The results of the Mieczysław Bekker Scholarship Programme (Bekker NAWA) for 2025 are now known. Among those selected to receive funding for research trips abroad are three scientists from the University of Gdańsk. Dr hab. Maria Kaźmierczak, prof. UG, will undertake a three-month research internship at Ghent University in Belgium, where she will conduct research on parental empathy. Dr Ewa Wons will go to Newcastle University (United Kingdom) to continue her research on the application of molecular biology methods in the fight against drug-resistant pathogens. And last but not least, mgr Marcin Borowicz will study the ecological and evolutionary role of tailocins during a two-year stay at the University of Queensland in Australia.
The Mieczysław Bekker Programme enables doctoral students, researchers and academic teachers to pursue scientific development at foreign research and academic centres. It is open to representatives of all fields of science. Under the Programme, applicants can apply for funding for travel and stays (from 3 to 24 months) at recognised scientific centres around the world.
In the 15th call for applications to the Bekker NAWA programme, a total of 109 projects were supported, covering six fields of science according to the OECD classification.
Three people associated with the University of Gdańsk will also benefit from the funding: dr hab. Maria Kaźmierczak, prof. UG (Head of the Department of Family and Quality of Life Research at the Institute of Psychology, UG), dr Ewa Wons (from the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology) and mgr Marcin Borowicz (PhD student at the Department of Research on Biologically Active Compounds of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG and MUG.
Dr hab. Maria Kaźmierczak, prof. UG will undertake a three-month research internship at Ghent University in Belgium, where, together with the team of prof. Lesley Verhofstadt (the research group Couples & Family - FAMILYLAB, the Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology) will carry out a project on empathic (in)accuracy of parenting in the context of emotion intensity and regulation in dyadic and triadic interactions.
‘The FAMILYLAB team stands out for its unique combination of laboratory and observational research with psychological practice in the analysis of developmental and non-normative crises in the course of life,’ emphasises prof. Maria Kaźmierczak.
The main goal of the trip will be to establish new international research cooperation on the possibility of developing cognitive abilities to effectively understand the current thoughts and feelings of others during interactions in the family system. The theoretical model developed within its framework will explain the links between empathy accuracy and parental sensitivity in conditions of varying emotional arousal. The team will adapt the definition of empathic accuracy to the context of early parenthood and develop a method for measuring it. Prof. Kaźmierczak also hopes to begin conceptual work on intervention programmes to support couples and families, especially during periods of intense stress and change.
Dr Ewa Wons will travel to Newcastle University (UK), where she will collaborate with dr Manuel Banzhaf, a scientist conducting pioneering research on bacterial cell envelopes and the resistance of pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa – the bacterium used as the experimental model by the grant holder – to antibacterial agents.
The selected laboratory specialises in high-throughput research, which enables the quantitative determination of the contribution of each gene to bacterial fitness across a wide spectrum of physical and chemical factors.
‘My scientific interests are in line with modern methods of combating pathogens, which is becoming an increasingly pressing challenge in an era of growing antibiotic resistance,’ explains dr Ewa Wons. "Innovative methods of molecular biology can provide tools that target not only a given species, but even a specific strain of bacteria, minimising the negative impact on the microbiota and the risk of acquiring resistance, which is crucial for sustainable antibacterial therapies.
As part of my project, I plan to investigate the impact of a biological regulatory molecule on the genetic networks of a host exhibiting virulent traits, which will lay the foundations for potential selective and predictive antibacterial therapies.
Mgr Marcin Borowicz will be visiting the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at The University of Queensland in Brisbane (Australia). It is one of the world's leading centres for research on the ecology and genomics of microorganisms.
‘During my two-year research stay, I will be working on a project entitled ‘Ecogenomics of tailocins: viral legacy in microbial interactions’, focusing on the ecological and evolutionary role of systems of viral origin (known as tailocins) in shaping microbial communities. The research will include comparative analyses of genomes and metagenomes, modelling of microbial interactions and integration of environmental data. The project will allow us to look at these mechanisms on the scale of entire ecosystems, rather than individual strains,’ says Marcin Borowicz.
The project supervisor on the host institution's side will be prof. Philip Hugenholtz, director of the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics and one of the world's leading specialists in the field of microbial genomics. The scholarship holder also hopes to establish broader international cooperation and gain experience in working with large data sets and modern bioinformatics tools.
Congratulations to all scholarship holders; we wish you fruitful research trips!