The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) will fund 10 new EXPRO projects and 23 JUNIOR STAR projects starting next year. These prestigious schemes both aim to promote scientific excellence through superior conditions – EXPRO is designed for seasoned scientists who have a groundbreaking idea, whereas JUNIOR STAR will allow outstanding scientists in their early careers to pursue their own research topics. The five-year projects will receive a total of almost one billion crowns.
“Only the best of the best projects receive funding within EXPRO and JUNIOR STAR, reviewed and recommended by international evaluation panels. Their investigators will enjoy better terms of funding during the five-year project period,” says Petr Baldrian, GACR President. “It is also important what these projects are supposed to bring – EXPRO is expected to deliver a breakthrough in a given scientific field, and JUNIOR STAR fosters the rise of a new, independent scientific generation.” Projects will, for example, focus on the development of new detector systems for particle identification, contribute to more efficient plant breeding through a more detailed understanding of evolutionary forces, improve the regulatory framework involving artificial intelligence, explore ways to reduce environmental burdens, and design more effective cancer therapies.
The evaluation process involves foreign scientists only. It takes place in two phases – each project that receives funding is first reviewed by six subject-matter experts, and it is then discussed in detail at a meeting of the Discipline Committee.
EXPRO
The aim of the EXPRO grants is to facilitate the development of excellent research, to set standards for excellent science, and to help overcome the barriers inhibiting the success of project proposals submitted to the highly prestigious European ERC grant programme. One of the obligations of the investigators is to apply for an ERC grant. The cost of EXPRO projects, which are mainly designed for seasoned researchers, can reach up to CZK 50 million over five years. The EXPRO grant calls will now be launched in even-numbered years only.
In this year’s tender, out of the ten winning projects, three will be carried out at the Masaryk University in Brno, two each at institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Czech Technical University in Prague, and the Charles University. One grant has also been awarded to scientists from the Palacký University in Olomouc. Over CZK 450 million will be allocated to these projects.
EXPRO Projects to be Funded 2023 onwards
Reg. number
Applicant
Project Name
Research Organization
Discipline Committee
23-04754X
Mgr. et Mgr. Dalibor Blažek, Ph.D.
Identification and characterization of a new pathway regulating pre-mRNA splicing
České vysoké učení technické v Praze, Český institut informatiky, robotiky a kybernetiky
EX8
23-07984X
Jan Weinzettel, Ph.D.
PATHWAYS TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Univerzita Karlova, Centrum pro otázky životního prostředí
EX6
23-08019X
Prof.Dr. Patrik Schmuki
Single-Atom-based 2D-Photocatalysts
Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Český institut výzkumu a pokročilých technologií
EX2
JUNIOR STAR
The JUNIOR STAR grants are designed for excellent early-career scientists who completed their Ph.D. no more than 8 years ago, have already published in prestigious international journals, and have had significant international experience. The five-year projects with up to CZK 25 million in funding will give them the opportunity to become independent scientists and possibly to start their own research group to bring new research topics to the world of Czech science.
Starting next year, a total of 23 JUNIOR STAR projects will receive new funding, most of them at the Charles University (5 projects), the Czech Technical University in Prague (4 projects), the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague (4 projects), and institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences (3 projects). More than half a billion Czech crowns is earmarked for these projects over the next five years.
JUNIOR STAR Projects to be Funded 2023 onwards
Reg. number
Applicant
Project Name
Research Organization
Discipline Committee
23-04740M
doc. Mgr. Zbyněk Heger, Ph.D.
Hybrid biocompatible nanocatalysts for extracellular bioorthogonal activation of prodrugs
Mendelova univerzita v Brně, Agronomická fakulta
EX4
23-04869M
Dr. rer. nat. Benedikt Bergmann
Particle identification in high-energy physics experiments and space with advanced detection systems
České vysoké učení technické v Praze, Ústav technické a experimentální fyziky ČVUT
EX1
23-04921M
RNDr. Petr Šácha, Ph.D.
