Faculty of Science proves successful with the Czech Grant Agency
The Faculty of Science of the University of Ostrava (FS UO) has scored another significant success with the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR). After a year, its scientists gained support for 5 of their scientific researches while becoming co-investigators of 3 projects of other institutions. In the following three years, thanks to the support of roughly 60 million CZK granted by GACR, the scientists may greatly intensity their research.
Every year, the scientists from the whole Czech Republic, in some cases in collaboration with foreign institutes, apply for support from the Czech Grant Agency. In addition to substantial financial support for research, obtaining GACR support in the Czech environment is a measure of the high quality of scientific work and a sign of prestige in the scientific community. The scientists of the Ostravian Faculty of Science obtain GACR support regularly. The success of biologists and physicists who received support for five projects in 2020 was renewed in 2021 by other scientists of the Faculty of Science.
“After the previous year, it is further confirmation of a well-adjusted trend. I´m glad we are successful in getting support, thanks to which we can intensify research that cannot be done at the highest level without the necessary funding. I may repeat myself, but I still see it as a positive signal and reward for our research teams for their ability to come up with attractive and current issues while approaching them at the highest possible level. At the same time, it´s very pleasing that except for traditional investigators, other teams at the faculty obtained funding for their project, thus proving their high quality and competitiveness,“ said Associate Professor Jan Hradecký, the Dean of the FS OU.
The list of teams that were granted the support traditionally contains the scientific teams of the Department of Biology and Ecology with projects focused on biological sciences and the Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, the projects of which were directed at the research of physical sciences. A great success was the effort of Associate Professor Vincenc Kopeček from the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development whose project concentrated on social sciences.
Apart from Vincenc Kopeček, who focuses on ethnic minorities in the post-Soviet space, our scientists shall investigate the editing of the RND with non-model flagellates (team of Professor Vjačeslav Jurčenko, Department of Biology and Ecology), Zoraptera evolution: from fossils and comparative morphology to cytogenetics and transcriptomes (team of Associate Professor Petr Kočárek, Department of Biology and Ecology), microscopic anatomy of tree rings as a source of chronological information for the optimization of landslide hazard determination (team of Professor Karel Šilhán, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology), and biogeomorphic interaction in meandering rivers across different spatio-temporal scales (team of Associate Professor Tomáš Galia, Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology).
It should also be pointed out hat the Faculty is participating in other three successful GACR supported projects as a co-investigator. One of them is a project of Associate Professor Pavel Drozd, who aims to find out whether the formation of the gut microbiome of insect herbivores is a process of stochastic effects or deterministic interactions. Another project is that of Professor Marek Eliáš, who will study a newly discovered cell system important for the understanding of the origin and early evolution of a mitochondrion. Finally, apart from solving his already mentioned project, Professor Jurčenko will participate as a co-investigator in a study dealing with Blastocrithidia and Trypanosoma protozoan parasites as optimal models for the testing of the origin and properties of alternative genetic codes.
Whether investigating or co-investigating, a significant majority of the projects will be solved in cooperation with leading scientific research institutes such as BIOCEV, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics, Charles University in Prague, Palacký University in Olomouc, and Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústní nad Labem
„Zisk pěti nových řešitelských a tří spoluřešitelských grantů GAČRu umožní naší fakultě nadále pokračovat v rozvoji vysoce kvalitní vědy a rozvinout tak vědecký potenciál řady našich týmů. Úspěšné projekty získají v dalších třech letech na svoji činnost bezmála 60 milionů korun, přičemž hned polovina půjde naší Přírodovědecké fakultě. Rovněž je nutné podotknout, že i přes neustálé zvyšování kvality projektů, které se ucházejí o podporu GAČRu, postupně rosteme v podílu úspěšně podaných projektů. Letošních 33 % úspěšně podaných projektů je velmi slibným signálem pro další roky,“ uzavírá docent Jan Ševčík, proděkan pro vědu a doktorské studium PřF OU.
Kromě naší Přírodovědecké fakulty získali podporu GAČRu také další vědci Ostravské univerzity – například jazykovědci docent Jaroslav David a doktor Miroslav Kubát z Filozofické fakulty, výzkumnice doktorka Kateřina Glumbíková z Fakulty sociálních studií, mezi spoluřešiteli pak figuruje ještě doktor Libor Běhounek z Ústavu pro výzkum a aplikace fuzzy modelování.
Updated: 03. 02. 2022
