Keynote Panel
Pavel Doleček
Pavel Doleček currently holds the position of Deputy Minister for Science, Research and Innovation. Before being appointed as Deputy Minister in 2023 Pavel Doleček had been serving as Vice-Rector for Strategic Cooperation and Development at Charles University and held the responsibility for coordination of investment and developmental projects and strategic partnerships with state administration, other universities and public and private sector. Before that he had been working at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) as the Head of the Strategic Unit and then in the position of Deputy Minister for Higher Education, Science and Research. He was in charge of the conception and realization of higher education and research policy under the authority of the MEYS, including international bilateral and multilateral cooperation, legislative framework and funding policy. Pavel Doleček has been participating in several governing boards, be it those of state-funded organizations or universities as well as program boards of institutions providing financial support for research, development and innovation. He dealt with pedagogical, publishing and research activities.
Václav Velčovský
Václav Velčovský combines both academic and policy making assets in his career. Since 2015, he is the Vice-Minister / DG at the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic, in charge of the international co-operation, European Union’ affairs and European Structural and Investment Funds, especially for regional schools, HEIs and research and development. In previous decades, he worked at the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic where he was responsible for international affairs, and at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic with focus on the civil service reform. He studied Czech Language, Literature, and History at the Charles University (Master), Slavonic Studies at the University Leipzig, and Pedagogy at the Charles University (Ph.D.). He is author of four monographs and dozens scientific articles on Czech-German relations’ history, language policy and pedagogy. He is fluent in English and German.
Michal Pazour
Michal Pazour is Head of the Department of Strategic Studies at the Technology Centre Prague. He specialises in the evaluation, analysis and design of research and innovation policies. He coordinates national projects evaluating research and innovation policies and exploring measures to strengthen national innovation systems. Michal is the author or co-author of numerous analytical and policy studies prepared for the Czech government, the European Commission, the European Parliament, or the OECD. Michal holds a PhD in Economic Policy from the University of Economics in Prague.
"Policy" Panel Discussion
Jiří Homola
Jiří Homola is the first Vice-Chairman of the Research, Development and Innovation Council, senior researcher at the Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), and professor of quantum optics and optoelectronics. His research interests are in biophotonics; in particular, he pursues research on optical biosensors for molecular biology, medical diagnostics, food safety, and security. He has received numerous awards (Roche Diagnostics Prize for Sensor Technology, Czech Head) and has been elected Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering and Member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic. J. Homola is currently responsible for the evaluation of the institutes of the CAS.
Jaroslav Miller
Jaroslav Miller is the Deputy Minister of Schools, Youth and Sports. He studied history and philology in Olomouc (Palacký University), Budapest (Central European University) and Oxford (University of Oxford). Among his tutors and teachers were notable academics, intellectuals and cutting-edge thinkers including Ralf Dahrendorf, Stephen Greenblatt and/or Robert J. W. Evans. Jaroslav Miller is Professor of History. He pursued long-term research stays at high-ranked universities and research institutions in Canada, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. He has twice been granted a highly prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Scholarship (2006 in Marburg, 2010 in Münster) and Andrew W. Mellon Scholarship (2004, 2010 Wolfenbüttel). In 2008 he received the Fulbright Fellowship at University of Georgia, USA. During the 2010/2011 academic year Jaroslav Miller held a Go8 Guest Professorship at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Nominated by His Excellence the Ambassador of the United States of America, Jaroslav Miller has served since 2012 as the Ambassador of the Fulbright Commission in the Czech Republic. Since 2020 he has been serving in the European Research Council as the evaluation panel member. For 8 years he held the position of the Rector and President of Palacký University in Olomouc (2014–2021) and since August 2021 to February 2022 he served as the President of Angloamerican University in Prague. As the Rector of Palacký University he founded the university campus in Irbil, Iraqi Kurdistan and he also co-founded AURORA, the alliance of European universities effective since 2018. In 2023 he was bestowed the title Doctor honoris causa for his indefatigable support of scholars and academics in Ukraine and Belorussia.
Petr Očko
Petr Očko graduated from Information Management and European Integration at the University of Economics in Prague and from Ph.D. studies of Information Economics at the Charles University in Prague. As an expert in the EU economic integration, he has been working at the Ministry of Finance since 2001 on the EU Funds, and since 2004 as an advisor to the Deputy Minister of Finance for the financial market. In 2006 he was appointed by the Government as a National Coordinator for the euro introduction. Since 2007, he worked in the private sphere as an EU project coordinator for Telefónica O2. In 2009, he returned to the state administration as Chief Director at the Ministry of Transport, and since 2010 he served as Section Director for EU Funds and R&D at the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT). In 2012-2013 he was also in charge of the governmental CzechInvest agency as its entrusted CEO. Since 2015 he headed the Department of Financial Instruments at the MoIT. In March 2016, he was appointed by the Government as chairman of the Czech Technology Agency, the key Czech institution supporting applied research. In July 2018 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade responsible for the newly established Section of Digitization and Innovation at the MoIT. From January 2023, the title of the function was changed to Director General of the Digitalization and Innovation Section.
