(Prof. Rudolf Scitovski, Assist. Prof. Mario Vinković)
At its session held on 22 December 2015, the Senate of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek reached the decision to announce an internal call for proposals for research projects to encourage cooperation with prominent researchers from other (especially foreign) universities. The funds have been reserved for this purpose from the University Business Fund, amounting to 600.000,00 HRK for STEM areas (science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics) and 400.000,00 HRK for SS+ART area (Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts). This Call is the third in a series of internal calls of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek for the application of scientific research and artistic projects and it is one of the initiatives to achieve the strategic objectives of the University of Osijek
This Call shall provide funds for travel expenses, accommodation costs and per diems for guest researchers and for material costs (laboratory materials, cost of conducting experiments, field costs, expenses, surveys, small office supplies, etc.)
Applications in hard copy and electronic form were received until 29 January 2015. In order to inform potential candidates, a web page containing necessary information and “Frequently Asked Questions” was set up. There were 40 candidates applied to the Call (30 from STEM areas and 10 from SS areas).
The Committee for Evaluation of Research Projects consisted of vice-rectors of the University of Osijek. Project evaluation[1] was carried out on the basis of reviews of at least two independent reviewers, of whom at least one was affiliated with the field of proposed research and the other from a different, but related field:
- Reviewer#1 (hereinafter Rew#1) was chosen from the field of the project topic;
- Reviewer#2 (hereinafter Rew#2) was chosen from another related field
Reviewers are usually chosen among assistant professors, associate and full professors of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, upon being proposed by vice-deans / deputy heads for science and vice-deans / deputy heads for education. There were 124 reviews received.
| Elements evaluated | Weighting Factor | |
| 1. | Quality and relevance of the research proposal | 0.25 |
| 2. | Quality of the proposer | 0.15 |
| 3. | Quality of the guest researcher | 0.35 |
| 4. | Feasibility study | 0.10 |
| 5. | Financial plan | 0.10 |
| 6. | Student involvement | 0.05 |
Table 1
Reviewers evaluated the elements of the projects listed in the Table 1 on a special form, giving scores from 1-5 (they did not have to give whole numbers). All evaluated elements are joined by their appropriate weighting factors obtained by using AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method[2], which were not known to reviewers in advance. The average score of the reviewer Rew#1 and the Rew#2 are then calculated on the basis of reviewers’ scores.
Also, each reviewer rated the overall impression of the proposed project with a score from 1 to 10. Additional reviews have been requested in cases of high scores of one reviewer and low scores of another reviewer. Upon suggestion of vice-deans/deputy heads, panels of five experts for STEM and SS+ART have been appointed to discuss the ranking of projects on the basis of project reviews (Table 1), by applying the AHP method and measures of the Euclidean distance to the perfectly evaluated project (5.5). They determined the final ranking list of projects. Details can be found in this document and on the following web page.
The criteria for selection of INGI 2015 projects to be financed and the amounts of funding were determined separately for each area. When determining the amount of funding for projects, the following was taken into account:
- the conditions from the Call;
- the opinion of the reviewers;
- the maximum amount per project is 70,000.00 HRK, while material and other costs, which are not directly related to the costs of accommodation and daily allowance of the guest researcher, cannot exceed 40,000.00 (for the STEM area), or the amount of guest researchers (for the SS area).
A. STEM area
According to the priority ranking of positively evaluated projects, there were 12 projects selected from the STEM area. It was taken into account that the available amount of funding for STEM area is 600.000,00 HRK and that the number of projects per University constituent may not be greater than two. Basic information about the projects from STEM areas to be funded is listed below:
>Prof. Dr. Ninoslav Truhar, Department of Mathematics: „Nelinearni parametarski ovisni svojstveni problem“. Guest researcher: Rafikul Alam, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati www.iitg.ernet.in/rafik/. Grant approved: 30.000,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Ines Drenjančević, Faculty of Medicine: „Utjecaj unosa kuhinjske soli na reaktivnost cerebralnih krvnih žila u okolišnih podražaja kod ljudi“. Guest researcher: Nandu Goswami, Institute of Physiology, Medical University of Graz, Austria, forschung.medunigraz.at/. Grant approved: 60.700,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Mirta Benšić, Department of Mathematics: „Istraživanje optimizacijskih i statističkih svojstava generalizirane metode momenata i metode najmanjih kvadrata u nelinearnim modelima“. Guest researcher: Andrew R. Barron, Department of Statistics, Yale University, USA, www.stat.yale.edu/~arb4. Grant approved: 50.000,00 HRK.
