Associate Professor Martina Hřebíčková taking over Social Sciences and Humanities, professor Martin Hartl becomes Vice-President

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.

Martina Hřebíčková

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.

The President of the Czech Science Foundation along with the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation awarded the five best scientific projects

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.

US and Czech scientists collaborate to explore gamma-ray production with high power lasers

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) are funding a new collaborative project of scientists from the University of California San Diego in the U.S. and ELI Beamlines (Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) in the Czech Republic which aims to leverage the capabilities of the ELI Beamlines multi-petawatt laser facility. Researchers hope these experiments can achieve a breakthrough by demonstrating efficient generation of dense gamma-ray beams.

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.

nsf_gacr_1Figure 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.

nsf_gacr__2Figure 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.

 

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Prof. Martin Hartl takes over Technical Sciences

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.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.

 

 

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Information on DFG measures for cooperations with Russia due to the situation in Ukraine

For proposals with DFG please note:

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.

For details please refer to the DFG´s press release and Information for Researchers.

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New Publication to Help Early-Career Scientists Navigate through Grant Schemes

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.

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Support for Ukrainian Scientists and Students

The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) is aware of the complicated situation of Ukrainian students and scientists. To help them, GACR:

Relevant external links

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Tenders for 2023 Announced

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.

EXPRO

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

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 INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP

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.

 

International Projects

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

Agencies involved on Lead Agency basis

 

Additional international calls for proposals on the basis of Lead Agency may be published later this year.

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Czech Science Foundation to Fund Nearly 500 New Research Projects

The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) has selected over 477 research projects to be funded starting next year. The topics of the projects chosen by the scientists are from all areas of basic research, the main aim of which is to produce new findings. The projects were selected under various grant calls – the selected projects will be carried out over 3-5 years. During that time, over CZK 3.5 billion will be used to fund those projects.

“The  characteristic of basic research is that it brings new findings and knowledge. It was basic research which made the extremely rapid development of vaccines against covid-19 possible ‒ because when the epidemic struck, there was already a wealth of existing knowledge on which to build. The Czech Research Foundation also supports all areas of basic research because we never know when they might turn out to be useful. All of the current inventions are also based on basic research findings,” said Petr Baldrian, Chairman of the Czech Research Foundation.

“All of the selected projects are excellent and on par with international standards, even though fewer than 20% of the project proposals will be funded in this tender,” says Petr Baldrian, adding: “The quality of the projects selected by the Czech Science Foundation is also evidenced by the results of the projects already completed, which have resulted in a vast number of publications and, above all, new findings that are among the absolute top in the world.” A total of 434 Standard Projects will be funded starting next year.

It is important for every scientist to obtain foreign experience as soon as possible, which is why this year, for the first time, the Czech Science Foundation launched the POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP (PIF) programme. These grants are grouped into inbound grants for scientists from abroad and outbound grants for Czech scientists. “The purpose of these grants,” says the President of the Czech Science Foundation, “is to enable Czech researchers to obtain experience with world-class science at the leading institutions abroad. Part of the grant is also the Fellow’s return to the Czech institution, where he or she will capitalize on the experience obtained abroad. The second branch of this Fellowship programme will open up career opportunities for the best young scientists from other countries at scientific institutions in the Czech Republic.” In the first year, 27 PIF grants were awarded, and the Czech Science Foundation expects an increase in the coming years.

“Young scientists also crave the opportunity to make their original ideas come true, and to build their own teams. This is made possible by the JUNIOR STAR grants, which are, however, highly selective, and only scientists who already have the necessary experience are able to obtain them. However, if they make it through the rigorous selection process, they deserve long-term support for the development of their own scientific topic,” says the President of the Czech Science Foundation, introducing the grant schemes for scientists in their early careers. Sixteen researchers were awarded five-year funding of up to CZK 25 million.

All of the projects went through a transparent, multi-stage evaluation process involving over 400 Czech experts in their respective fields of research and hundreds of international scientists. The deadline for submission of project proposals was postponed by two weeks due to the epidemic situation, but the results were published within the original deadline. “Our evaluators deserve a big “thank you”, we are only able to publish the results this year thanks to them and their extraordinary commitment.”

List of projects receiving funding (in Czech only)

The results of the international calls will be published in the next few weeks, after being confirmed by the partner agencies abroad.

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Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Petr Baldrian, Ph.D., Appointed to Head the Czech Science Foundation

The Government appointed Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Petr Baldrian, Ph.D., to the position of President of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR). At the same time, Prof. MUDr. Milan Jirsa, CSc., was appointed Presidium Member in charge of medical and biological sciences.

“I am honoured to be able to build on the good work of Dr. Alice Valkárová and Professor Jaroslav Koča. As one of the members of the Presidium, I have been involved in the current setup of the grant environment, which includes, in particular, new grant opportunities for early career scientists and funding for excellent projects with the potential to bring breakthroughs in their field. In the future, I plan to focus the activities of the Czech Science Foundation especially on a further development of international cooperation, and to finalize preparations for a new type of grant tender that will allow us to respond directly to current challenges facing the society as a whole, such as the covid-19 pandemic,” says Petr Baldrian, Ph.D., summarizing his plans.

The position of the Chairman of the Czech Science Foundation and a member of the Presidium for Medical and Biological Sciences has been vacant since the beginning of July, when Prof. Jaroslav Koca, who had held these positions, died suddenly. The government appointed Petr Baldrian and Milan Jirsa on the nomination of the Council for Research, Development and Innovation.

Petr Baldrian has been a member of the Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation in charge of agricultural and biological-environmental sciences since January 2017. Currently, he is also the Head of the Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology at the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Milan Jirsa works at IKEM and at the 1st Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University. He also has experience from the evaluation panels of the Czech Science Foundation, whose activities include the assessment of project proposals for funding.

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