With the aim of attracting an increasing number of early-career researchers with recognized international experience to Vilnius University (VU) and helping them establish themselves at VU, the Vilnius University Endowment organizes co-financing competitions. Talented researchers are awarded up to €30,000 in additional funding for a period of 2–3 years, supplementing the salaries paid by VU departments.

Year 2020: Dr. Guillermo Hausmann-Guil

Vilnius University Foundation co-financed a new full-time position of Dr. Guillermo Hausmann-Guil at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Vilnius University. Guillermo Hausmann-Guil is a doctoral graduate in Economics at the University of Virginia (USA). Vilnius University has already greatly benefitted from the economist’s input in lecturing and scientific fields at the faculty. For this project Vilnius University Foundation allocated 30 000 EUR from return on investment.

Year 2021: Dr. Mantas Šimėnas, Dr. Thomas Peak

VU Foundation together with philanthropic Marius Jakulis Jason (MJJ) Foundation, provided 2-year grants for young researchers with recognized international experience dr. Mantas Šimėnas and dr. Thomas Peak.

The young researchers were selected from 9 applications that participated in a co-financing competition organized by the VU Foundation. Each winners of the competition were awarded 30K 2-year grants. The young researchers have started their academic activities at VU in autumn 2021. Dr. M. Šimėnas has joined VU Faculty of Physics, dr. T. Peak has joined VU TSPMI (Institute of International Relations and Political Science).

Year 2022: Dr. Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė, Dr. Vytautas Klimavičius

The annual Vilnius University Foundation’s competition to attract young scientists awarded Dr. Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė, a candidate from the Faculty of Philology of VU and Dr. Vytautas Klimavičius, a candidate from the VU Faculty of Physics. The talented young researchers with international experience received up to €30,000 of additional funding for two years on top of the income already provided by the departments. The funds are allocated from the return on investment of the VU Foundation’s endowment capital.

A promising researcher from the University of Cambridge joins the Faculty of Philology

Dr. Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė completed her undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and internship at Stanford University in the USA. In 2022, the young researcher defended her PhD thesis Sensory Perception in Dante’s Dreams and Visions at the University of Cambridge.

The academic position in the field of contrastive studies developed by the VU Faculty of Philology is closely related to translation and intercultural communication, which is the young scientist’s area of expertise. Her knowledge of Italian and Latin, comparative literature, and theories of translation studies helped Dr. A. Kiltinavičiūtė start a complex project

Dante Translations and Reception in Lithuania, 20-21th Century at the VU Faculty of Philology. The young researcher’s contribution will be important for maintaining the high quality of research at the VU Faculty of Philology, increasing the dissemination of research in the humanities around the world, and opening up opportunities for younger researchers to work with internationally experienced scholars.

Young physicist to apply nuclear magnetic resonance knowledge gained in Germany at the VU Faculty of Physics

Dr. Vytautas Klimavičius, a candidate from the VU Faculty of Physics, spent three years as a researcher at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. The young physicist has held fellowships in Poland and Slovenia and won the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Foundation scholarship for postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Vytautas Klimavičius’s knowledge of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and its applications in studying functional materials gained in Germany will be applied at the VU Faculty of Physics. The young scientist’s research also focuses on dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), currently one of the most promising areas of NMR hyperpolarization.

Dr. Vytautas Klimavičius maintains strong collaborative ties with colleagues in Germany, France, Poland, Japan, the USA, and elsewhere. His international ties will strengthen the Magnetic Resonance Research Group at the Institute of Chemical Physics, the VU Faculty of Physics, and thus VU’s international competitiveness.

Year 2023: Dr. Ilona Jurkonytė, Dr. Marija Norkūnaitė, Dr. Šarūnas Šavėla

The winners of the year 2023 VU Foundation competition are Dr. Ilona Jurkonytė and doctoral student Marija Norkūnaitė, candidates nominated by the VU Institute of International Relations and Political Science (VU IIRPS), and Dr. Šarūnas Šavėla, nominated by the VU Faculty of Philology. Over a period of two years, the promising young researchers with international experience will receive up to €30,000 of funding in addition to the remuneration granted by their academic units. The allocated money constitutes the return on investment from the VU Endowment Fund.

The cultural and audiovisual media researcher and film curator Dr. Ilona Jurkonytė from VU IIRPS is to continue with the media research that she embarked on in Canada

Dr. Ilona Jurkonytė graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and defended her postgraduate theses on communication and art theory and criticism in Lithuania; she also completed an internship at the University of Copenhagen. In 2022, at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, she defended her doctoral thesis analysing the relationship between audiovisual media and atomic weapons (From Temperature of War to Descending Clouds: US Bomb Archive and the Marshall Islands).

In 2015, while in Canada, Dr. I. Jurkonytė took part in the competition for the most prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and was announced the winner. Now, the young researcher has returned to Lithuania to share her experience here. At VU IIRPS, Dr. I. Jurkonytė will continue researching the relationship between atomic weapon imaging, the global Cold War and its long-term impact, and she will delve into the relevance of decolonial methodologies in the context of Eastern Europe.

