports and scores assigned by independent, external peer reviewers on the project proposals that were submitted through an open call issued last December.
The Research Excellence Funds awardees are:
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Dr Carmel Serracino (Arts & Humanities), for the project entitled ‘Corpus Inscriptionum Melitensium (CIM): Rediscovering Common Heritage Through Latin Inscriptions’
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Prof. Ing. Reiko Raute (Engineering, ICT & Built Environment), for the project entitled ‘Dynamic wireless charging lanes for the Maltese Islands’
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Prof. Nikolai Paul Pace (Medical & Health Science), for the project entitled ‘HS FUNomics: Hidradenitis Suppurativa FUNctional Omics - Transcriptomic and Proteomic Study of Hidradenitis Suppurativa’
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Dr Matthew Agius (Natural Sciences & Knowledge Sciences), for the project entitled ‘Investigating Malta's recent seismic activity and development of novel tools for earthquake analysis’
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Prof. Tanya Sammut Bonnici (Social Sciences & Education), for the project entitled ‘The Interplay of Technological Cooperation and Competition: Insights from Evolutionary Dynamics and Complexity Theory’