Unravelling climate impacts of atmospheric internal gravity waves.
Univerzita Karlova, Matematicko-fyzikální fakulta
EX1
23-04962M
RNDr. Vojtěch Vyklický, Ph.D.
NMDA receptor conformational dynamics: from structure to function and pharmacology
Fyziologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i.
EX4
23-05027M
Ing. Jakub Cikhardt, Ph.D.
Strong electromagnetic pulses: their generation, characterization and control
České vysoké učení technické v Praze, Fakulta elektrotechnická
EX8
23-05107M
Dr. Erin Claire Carson, Ph.D.
Inexact Matrix Computations for the Exascale Era
Univerzita Karlova, Matematicko-fyzikální fakulta
EX8
23-05119M
Ing. Andrea Konečná, Ph.D.
Shaped beams for a new era of electron microscopy and spectroscopy
Vysoké učení technické v Brně, Fakulta strojního inženýrství
EX2
23-05194M
doc. Ing. Ondřej Jankovský, Ph.D.
High-strength and water-resistant MOC composites with secondary fillers: contribution of 2D carbon-based nanomaterials and their combinations
Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze, Fakulta chemické technologie
EX8
23-05227M
doc. PhDr. Zuzana Iršová Havránková, Ph.D.
Spurious Precision in Meta-Analysis of Social Science Research (METASPUR)
Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd
EX6
23-05336M
Mgr. et Mgr. Pavla Perlíková, Ph.D.
Development of actin polymerization inhibitors as potential migrastatics
Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze, Fakulta chemické technologie
EX3
23-05476M
Ing. Ctirad Červinka, Ph. D.
Making ab initio modelling possible for disordered molecular semi-conductive materials
Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze, Fakulta chemicko-inženýrská
EX3
23-06162M
Ing. Robert Pěnička, Ph.D.
TOPFLIGHT: Trajectory and Mission Planning for Agile Flight of Aerial Robots in Cluttered Environments
České vysoké učení technické v Praze, Fakulta elektrotechnická
EX8
23-06540M
Elías Fuentes Guillén
Normalisation and Emergence: Rethinking the Dynamics of Mathematics The case of Prague in the First Half of the 19th Century
Filosofický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i.
EX7
23-06781M
Bruno de la Torre, Ph.D.
Atomic-scale control and visualization of charge delocalization in light-harvesting molecular nanomodels
Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, Český institut výzkumu a pokročilých technologií
EX2
23-06815M
Dr. Jan Volec
Extremal and probabilistic combinatorics
České vysoké učení technické v Praze, Fakulta jaderná a fyzikálně inženýrská
EX1
23-06977M
Peter Fabian
Analysis of the craniofacial skeletal stem cell niche
Masarykova univerzita, Přírodovědecká fakulta
EX5
23-07108M
Mgr. Ondřej Srba, Ph.D.
Changing Adaptive Strategies of Mobile Pastoralists in Mongolia: Dynamics in Community Histories and Movement Patterns Documented Through Oral Sources
Masarykova univerzita, Filozofická fakulta
EX7
23-07204M
Filip Kolář
Mechanisms driving convergent genome evolution in natural populations
Univerzita Karlova, Přírodovědecká fakulta
EX5
23-07283M
Mgr. Aleš Kudrnáč, Ph.D.
The dynamics of adolescents‘ attitudes toward outgroups
Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i.
EX6
23-07419M
Sven Hoeppner, M.Sc., LL.M., Ph.D.
Human-Machine Transactions: Behavioral Micro-foundations and Legal Implications
Univerzita Karlova, Právnická fakulta
EX6
23-07692M
RNDr. Vojtěch Kubelka, Ph.D.
Animal migrations in a changing world – Movements for reproduction to higher latitudes: still advantageous strategy or maladaptive behaviour?
Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Přírodovědecká fakulta
EX5
23-08010M
Aleš Buček
Trajectories of genome evolution in convergent organisms
Česká zemědělská univerzita v Praze, Fakulta tropického zemědělství
EX5
23-08083M
Ing. Martin Veselý, Ph.D.
Synthesis and Property Tuning of Layered Low-Dimensional Materials Beyond Graphene – Utilization in Fundamental Research of Heterogeneous Catalysts
Vysoká škola chemicko-technologická v Praze, Fakulta chemické technologie
EX3
The evaluation of EXPRO and JUNIOR STAR project proposals will be made available to proposers in GRIS in the coming days.
Every year, the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) receives over three thousand project proposals from all areas of basic research. Over 400 renowned experts help to select the best ones. As the terms in office of about half of them are coming to an end in March 2023, the GACR is launching a call for nominations for evaluation panels. The system has been simplified by making the application electronic and allowing for self-nominations. The deadline to apply is 15 December 2022.
“Without the honest work of the panel members, the Czech Science Foundation would be unable to operate. They are the experts who thoroughly review all of the project proposals submitted, and compare them against one another. Then they recommend the ones that should be funded,” says the President of the Czech Science Foundation, Assoc. Prof. Petr Baldrian. “In order to be able to select as many outstanding experts as possible for our panels, this year we have decided to allow what we call self-nominations – anyone who meets the basic criteria can apply. Anyone whose project has ever been selected for funding should contribute to the evaluation of other scientists’ projects to the best of their ability. Of course, we continue to welcome nominations of experts by scientific institutions.”
There are 39 evaluation panels at the Czech Science Foundation, grouped into 5 discipline committees by the area of science. In total, there are over 400 experts from all fields who evaluate proposals for basic research projects in tenders for Standard Projects, POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIPS, and International Projects.
What are the main responsibilities of a panel member?
Being an impartial evaluator abiding by the Code of Ethics
Writing reviews for an average of 12-17 project proposals each year, and evaluating additional ones
Recommending independent external reviewers for the second phase of the evaluation
Monitoring the progress of the projects funded, and preparing on average 5-7 reports after project completions
Attending four panel meetings each year where projects are discussed
What are the minimum requirements?
Academic qualifications at the level of a Ph. D. or higher
Active scientific activity in basic research
Significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge and discovery
Experience with basic research projects as a principal investigator or co-investigator
Ability to assess scientific problems in the broader context of the development of the discipline internationally
What we offer
The opportunity to actively participate in the development of scientific excellence in the Czech Republic
Experience in evaluating and preparing grant proposals
Opportunity to become familiar with current trends in the field
Financial remuneration proportionate to the level of involvement in the evaluation process
Effective from October, the Czech government appointed doc. PhDr. Martina Hřebíčková, DSc., member of the Presidium who will be responsible for Social Sciences and Humanities. In this position, she succeeds Vice-President prof. Ing. Stanislava Hronová, CSc., dr. h. c. who completed her second term in office. Prof. Ing. Martin Hartl, Ph.D., responsible for Technical Sciences, became Vice-President of the Czech Science Foundation.
Doc. PhDr. Martina Hřebíčková, DSc., , is engaged in psychological research at the Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). The focus of her research interest is personality psychology and social psychology, she is an expert in the trait approach and the structure of personality traits. She studied psychology and Russian language at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Masaryk University in Brno, in 1995 she defended her dissertation at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Charles University. She received her associate professorship at the Faculty of Arts of the Masaryk University in Brno. She has been involved in the preparation of more than 80 publications indexed on the Web of Science, and is one of the most frequently cited social scientists in the country. She has represented the Czech Republic on the steering committee of the European Association of Personality Psychology and serves as editor of the international journal Personality Science. She has been awarded several times for her scientific research activities. She has been the recipient of the Otto Wichterle Prize of the CAS, and the Jiří Hoskovec Prize awarded by the Czech-Moravian Psychological Society for her significant contribution to the development of Czech psychology. She has experience in leading research institutions, panels, committees, departments, projects and teams. She is also involved in the evaluation of science in committees and panels at the Council for Research, Development and Innovation of the Czech government, the Charles University, and the Czech Academy of Sciences.
