The University of Catania is back in the field to support the university’s researchers. Also for 2024 the “Siciliae Studium Generale” has allocated a substantial funding of 5 million euros intended to consolidate its ‘historic’ lines of research, promote technological-scientific innovation and enhance the role of young researchers. The opportunity is offered by the second edition of the University research incentive plan 2024/2026 (Pia.Ce.Ri.), which is divided into five lines of intervention. The first (call deadline 15 July 2024) concerns collaborative research projects, to support and encourage the development of department-specific scientific research strategies. For the benefit of the projects developed by type B fixed-term researchers, there is the second line, called “Starting Grant”, with open “one-stop” submission and monthly evaluation of the proposals by the Research ‘control room’. The same method is adopted for the third line, “Open access”, which concerns the publication of scientific works in a format accessible to all. One hundred and seventy thousand euros is the amount of the overall financial allocation for the year 2024 intended to support the presentation of ERC proposals, through the partial reimbursement of the costs incurred by the department for the acquisition of external services to support the preparation of the same projects. In fact, European Research Council funding supports researchers of any nationality and age who wish to conduct a frontier research project on a topic they propose (“bottom-up” approach) and are evaluated only on the basis of scientific excellence.
The last strand concerns archaeological missions in Italy and abroad, with a budget of 120 thousand euros. With the 2024 edition, the formula already tested with the Pia.Ce.Ri 2020 program, which has just concluded, is therefore proposed again and further finalized, the results of which will be presented on July 10th at the Benedictine Monastery. It will be an opportunity to illustrate to the entire academic community and the local area the fruits of the research financed by UNICT, during an event that will also be open to citizens of the metropolitan area. Poster presentations, oral reports and experimental demos will alternate after the opening plenary session to give all stakeholders an image of the scientific research of Unict teachers free from the thematic constraints of other competitive calls. The initiative was among the most important actions implemented by the University in the last period, which allowed the financing of “free” research conducted by teachers of the University of Catania without the scientific issues being in any way focused on specific objectives which, however broad or of strategic interest, could nevertheless limit the germination of free and independent ideas which instead represent the main wealth of those who do research. The budget of the first edition certainly includes the 150 collaborative research projects that saw multidisciplinary research groups converge on activities of common interest, and above all the over 180 projects conducted by young researchers (RTDb) financed through the “Starting Grant” measure “.
