Marta Du Vall

About Marta Du Vall

Marta du Vall, scientist, university professor, post-doctoral degree holder in social sciences, experienced researcher, academic leader. Certified Project Manager (IPMA-D) with nearly 15 years of practice in strategic management, implementing social innovations, science promotion, and building relationships with stakeholders. Specializes in combining scientific rigor with the pragmatism of management.

Posts by Marta Du Vall:

11 06 2025

The Kilowatt Dilemma. Surprising connections between your bank, global trade, and the future of the planet

Marta Du Vall Projects, Research, Science

Imagine a nation on a growth path. Factories are opening, families are buying their first refrigerators, and cities are shining brighter every night. This is a picture of progress. However, behind it lies a crucial question: can a country lift its citizens out of poverty without simultaneously plunging the planet into an even deeper climate crisis? This fundamental tension between economic development and energy consumption defines one of the greatest challenges of our time, especially for emerging economies aspiring to the prosperity long enjoyed by developed countries.

At the heart of this challenge lies a concept that, although technical, is extremely intuitive: “energy intensity.” Think of it as a country’s “energy mileage.” How much gross domestic product – that is, economic value – can it generate from each unit of energy consumed? A country with low energy intensity is like a car with low fuel consumption; it can travel further on less fuel. For emerging economies, improving this “mileage” is essential for achieving sustainable growth as it allows for development without a proportional increase in emissions and environmental burden.

The race is on to find levers that can reduce this energy intensity. While engineers work on more efficient turbines and solar panels, Dr. Syed Anees Haider Zaidi at the University of Warsaw is looking for answers in much more surprising places: in a local bank branch and in a global shipping container. What if access to credit or the flow of international goods holds the key to our energy future? It is this innovative perspective that drives research that could redefine our approach to climate policy and economic development.

Source: Dr. Syed Anees Haider Zaidi’s private archive

Dr. Syed Anees Haider Zaidi is a researcher whose career is a testament to dedication and deep expertise. His credentials are not merely a list of achievements, but proof of his commitment to solving complex problems. He obtained his doctorate in management science and engineering in 2020 from the School of Management and Economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology in China, and his impressive output includes 46 manuscripts published in highly regarded and influential scientific journals.

Dr. Zaidi is the principal investigator in the POLONEZ BIS project “The Impact of Globalization and Financial Inclusion on Energy Intensity” which aims to provide policymakers with valuable information to help them design effective strategies for a sustainable energy transition. Zaidi seeks to answer how financial and trade policies can become an unexpected but powerful tool in the fight against climate change.

Dr. Zaidi’s research explores two powerful yet seemingly unrelated mechanisms that shape the modern world: access to financial services and the global flow of goods and capital. His hypothesis is that the intersection of these two forces holds the key answers regarding nations’ energy efficiency.

Source: Dr. Syed Anees Haider Zaidi’s private archive

Dr. Syed Anees Haider Zaidi’s work delivers a fundamental message: solving the energy and climate crisis requires a holistic approach. We must look beyond factory chimneys and solar panels, to the economic and financial systems that shape our choices. Sustainable energy policy must be integrated with strategies for financial inclusion and intelligent globalization. His research shows that a loan for energy-efficient equipment in a small village or a trade agreement promoting the transfer of clean technologies can be as important for the future of the climate as building a new wind farm.

In our conversation, the researcher highlighted several specific advantages of the Polish academic environment that proved crucial for his project. These insights offer a unique perspective on how international scientific mobility drives progress. Firstly, he noted better access to key econometric tools and databases compared to his home country. Simply put, it’s like giving an astronomer a more powerful telescope. Access to advanced software and comprehensive, international datasets allows him to conduct more advanced and precise analyses, which translates into greater credibility and depth of his results. Secondly, the research culture in Poland, with its emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, proved to be a huge asset. As Dr. Zaidi says, an environment where economists, sociologists, and energy policy experts can freely exchange ideas helped him refine his methods and, as he states, added “depth and rigor” to his work. Finally, the strong emphasis on sustainable development policy regulated by the European Union created a unique context for his research. Conducting analyses in an ecosystem where these issues are not just academic but are at the center of real political action gives his work additional weight and urgency. This means that his theoretical models are confronted with one of the world’s most advanced regulatory systems in the field of sustainable development, making his conclusions more robust and globally applicable.