About the Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation
The Presidium of GA CR is appointed by the government of the Czech Republic upon the nomination of the Council for Research, Development and Innovation. It is composed of five members representing five basic scientific disciplines – Technical Sciences (prof. Ing. Martin Hartl, Ph.D.), Life Sciences (RNDr. Alice Valkárová, DrSc.), Medical and Biological Sciences (prof. MUDr. Mgr. Milan Jirsa, CSc.), Social Sciences and Humanities (assoc. prof. PhDr. Martina Hřebíčková, DSc.), and Agricultural and Biological-Environmental Sciences (assoc. prof. RNDr. Petr Baldrian, Ph.D. – President of the Czech Science Foundation). The term in office of the members of the Presidium is four years, and a maximum of two consecutive terms is possible. GACR President is the governing body of the Czech Science Foundation.
The Presidium approves the publication of public tenders in research and development, and decides on the execution of contracts for the provision of funding, i.e. on the award of grants to scientific projects on the basis of the evaluation of the discipline committees and panels of the Czech Science Foundation. The Presidium also coordinates the activities of these advisory bodies, and appoints and removes their members.
On Thursday, 29 September, five scientists from various fields of basic research received the President’s Award of the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) for outstanding achievements. This was the 19th award ceremony in history – for the first time it was presented by Petr Baldrian, appointed President of GACR last year, together with the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová.
The award-winning research projects have provided important insights and methods that make it possible, for example, to identify and sharpen blurry objects in a video, determine the quality of soil based on satellite data, or use machine learning to determine which texts by important authors did not actually come from their pens. The award-winning scientists have also explored how genes are switched on and off in the cell, potentially leading to serious diseases, as well as what influences the rate of ageing.
“The quality of the projects funded – and therefore that of Czech science – has grown year after year. The award-winning researchers deserve our recognition all the more – the award-winning projects have been selected from dozens of scientific projects funded by the Czech Science Foundation, all of which are among the best of the best in the Czech scientific research and even in the world,” said Petr Baldrian, President of the Czech Science Foundation. “It is also gratifying that many of the projects have a potential way forward, towards applied use or understanding of the basic principles of nature and society.”
The President’s Award has been presented regularly since 2003 in recognition of outstanding results achieved in grant projects completed in the previous calendar year. The laureates are selected on the recommendation of several hundred scientists who evaluate projects funded by GACR. Each laureate receives a financial award of CZK 100,000. Prizes are awarded in five areas of basic research: technical sciences; life sciences, medical and biological sciences; social sciences and humanities; and agricultural and bio-environmental sciences.
List of laureates and award-winning projects
Technical Sciences
assoc. prof. Ing. Filip Šroubek, Ph.D., DSc., Institute of Information Theory and Automation, Czech Academy of Sciences
Solving Inverse Problems for the Analysis of Fast Moving Objects
The award-winning project has developed a method that allows to significantly improve the image quality, despite the limited technical possibilities of recording. The method relies on the fact that more information can be extracted from a blurred video than from a single sharp image – such as the 3D trajectory and angular velocity of an object. This makes it possible to reconstruct the shape, appearance, and motion of a fast-moving object. Additional image sharpening will also find applications in scientific experiments, defence, healthcare and other fields.
Physical Sciences
M.Sc. Asa Gholizadeh, Ph.D., Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources
Soil Contamination Assessment Using Hyperspectral Orbital Data
This junior project provided a breakthrough method for identifying contaminated soil using freely available satellite data. The newly developed method also uses machine learning algorithms to process the data – making it possible to extract the information of soil contamination from satellite images over large areas quickly, cheaply, and environmentally friendly. The method will allow new and accurate algorithms to be implemented in future space-based sensors to monitor global soil contamination over time and space.
