3 Scientific excellence

NIC is demonstrates its scientific excellence with awards for scientific excellence, innovation and creativity, with number of original scientific work published in the most prestigious scientific journals and with success rate in acquiring ERC founded project.

Awards for scientific excellence, innovation and creativity

• State prizes “Zois Awards and the Zois Certificates of Recognition ” for excellence in science, 2017, 2018, 2020

• Pregl Awards for outstanding achievements in the field of chemistry and related disciplines, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

• Best business practice award “Best of the Best” AmCham Slovenia, 2020

• Rector's Award for the Best Innovation of the University of Ljubljana, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

• Krka Awards, 2017, 2019, 2020

• Three Golden Awards and one Silver Award for innovation by Central Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, 2018, 2019, 2020

• Gold award for innovation of the National Institute of Chemistry (52nd MOS, Celje)

• Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year 2021

• …and other earned designations.

Original scientific work published in the most prestigious scientific journals from 2016-2020:

• Energy and Environmental Science, 2 publications

• Nature Biotechnology, 1 publication

• Nature Catalysis, 2 publications

• Nature Materials, 2 publications

• Nature Medicine, 2 publications

• Nature Nanotechnology, 1 publication

• Science, 1 publication

NIC is managing complex research and innovation projects as well as programmes funded through financial mechanisms of the European Commission. In terms of the number of acquired ERC projects NIC is one of the leading institutions in the region. The success rate in acquiring ERC founded projects for the last four years is 32%.

Some examples of excellent research and innovation Horizon 2020 projects:

� RNP Dynamics, Multivalent interactions driving RNP dynamics in development and disease, ERC Advanced Grant 2018; 2020-2024

• 123 STABLE

Towards Nanostructured Electrocatalysts with Superior Stability, ERC Starting Grant 2019; 2020 – 2024

• MaCChines

Molecular machines based on coiled-coil protein origami, ERC Advanced Grant 2017; 2018-2023

• CCedit

Coiled-coil mediated exonuclease tethering technology for the enhancement of CRISPR gene editing, ERC Proof of Concept, 2020 - 2021

• MULTraSonicA

Multiscale modeling and simulation approaches for biomedical ultrasonic applications

ERC Advanced Grant, 2021-2026

• VIROFIGHT

General-purpose virus neutralizing engulfing shells with modular target-specificity, FET Open, European Innovation Council, Pathfinder, 2020-2024