Successful Marie Curie Project at the JKU: Researchers Improve Drug Production

The second Marie Curie funded project at the JKU will conclude by the end of February.

The EU’s Marie-Skłodowska-Curie grant program was named after the famous Nobel Prize winner and aims to support outstanding research. The Upper Austrian government also supports the program and at the end of February, an additional project as part of this program will successfully conclude at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

The program aims to create a pool of European researchers and make Europe more attractive to leading researchers. Researchers are free to choose their field and topic and the most important program feature is mobility. The participants spend time other countries to fine-tune and deepen their skill sets abroad, exchange expertise, and form networked research connections.

There are currently six ongoing Marie-Skłodowska-Curie projects at the JKU. A current project involving Katharina Zielke and Johannes Schörgenhumer (Institute of Organic Chemistry, department head: Prof. Norbert Müller) will conclude at the end of February.

Titled "QUATSALTS - New Quaternary Ammonium Salts for Use in Drug Manufacture", the project focuses on optimizing and improving drug production and developing new, efficient catalytic synthesis processes for long-term use in pharmaceutical production.

Thanks to the Marie Curie grant (funded by the state of Upper Austria), Katharina Zielke and her JKU colleague Johannes Schörgenhumer were able to spent several months conducting research in Ireland. Katharina Zielke, who now works in research and development for a pharmaceutical company, remarked: "The grant enabled me to work directly on-site with our company partner, Kelada. I really enjoyed my stay in Dublin and my experience there gave me an opportunity to grow both personally and professionally. I learned new working techniques and I also believe the experience of working with people from different nations will help me advance in my future career."

Markus Achleitner, State Minister for Economic and Research, added: "When conducting high-quality research in particular, international exchange, networking and being actively involved as part of an international research network is key in order to drive innovation forward and discover new findings. The EU’s Marie-Skłodowska-Curie program to support outstanding research gives JKU students access to these influential international networks while still studying. The funding providing by the state of Upper Austria provides additional support, particularly as an opportunity to expand and enhance research as part of the Upper Austria #upperVISION2030 program."

The next project in the area of biophysics is scheduled to conclude by December 2020. Co-financing is being provided by the Upper Austria government’s Department of Economics and Research. Submitted projects have received funding in the amount of €12,000 per project. Topics range from areas in symbolic computing, biophysics, organic chemistry, computational perception, industrial mathematics, digital business to software engineering.

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