Dr. Zaidi’s experience in Poland extends far beyond the walls of the laboratory and library. His time in Warsaw was also an opportunity for personal and cultural enrichment. He enthusiastically explored the city’s rich historical and cultural heritage, including iconic sites such as the Old Town, the Royal Castle, and Łazienki Królewskie. His travels across Poland took him to Krakow, Łódź, and Ostróda. This shows that the life of a scientist is more than just data and publications; it is also about building bridges between cultures and drawing inspiration from the surrounding world.

05 06 2025

Satire and humor as one of the dimensions of real and discursive analysis of armed conflicts

Marta Du Vall Multiculturalism, Research, Science

Mocking, ridiculing and joking are now common ways of describing and commenting on social and political phenomena. Political humor, meme-making has become a form of political discourse. But can we talk about a serious armed conflict and comment on it in this way?

Dr. Orest Semotiuk, originally from Ukraine, heads the project entitled “Humoresearch. Laughter during the war: Russian aggression in Ukraine in political cartoons and memes”, tries to answer this question. As a researcher who was forced to leave his homeland due to the war, he can continue his research at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences thanks to the Polonez Bis program.

The purpose of the Humoresearch, according to Dr Semotiuk, is to explore the inherent interdisciplinarity of humor. The starting point for his research, conducted in Poland, is the assumption that modern wars differ from classical ones in that they use not only military equipment and regular troops. Values, ideology, culture, symbols, media, humor have become weapons in the 21st century.

As Orest explains, the objective of his research is to investigate the discursive dimension of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict which began in 2014 and escalated on 24.02.2022 after Russian full-scale invasion in Ukraine. His project aims to analyze the implementation and evolution of the actual dimension of the Ukrainian-Russian military conflict in political humor (cartoons and memes), taking into account the parameters of target, focus, social acceptability, presentation, and context.

The project explores how logical reasoning about the Russian-Ukrainian war is reflected in political humor, focusing on the connection between real-world conflict and its portrayal in discourse. It examines how international military-political assistance to Ukraine is mirrored in both national and international political humor. This correlation is determined by the fact that political humor in the Russian–Ukrainian War operates in two registers: first in support of Ukraine on the international level), and second, as an invitation to foreign audiences to see the fairnessof the Ukrainian cause on the national level. The project is both multidimensional and multicultural. The corpus combines both traditional and modern genres of political humor (6000 cartoons and memes) from North and South America, Australia, Afriсa, Asia, and Europe (65 countries), represented by the largest number of cartoons and cartoonists. The project is based on „conceptual pragmatism“ and combines theoretical and empirical approaches with quantitative and qualitative methods regarding the social context.

Dr Semotiuk and his team have applied the results of their research in several impactful ways. They have broadened the scope of Slavic studies to include cross-cultural aspects, enriched the set of methodological tools of media linguistics, and introduced a modern approach to scientific use that is relatively new among Ukrainian scholars. The project aimed to explain how media linguistics can be linked to other disciplines (social anthropology, discourse and humor studies, political communication) and identify the added value it brings to these disciplines.

Source: private archive of Dr Orest Semotiuk,

In the photo Dr. Olha Tkachenko, former director of the Scientific Research Service Center at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, now an adiunkt at the institute, Dr Semotiuk, Dr Anton Dinerstein and Dr Anna Becker- principal investigators of other projects within the Polonez Bis program

During the project implementation, the research results were presented at many conferences and meetings in Poland and around the world: France, United States, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain. The project website (https://humoresearch.ispan.edu.pl/) also features a blog providing a commentary on current events related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict. . The blog entries are accompanied by satirical images, which are one of the main subjects of research conducted by Orest’s team.