At VU IIRPS, Marija Norkūnaitė will continue the research that she started at Oxford University on the relationship between the state and society

Researcher Marija Norkūnaitė graduated from VU Institute of International Relations and Political Science with a Bachelor’s degree with honours in Political Science. At Oxford University, she attained her Master’s degree with honours in East European and Russian Studies. In September this year, the researcher will defend her doctoral thesis on the topic of social contracts in the Baltic States. The title of her doctoral thesis is (Re-)Claiming the Social Contract: State-Society Relations in Three Former Socialist Towns in the Baltics.

At VU Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Norkūnaitė plans to continue the research that she embarked on in the United Kingdom in the field of political and economic anthropology by exploring the relationship between state and society in the East European region, looking at citizenship, taxation, labour, and other topics. She envisions publishing the results in recognised international scientific journals and cooperating with a publishing house. M. Norkūnaitė is a member of various international academic organisations and networks; she will also continue to be active as a member of the VU Institute of International Relations and Political Science community.

Dr. Šarūnas Šavėla’s arrival at the Faculty of Philology of VU will help to strengthen VU ties with the Italian academic community

Following his studies at VU, Dr. Šarūnas Šavėla graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Lithuanian Philology with minor studies in Philosophy and Classical Philology. He defended his doctoral thesis at the University of Bologna, Italy, on the topic of The Conceptualisation of Music in Ancient Greek Thought (V century BC–II century BC). While undertaking his doctoral studies, the researcher cooperated with VU under an international cooperation agreement (cotutelle).

Dr. Š. Šavėla’s arrival at the Faculty of Philology of VU will allow common research interests both with the University of Bologna and their Italian and foreign partners to be developed. It will also enable him to participate in the activities of international research associations and to strengthen the ties of VU with the Italian academic community.

Year 2024: Dr. Ieva Bisigirskaitė, Dr. Eric Banan-Mwine Daliri, Dr. Laurynas Dagys, Dr. Dimitra Ladika, Dr. Gordon Zyla

Five candidates were successful in the annual competition to attract and retain young researchers, which has been organised since 2020 by the Vilnius University (VU) Foundation: four researchers are co-funded by the return on investment of the VU Endowment Fund, and one researcher is co-funded by the VU Foundation partner, the philanthropic Marius Jakulis Jason (MJJ) Foundation.

Talented researchers who won the competition: Dr Ieva Bisigirskaitė (VU Faculty of Philology), Dr Eric Banan-Mwine Daliri (VU Life Sciences Center), Dr Laurynas Dagys, Dr Dimitra Ladika and Dr Gordon Zyla (VU Faculty of Physics).

The budget for the 2024 competition is EUR 89 thousand. All researchers with international experience will receive a grant of between EUR 14 thousand and 30 thousand in additional funding to the remuneration of researchers paid by VU units.

Dr Eric Banan-Mwine Daliri

Dr Eric Banan-Mwine Daliri studied Biochemistry at the University of Cape Coast in his native Ghana, successfully defended his PhD in Food Science and Biotechnology at Kangwon National University in South Korea, and completed a fellowship at the University of Roehampton in the United Kingdom.

His research interests include modulating the gut microbiota and developing functional foods, probiotics, prebiotics, and symbiotics. Dr Daliri has patented several scientific inventions and plans to carry out research at VU on solid-phase, precision fermentation, and the computer-aided discovery of potential drug substances.

Dr Dimitra Ladika and Dr Gordon Zyla

Candidates from the VU Faculty of Physics, Dr Dimitra Ladika and Dr Gordon Zyla, will strengthen the research of the VU Centre of Excellence for Advanced Light Technologies, which will lead to prestigious funding for the VU Laser Research Center and provide a basis for expanding collaborations in Europe and beyond.

Dr Dimitra Ladika completed her bachelor studies at the University of Patras and both her master and doctoral studies at the University of Crete in Greece. In 2023, the researcher won a Laserlab-Europe grant for a fellowship at the VU Centre of Excellence for Advanced Light Technologies, where she established strong relations with the Laser Research Center of the VU Faculty of Physics. Dr D. Ladika currently works at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (IESL-FORTH) in Greece.

Dr Gordon Zyla completed his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral studies at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, and conducted PhD research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA. He received a Maria Skłodowska-Curie grant and funding through the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Dr G. Zyla currently works at the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (IESL-FORTH) in Greece.

Dr Ladika and Dr Zyla plan to work on the same research project in the Laser Nanophotonics Laboratory, focusing on optically active materials for advanced engineering using laser 3D lithography at the micro- and nanoscale.

Dr Ieva Bisigirskaitė

A candidate from the VU Faculty of Philology, Dr Ieva Bisigirskaitė, completed her bachelor studies at the University of Wales, and her master studies at Swansea University in the United Kingdom. She received her PhD in Philology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr Bisigirskaitė’s research field covers gender studies, maternity studies, postfeminist theory, postcolonial theory, narrative studies, sociolinguistics, etc. Together with colleagues from Södertörn University, Sweden, she is working on a research project on “Maternity in time of ‘traditional values’ and femonationalism”.

Dr Laurynas Dagys

Dr Laurynas Dagys, a researcher co-funded by the MJJ Foundation, graduated in Physics and Natural Sciences from Vilnius University and completed fellowships at the Darmstadt University of Technology, Johannes Gutenberg University, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, the University of California in the USA, and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

The researcher, who was awarded the Erwin Schrödinger’s Prize by the Helmholtz Association in 2021, is working on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry research that could lead to applications in fundamental materials science and cancer diagnostics.