Horizon Europe/ERC – National Information Day on ERC grants

National Information Day will take place on 22 October 2024 at the Charles University Rectorate (on-site only). The aim of the event is to explain the main rules for participation according to the ERC Work Programme 2025 and the evaluation process. To join the event, register by 15 October 2024. Early registration is encouraged as the capacity of the room is limited.

Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE – webinar on 3rd call launch

The third call of the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE programme is aimed at finding pioneering solutions for peripheral and lagging areas, making them more attractive to live and work in. The call will have a specific territorial but also a thematic focus and address small-scale projects. The webinar is scheduled for 15 October 2024 from 10:00 to 11:30 and registration is required.

Project contracts and amendments

The Department of Project Support of the UP Faculty of Science asks project investigators/co-investigators to deliver project contracts and amendments to the key user (silvie.savrnakova@upol.cz) for entering into CES, in which the content intended to be classified information (the so-called blacking out) such as a trade secret, etc. will already be marked. This description can also be indicated briefly on the request form for signing of the contract/amendment by the rector (by inserting a note during filing under "Make the passage unreadable when published") or by email, as it has been done so far. Information to be kept confidential should be agreed with other contractors in advance or consulted with the Rector's Legal Office by making a request to that department. The Legal Office blackens personal data on contracts and amendments by default when published in the Register of Contracts of the Ministry of the Interior (this still applies).

TA CR – Call schedule for 2024 – 2026

Schedule 2024-2026 can be found on the provider's website.

TA CR – Clean Energy Transition (CET) Partnership Joint Call 2024

The CET Call 2024 Partnership call focuses on research in the field of energy transition (clean energy). It aims to contribute to the EU’s ambition to become the first climate neutral continent by 2050. The Partnership has created seven thematic configurations, the so-called “Transition Initiatives” (TRIs), within the framework of this call. More on the provider's website.
Faculty deadline: 14 November 2024.

TA CR – International Water4All Call 2024

Water4All partnership is pleased to announce its Call 2024: Water for circular economy is now open. This Call aims to deliver new solutions to develop new circular feedstocks and value chains, increase water resource efficiency, improve water allocation, and optimize water use in water-dependent sectors. The 2024 Joint Transnational Call will also focus on the barriers to the adoption of proposed solutions and the deployment of outputs, and to the impact in inland and coastal water environments. More on the provider's website.
Faculty deadline: 6 November 2024.

TA CR – Biodiversity Partnership Joint Call 2024

The European Biodiversity Partnership is pleased to announce that its BiodivTransform Call for Transnational Research Proposals on “Biodiversity and Transformative Change – BiodivTransform” is now open. This Call aims at supporting research and innovation projects to identify, analyse, and comprehend transformation processes that may halt and reverse biodiversity decline. More on the provider's website.
Faculty deadline: 1 November 2024.

Dean's Award for authors of prestigious scientific publications

The Dean of the Faculty of Science will award the authors and author groups of teaching and popular science texts, monographs and original scientific publications for 2024. Submitting the publication will be possible from 16 September 2024. The publication (publication set) is submitted by the author via a web form on the Portal. You can find the application form here (in Czech). If the publication is already listed in OBD, it is possible to use automatic data loading from OBD when filling it out. The printed and signed application must be delivered by internal mail to the Department of Science and Research of the UP Faculty of Science to Bc. Barbora Krudencová no later than 24 October 2024.

Submitted publications must meet the following conditions:

• The scientific publication is in a professional journal with an IF value in the top 10%, including journals that belong to the same subject class (subject class on Web of Science) as the journal in which the publication appeared. The condition must be met for at least one subject class.
• The main or corresponding author is an employee of the UP Faculty of Science with at least 0,5 workload or a student of the FS UP.
• The prize will be awarded to members of the author group who have listed the UP Faculty of Science as their main workplace in the affiliation, i.e. have listed it in the first place.
• The publication was published in 2024. Works published in 2023 can also be submitted, if they were not submitted to the competition in the previous year.

Rector's Honorary Mention

The Rector of Palacký University announced this year's award intended exclusively for students of doctoral study programmes. Proposals for the award of the UP Rector's Honorary Mention to doctoral students for a professional article can be submitted by the relevant vice-deans (with the approval of the Subject-Area Board) and director of the university institute until the end of October 2024.

For the Faculty of Science, the Vice-Dean for Doctoral Studies is prof. Ondřej Bábek (ondrej.babek@upol.cz), to whom you can send the nomination of doctoral students until 30 October 2024 at 12:00. Honorary mention is associated with the scholarship in the amount of 10 000 CZK. For each nomination, please fill in the Cover Sheet, and attach the professional article in electronic form. Late submissions will not be considered.

Mandatory reporting of mobilities

It is the responsibility of every outgoing student to report his/her mobility. Always report your intention to go and the duration of your mobility to Mrs. Dana Gronychová (dana.gronychova@upol.cz) from the International section of the Student Affairs Office. You will also find new information about traineeships, which must be reported as well.

Information about foreign students who will come for an internship must also be sent to Mrs. Gronychová in advance by the department to which they are to come.

Records of foreign guests

It is the responsibility of the department to register foreign guests. If you have international guests visiting your department, please enter their information in the Portal.

Instructions:

• click on "All Applications" in your Portal
• click on the "Guest Admission" tile
• press the "+New" button and fill out the newly opened form.

Mobility scholarship

A student who goes on any mobility abroad for 30 days or more (study stay, research internship, work placement, summer school, etc.), can apply for a scholarship of CZK 5,000 for each mobility. The request must be submitted before departure.

