GA CR – Lead Agency

The Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) in cooperation with the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) announces a call for project proposals based on the Lead Agency evaluation principle with an expected start date in 2026.

In this call, GA CR acts as a partner organisation – the projects are evaluated by HRZZ and GA CR accepts the results of the evaluation. The call is announced under the Weave initiative.

The Czech part of the project proposal can be submitted until 3 March 2025 at the latest, i.e. 7 days after the official deadline set by the HRZZ for Croatian applicants on 24 February 2025. Projects are for max. three years, GA CR allows a project duration of 24 or 36 months. The duration of the project must be the same for all researchers.

Detailed information about the call can be found on the GA CR website. In case of interest in submitting a project application, please, contact the Department of Project Support at lubica.korcanova@upol.cz.

GA CR – experts for technical science panels

The Czech Science Foundation (GA CR) extends the deadline for nominations of experts to the following technical science panels:

• P102 Electrical and electronic engineering
• P106 Chemical engineering
• P108 Organic materials and biomaterials science and engineering

Nominations can be submitted via the online form until 31 January 2025. The term of office of the selected panel members will begin in April 2025. Further information and the nomination form can be found on the GA CR website.

GA ČR – Lead Agency

The Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR) in cooperation with the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) announces a call for project proposals based on the Lead Agency evaluation principle with an expected start date in 2026.

In this call, GA ČR acts as a partner organisation – the projects are evaluated by FNR and GA ČR accepts the results of the evaluation. The call is announced under the Weave initiative.

The Czech part of the project proposal can be submitted until 17 April 2025 at the latest, i.e. 7 days after the official deadline set by the FNR for Luxembourg applicants on 10 April 2025.

Projects are for max. three years, GA CR allows a project duration of 24 or 36 months. The duration of the project must be the same for all researchers. Information about the call can be found on the GA CR website. In case of interest in submitting a project application, please, contact the Department of Project Support at lubica.korcanova@upol.cz.

TA CR - deadlines (reports)

Please deliver the documents to be sent via data box, together with the form (yellow request form "košilka" available here) signed by the supervisor and the UP investigator 3 days (until 27. 1.) before the deadline for approval by the Faculty of Science management or call Silvie Šavrňáková for individual arrangement.

• Deadline for submitting partial reports is always 30 January of the year following the year for which the report is submitted.
• Deadline for submitting final reports is no later than 30 days after the end of the project.
• Reports on the result implementation by 31 July (applies to all programmes, except Beta).

The system will notify the project owner to the submission of the report in Tasks, the form is then available on the project homepage under the Report Overview tab. For complete information, please refer to the Project Partial and Final Report Submission Instructions, available on the ISTA homepage. Reports will be sent via the UP OL data box.

Aurora open call

The second year of the Aurora Alliance open call aims to contribute to closer cooperation between European universities. Up to 25,000 EUR is available for a joint international project. The call also supports the organisation of thematic summer schools with an amount of up to 20,000 EUR. The third supported activity is short-term mobility aimed at young scientists. Three UP-related projects were successful in last year's call. Applications for this year's call are open until 28 March. Details here.

Publish in open access at a discount or for free

Contracts with selected publishers allow corresponding authors from UP to publish in open access in selected journals at a discount or without having to pay an open access fee.

Free and unlimited open access publishing applies to Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry, IOP Science and the American Chemical Society (except for so-called gold or full open access journals). SAGE and De Gruyter provide significant fee discounts to our authors. In the case of Wiley, Taylor & Francis and Springer Nature (excluding the Nature and BMC portfolios), the contract covers only so-called hybrid journals and the number of subscription articles for UP is limited. In 2023, 114 OA articles were published, last year there was an increase of at least 25%, according to incomplete data.

Further information, including lists of journals included in the contracts and instructions for corresponding authors, can be found on openscience.upol.cz or on czechelib.cz. Queries may be addressed to open@upol.cz.

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. Marie Raková (marie.rakova@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. Raková 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. Details here.

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 send a signed scan to waleria.slowikova@upol.cz.

Fulbright Scholarships

The Fulbright Commission has announced the following two programmes for the 2025-2026 academic year: Scholarship for postgraduate studies with a deadline on 1 February 2025. Detailed information here.

The scholarship is intended for students after completing a bachelor's programme and before completing a doctoral programme and is intended for research stays.

JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Overseas Researchers

The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) in cooperation with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) has announced scholarships under the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Overseas Researchers programme.

Applications are open for a stay of 12-24 months at Japanese workplaces, starting no later than 30 November 2025. The deadline for applications is 28 April 2025. All documentation is available for download on the CAS website in the news section of the International Relations section, and includes summary instructions for applicants, the application form and instructions for completing it.

The regular meeting of the Academic Senate FS UP will take place on 5 February 2025 at 13:00 in the conference room of the Dean's Office. Detailed information and materials as well as the link to the stream will be available at the given time of the meeting on the senate website (in Czech).

Evaluations

Evaluate the winter semester anonymously by 10 February 2025, via eval.upol.cz or in the app UPlikace.

Registration for courses – summer semester 2024/2025

The registration for courses in the summer semester of the academic year 2024/2025 for all study programmes at the Faculty of Science takes place from 21 January to 24 February 2025. Detailed schedule is available, as usual, 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.

Fischer scholarship holder's seminar
The Vice-Dean for International Relations prof. Dušek, cordially invites you to the seminar for the holders of the Fischer scholarship. The event will be held on Tuesday, 4 February at 9:00 a.m. in the Big Conference Room, Dean's Office (room 6.014) of the Faculty of Science. The attendance of the Fischer scholarship holders and their supervisors is requested. However, all other faculty employees and students are welcome too.

Language courses

The Department of Foreign Languages offers English language courses in the summer semester.

Merrill Programme

Students of Palacký University can go overseas for new experiences and knowledge. The University has announced a new year of the Merrill Programme, thanks to which they can spend a semester at partner schools in the USA.

In the academic year 2025/2026, students of bachelor's and master's programmes have the opportunity to study at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The deadline for submitting the application, including attachments, is Friday, 14 February 2025. Detailed information can be found here. For additional information, you may contact Zuzana Hamdanieh at zuzana.hamdanieh@upol.cz.

8th Advanced In Silico Drug Design workshop

A lecture series within the international 8th Advanced In Silico Drug Design workshop will take place in the auditorium (2.001) of the Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc from 27 to 31 January 2025. Visit the workshop website for more details.

Donate blood with the rector

Start the UP Academic Week with a good deed. Come with us to donate blood and support free blood donation as part of the Donate Blood with the Rector! challenge. Help a good cause starting Monday, 17 February 2025.

Official vehicles driver training

In accordance with the provision of paragraph 2, Section 103 of Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labour Code, as amended, the university provides OFFICIAL VEHICLES DRIVER TRAINING. The training is intended for UP employees who, while performing their work duties, drive their own cars or university vehicles with a weight of less than 3.5 t and are not professional drivers (they do not have the right to drive a motor vehicle agreed in their employment contract).

As of January 2025, this education is transitioning from face-to-face participation to online participation. A course in the UP Moodle environment will be used for this purpose.

Employees who are about to complete or have already completed this training will receive an email notifying them of their enrollment in the course. Currently, a Czech version is available, and an English version will also be offered. Successful completion requires passing the presentation and completing the test. After that, information about completion will be automatically transferred to the SAP system.

If the employee is not interested in renewing the training, he/she should send this information to jana.hanychova@upol.cz and his/her registration in the SAP system will be terminated. The same address should also be contacted if there is a new need for training for a colleague.

The next faculty Newsletter will be published on Monday, 10 February 2025.