Three of our students were successful in applying to the call for applications by the Springer publishing house for printing an exceptional PhD thesis in the 2015/2016 academic year: Rosario Ruggieri and Simone Milanolo of Italy, and Marjan Temovski of Macedonia. Petra Gostinčar, who was an early-stage researcher in the institute’s research group, finished her studies. The three-year doctoral study programme in Karstology (3rd cycle) is the only one of its kind where the student obtains the title Doctor of Science in Karstology. The programme offers an integral study of karstology, i.e. the study of the karst surface, karst underground and karst waters in one place. In addition to the small number of compulsory courses, the study is further enriched by 40 elective courses. It is intended for students of natural sciences and similar sciences directed towards scientific and research work, and for planners, managers and others who wish to learn more about the karst. This study programme is being enrolled by students from North, Central and South America, from Europe and Asia; there are currently 8 students enrolled in the study programme. So far 18 students of the programme have obtained their doctoral degrees; four of them in the years 2015 and 2016. All of them have successfully found employment. UNESCO Chair on Karst Education was the first chair established in Slovenia among the 600 UNESCO Chairs in 130 countries. It is one of the rare ones devoted to natural sciences and education, and the only one in the world containing the word karst in its title.
D.10 Educational activities
COBISS.SI-ID: 4614651We are involved in individual projects related to the development and protection of the natural and cultural heritage of karst areas, regional planning, water supply systems and protection of water resources, the construction of transportation infrastructure and water treatment plants, the collection of data on karst caves and their protection, karst ecology and determining the extent of human influence on the karst underground, planning and monitoring the exploitation of karst phenomena for tourism, and setting up museum exhibitions of karst phenomena. In this way our basic knowledge about karst is successfully applied to solving acute problems in planning the development of karst regions. The monograph gives a good idea of the karst across which the railway will run. It is true that we could not precisely determine the locations of caves that will be opened up during construction and of all of the water channels, but we could clearly predict what is to be expected during construction and what this construction should be like. It will be possible to protect more of the newly-discovered karst phenomena, which are an important part of our natural heritage; moreover, the waters that are also important for supply will be protected more efficiently. Last year, this book was chosen as a scientific achievement under the Excellent in Science 2016 project.
F.17 Transfer of existing technologies, know-how, methods and procedures into practice
COBISS.SI-ID: 56041570The International Karstological School "Classical Karst" has been held regularly since 1992. Every year numerous international researchers, students and speleologists from all continents meet in Postojna where they participate in lectures, discussions and field work on selected topics. In 2015 the school was dedicated to "Cave exploration and studies" and in 2016 to "Paleokarst". Selected presentations are published as reviewed articles in Acta Carsologica. This is an important traditional international meeting, which unites internationally-known karst scientists. In 2015, it was particularly solemn because it also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the International Union of Speleology (UIS). In 2015 and 2016, we co-organised and co-sponsored several international scientific meetings: a scientific conference dedicated to the 70th anniversary of UNESCO’s operation in Kunming, China; a scientific conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; a scientific conference in Custonaci, Sicily, Italy; the 7th International Workshop on Ice Caves – IWIC VII UIS in Postojna; and an international conference of the Carpatho-Balkan-Dinaric Geomorphological Commission (CBDGC) in Postojna.
B.01 Organiser of a scientific meeting
COBISS.SI-ID: 279560192Three issues of volumes 44 and 45 of Acta Carsologica were published in 2015 and 2016. The journal celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2015. In 2016 it was awarded an Order of Merit by the President of the Republic of Slovenia. The journal is edited and published within the Open Journal System and freely accessible at http://ojs.zrcsazu.si/carsologica. It is included in WOS, SCOPUS and other bibliographical bases. Its current impact factor is 0.792.
C.04 Editorial board of an international magazine
COBISS.SI-ID: 6427138We collect documentation on all known and documented caves in Slovenia. The number of the last cave entered is 11.683. The Cave Registry consists of texts, maps and photographs. Caves are registered with a unique registry number and name. New entries were made based on new documents filed in the Cave Registry. Only the basic data was included in the digital data base, which serves as a basis for official records of caves in Slovenia. This data base was sent to the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. The number of known caves increases by roughly 200 per year and up to 1000 changes or corrections are made to the data base.
F.16 Improvements to an existing information system/databases
COBISS.SI-ID: 38588717