Mirna Velki, PhD, postdoctoral researcher, Department of Biology: „Biofortifikacija selenom – odgovor sustava biljka-tlo-gujavice“. Guest researcher: Péter Engelmann, Department of Immunology and Biotechnology, University of Pécs www.immbio.hu/en/staff/staff/10-engelmann-peter-phd. Grant approved: 56.686,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Marija Heffer, Faculty of Medicine: „Lipidni mikro-okoliš leptinskog i inzulinskog receptora u razvoju i starenju“. Guest researcher: Ronald L. Schnaar, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/schnaar/. Grant approved: 52.720,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Jurislav Babić, Faculty of Food Technology: „Primjena plinske plazme i ultrazvuka u postupcima modifikacije škroba“. Guest researcher: Artur Gryszkin, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland www.up.wroc.pl/faculties/403/the_faculty_of_food_science.html. Grant approved: 59.000,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Goran Šimunović, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Slavonski Brod: „Inteligentna potpora projektiranju tehnoloških procesa“. Guest researcher: Đorđe Vukelić, Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia www.ftn.uns.ac.rs/1637925708/djordje-vukelic. Grant approved: 66.850,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Stela Jokić, Faculty of Food Technology: „Razvoj visokovrijednih proizvoda na bazi ekstrakata ljekovitog bilja”. Guest researcher: Igor Jerković, Kemijsko-tehnološki fakultet Split, tkojetko.irb.hr/znanstvenikDetalji.php?sifznan=7462, Jelena Vladić, Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia www.tf.uns.ac.rs/osoblje/katedra_osoblje.php?osoblje=288. Grant approved: 61.000,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Dubravka Špoljarić Maronić, Department of Biology: “Utjecaj selena na alge – in vitro i ekološka istraživanja u vodenim ekosustavima”. Guest researcher: Ivana Maksimović, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture, http://polj.uns.ac.rs/osobljestuff/departman-za-ratarstvo-i-povrtlarstvo/. Grant approved: 43.950,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Vesna Rastija, Faculty of Agriculture: „Besplatni mrežni programi otvorenog koda u istraživanju kvantitativnog odnosa strukture i aktivnosti biološki aktivnih spojeva“. Guest researcher: Vijay Hariram Masand, Department of Chemistry, Vidya Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Maharashtra, India www.vbirsm.org. Grant approved: 40.000,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Ivana Majić, Faculty of Agriculture: „Zastupljenost i bioraznolikost entomopatogenih nematoda (Rhabditida: Steinernematidae i Heterorhabditidae) u agroekosustavima u Slavoniji i Baranji“. Guest researcher: Žiga Laznik, Biotechnical Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, http://www.bf.uni-lj.si, Branimir Nježić, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Banja Luka, BiH, agrofabl.org. Grant approved: 60.000,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Igor Lukačević, Department of Physics: „Modeliranje zabranjenih vrpci perovskita za fotovoltaične primjene“. Guest researcher: Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, St Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad, India www.sxca.edu.in. Grant approved: 27.703,10 HRK.
B. DH area
According to the priority rankings of the positively evaluated projects, there were 8 projects selected in the SS area. It was taken into account that the available amount of funding for SS area was 400,000.00 HRK. Basic information about the projects of SS areas to be funded is listed below:
Assist. Prof. Dr. Damir Matanović, Faculty of Education: „Temelji kulturne baštine – Burovićev zbornik iz 1696. godine kao primjer hrvatsko-crnogorskih kulturnih, povijesnih i jezičnih veza“ Guest researcher: Adnan Čirgić, Faculty for Montenegrin Language and Literature www.fcjk.me. Grant approved: 50.000,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Željko Uvanović, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: „Transkulturalnost / transmedijalnost: britanske/američke, njemačke i hrvatske filmske adaptacije književnosti u razdoblju 1990.-2015.“ Guest researcher: Kamilla Elliott, University of Lancaster (UK) www.lancaster.ac.uk/english-and-creative-writing/about-us/people/kamilla-elliott. Grant approved: 42.500,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Tihomir Živić, Department of Cultural Studies: „Strossmayerana u engleskim izvorima: epistolografska analiza, 1860.-92.“ Guest researcher: Tatjana Kuzmič, The University of Texas at Austin, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, chroniclevitae.com/people/573876-tatiana-kuzmic/profile. Grant approved: 70.000,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Ivana Martinović, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: „Istraživanje informacijskog ponašanja mladih pri pretraživanju zdravstvenih informacija putem mobilnih uređaja“. Guest researcher: Sung Un Kim, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., U.S.A, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Library and Information Science, lis.cua.edu/directory/faculty.cfm. Grant approved: 42.000,00 HRK.
Prof. Dr. Zlatko Kramarić, Department of Cultural Studies: „Popularna kultura kao politička strategija“. Guest researcher: Bogusław Zieliński, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznanju, Poland, slavic.home.amu.edu.pl/prof-zw-dr-hab-boguslaw-zielinski/. Grant approved: 50.000,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Tena Velki, Faculty of Education: „Promjena paradigme poučavanja u ranom djetinjstvu: konstruktivizam i razvojni pristup vs. biheviorističke strategije“. Guest researcher: Nirvana Pištoljević, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/np2127/, Urszula Markowska-Mainsta, Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im Marii Grzegorzewskiej, Warszaw, wnp.aps.edu.pl/instytut-pedagogiki/sylwetki-naukowe/markowska-manista-urszula.aspx. Grant approved: 50.000,00 HRK.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Jelena Legčević , Faculty of Law: „Upravljanje promjenama u cilju unapređivanja kvalitete na Sveučilištu J.J.Strossmayera u Osijeku“. Guest researcher: Rute Maria Abreu, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Portugal, www.estg.ipg.pt/docente.asp?dep=2&doc=261. Grant approved: 30.000,00 HRK.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gorka Vuletić, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences: „Uloga subjektivne kvalitete života u namjeri mladih ljudi za iseljenjem iz regije ili zemlje” .Guest researcher: RoseAnne Misajon, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/roseanne-misajon/. Grant approved: 31.000,00 HRK.
[1] Review process is based on the published paper: Ž.Turkalj, D.Markulak, S.Singer, R.Scitovski, Research project grouping and ranking by using adaptive Mahalanobis clustering, Croatian Operational Research Review 7(2016), 81-96
[2] See, e.g.: R.W.Saaty, How to make a decision: The Analytic Hierarchy Process, European Journal of Operational Research, 18(1990), 9-26
