Minimum amount of scholarship to support doctoral studies in 2023

Since 1 September 2023, the minimum amount of scholarship to support doctoral program studies will be increased (official document HERE).  In the period from 1 January to 31 August, the minimum amount of the scholarship is CZK 12,000. From 1 September 2023, the minimum scholarship amount will be CZK 15,000. The increase in the total income will apply to students whose scholarships did not reach CZK 15,000 before 1 September.
You can find more information on the intranet.

Participants for the international BENCHMARKS project study

Do you have a garden in Brno, and are you interested in its soil quality?

Your garden can become one of 20 selected gardens, where soil will be collected and analyzed for quality and pollutants, such as heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, or pesticides.

If interested, please complete the form with your contact information and garden characteristics by September 13, 2023.

We will let you know by the end of October whether your garden will be selected. The actual soil sampling will take place in 2024. A discussion about the possible reasons and ways to improve the soil quality will follow. You will get in touch with experts who understand soil quality. Meeting with people and organizations interested in healthy soil is planned for November. You will receive an invitation if you fill in your email in the form.

Why this research?

Do you know that 60-70% of soils are rated as unhealthy? Such soils cannot perform well the essential functions. The EU is responding with Mission Soil, which should result in significant improvements. You can learn more about it in short videos (https://youtu.be/3hPlZqwwhhM and https://youtu.be/08w1fiKT1x0). The Mission Soil involves scientists, politicians, public administrations, agricultural and forestry companies, private companies, and citizens. It aims to identify causes of soil degradation, develop best practices for soil health assessment, and find ways to improve soil quality.

The international BENCHMARKS project is also part of the Mission Soil. As a case study realized in the Czech Republic, the BENCHMARKS project focuses on private and community gardens in Brno to define the soil condition and contaminants. As part of the long-term cooperation between the Brno City Council and RECETOX, Brno is once again becoming a living laboratory where environmental and human health issues are being addressed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact  prof. RNDr. Jakub Hofman, Ph.D.

Submitted Projects

• Balance of organic micropollutants in manure, organic fertilizers and agricultural technological waters, proposal of the method of their control and monitoring (PI prof. RNDr. Luděk Bláha, Ph.D.; MU as a partner)
• Sources, occurrence and dynamics of specific pollutants in the soil-water system and their potential negative impacts on aquatic organisms (PI Ing. Milan Sáňka, Dr.; NU as a partner)

Open calls

Czech Science Foundation

Lead Agency grants - GA CR in the role of partner organization (deadline according to the foreign agency - currently it is still possible to submit project proposals in cooperation with:

• Germany – DFG agency, continuous call
• USA – NSF agency, continuous call
• Austria – FWF agency, continuous call
• Switzerland – deadline 9.10. 2023

If you are interested in this call, please contact Monika Kellnerová

Technology Agency of the Czech Republic

Program Prostředí pro život (“Environment for life programm”)
Deadline: 13.9. 2023
Applicants: enterprises and research organisations

Sub-programme 1: Operational research in the public interest; max. CZK 15 million/project; 85% support rate; duration of project 12 - 33 months

Expect proposals for projects that will be based on the needs of the public in the field of environmental law or will offer results that will be used by the public administration, in particular in the development or implementation of strategic and conceptual documents.
Obligation to have an application guarantor in the project (to be selected from among several institutions; deadline for submission is 24.8.2023).

Sub-programme 2: Eco-innovation, technologies and practices for environmental protection; max. CZK 15 million/project; support rate 80%; duration of project 12-27 months;

The expected objective is to support eco-innovation and technologies and techniques in technical environmental protection, transfer of technologies, experience and knowledge base and to provide procedures to minimize risks arising from poor environmental quality to human health, their environment and nature.
In sub-programme 2, the focus is on the applicability of results.
If you are interested in this call, please contact Monika Kellnerová

COST Actions

COST Open Call (deadline 25. 10. 2023)

Horizon Europe

Open calls

GAMU

Horizons (continuous call)

The support is intended for costs associated with the preparation of extremely prestigious and important projects of international donors (e.g. European Commission programmes).
The maximum amount of support is 400 thousand (if the applicant is the principal investigator) and 200 thousand (if the applicant is a co-PI).
For more information please contact Monika Kellnerová.