01 24 2025

Eastern goddesses – the cult through the lenses of people

Marta Du Vall Projects, Research, Science

Beliefs, gods and goddesses have long aroused interest and stimulated the imagination, not only of fantasy and mythology lovers but also of scientists who use research methods to investigate various aspects of this phenomenon.

Dr Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider is an epigrapher and historian of religions. Her Polonez Bis project concentrates on people who worshiped two prominent Eastern goddesses: Allat and Atargatis. The first is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula. She symbolizes peace, war, resilience and prosperity. Atargatis is the great goddess of northern Syria. According to Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Atargatis) “primarily, Atargatis was a goddess of fertility, but, as the mistress of her city and people, she was also responsible for their protection and well-being”.

Aleksandra wants to understand the cult of these goddesses through the lenses of the people involved, their functions and social roles, especially women. She is looking at the interplay of the geographical features and topography of the cult. Together with her PhD student collaborator, Sebastien Mazurek MA, they built a visual database in the NodeGoat, which connects people and places on the map in order to visualise the diffusion of the cults and ethnicities of the worshippers. To date, the data set comprises 120 inscriptions from the entire Mediterranean and distant territories of the Roman Empire, including Britain, where the cult of Atargatis is attested. Researchers are currently unifying the data ientered in the database. At the end of the project, they plan to prepare a paper on the role of women in the cult of Atargatis. As one of the preliminary observations, they have identified the significant contribution of immigrants from Syria in the dissemination and training of new cultic personnel in the case of the cult of Atargatis.

By using mapping and the epigraphic data collection tools, dr Kubiak-Schneider was able to determine the strong connection of the Allat goddess to the desert, caravan mobility and the netherworld. Furthermore, she points out that the worship of this goddess was not spread beyond the East, it remained confined to the rocky, desert areas of the Near East. The findings of this part of research were published in an open access paper “Allat and the Desert. Kulturlandschaft of Allat in the Near East” in the Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology (http://www.jaha.org.ro/index.php/JAHA/article/view/932).

It is worth noting that a significant outcome of the project is the collaboration between Polonez Bis project and the IDEA (International Dura-Europos Archive) project lead by Anne Chen in Bard College, NY USA and Yale University. Aleksandras’ role is to analyze the inscriptions from the temple of Atargatis, work with the Linked Open Data tools (e.g. Wikidata) and provide expertise in the domain of the Semitic epigraphy.

Epigraphist (digital era), archive of dr Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneide

Dr Kubiak-Schneider is also engaged in many activities associated with her research, including participation in international conferences. One example is the conference in Madrid (last year in November), where she presented a paper (now in print) about connections between the ancient goddesses and modern female superheroes (e.g. Wonder Woman). The gender hybridization of the goddesses does not influence the role of a woman in the society, who is rather conservatively attached to the household, as can be seen in the structure of the temple personnel, where the women remain largely invisible (at least in the Parthian and Roman periods). The worship of the goddesses in the first three centuries of the Common Era did not serve to empower the women, but it served men, as can be observed from the epigraphic material. Aleksandra also participated in the Arabian Seminar in Oxford, where she presented her first significant outcome connecting Allat and the desert landscape. This talk is available on the YouYube channel for those interested in viewing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_lGIgfqwyM&pp=ygUWa3ViaWFrLXNjaG5laWRlciBhbGxhdA%3D%3D).

Participants of the Melammu Workshop Serving the Gods at the University of Wrocław, archive of dr Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider

As Aleksandra notes, the Polonez Bis programme, has given her opportunity to develop the discipline of West Semitic epigraphy, mainly Aramaic, which is underrepresented in Poland, „Even though this field is very narrow in Poland, I can contribute to the epigraphical research of the colleagues in my research team and institute. I am building up the library sources with the book budget in order to potentially attract new students to my field of study in the future ”.

09 23 2024

The extraordinary world of vegetables

Marta Du Vall Projects, Research, Science

Vegetables, something ordinary for the common person. But have you ever wondered what processes at the genetic level make them grow, making it possible for us to eat them in various forms (e.g. frozen, cooked)

Dr. Pablo Cavagnaro’s team conduct a research project at the University of Agriculture in Krakow, in which they are trying to identify the genes responsible for transitions in plants from the vegetative stage to the reproductive stage, known to all of us as flowering.

