This is a higher education student and staff mobility project, please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.

During the academic year 17/18 the Comeenius University in Bratislava carried out the collaboration with two partner countries belonging to the International credit mobility programme: Serbia and Ukraine. In the case of Serbia, it was already the second term of collaboration within KA107. The Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Law joinned the project this time. The Department of Slavic studies of the Faculty of Arts have established the cooperation with the University of Kragujevac and the Faculty of Law decided to expand the number of partners and thus create a partnership with the Faulty of Law of the University of Novi Sad. The collaboration with Ukraine included six partner universities overall. The Department of Russian language and the Department of Eastern-European studies of the Faculty of Arts were the key initiators in the process. Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv have established the collaboration not just with the Faculty of Arts but also with the Faculty of Management of the CU. Overall 45 mobilities including the mutual exchanges of students, academic staff and administrative staff were successfully accomplished during the 16 moths lasting project.The project was the very first cooperation within Erasmus+ programme for numerous institutions either in Serbia or in Ukraine; the administration process thus represented also the process of learning and training for our partners. The administration was quite difficult mainly in the beginning of the project, when some of the foreign partners organized the sending and receiving of students and staff for the first time. However partner Universities have made a significant progress which improves their readiness and capability in the field of international cooperation. Mutual exchanges, more precisely the personal contact were among the factors which help to reach that kind of progress. The STT mobility of the International officer from the Faculty of Arts of the CU to Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv actually ministered to more effective administration of mobilities and harmonization of the necessary procedures. Sharing the experiences, organising trainings and workshop contributed to improving the administration processes in partner Universities and made them ready for better international collaboration in the future. Teaching mobilites of the lectors form the partner Institutions have brought the motivation for international scientific cooperation and organising the joint scientific events.The Faculty of Arts of the CU utilize the Project cooperation with the University of Kragujevac to restore the contacts with the local lectors of Serbian language, who have agreed to support teaching of Serbian language at the Faculty of Arts of the CU. Thanks to the bygone project Erasmus+ KA107, the Faculty of Arts re-established the study programme for the students of Serbian language. The highly positive references we have also registered on the mutual cooperation of the Departments of Russian/Ukrainian language and the Department of Political sciences mainly in connection with Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where the academics thanks to the initiative of Assoc.Prof Matejko form the Faculty of arts of the CU have managed to agree on the long-term cooperation and academic exchanges for the purpose of the block teaching.The importance of accomplished project has mostly displayed in the field of culture and social tolerance and also by strengthening the language competence. Serbia and Ukraine are among the strategic partners for Slovakia that is why the project was strongly important also within the national level. There is still huge community of foreign Slovaks living in Serbia. For them the projects represents another possibility how to establish the contact with Slovakia and thus to create new, or support already existing student and scientific partnership. Ukraine, which is on the verge of the political transformation, welcomes the programme as the further form of support from Slovakia in such a difficult process.

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.

Medical device-related infections contribute to an increase in mortality, prolongation of hospitalization and present a substantial financial burden to patients and society. Catheter-related infections are among the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections worldwide. The possibilities of low temperature plasma technologies for direct (plasma) and indirect (plasma activated water) disinfection of polymer materials will be studied. The proposed project is focused on gaining detailed insight into the plasma processing of polymer medical tubes (catheters) using Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge with liquid electrodes. This will include the investigation of plasma-induced physical and chemical changes not only on the surface of the processed material, but also the analysis of the surrounding gas, and especially the used liquid. Examination of the discharge under specific conditions is beneficial for the understanding of the undergoing chemical and physical processes. The decontamination effect of the plasma treatment of bacteria and biofilms present on the catheter surface and in liquids will be the key objective of the project. This will be done by detailed studies of the bacterial response to reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in liquid and the biofilm growth inhibition on the polymer after the plasma treatment. The development of the plasma technology capable of polymer treatment in continuous regime and application of such plasma systems for catheters treatment will allow for a larger impact of plasma processing expanding to a wide range of new industrial applications. The obtained results will increase the quality of medical treatment, reduce the costs of specific medical care, and prolong the time between the required doctor visits for patients using different catheters. Plasma applications in medicine are leaping to become the medicine of the future, and this is my chance to contribute to its development.

The key objective of this proposal is to establish a new Laboratory for Advanced Materials (LAM) at Comenius University (CU) under the direction of the appointed ERA Chair holder. LAM is meant to be a world-class research interdisciplinary laboratory focused on advanced materials research, particularly for applications in the areas such as energy conversion and storage, electronics, and optoelectronics. Existence of LAM will: - strengthen the potential and the contribution of CU to this area of research in the wider ERA in tight connection to the central idea of the Work Programme - Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation - help counteracting the eminent brain drain Slovakia is experiencing by attracting brilliant young researchers from both Slovakia and abroad - consequently strengthen the position of CU as a leading research and educational institution in Slovakia as well as raise its significance in Europe The structure and management of LAM is designed to ensure its future self-sustainability and continuity of its research. Project funds will be utilized in establishing LAM and maintaining LAM's initial operation period, during which following actions will be taken to secure future financial sustainability: - top-quality research personnel will be recruited bringing in international scientific collaborations - external collaborations with the industry will be actively sought - opportunities to utilize research outputs as intellectual property and patents will be exploited - research grants connected to the area of research interests will be applied for - public outreach activities will be focused on stimulating interest and engagement among students Within this scheme, the project funding will serve as the initial kick-start of a new internationally acclaimed prime research facility (LAM), activating the whole field of materials research at CU, thus having a positive long-term effect on the status of research excellence in Slovakia as well.