Natalia Prozorova receives fellowship from MSCA4Ukraine scheme
Prozorova will be working in cooperation with partners and collaborators (see textbox) in the LANDMARC project, an EU Horizon 2020 project co-led by TU Delft with assistant professor Jenny Lieu as the principal investigator.
The MSCA4Ukraine consortium has provided fellowships support to 111 post-doctoral and 13 doctoral researchers from Ukraine. This enables them to continue their research in their host country. Amongst them is Natalia Prozorova a post-doctoral researcher at the faculty of TPM, TU Delft. Her 2-year research project will focus on the topic: ‘Improving the resilience of Ukrainian agriculture for post-war soil restoration and carbon mitigation’.
Climatic change and the war in Ukraine have intensified soil destruction, making the land unsuitable for agriculture, and impacting the world's food security. Therefore, finding an effective post-war strategy to recover and build up carbon in agricultural soils is essential. Ukraine has unique resources and capabilities to support both food security and reduce carbon emissions. Considering this context, the research question explores: “how can the integration of scientific tools and new business practices help promote implementation policy strategy to address food security and climate mitigation goals?”
Solidarity
Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “The MSCA4Ukraine initiative is yet another proof of our solidarity with the Ukrainian people. We are proud that 124 scientists will be able to continue their research work and will have access to training, skills and career development opportunities. It is our hope that they will be able to contribute to the reconstruction of their home country once the war is over.”
About MSCA4Ukraine
Launched in September 2022 as part of the EU’s response to the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, MSCA4Ukraine enables displaced researchers from Ukraine to continue their work at academic and non-academic organisations in EU member states and Horizon Europe associated countries, while maintaining their connections to research and innovation communities in Ukraine. The fellowships are funded under EU's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
The programme is implemented by Scholars at Risk Europe, hosted at Maynooth University, Ireland. Scholars at Risk is an international network of higher education institutions and individuals working to protect threatened scholars and to promote academic freedom.
LANDMARC
LANDMARC (Land Use Based Mitigation for Resilient Climate Pathways) is a 4 year EU funded project that will enhance understanding of the realistic potential of land-based negative emission solutions in agriculture, forestry, and other land use sectors. LANDMARC is a consortium of 19 partners, based in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The project is co-ordinated by Delft University of Technology and JIN Climate and Sustainability in the Netherlands. The collaborators Natalia will be working with are:
- Bioclear Earth (The Netherlands) - soil analysis;
- Ambienta (Spain) and Agroinsider (Portugal) - remote sensing-based earth observation analysis;
- ETH Zurich (Switzerland) - Biochemical modeling of soil carbon fluxes (DayCent modeling);
- University of Kassel (Germany) - Land use change model (LandShift model);
- ALCES (Canada) ACLESflow modelling- modelling land-use scenarios;
- The National Scientific Center “Institute of Soils Science and Agrochemistry Research, named after O.Sokolovsky” (ISSAR) (Kharkiv, Ukraine) - data collection and soil sampling.