The project focuses specifically on vernalization which is the process by which plants use an extended cold period, such as winter, to get ready to flower. The researchers decided to concentrate on the carrot because it is one of the ten most economically important and consumed vegetables worldwide.

In order to produce flowers and seeds, many vegetable plants – including the carrot – first need to overcome their juvenile stage and reach “adulthood”, which happens when the plant reaches a certain vegetative growth threshold (e.g., in carrots the juvenile stage is considered over when the plant has 8-12 leaves and a root diameter of ~ 4-8 mm)Then they need to accumulate a certain number of hours of cold to shift from the vegetative to the reproductive stage. These physiological and biochemical changes take place in the meristem of the plant which is a type of tissue composed of f cells that can divide and grow into all the other tissues and organs in plants.

After the necessary changes are produced in the meristem, the plant is ready to flower, which usually happens after the winter is over. The amount of cold that a given species, or a variety within a species, needs to be exposed to in order to start flowering is called “vernalization requirement” (VR) and it is genetically determined – a given plant variant has a gene, or a set of genes, that condition the amount of cold it requires for flowering. . Previous studies have already helped to narrow down the possible chromosome region where these genes might be located, but the actual genes controlling carrot vernalization requirements have not yet been identified. Dr Cavagnaro’s project is bringing us closer to their discovery!

To accomplish this, the researchers are comparing three early flowering and three late flowering carrots (that is six carrot cultivars with contrasting VR) ) and looking at how their complete set of genes (the “transcriptome”) behaves in vernalized and not vernalized plants. This helps them identify genes that are expressed at different rates in both groups and are related to flowering or vernalization processes. The fact that research is conducted in Poland allows the project to combine different approaches, different expertise, different equipment from the Polish host institution and Argentinian universities, where the Principal Investigator conducted his earlier research.

If we understand more about how vernalization requirements are regulated, we would be able to develop molecular breeding strategies for future crops.

Principal Investigator: prof. dr Pablo Federico Cavagnaro

Project Title: Understanding the genetic basis of carrot vernalization

Project’s website: www.projekty.urk.edu.pl/index/site/8791

01 25 2024

The concept of Responsible Research and Innovation from the perspective of intersectoral cooperation

Marta Du Vall Research, RRI, Science

The operations of socially responsible NGOs and scientific entities fall within the concept of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). This concept was and is a key feature of the Horizon 2020 programme (EU website, 2022). In the EU’s framework programme for the period 2014-2020, six main aspects of RRI were assumed to be cross-sectional issues. This means that institutions applying for funding in order to carry out research and development work as part of the Horizon 2020 programme refer, in their project applications, to public engagement, gender equality, science education, open access, ethics and governance.

In the Horizon 2020 programme the issue of disseminating the RRI approach in the research and innovation process was considered in particular in competitions announced in the field of Science with and for society (EU website, 2022). It is worth emphasising that some countries (such as agencies funding research in Holland, the United Kingdom, and France), based on the model of the European Commission, have incorporated aspects of RRI into their domestic research competitions. The RRI approach directly connects such issues as: technology assessment, which is primarily concentrated on public perception or the need for a given solution and, to a lesser degree, considers the technical aspects of innovation; as well as corporate social responsibility which assumes that a company at the strategy-building stage voluntarily considers the interests of society and protection of the environment, as well as relations with different interest groups.

The view of European Commission representatives and the research community implementing their own ‘RRI code’, understood as a change in the cultural sphere and not an ISO-style standard, results in better adaptation of the process of research and innovation, as well as its results, to the values, needs and expectations of European society. Above all, RRI is an ‘inclusive approach to research and innovation’ which ‘is aimed at better adaptation of both the process and the results [research and innovation] to the values, needs and expectations of European society.’ It is assumed that the development of scientific activity should go hand-in-hand with scientists’ sense of social responsibility, as well as social awareness. Achieving this state of affairs will be impossible without active collaboration between science and society, without a dialogue in which representatives of both of these spheres are engaged.