Medical and Biological Sciences:
assoc. prof. Ing. Václav Veverka, Ph.D., Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences
The Evolutionary and Functional Relationship between LEDGF/p75 and Pdp3
As part of the project, the researchers looked at how selected types of protein stretches, previously identified in studies of leukaemia and HIV infection, can affect RNA chain elongation. They have gradually untangled a wide network of interacting cellular partners that influence this process. They were thus able to uncover a previously neglected role for unstructured protein domains in ensuring this cooperation. This discovery may contribute to a better understanding of cancer, viral or neurodegenerative diseases, and other conditions that are caused by disrupted gene expression.
Social Sciences and Humanities:
Mgr. Petr Plecháč, Ph.D. & Ph.D., Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences
Stylometric Analysis of Poetic Texts
The project focused on identifying the authors of poetic texts using machine learning. In addition to commonly used textual features, such as word and phrase frequency data, the researchers also focused on formal features of the verse (verse rhythm, rhyme), which they were able to prove to significantly increase the reliability of the results. Using machine learning, for example, the team was able to determine which passages Henry VIII and Two Noble Kinsmen, both versed plays, were from the pen of William Shakespeare, and which were from his co-author John Fletcher.
Agricultural and Biological-Environmental Sciences:
prof. RNDr. Martin Reichard, Ph.D., Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences
Sources of Intrapopulation Heterogeneity in Ageing
Ageing is biologically a process of deterioration in the optimal functioning of an organism, and an increase in the risk of failure of some essential function. This project has uncovered the causes of the different rates of ageing in male and female African turquoise rockfish in nature and in the laboratory and described how environmental conditions, embryonic development and growth rate can influence the ageing process. Understanding the sources of differences in ageing rates is also important for addressing current issues in the ageing human population.
Czech Science Foundation
The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) is the only institution in the Czech Republic that provides targeted aid from public funds to basic research projects only. The objectives of GACR are to fund basic research projects carried out by scholars and their teams, both seasoned scientists and young ones in their early careers, to create suitable and attractive conditions for scientists, and to promote and expand international scientific cooperation. GACR launched its activities in 1993.
Stellar objects like pulsars can create matter and antimatter directly from light because of their extreme energies. In fact, the magnetic field, or “magnetosphere,” of a pulsar is filled with electrons and positrons that are created by colliding photons.
Reproducing the same phenomena in a laboratory on Earth is extremely challenging. It requires a dense cloud of photons with energies that are millions of times higher than visible light, an achievement that has so far eluded the scientists working in this field. However, theories suggest that high-power lasers ought to be able to produce such a photon cloud.
As the first international laser research infrastructure dedicated to the application of high-power and high-intensity lasers, the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI ERIC) facilities will enable such research possibilities. The ELI ERIC is a multi-site research infrastructure based on specialized and complementary facilities ELI Beamlines (Czech Republic) and ELI ALPS (Hungary). The new capabilities at ELI will create the necessary conditions to test the theories in a laboratory.
This project combines theoretical expertise from the University of California San Diego (U.S.), experimental expertise from ELI Beamlines, as well as target fabrication and engineering expertise from General Atomics (U.S.). The roughly $1,000,000 project, jointly funded by NSF and GACR, will be led by Prof. Alexey Arefiev at UC San Diego. Target development for rep-rated deployment will take place at General Atomics, led by Dr. Mario Manuel, while the primary experiments will be conducted at ELI Beamlines by a team led by Dr. Florian Condamine and Dr. Stefan Weber.
Figure 1: Super computer simulation of energetic gamma-ray emission (yellow arrows) by a dense plasma (green) irradiated by a high-intensity laser beam (red and blue). The laser propagates from left to right, with the emitted photons flying in the same direction. The smooth blue and red regions represent a strong magnetic field generated by the plasma, whereas the oscillation region corresponds to the laser magnetic field.
