The purpose of the Regional Initiative of Excellence (RID) program is to strengthen the relevance of the university’s activities in disciplines or groups of scientific/artistic disciplines for which a competition is being announced in a given region under the program.

Academic universities treat teaching and research missions in a balanced way. By conducting scientific research in areas that build their national and international recognition and those that take into account regional specificities, they are specific centers of innovation, knowledge and competence in the regions and often determine their development potentials. The role of these universities includes. Training of qualified personnel necessary for the functioning and development of society, the economy and public administration. Support for these universities is provided, among other things. through the implementation of the Regional Initiative of Excellence (RID) program.

Program of scientific and research excellence“INTEREKON“

The Interekon project carried out 3 key tasks dedicated to the development of the University’s strategic scientific areas:

1. Increase in the scientific level of ongoing research in the dimensions of publication quality, raising funds for research and raising the level of international mobility of staff;
2. Scientific development of the University’s young research staff;
3. Supporting research capacity by providing and expanding access to essential databases, software and scientific studies.

The project has brought many benefits, among them:

• funding of 189 foreign trips for academics (participation in international conferences and short-term research internships),
• funding for the organization of 95 training courses and 3 workshops and 2 scientific debates,
• funding for the organization of 6 international conferences,
• published 1,732 scientific articles indexed in WoS/SCOPUS/listed in the list of publishers of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education,
• published 2,121 monographs and chapters in monographs indexed in WoS/SCOPUS/listed in the list of publishers of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education,
• 925 publications were issued in conference proceedings indexed in WoS/SCOPUS/listed in the list of publishers of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education,
• 115 research grants were awarded to both mature research teams and newly formed groups of scientists conducting interdisciplinary research.

The research was conducted in the fields:

• Collaborative networks, logistics chains and business ecosystems,
• FinTech and Big Data,
• Bioeconomics,
• Social economics, development economics,
• Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The funds available to UEW under the Interekon project also allowed the purchase of several software licenses for analyzing research results (including SPSS, NVivo, Sima Pro) and access to databases such as. Orbis, Passport+, Taylor & Francis. Thanks to these measures, there has been an increase in the research activity of the research staff of the Wroclaw University of Economics and a marked improvement in the quality of the research conducted. Investments in software and access to databases have significantly contributed to an increase in the number of publications authored by UEW employees, as well as an increase in the number of external grant applications submitted.

One of the project’s tasks was also to subsidize the UEW Library’s efforts to update and expand the central system for recording and archiving the writing output of employees and doctoral students, which collects, archives and presents information about UEW’s scientific potential. The upgraded and expanded system has made it possible to remotely access information on the scientific achievements of employees and doctoral students to a wide audience.

The domestic and global economic situation, as well as the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, have affected the pace and ability to implement both research grants and organize conferences. These circumstances have also affected the degree of interest on the part of scientists in traveling abroad. Due to the country’s tense economic and political situation, many of the new grants had a severely limited research scope, which also affected the timing of their implementation. In the period 2019-2023, despite numerous objective external difficulties, it could be observed that researchers tried to carry out their scientific activity in a standard way, i.e. conduct regular research and publish the results in both local and international periodicals, which would not have been possible without RID project funds. A further increase in international mobility was also observed in conference attendance and participation in short-term research trips. The measures taken by both the University authorities and the scientists themselves have allowed the effective use of the funds received and also contributed to the intensive development of UEW’s scientific potential.

Funding organization:
Ministry of Science and Higher Education

Project duration:
20/12/2018 – 31/12/2023

Funding amount:
10 721 040 PLN

Project status:
Project completed