Here one should observe the fact that the term RRI, similar to its predecessors was not thought up by the research community. The concept was rather first initiated by science policy-makers or organs funding research and implemented in a top-down fashion. We may observe a long-term process of change in the priorities of European science policies which currently place more emphasis on the specific characteristics of a described phenomenon.

When we look more closely at the concept of RRI, we see that although it is complex, this does not mean it is impossible to implement. Its energetic use has become significantly more visible, as pointed out earlier, in countries such as the United Kingdom or the Netherlands than in Eastern Europe. RRI, as a new approach to research and innovation, places great emphasis on the issue of responsibility and points to a large group of interested parties who should indeed share this responsibility. The most frequently quoted definition of RRI, that proposed by René von Schomberg, assumes that ‘Responsible Research and Innovation is a transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to the (ethical) acceptability, sustainability and societal desirability of the innovation process and its marketable products (in order to allow a proper embedding of scientific and technological advances in our society).

Such a view is, unfortunately, neither very clear nor comprehensible in layman’s terms. This is why it is worth referring to another explanation proposed by experienced popularisers of science. Here, the issue is much simpler: as research and innovation have an influence on society, scientists, as particular individuals and a research and innovation community bear social responsibility as an entire system for their activities, and conversely – politicians, industry and citizens may not place the burden of responsibility only on the shoulders of scientists: they must define their aims, aspirations, future and engage themselves in research programs which will lead us there.

In short, it is important that society participates in the debate on the subject of the direction of science and its influence on shaping the modern world and society, as well as the consequences of the processes of research and innovation previously mentioned, whose beneficiaries or victims will be the next generation.

As the same time, it is difficult not to notice that: the rapid development of science and technology often arouses controversy. The numerous examples of research which has been questioned or rejected by public opinion have perfectly shown that the fears of society should neither be ignored nor limited to a question of risk. Science does not enjoy a special status in society while citizens are more and more interested in the aims and motives behind conducted research and demand to be included in the decision-making process concerning a subject and the scope of the research being conducted.

It is from here that increasing social awareness referring to the role of scientific and technological innovations has become crucial, along with the stimulation of interest in the processes of their creation and their consequences.

Of course, it is easy to point out a range of factors which may negatively affect the readiness of citizens and third sector entities to become involved in research and research and innovation policies. This, including a lack of relevant knowledge and skills, a lack of feeling of the real significance and impact on the research subject, their scenarios and possible effects, a lack of trust and critical views of the environment (the poor image of researchers, academia etc.), a lack of time and funding, as well as a lack of actual legitimacy to participate in the research process. Perhaps the way to treat this reluctance to become involved in collaboration with NGOs may be the popularization of scientific knowledge itself. What is necessary during the process of education is to foster the building of positive approaches, responsible citizens who are creative and innovative, capable of collaboration, completely aware of and familiar with the challenges which society has to confront. We must keep in mind that a two-way flow of knowledge is essential – this helps citizens understand the achievements of scientists, develops their critical thinking facilities while, in exchange, scientists gain a new perspective which up to now they could not have secured through the walls of universities and laboratories.

In conclusion, the concept of responsible research and innovation places emphasis on the scientific-research and academic communities remembering that they do not operate in a vacuum but in a complex and demanding social, political and economic environment. Consequently, they must keep in mind the expectations of all interested parties who should become partners involved in the entire research process (from conception to results). Undoubtedly, it is crucial that both universities and interested parties, particularly including NGOs, open themselves up to this kind of collaboration and are aware of the mutual expectations, the most important of which is taking responsibility and sharing, understanding and becoming familiar with it. In this aspect, the Polonez Bis program is an example of inter-sectoral cooperation, where non-governmental organizations are involved in order to more fully implement the RRI assumptions. Although this is conducive to the process of learning together, it should, above all, become a bridge between the scientific world and the social world, between understanding and culture, between practitioners and researchers.