Starting next year, the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) will fund 16 projects that won the JUNIOR STAR tender. The goal of the five-year projects with a budget of up to CZK 25 million aim to support the best of scientists in their early-stage careers within 8 years of completing their Ph.D. programmes. They will be able to pursue their own scientific topics, and also to establish their own research groups. Half the projects funded will be carried out within the Czech Academy of Sciences.
“The JUNIOR STAR calls aim to identify projects of young researchers who have a high potential to achieve world-class results and, at the same time, have the ambition to become independent scientists. Similar to the EXPRO calls, these are exclusive grants – only a small percentage of projects get selected, providing their investigators with extraordinary funding for a period of five years. While scientists in the early stages of their careers enjoy greater research freedom, we also hope that the award of the grant sends a message to their institutions that those scientists can be expected to produce excellent results in the future,” said Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Petr Baldrian, Ph.D., adding: “Funding junior scientists is one of the priorities of the Czech Science Foundation. This year, we have launched the POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP calls for young scientists who completed their Ph.D. programmes recently, aimed at scientific mobility. However, young scientists – both students and postdocs – are also an important part of standard or international project teams, where they can gain practical research experience.”
In the second year of the JUNIOR STAR calls, a total of 16 projects have been recommended for funding out of a total of 315 proposals submitted. Half the projects funded will be carried out starting next year at the Czech Academy of Sciences, three at the Masaryk University in Brno, and two at the Czech Technical University in Prague. One project each at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, and the University of Chemical Technology in Prague.
The evaluation of JUNIOR STAR project proposals is carried out purely externally by scientists abroad recommended by the international agency Science Connect. The evaluation is carried out in two phases, with each project proposal being evaluated by at least four experts abroad in the given research field.
| Registration No. | Applicant | Title | Organization | Project Duration |
| 22-06008M | Ing Prokop Hapala, PhD | Computer Aided Desing of Templated Assembling, Replication and Synthesis on Ionic Substrates | Fyzikální ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-11299M | Ing. Petr Kovaříček, Ph.D. | Reaction networks at phase interfaces for dynamic self-assembly | Fakulta chemické technologie, Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze | 5 |
| 22-17593M | Mgr. Kateřina Sam, Ph.D. | Ecological meltdown in the absence of birds and spiders? | Přírodovědecká fakulta, Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích | 5 |
| 22-18033M | Ing. Tomáš Fíla, Ph.D. | High velocity impact dynamics with fast and flash X-ray radiography | Fakulta dopravní, České vysoké učení technické v Praze | 5 |
| 22-18424M | Jan Perner, Ph.D. | Functional Genomics and Symbio-Genomics in Ticks | Biologické centrum AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-20303M | Mgr. Hana Sedláčková, Ph.D. | Deciphering Origins of DNA replication in genome integrity | Biofyzikální ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-20342M | RNDr. Tomáš Slanina, Ph.D. | Organic Solar Electric Batteries Using Electron Storage into Chemical Bonds | Ústav organické chemie a biochemie AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-21743M | Dr. Madalina Bianca Moraru | RolE oF cOuRts in Shaping Access to asyluM (REFORM) | Právnická fakulta, Masarykova univerzita | 5 |
| 22-22000M | Dr. Dominik Kriegner | Multipole antiferromagnets: New interlinked chapters in crystallography, band structure, and electronics | Fyzikální ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-23183M | RNDr. Zuzana Kúkelová, PhD. | New generation of camera geometry solvers | Fakulta elektrotechnická, České vysoké učení technické v Praze | 5 |
| 22-28659M | Mgr. Filip Hrbáček, Ph.D. | Dynamics of the periglacial environment in the Antarctic Peninsula region under ongoing climate change | Přírodovědecká fakulta, Masarykova univerzita | 5 |
| 22-30571M | RNDr. David Sehnal, Ph.D. | Cell*: a web platform for visualization, modelling and dynamics of organnel- and cell-sized structures | Přírodovědecká fakulta, Masarykova univerzita | 5 |
| 22-33162M | Ole Jann, PhD | Data, Algorithms, Power: Economic Theories of the Information Society | Národohospodářský ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-33266M | Ioannis Markonis | Investigation of the Terrestrial HydrologicAl Cycle Acceleration (ITHACA) | Fakulta životního prostředí, Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze | 5 |
| 22-33877M | Mgr. Kateřina Rohlenová, Ph.D. | Intercellular metabolic crosstalk in nucleotide metabolism: an emerging target | Biotechnologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
| 22-35680M | Roman Pleskot, Ph.D. | 4D plate - Spatiotemporal dynamics of cell plate development | Ústav experimentální botaniky AV ČR, v.v.i. | 5 |
The results of the other grant calls made by GACR will be announced on 6 December 2021.
