½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ

½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ SEA-EU Research Seed Fund 2026 Awardees

On 24 June, the University of Malta celebrated several research projects supported through the , highlighting the University and its SEA-EU Office’s ongoing commitment to fostering international collaboration, strengthening research excellence, and supporting innovative initiatives across the alliance.

The projects led by Prof. Antoinette Camilleri, Prof. Margaret Mangion, Prof. Peter Borg, Prof. Ritenne Gauci, and Dr Damian Spiteri, were presented during a meeting with the University's senior management and representatives of the SEA-EU Office.

Those in attendance included Pro-Rector for Internationalisation, Enterprise and Outreach Prof. Leonie Baldacchino, Rector's Delegate for SEA-EU Prof. Alan Deidun, Senior Manager of the SEA-EU Office Maria Grima Calleja and Project Manager Fernanda Giraldo Guzman with members of the SEA-EU Office.

The event celebrated the researchers' achievements while highlighting the impact of their work in strengthening collaboration, innovation and research across the SEA-EU alliance.

Prof. Antoniette Camilleri’s project, BlueImaginings: A Transdisciplinary Approach Across the Arts, Language Education and Ocean Literacy, explores how the ocean can be understood and represented through different forms of knowledge, including the arts, languages, and education.

Prof. Margaret Mangion’s project, Cultivating Creative Thinking in Higher Education in the Age of AI: Awareness and Pedagogical Strategies, explores how higher education academics understand creative thinking and how artificial intelligence can support teaching and learning. Through surveys and interactive workshops, the project will develop a practical framework to help educators integrate creative thinking and responsible AI tools across different disciplines.

Prof. Peter Borg’s project, Domination and Isolation of Graphs, explores the mathematics of relationships and connections within graphs. The project focuses on domination theory, which studies dominating sets, and isolation theory, which examines how small sets can be used to isolate specific structures within graphs. It aims to investigate the isolation problem by determining the smallest possible isolating sets for different types of graphs.

Prof. Ritienne Gauci’s project, SHORE MALTA: A Pilot Study on Sedimentary Heritage for the Observation and Reconstruction of Embayments in Malta, explores Malta’s coastal history by using existing geotechnical sediment cores. The project aims to reconstruct the environmental, geological, and coastal changes of Maltese embayments over time.

Dr Damian Spiteri’s project, Inclusive Climate Justice Pedagogy in Coastal Europe: A Malta-Brest SEA-EU Co-Design Pilot, examines how climate education can be made more inclusive by connecting scientific knowledge with students’ experiences, safety, and sense of belonging. It focuses on supporting LGBTQ+ students and other vulnerable groups, and through collaboration between students and educators in Malta and Brest, it will develop a practical SEA-EU teaching toolkit for climate justice and inclusive learning.

The projects presented demonstrate the breadth of research taking place through the SEA-EU Research Seed Fund and the value of collaboration across disciplines and institutions. Through continued support for projects such as these, the University of Malta and the SEA-EU alliance continue to strengthen international cooperation and advance research with meaningful impact.