Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE

On Tuesday 15 October 2024, the third call of the Interreg CENRAL EUROPE transnational scheme was launched, this time focusing closely on the topic of support for small-scale projects. Within this call, universities can only be one of the partners – not the main applicant.

Support will be given to project proposals that offer pioneering solutions for peripheral and lagging areas, making them more attractive to live and work in.

The areas to be targeted must have one or more of the following characteristics:

• low economic potential;
• poor access to services of general interest, often affected by demographic changes;
• decline in relevance, influence or connectivity.

In terms of formal requirements, the following principles must be met:

1. Partnership – at least 3 partners from 3 countries, at least 2 of them from the Central European region
2. Duration of implementation – 12 to 24 months
3. Budget – maximum EUR 800 000 total per project - 80% covered by ERDF grant

The deadline for project applications is 10 December 2024 16:00 (CET).

If you are interested in joining this call, contact Ing. Tea Pokorná, DPS, Dean's Office FS 6.004, tel. 4022, tea.pokorna@upol.cz. More information is available on the programme website.

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 – 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.

Before submitting a project proposal on behalf of UP, the approval of the Dean and the Secretary of the Faculty is required in the form of a green request form and brief information on the project. If case of queries, contact silvie.savrnakova@upol.cz.

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.

Werner von Siemens Award

The 27th year of the Werner Siemens Award for students, teachers and young scientists from the fields of technical and natural sciences has been announced. In the best diploma and dissertation thesis category, along with the students, the financial reward will also be received by the thesis supervisor/s. Applications can be submitted until 30 November 2024 at www.cenasiemens.cz.

Fulbright scholarship

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship is intended for study or research at the Master's or Ph.D. level in the United States for all disciplines except clinical medicine and MBA and LLM programs. You can apply for a research stay of 4-9 months until 1 February 2025 and you need to arrange a corresponding letter of invitation from the US. Completion of bachelor's degree at the time of the deadline and good command of English are a prerequisite. Details here.

The ombudsman election is coming up! The online election will take place from 23 October, 10:00 to 29 October, 10:00. You will be able to vote for the nominated candidates here.

The students nominated the following pairs for the election:

• Mgr. Martina OULEHLOVÁ Ph.D. and doc. Mgr. Pavel ŠTARHA Ph.D.
• Mgr. Jana OKLEŠŤKOVÁ Ph.D. and doc. Mgr. Ondřej VENCÁLEK Ph.D.

Based on the results of the poll, the winning pair will be proposed for approval to the Academic Senate of the UP Faculty of Science. More information on the election including the proposed candidates can be found on the website.

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.