The "Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)" programme is part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 framework programme and aims at supporting doctoral and postdoctoral researchers by enabling them to engage in excellent and innovative research activities. In 2022, the special programme "MSCA4Ukraine" was established, which specifically addresses Ukrainian scientists in European universities, research and non-academic institutions. It is coordinated by a consortium comprising the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Maynooth University (Ireland), and the European University Association (ESA).
The evaluation of the submitted funding proposals was carried out by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The main selection criteria were the quality of the proposed projects, the professional experience of the scientists, the research focus of the supervising chair as well as the quality of the training opportunities and the accompanying programmes for young scientists at the host university. Most of the research projects funded under "MSCA4Ukraine" are based at universities in Germany: 20.6 percent in total. Only two of these projects belong to the field of engineering sciences, one of which is the project of Dr. Nataliya Yadzhak.
Dr. Nataliya Yadzhak joined the Chair for Metals and Alloys at the University of Bayreuth in May 2022 as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate. Previously, she received her PhD with honors from the University of Clermont Auvergne (France) and the National Ivan Franko University of Lviv (Ukraine) as part of a bi-national doctoral cotutelle programme. While working on her dissertation on mathematical modelling of crack growth in metallic materials, Dr. Yadzhak completed research stays at Andritz HYDRO GmbH in Ravensburg (Germany) and at Keele University (UK).
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Uwe Glatzel is a long-time member of the "Humboldt family" as a Feodor Lynen Fellow at Stanford University, California (1991/92). Prof. Glatzel received his PhD in materials science summa cum laude from the Technical University of Berlin. In 1996, he was appointed as a professor at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. In 2003, he accepted his current position at the University of Bayreuth.