Oles Honchar Dnipro National University has received funding through the SK-UA 2025 Ukrainian-Slovak Research and Development Projects Competition for a joint project to be implemented in 2026–2027. The project was selected among the top 15 proposals out of 90 applications submitted to the competition.
The supported project, titled “Population Dynamics and Interaction of Genetic Lineages of Carassius Species in Central and Eastern Europe,” focuses on the comprehensive study of Carassius fish populations, including the interaction between the native crucian carp (Carassius carassius) and the invasive Prussian carp complex (Carassius gibelio) in water bodies in Ukraine and Slovakia.
The project will be carried out in partnership with the Centre for Plant Biology and Biodiversity of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The Slovak project coordinator is Ladislav Pekárik, PhD, Senior Researcher.
On the Ukrainian side, the project is led by Professor Oleh Marenkov, Vice-Rector for Research at DNU, Candidate of Biological Sciences, ichthyologist, and head of the university's Freshwater Ecosystem Hydrobiology Research School.
The DNU research team also includes scientists from the Research Laboratory of Hydrobiology, Ichthyology and Radiobiology at the DNU Research Institute of Biology: PhD in Biology Viktoriia Kurchenko, Oleh Nesterenko, and Ivan Borovyk.
Researchers from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine will also contribute to the project, including: Yuliia Kutsokon, Head of the Department of Fauna and Vertebrate Systematics at the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Biological Sciences and ichthyologist, and Volodymyr Yuryshynets, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, and Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Hydrobiology, NAS of Ukraine.
The project will involve field studies, morphometric analysis, ploidy assessment, cytogenetic, parasitological and age-related analyses, as well as the study of hybridization processes and population status across different types of water bodies.
The research is important for conserving freshwater biodiversity, assessing the health of aquatic ecosystems, studying biological invasions, and developing evidence-based recommendations for the protection of native fish species.
A particular strength of the project is the combination of the Ukrainian researchers' expertise in ichthyology, hydrobiology, parasitology, and freshwater ecosystem monitoring with the Slovak partners' advanced laboratory facilities and methodological expertise in molecular genetics, cytogenetics, and population studies.
The project is expected to generate joint scientific publications, presentations at international conferences, and open datasets. Its results will also provide a foundation for further strengthening Ukrainian-Slovak research cooperation in the study and conservation of freshwater ecosystems.
We sincerely congratulate the Ukrainian and Slovak research teams on this achievement and wish them every success in implementing the project!
Інформаційно-аналітичне агентство
Дніпровського національного університету
