Science

The Grant Agency of Masaryk University (GAMU) has announced the names of two young scientists who will receive MASH Junior Star grants for promising MU researchers who have recently completed their postgraduate studies.

The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) will support three JUNIOR STAR projects from January 2024. Grants were also awarded to three researchers from Masaryk University.

Vice-rector for Research and Doctoral Studies Šárka Pospíšilová presented awards for excellent achievements in doctoral programmes at MUNI to forty graduates and their supervisors and consultants.

The project, which deals with the relativisation of truth in political communication, when facts give way to opinions, impressed the jury and Alena Kluknavská from the Faculty of Economics and Administration is this year’s sole winner of the prestigious Czech Science Foundation President’s Award.

Developmental biologist Peter Fabian from MU Faculty of Science will lead one of three new Dioscuri research centres in the Czech Republic. MU has thus succeeded in an international programme to promote scientific excellence in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University (MED MUNI) has launched CREATIC, a unique international project focused on researching, developing, and producing medicines for patients suffering from diseases for which no medical treatments currently exist.

The success highlights excellent basic research with great application potential. Obtaining a patent is a prerequisite for the development of new drugs and for potential collaborations with pharmaceutical companies.

Cooperation between the academic sector and the private sector and especially the practical implementation of the scientific and research know-how were among the topics of this year’s Business Research Forum at CEITEC which culminated in the presentation of the MUNI Innovation Awards.

How to present scientific knowledge to the general public and how to cooperate with mass media in bringing science closer to masses? Czech Television’s science section presenter Daniel Stach discussed these issues with young scientists at a panel hosted by CEITEC.

More than one hundred doctoral study programme graduates from all ten faculties received their diplomas at the doctoral graduation ceremony at the Faculty of Law on 24 March.

The study of malignant growth processes of melanoma or improved utilisation of biomass were among the topics of interest of MU doctoral students who received financial support for their further research from the City of Brno.

Every year since the 1990’s the Czech Academy of Sciences organises “The Brain Week” in March, joining the global “Brain Awareness Week” campaign which aims to raise awareness about the achievements and benefits of neurological research. Indeed, MU’s CEITEC studies how stress is passed down from one generation to the next because of experiences in war.