MU became the most successful university in the call of the Johannes Amos Comenius Operational Programme (OP JAC) focused on social sciences and humanities. The Faculty of Economics and Administration and the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Social Studies and the SYRI institute were successful with their projects. The programme’s evaluation committee recommended 13 out of 38 projects for funding in this call for proposals, and MU succeeded with four out of five projects it submitted.
“It is a confirmation of the fact that research in the humanities and social sciences at our university is of excellent quality. The fact that our faculties and institutes are able to work together effectively helps us in the fierce competition and enables us to investagate highly complex problems facing humanity and society today,” said Radim Polčák, Vice-Rector for Development, Legal and Information Technologies.
Each of the successful MU projects should receive support of almost CZK 150 million from the OP JAC call “Man and Humanity in the Global Challenges of Today”, which was aimed at supporting the potential of social sciences and humanities. All projects will be implemented by the end of 2028.
The second and third place in the overall evaluation of all submitted projects went to the project from the Faculty of Social Studies entitled “On Our Own: Opportunities and Risks of the Individualization of Society” and the Faculty of Arts entitled “Language in Life: the Nature and Ontogeny of Linguistic Communication (LangInLife)”. The SYRI project “Research on Peripheries for Strengthening the Resilience of Czech Society” and the project from the Faculty of Economics and Administration “Population Ageing and Related Challenges for Health and Social Systems (AGEING-CZ)” also received support.
“The current results of this call show that Masaryk University is able to prepare and succeed with large strategic science and research projects. Taking into account the fact that more and more calls for large projects are being launched, I also see this success as a confirmation that the path we have chosen for systemic project support at MU in cooperation with the university management and faculties is the right one,” said Bursar David Póč.
Research on individualism and language
The second highest-rated project, “On Our Own”, is led by Anna Ševčíková from the Psychology Research Institute at the Faculty of Social Studies. The Institute’s experts aim to carry out research with an interdisciplinary approach that will make it possible to understand the opportunities and risks associated with individualisation, with an emphasis on individual values, needs and preferences, but also to propose a strategy for minimising their impact and using the opportunities to increase individual and societal resilience.
The language project of the Faculty of Arts is led by Vice-Dean for Research and Project Management Pavel Caha. The research entitled “Language in Life” focuses the role of language, which is an irreplaceable means of communication with the environment for every individual. It explores how language is acquired in childhood, how it functions in adulthood and what challenges individuals face as they age. Research based on a combination of linguistics, psychology and neuroscience will enable adequate and effective responses to the global challenges of language in contemporary society.
SYRI will receive funding for research of the periphery. The project, led by SYRI's scientific director Klára Šeďová, will investigate spatial/regional inequalities in society, in the economy, education, access to healthcare, and will also focus on inequalities in education and media representations.
The last successful project, led by Jakub Hlávka from the Health Economics, Policy and Innovation Institute at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, will focus on population ageing, which poses economic, fiscal and social risks. The objectives of the project include quantifying the impacts of population ageing on the health and social systems, identifying ways and factors to reduce the overburdening of public systems such as healthcare, and identifying ways and factors that lead to increased employment and employability of older people.
In addition to these projects, MU experts have been successful in five other projects in which the university is a partner institution.
These include the project of Charles University – “Foreign Interference in the Context of Contemporary Geopolitical and Technological Changes (INTERFER)”, which involves researchers from the MU Faculty of Economics and Administration and the Faculty of Social Studies (FSS MU); as well as Palacký University Olomouc with “ReDiKid: Resilient Child in the Digital World” with the participation of researchers from the FSS; and the project of the Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences “Mediated Society”, which involves experts from the MU Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Social Sciences and CEITEC MU.
The other two projects by Charles University, namely “Centre for Inequality and Open Society (CONOS)” and “Society on the Move: Opportunities and Risks of New Forms of Mobility for Czech Society and Economy”, will include experts from MU Faculty of Law, and Faculty of Science and Faculty of Informatics, respectively.