Comenius University in Bratislava is the first university in Slovakia to receive an ERC grant from the European Research Council worth €1.55 million. The grant was awarded to young researcher Michal Májek from the Faculty of Science of Comenius University for research in the field of chemical catalysis with piezoelectric materials. The project focuses on the use of mechanical energy to activate organic molecules. The aim will be to use a new method of activating molecules using piezoelectric catalysts in the search for new reactions. This is a basic research project, but potential practical applications could be, for example, drug synthesis or materials science. "I believe that we will be able to develop new reactions that will be interesting not only from a basic research point of view, but also for application use. I will definitely involve my students in the project, because I think that the work at a research university also includes the preparation of new scientific talents," said the author of the project, Májek. Slovak scientists have an extremely low success rate in the competition for the most prestigious European scientific grants. So far, only three times have they succeeded, twice by one researcher and once by a researcher from the Slovak Academy of Sciences. "Comenius University winning its first ERC grant is extremely great news for our university and also an important signal to other universities that it can be done. It is a great success," said UK Rector Marek Stevcek. As he added, the university's management will try to create such conditions that will enable further similar achievements in the shortest possible time.
Source: TASR