The concept for the project was developed by Arefiev’s research group at UC San Diego, which specializes in supercomputer simulations of intense light-matter interactions. The approach for this project leverages an effect that occurs when electrons in a plasma are accelerated to near light speeds by a high-powered laser. This effect is called “relativistic transparency” because it causes a previously opaque dense plasma to become transparent to laser light.
In this regime, extremely strong magnetic fields are generated as the laser propagates through the plasma. During this process, the relativistic electrons oscillate in the magnetic field, which in turn causes the emission of gamma-rays, predominantly in the direction of the laser.
“It is very exciting that we are in a position to generate the sort of magnetic fields that previously only existed in extreme astrophysical objects, such as neutron stars,” says Arefiev. “The ability of the ELI Beamlines lasers to reach very high on-target intensity is the key to achieving this regime.”
These experiments will provide the first statistically relevant study of gamma-ray generation using high-powered lasers. Researchers hope the work will open the way for secondary high-energy photon sources that can be used not only for fundamental physics studies, but also for a range of important industrial applications such as material science, nuclear waste imaging, nuclear fuel assay, security, high-resolution deep-penetration radiography, etc. Such “extreme imaging” requires robust, reproducible, and well-controlled gamma-ray sources. The present proposal aims exactly at the development of such unprecedented sources.
The experiments will be greatly assisted by another technological advance. Until recently, high-power laser facilities could execute about one shot every hour, which limited the amount of data that could be collected. However, new facilities like ELI Beamlines are capable of multiple shots per second. These capabilities allow for statistical studies of laser-target interactions in ways that were impossible only a few years ago. That means a shift in the way such experiments are designed and executed is necessary to take full advantage of the possibilities.
“The P3 installation at ELI Beamlines is a unique and versatile experimental infrastructure for sophisticated high-field experiments and perfectly adapted to the planned program,” comments Condamine. Weber notes, “This collaboration between San Diego and ELI Beamlines is expected to be a major step forward to bring together the US community and the ELI-team for joint experiments.”
Thus, a major part of this project is training the next generation of scientists at ELI Beamlines to develop techniques that can fully leverage its rep-rated capabilities. UC San Diego students and postdoctoral researchers will also train on rep-rated target deployment and data acquisition on General Atomics’ new GALADRIEL laser facility to help improve the efficiency of the experiments conducted at ELI Beamlines.
Figure 2: The P3 (Plasma Physics Platform)-installation at ELI Beamlines where the experiments will take place.
“This is the first project funded by the Czech Science Foundation and the US National Science Foundation. I believe that the new collaboration between the agencies will lead to a number of successful projects and collaborating scientific teams from the Czech Republic and the USA will benefit from it,” says GACR president Dr. Petr Baldrian.
“We are thrilled to be working with our counterparts in the Czech Republic to further expand international scientific cooperation in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and plasma science research. I am optimistic this will be the first of many collaborative projects between NSF and GACR,” says the Director of NSF, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan.
Professor Ing. Martin Hartl, Ph.D., has become a member of the Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation, where he will be responsible for Technical Sciences for the next four years. He replaces Prof. Ing. Rostislav Drochytka, CSc., MBA, dr. h. c., who resigned from the Presidium after becoming the Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of Brno University of Technology. Members of the Presidium may serve a maximum of two terms in office.
Prof. Ing. Martin Hartl, Ph.D., has served in the bodies of the Czech Science Foundation since 2011, first as a member of an evaluation panel, and since 2018 as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. He graduated in mechanical engineering at the Brno University of Technology. His scientific, research and development activities are focused on tribology, biotribology and rheology. He is the director of the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology, which he transformed into an internationally recognized research and educational institution. He is the principal investigator within several strategic projects. He has achieved his most significant results in the field of elastohydrodynamics, for which he has been awarded the prize of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers and the Japanese Society of Tribologists. At the Brno University of Technology he is a lecturer, head of two study programmes, supervisor, and chairman of the doctoral programme board. He has long been developing a research-oriented approach to teaching.
