Thursday, November 13 (in English)
12.00 – 13.00
Registration
13.00 – 13.30
Conference Opening and Welcome
Martin Svoboda - Director Emeritus of NTK
Petr Očko - Director of NTK
Martin Loebl - Agate Centre MFF UK and Learned Society of the Czech Republic
13.30 – 14.15
Introductory Keynote Panel
Aim of the session: To frame the whole discussion with basic inputs from the Czech Republic, especially how we support and evaluate excellence.
Pavel Doleček - Technology Agency of the Czech Republic
Supporting cutting-edge science in the Czech Republic – challenges and dilemmas
Štěpán Jurajda - CERGE-EI (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute), Mellon Endowment Professor with Tenure
Field-specific comparison of the productivity of excellent publications by Czech universities and institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences with relevant university and non-university benchmarks from the EU-15
Ludmila Tysjačna - Technology Centre Prague, National Contact Point for Horizon Europe - ERC and MSCA
Excellence in EU R&I Policy: Revisiting a core principle in light of evolving priorities
14.15 – 15.30
Panel Discussion: Challenges, opportunities, experiences
Aim of the session: Input from top Czech scientists and their opinion on the conditions and challenges of supporting Czech science.
Matouš Glanc - Czexpats in Science, director
Hana Macíčková Cahová - Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Erin Claire Carson - Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Zdeněk Strakoš - Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
Filip Matějka - CERGE-EI (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute)
15.30 - 16.00
Coffee Break
16.00 – 18.00
Experience From Abroad and Discussion
Aim of the session: To present individual expert views and experiences on promoting excellence from different countries, in the form of a mix of experiences of scientists and funding agencies.
Mark W.J. Ferguson - Director General of Science Foundation Ireland & Chief Scientific Adviser to the Irish Government
Excellence & Impact - examples from Ireland
Irish competitive programmes to support excellent science across different stages : cohort Phd programme, Young Investigator, Research Professor and scales :Individual Investigator, Research Centre.All use exclusively international peer review ( no Irish reviewers) for excellence and some use ranking of the excellent proposals by impact. International collaborations using non Irish lead agency review approach add further diversity to the pursuit of excellence with impact.
Ursula Jakubek - Executive Vice-President of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Excellent=Austria
The excellent=austria initiative supports outstanding basic research in Austria through nine Clusters of Excellence and five Emerging Fields, with a total funding volume of around €291 million for the first five years. In these clusters, hundreds of researchers collaborate across institutions on key topics such as energy, health, AI, and cultural heritage. The Emerging Fields promote innovative, high-risk research projects with the potential to spark paradigm shifts. Both programs aim to increase international visibility, support early-career researchers, and strengthen collaboration with industry and society. The focus is on forward-looking issues like global supply security, cancer therapies, and novel approaches in mathematics and relativity theory.
Gerd Folkers - Professor Emeritus of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the ETH Zurich
On Scientific Excellence
Scientific success and scientific reputation are crucial for employment at a university. Evaluation is increasingly carried out using quantifiable systems because these are assumed to be neutral and unbiased. It is based on past achievements. Detailed analyses show that quantification and numerical analysis lead to misjudgments. They are very probably not suitable for describing scientific excellence.Search for „high potential“ instead, combined with trust and the willingness to take risk maybe a future strategy. This may require fundamental political, economical and legal rethinking.
Petter Helgesen - Director for Ground Breaking Research at the Research Council of Norway
Perspectives from Norway: Promoting excellent research in a small country in the corner of Europe
Norway has through the block funding of the higher education institutions a wide range of curiosity driven fundamental research. This funding mechanisms secures research within many institutions and topics but does not necessarily promote excellence. Nevertheless, Norway has been able to increase the success rate in both pillar 1 and 2 of Horizon Europe the last few years. The presentation will focus on how the Research Council of Norway promotes excellence through national programs, the link between national and international programs, and the challenges excellent research might be facing today.
18.00 – 20.00
Dinner
Friday, November 14 (in Czech language)
09.00 – 10.00
Registration
10.00 – 11.15
Panel Discussion: Institutional view I. - Providers
Aim of the session: Providers' view of the whole system and their implementation of the instruments.
Ondřej Slabý - Chair of the Czech Health Research Agency (AZV ČR)
Petr Baldrian - Member of the Academy Council, Czech Academy of Sciences
Petr Konvalinka - Chair of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TACR)
Lucie Núñez Tayupanta - Director of the Research and Development Department, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
Milan Jirsa - President of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR)
11.15 – 11.35
Coffee Break
11.35 – 12.50
Panel Discussion: Institutional view II. - Research organisations
Aim of the session: introduction of internal schemes of excellence support of research universities and institutes of the CAS.
Ladislav Krištoufek - Vice-Rector for Research, Charles University
Šárka Pospíšilová - Vice-Rector for research and doctoral studies, Masaryk University
Libor Grubhoffer - Director of the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Jan Konvalinka - Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Ladislav Janíček - Rector of the Brno University of Technology
12.50 – 13.00
Closing Remarks
13.00 – 14.00
Lunch