New funded projects

Call: HORIZON-INFRA-2023-DEV-01

Klánová Jana, prof. RNDr. Ph.D., Food, Health and Environment Research Infrastructures to Tackle Emerging Priorities, role: partner
Klánová Jana, prof. RNDr. Ph.D., Concept development for a research infrastructure to manage, integrate and sustain large medical cohort studies, role: partner

Call: HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01
Klánová Jana, prof. RNDr. Ph.D., Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change risks, role: partner

Call: HORIZON-HLTH-2023-ENVHLTH-02-03
Klánová Jana, prof. RNDr. Ph.D., Understanding how endocrine disruptors and chemical mixtures of concern target the immune system to trigger or perpetuate disease, role: partner

Call: HORIZON-HLTH-2023-ENVHLTH-02-04
Klánová Jana, prof. RNDr. Ph.D., International Human Exposome Network Project, role: partner

Planned Calls

GAMU

Calls for the following programms will be launched in the Autumn:

• Career Restart (September) – Support for the integration of researchers after career breaks into research teams at Masaryk University.
  MUNI Scientist (September) - to be specified
• MASH (September) - Support for external successful scientists to create conditions for work and research at MUNI.
• Disocuri (September) - Support for funding successful DIOSCURI projects.
• MASH Junior Star (November) - support for young researchers (in collaboration with GACR Junior Star)
• Horizons (continuous call)
• Support for Excellent Theses (November)

We will inform you about the announcement via newsletter. For more information, please contact Monika Kellnerová.

Other

• EC: Webinar ERC grant competitions 2024 (20. 9. 2023) – online
• EC: Horizon Europe Cluster 6 Calls 2024 Brokerage Event (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment), (26. 9. 2023) – Brussels
• EC: Cluster 6 - Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) v (27. - 28. 9. 2023) – hybrid
• EC: Horizon Implementation Day: Finding opportunities and submitting a proposal in Horizon Europe (5. 10. 2023) – online
• EC: Horizon Europe info day - Cluster 5 (Focusing on the twin green and digital transitions to achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050), (17. - 18. 10. 2023) – online
• EC: InfoDay Cluster 1 “Health” - Q&A on Calls 2024

Below you will find selected publications already available at WoS in last month. The list of other publications is available HERE.

• Řiháčková, K., Pindur, A., Komprdová, K., Pálešová, N., Kohoutek, J., Šenk, P., Navrátilová, J., Andrýsková, L., Šebejová, L., Hůlek, R., Ismael, M., & Čupr, P. (2023). The exposure of Czech firefighters to perfluoroalkyl substances and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: CELSPAC – FIREexpo case-control human biomonitoring study. Science of The Total Environment, 881, 163298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163298
• Rudzanova, B., Vlaanderen, J., Kalina, J., Piler, P., Zvonar, M., Klanova, J., Blaha, L., & Adamovsky, O. (2023). Impact of PFAS exposure on prevalence of immune-mediated diseases in adults in the Czech Republic. Environmental Research, 229, 115969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.115969
• Sau, S., Smolinský, R., & Martínková, N. (2023). Environment drives color pattern polymorphism in sand lizards beyond the Gloger’s rule. Journal of Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.13097
• Jurakova, V., Farková, V., Kucera, J., Dadakova, K., Zapletalova, M., Paskova, K., Reminek, R., Glatz, Z., Holla, L. I., Ruzicka, F., Lochman, J., & Linhartova, P. B. (2023). Gene expression and metabolic activity of Streptococcus mutans during exposure to dietary carbohydrates glucose, sucrose, lactose, and xylitol. Molecular Oral Microbiology. https://doi.org/10.1111/omi.12428
• White, K. B., Kalina, J., Scheringer, M., Přibylová, P., Kukučka, P., Kohoutek, J., Prokeš, R., & Klánová, J. (2023). Spatial and Temporal Trends of Persistent Organic Pollutants across Europe after 15 Years of MONET Passive Air Sampling. Environmental Science & Technology, 57(31), 11583–11594. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c00796

• Česká televize: Dlouhodobé zkoumání zdraví hasičů
• Česká televize: Měsíc od zničení Kachovské přehrady
• muni.cz: Odborný program Mendel festivalu zaujal návštěvníky
• Ministerstvo životního prostředí: Budapešť převzala od Ostravy štafetu v konání konference WHO k životnímu prostředí a zdraví

Ph.D. defense

We would like to invite you to the Ph.D. defense, which will be held on September 5 in RCX1/252.

• 9.00 - Pavla Fialová
• 11.30 - Hana Vespalcová
• 14.00 - Tomáš Janoš

Links for the online meetings will be published in the Newsletter on September 4.

• Science Festival - September 8-10

• Garden party at Kotlářská 2023 - September 18

• Open Day- September 23
• Researchers’ Night - October 6