About GACR Presidium
The GACR Presidium members are appointed and recalled by the Government of the Czech Republic on the basis of Research, Development and Innovation Council’s proposal. The Presidium consists of five members, who represent five basic science fields – Technical Sciences, Physical Sciences, Medical and Biological Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities and Agricultural and Biological-Environmental Sciences. Members of the Presidium are appointed for four years with the possibility of two consecutive terms at maximum. GACR President is the statutory body of GACR.
The Presidium is authorised to approve calls for proposals, to award grants, present proposals of the GACR Statute and its changes together with the GACR budget proposal to the Government for approval. Moreover, the Presidium is responsible for coordination of the Discipline Committees, advisory bodies of GACR, which evaluate the project proposals.
The Presidium approves calls for proposals in research and development and decides on concluding agreements on provision of support, i.e. on awarding the grants based on the evaluation of Discipline Committees and Panels of GACR. Additionally, the Presidium coordinates activities of the advisory bodies, appoints and removes their members.
Due to the situation in Ukraine the DFG is currently not accepting new proposals or renewal proposals that involve German-Russian cooperation. This applies also to Weave proposals that DFG receives as lead or partner agency. Proposals that have already been submitted are suspended until further notice and will not be processed further.
DFG is also suspending all collaboration within funded research projects between academics from Germany and Russia. However, in these the collaboration is suspended, but the German parts continue to receive funding and can adapt their project accordingly.
Funding for early-career scientists is one of the priorities of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR). In order to facilitate navigation through grant tenders and their terms and conditions, the Czech Science Foundation has prepared a clear overview titled “Czech Science Foundation for Early-Career Scientists”.
“The goal of the Czech Science Foundation is to cultivate world-class science in the Czech Republic. There is a simple way to achieve this: supporting people, their ideas and young scientists, on whom the future of Czech science depends. To make it easier for them to navigate through the Agency’s offerings, we have prepared a clear overview,” says Assoc. Prof. Petr Baldrian, the President of the Czech Science Foundation. “This publication will help them find out which tender is tailored to them – for example, the POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP tender is for fresh postdocs who need to obtain experience abroad, but it can also help Czech researchers who have completed their doctoral studies in another country to return home. For more experienced scientists who want to obtain independence as a researcher, there is the JUNIOR STAR tender. We also show that there are what we call Standard Projects for early-career scientists as well.”
In this publication, interested parties and potential applicants will find answers to the most common questions, as well as what the Project Proposal should contain, how the evaluation is carried out, and how the Czech Science Foundation reflects motherhood and parenthood. The publication “The Czech Science Foundation for Early-Career Scientists” is now available for download below, including an English version. You can also download the brochure “GACR under the Lens“, which provides a clear overview of the Agency’s activities.
The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) is aware of the complicated situation of Ukrainian students and scientists. To help them, GACR:
Recommends that investigation teams expand their teams with scientists and students from Ukraine. In 2022, this expansion is possible without the need of approval by the GACR Presidium.
Asks applicants in this year’s public calls to consider including Ukrainian students and scientists in the investigation teams of newly proposed projects.
Would like to notify Ukrainian scientists and their teams of the option of submitting project proposals to current calls, especially to the new POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP INCOMING call, which allows scientists from abroad to take part in a three-year research stay at Czech institutions. Should there be an increased interest in this call, GACR is prepared to raise the amount of resources allocated to its financing.
The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) is announcing calls for proposals for tenders in the area of Standard Projects, EXPRO, JUNIOR STAR, POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP, and International and Lead Agency projects. The submission deadline is 7 April. The winners will be announced in November and December this year. Projects which win funding after passing the multi-stage evaluation process will be launched in 2023.