Co-financing of internships abroad

It is possible to apply for additional funding for student internships abroad if the primary source does not cover all the necessary costs. The completed and signed application form (available in both English and Czech) send either by internal mail to Waleria Slowiková (Student Affairs Office) or by scanning it to waleria.slowikova@upol.cz.

Choose your ombudsman! Based on the initiative of student senators in the Academic Senate of the Faculty of Science, elections have been announced for new student ombudsmen (=student rights defenders) who act as advisors, mediators or mediators between students and teachers (e.g. in cases of harassment or disagreements between students and teachers).

Students always nominate a pair of academic staff (a woman and a man). Candidates for ombudsman must be academics or emeritus professors who are from different fields (mathematics and computer science, chemistry, physics, biology and ecology, earth sciences). The nominee must not hold the position of dean, vice-dean or head of department. He/she cannot also be a senator or a member of the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee.

Every student can make a nomination for ombudsman by midnight on 18 October 2024 by sending a scanned nomination sheet by e-mail to Mgr. Alžběta Andrýsková (alzbeta.andryskova01@upol.cz) or by handing in the nomination sheet to the mailbox of the faculty's Academic Senate on the ground floor of the Faculty of Science (next to the Student Affairs Office).

After the nominations, the candidate profiles will be posted during the week. Then an electronic poll will be held in which students will be able to vote for the pair for the position of Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman. Based on the results, the student senators will propose the selected pair of candidates to the Academic Senate of the UP Faculty of Science for approval.

Online confirmation of study

You can print your confirmation of study online directly from your Portal (not STAG).
Go to Portal - Electronic forms - Confirmation of study (online with signature) - Print.

Individual study plan of the doctoral students
Students in the first year of the doctoral study programmes have to submit their individual study plan by the end of September 2024 to their Student Affairs Officer. The plan has to be signed by the student, his/her supervisor and the chairman of the Subject-area Board. At the same time, students must enter the dissertation topic in STAG.
Go to „STAG – My study – Thesis topics“, find your topic through the search engine and fill out the necessary data. If it’s not there, add the new topic and fill out all the data. Then check everything with your supervisor if the data are correct. If the supervisor approves, in the section “Approval status“ select „Thesis registration finalized by student“ and save it. Then, on the top of the page click on „Print the document for dissertation registration“, print it, have it signed by the necessary people, and deliver it to your student affairs officer.

Teaching Awards UP

For the first time ever, students of Palacký University can decide who they consider to be the best teacher. Nominations for favourite teachers who can receive the UP Teaching Awards are open until 31 October 2024.

Each student can nominate one teacher. Nominees will be divided by length of experience into candidates for the Teaching Junior Award, which is for educators with up to five years of experience, and the Teaching Senior Award for those who have been teaching longer.

Nomination votes from students alone are not enough for educators to win the award. However, they are an important step towards a teacher making the shortlist. The five nominees with the highest number of votes from both categories will then present themselves in front of a pedagogical committee. The committee will choose the winner based on a presentation of their teaching practice and portfolio. The best teacher from each category will receive an award and a financial reward from the Rector during the UP Academic Week.

Extraordinary scholarships for doctoral students for publishing activities

In 2024, the UP Faculty of Science will award one-time extraordinary scholarships to authors of prestigious publications from among the doctoral students studying in the standard period of study (i.e. students of 1st to 4th year). An extraordinary scholarship for publishing activity will be awarded to doctoral students who, in 2024, report a publication as the first or corresponding author with an affiliation to the UP Faculty of Science, in a journal registered in the first or second quartile of a given subject category (Q1 or Q2 in Subject Category, SC) according to Journal Citation Reports©. If a journal falls into more than one SC, the SC with the highest percentile will be counted. The publication must have a publication year of 2024 or be accepted for printing before submitting the application. An author can be awarded a scholarship only once for a specific publication. One author may apply for a scholarship for more than one publication.

The printed scholarship applications (use the general request form) should be submitted to Mgr. Waleria Słowiková (in person or through the internal mail) no later than 15 November 2024. Scholarships will be paid out in one lump sum on the following payment date. The amount of the scholarship will depend on the number of applications received and the percentile of the journal's ranking in SC.

The scholarship application should contain:

• the student's name and surname
• e-mail address
• study programme and year of study
• the name, surname and e-mail address of the supervisor, the consent and signature of the supervisor if necessary
• a full citation, including the DOI, of the publication that is subject of the request
• confirmation of acceptance for printing in the case of publications in print
• printed full text (Pre-proof) of the publication.

Days off granted by the Dean and Rector

23. 12. 2024 – day off granted by the Rector
27. 12. 2024 – day off granted by the Dean
30. - 31. 12. 2024 – days off granted by the Rector
2. - 3. 1. 2025 – days off granted by the Dean

Botanical Garden - Ondřej Michálek

An exhibition of works by Ondřej Michálek, a leading Czech graphic artist working at the Department of Art Education of the UP Faculty of Education, will be held in the Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science from 15 October. You are welcome to come to the opening at 17:00. The exhibition will be open until the end of January 2025.

IncluDay

On the occasion of World Inclusion Day, on Thursday 10 October 2024, Palacký University is preparing its first annual IncluDay (InkluDen). The programme brings together various aspects of science, art and personal development to build bridges between people, promote equality and create a more welcoming environment.

The day-long event will offer an informal group breakfast for female UP scientists, a workshop on balancing work and personal life, an art opening, and an early evening theatrical presentation. You can find the detailed programme here.

The next faculty Newsletter will be published on Monday, 21 October 2024.