Ilona Müllerová
Ilona Müllerová received the scientific rank of DrSc. in 2021. Since 1973, she has been employed at the Institute of Instrumentation of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, where she founded the field of scanning electron microscopy by slow electrons. From 2012 to 2021, she was the director of this institute. She has given a number of invited lectures at international conferences, foreign universities and at world leading electron microscopy companies. She also completed a number of internships abroad, the longest of which were at the University of Toyama (Japan), where she was appointed professor in 2023, and at the University of York (UK). In 2012 she received the Czechoslovak Microscopy Society Award for Lifetime Contribution to Microscopy, in 2013 the Kapsch Czech Head - Invention Award, and in 2020 the Milada Paulova Award for Lifetime Contribution to Science in Electrical Engineering. Since January 2020, she is a member of the Council for Research, Development and Innovation, and since 2021, she is the vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
Milena Králíčková
Milena Králíčková has been the rector of Charles University since 1 February 2022. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Plzeň, and spent a year in the USA thanks to a Fulbright Commission at the Reproductive Endocrine Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University. After completing her Ph.D., she worked at the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Clinic of the University Hospital in Plzeň in the field of gynaecology and obstetrics, embryology scientific work and also taught at the Institute of Histology and Embryology. Subsequently, she worked at the Faculty of Medicine in Plzeň as the Vice-Dean for Development and Head of one of the two research programmes of the Biomedical Centre in Plzeň. In 2013, Milena Králíčková became the Vice-Rector for Education at Charles University, a position she held until 2022.
Experience From Abroad and Discussion
Thomas König
Thomas König has two decades of experience in interdisciplinary research management, working with research organizations and in science policy. Before his appointment as Managing Director of the Austrian Council of Sciences, Technology, and Innovation (FORWIT), he operated in national (Austrian), European, and international contexts. Thomas’ areas of expertise include research funding and research governance, research organizations, societal challenges and SDGs, open science, academic publications, peer review and evaluation practices. Academically, he focuses on the governance and sociology of science and innovation, with projects on the history and sociology of social sciences, EU research funding, academic autonomy, decision-making, bibliometrics, and impact analysis.
Siri Brorstad Borlaug
Siri Brorstad Borlaug has her PhD from the University of Oslo, is head of unit at Oslo Business School and a research professor at the Nordic institute for studies of innovation, research and education. Her main expertise is research policy, studies of governance and organization of research and higher education, and cooperation between university researchers and public and private actors. She has recently finished two large research projects on respectively the study of research quality and mergers in higher education.
Lightning Panel
Jakub Uchytil
Jakub Uchytil after graduating in Information Systems and Technology at the University of Economics in Prague, he has been involved in the economic evaluation of public investments and cost-benefit analyses since 2004. In 2011, he joined the Ministry of Education, where he focuses on the control and implementation of research projects funded by EU structural funds, since 2013 as department director. For many years, he has been battling administrative burden and auditors, although with varying degree of success.
Monika Vrbková
Monika Vrbková works at the innovation agency JIC as the Head of the Financing Entrepreneurship Support Team. For over fifteen years, she has been assisting companies in securing funding for the development and commercialization of their innovative products and facilitating collaboration with international partners. She specializes in European Commission programmes, particularly those targeting small and medium-sized enterprises, such as the EIC Accelerator under Horizon Europe. She actively participates in expert advisory groups shaping European innovation policies and has extensive experience in managing international projects.
Daniel Frank
Daniel Frank born in Czechoslovakia, Prague in 1975, works at the Technology Centre Prague in the department of the National Information Centre for European Research since 2011. He is currently the editor-in-chief of ECHO magazine. At TC Prague he is involved as an analyst in monitoring the participation of the Czech Republic and EU countries in the Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation and other programmes supporting international research. Previously he worked in various positions usually related to analysis and data processing – Agricultural Water Management Administration (2001–2007), CULS – Czech University of Life Sciences (2008–2009) and VÚMOP - Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation (2010). His hobbies include good food, Spanish, multivariate statistics and the history of communist Czechoslovakia. He is also a devoted fan of the Czech national hockey team and the HC Sparta Prague club.
Jan Buriánek
Jan Buriánek is a senior officer of the Research and Development Department at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. He is responsible for representing the Czech Republic in international research organisations and consortia and developing of national strategy towards international research infrastructures. Curently he is the Czech delegate to governing bodies of international reserach organisations ESO, EMBL and EMBC.