“This year, after a one-year hiatus, scientists can apply for EXPRO grants again. They are intended for the best among them. If they pass the selection process, they will receive extraordinary grants of up to CZK 50 million for 5 years of project work. The first EXPRO projects have already produced a number of excellent results with a significant impact within their scientific fields, including Highly Cited Papers,” said the Chairman of the Czech Science Foundation Assoc. Prof. Petr Baldrian, Ph.D., adding: “Another of our priorities is to support early-career scientists. This year marks the second year of the POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP tender, which fosters international mobility, and the third year of the JUNIOR STAR tender, through which the best scientists will receive up to five years of funding. Of course, early-career scientists can also apply and succeed in all other tenders. ”
Project proposals can be submitted in the individual tenders until7 April 2022. The announcement of the tenders this year was earlier than in previous years, also due to the complicated epidemiological situation. This will give scientists more time to prepare their project proposals.
The project proposals will be assessed in a multi-stage transparent evaluation process, in which expert reviewers from other countries also participate substantially in addition to experts recommended by Czech research institutions. Among the winners, there is not a single project which has not been reviewed internationally. In case of the highly selective EXPRO and JUNIOR STAR projects, this process is the responsibility of international experts only.
Standard Projects
Standard Projects are the cornerstone of grant funding for basic research in the Czech Republic – every year since it was established in 1993, the Czech Science Foundation has funded a few hundred of them . Standard Projects are funded to facilitate the best of basic research in all fields of science. Proposals for usually 3-year projects may be submitted by any researcher or team, regardless of their age or experience.
After a year’s break, the EXPRO competition is once again open for the most excellent Czech scientists. A few selected researchers and their projects are going to raise five-year funding for their teams. During this period they will be able to draw up to 50 million CZK, i.e. an average of CZK ten million per year. The projects with the greatest potential to be part of a breakthrough in their field will be selected for funding by international panels. The research team will also be required to submit a project proposal to the European Research Council (ERC).
JUNIOR STAR grants are intended for excellent scientists in their early careers (within 8 years of receiving their PhDs) active in all areas of basic research who have published in prestigious international journals before, and have had substantial experience abroad. The 5-year project allows them to receive up to CZK 25 million and gives them an opportunity to attain scientific independence or even start their own research team, which can bring new areas of research into Czech science.
POSTDOC INDVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP (PIF) is the latest type of grant funding. The Fellowship is targeted at scientists who have completed their PhDs in the last four years. The OUTGOING PIF makes it possible for Czech scientists to perform research at any institution in the world, provided that the Fellow returns to the Czech Republic to spend at least one year at a local institution. The INCOMING PIF enables a scientist from abroad to come to a Czech institution to carry out his or her research.
Proposals for International Projects may be submitted in tenders published with agencies abroad jointly, on the basis of an agreement between the Czech Science Foundation and the other agencies. Project Proposals are either evaluated by both agencies (bilateral cooperation), or recommended for funding only by one of the agencies, and the other one accepts that recommendation (cooperation based on Lead Agency)
Agencies involved within bilateral cooperation
Taiwan – Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)
South Korea – National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
São Paulo, Brazil – São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
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Figure 1: Super computer simulation of energetic gamma-ray emission (yellow arrows) by a dense plasma (green) irradiated by a high-intensity laser beam (red and blue). The laser propagates from left to right, with the emitted photons flying in the same direction. The smooth blue and red regions represent a strong magnetic field generated by the plasma, whereas the oscillation region corresponds to the laser magnetic field.
Prof. Ing. Martin Hartl, Ph.D., has served in the bodies of the Czech Science Foundation since 2011, first as a member of an evaluation panel, and since 2018 as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. He graduated in mechanical engineering at the Brno University of Technology. His scientific, research and development activities are focused on tribology, biotribology and rheology. He is the director of the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology, which he transformed into an internationally recognized research and educational institution. He is the principal investigator within several strategic projects. He has achieved his most significant results in the field of elastohydrodynamics, for which he has been awarded the prize of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers and the Japanese Society of Tribologists. At the Brno University of Technology he is a lecturer, head of two study programmes, supervisor, and chairman of the doctoral programme board. He has long been developing a research-oriented approach to teaching.
