University of Ostrava wins record grant funding

Science Faculty leads the rankings

This year, the University of Ostrava won funding from the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) for a record 19 projects – almost double last year’s number. The University also achieved excellent results in the Czech Ministry of Education’s Excellent Research grant programme.

Pavel Drozd, Vice-Rector for Research, summarized the University’s achievements:

We won funding for twice as many projects compared with any past year – despite the fact that the quality requirements are becoming increasingly strict and the number of project applications submitted nationally has not changed substantially. Research is one of the University’s key priorities as set out in our long-term development plan for 2016–2020, and I am delighted that the results of our hard work are now beginning to show.

A total 19 projects submitted by the University to the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) for funding were approved (12 with the University as the coordinating institution, 6 as a co-coordinator, and 1 young researchers’ grant). This is almost double last year’s success rate (10 projects). The University’s broad research base is reflected in the wide range of fields represented in the projects – from natural sciences to a project focusing on homelessness or research into the influence of a low-saccharide diet on physical and mental health.

The University’s Science Faculty is traditionally the standard-bearer of its research, and 10 of this year’s 19 successful projects originated there. Scientists will explore issues such as non-standard genetic codes in protists and their evolution, the dynamics of changing plant defence mechanisms in conditions with increased carbon dioxide concentrations, or unusual strategies for regulating light absorbed by the photosystem of spruce trees.

Vice-Rector Drozd attributes the growing volume of grant funding to the University’s long-term efforts to support research:

For a number of years we have been supporting the development of top research teams, ensuring that we recruit new staff who produce excellent publications: publishing is one of the key factors for success in grant funding applications. However, we do not want to focus all our efforts on just a few teams; we are currently supporting other promising areas of research which have the potential to generate excellent results.

The funding for the University’s grant projects from the Czech Science Foundation will run to tens of millions of crowns.

In addition to the Czech Science Foundation funding, the University has also achieved success in the Ministry of Education’s Excellent Research grant programme (part of the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education). Here the University is the coordinator of a project focusing on healthy aging in an industrial environment, as well as co-coordinating a project researching parasite pathogenicity and virulence (alongside Charles University in Prague). Funding as part of this programme will run to 292 million CZK.

Drozd sums up the importance of the programme:

This is a very important source of funding for the University. But it’s also important to see things from a regional perspective: thanks to two universities (us and the VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava) the Moravian-Silesian Region will receive over 10% of the total funding available in the programme – around 587 million CZK from a total 5.2 billion. For a former heavy industrial region that is an excellent performance.

Source: http://www.osu.cz/21561/ou-ziskala-rekordni-pocet-projektu-gacr/