Martin Svoboda
Martin Svoboda has been the Director of the National Library of Technology (NTK) in Prague since 1997. He graduated at Czech Technical University in computer engineering in 1965 and carried out research and development in text processing and information retrieval systems. He is a lifelong promoter of co-operation of libraries and information centres using ICT. When in the National Library, he co-founded the Czech and Slovak Library Information Network – an international project. In NTK he initiated the Virtual Polytechnic Library a inter-library resource sharing system and also negotiated “Big Deals” with key publishers for the entire Czech scholarly and R&D community, which resulted in the nation-wide CzechELib (National Centre for Electronic Resources) project and currently the "National Centre for Information Support of Research, Development, and Innovation" project.
Štěpán Jurajda
Štěpán Jurajda is Professor of Economics at CERGE-EI, where he also served as Director. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and was a post-doc at Princeton University. He served as Deputy Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, as vice-chairman of the Research, Development and Innovation Council, and as a member of the National Economic Council of the Czech Government. His research appeared in leading social-science journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Demography, and PNAS.
Ladislav Krištoufek
Ladislav Krištoufek is a Vice-Rector for Research at Charles University, a member of the Czech governmental R&D&I Council, and a professor of economics. He is the only Czech social scientist listed among the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2022 and for 2023 the only ranked economist in the Widening countries. He currently sits as the Clarivate Research Council member. In the R&D&I Council, he is a rapporteur for the national research priorities, research excellence, and the Czech Science Foundation.
Panel Discussion: Young Scientists
Matouš Glanc
Matouš Glanc leads Czexpats in Science, an independent grassroots NGO that aims to inspire and improve Czech science to become more open, world-class and ambitious by leveraging the potential of the Czech science diaspora. Originally a plant cell biologist, he worked at internationally renowned institutes (ISTA in Austria, VIB in Belgium). His work has been funded by the prestigious EMBO and MSCA fellowships, published in leading journals in the field, and acclaimed i.a. by the FESPB Young Plant Scientist Award.
Radka Šustrová
Radka Šustrová is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at University of Vienna. She studied history and political science in Prague and Berlin. Her research focuses on the history of the welfare state, social and labour rights, family policies, women’s activism and nationalism in 20th-century Central Europe. She was previously awarded the British Academy Newton International Fellowship and served as a supervisor at the University of Cambridge. Since 2018, she has been a lecturer in social history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Her dissertation, titled Nations Apart. Czech Nationalism and Authoritarian Welfare under Nazi Rule was published by Oxford University Press in 2024.
Matěj Bajgar
Matěj Bajgar is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, a Researcher at CERGE-EI and a member of the Commission for the Evaluation of Research Organizations and R&D&I Purpose-tied Aid Programmes (KHV). He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Oxford, and, before returning to Prague in 2021, he worked as an economist at the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Markéta Klíčová
Markéta Klíčová is pioneering the development of nanofibrous patches to prevent severe postoperative complications in intestinal surgeries, collaborating closely with clinicians to meet an unmet market need. With experience from Harvard Medical School and Institut Pasteur, her work has garnered awards including Forbes' "30 under 30," the Falling Walls "Young Innovator of the Year - Audience Award" in Berlin, top honors from Sanofi, and recognition from Siemens. Markéta is dedicated to turning scientific breakthroughs into practical, commercial solutions.
Hynek Roubík
Hynek Roubík is the Vice-dean for Science, Research and Doctoral Study at the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (CZU) and Director of BioResources & Technology Division. He specializes in waste management, environmental engineering and related fields. He has led numerous projects worldwide, published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, and serves on editorial boards of various journals. A member of the Czech R&D&I Council and the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, he was appointed one of the youngest associate professors in the country.
Moderator
Otakar Fojt
Otakar Fojt is an experienced science diplomat based at the British Embassy in Prague. He is a part of the Science and Innovation Network of the UK Government. He has been advising on international research and innovation collaborations since 2003. In 2023, His Majesty the King Charles the III awarded Otakar an honorary Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of Otakar’s services to Science and Innovation in the Czech Republic.
Otakar Fojt is a Chair of the Board of Trustees of Palacký University in Olomouc and he is a member of the Board of Trustees at Technical University in Ostrava. He is a member of the Scientific board of the Central European Institute of Technology of Masaryk University in Brno. He is also a member of the Commercialization boards of Charles university in Prague and Palacký university in Olomouc.
Otakar Fojt received Biomedical Engineering Masters (1994) and PhD (1997) at the Brno University of Technology. He was awarded a Chevening scholarship at the University of Oxford (Merton College) in 1996 and 1997. Otakar then worked for four years as a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Mathematics at the University of York and as a visiting scholar at the Fields Institute in Toronto. In 2001 and 2002, he was a Managing Director of a small technology company operating in Central Europe.
