The public competition for ERC CZ program projects was announced six times, 30 basic research projects were supported within the program. Biological sciences, chemistry and mathematics have the highest representation in the focus of projects. The main contribution of the program is the achievement of a number of original findings, which are presented in the international scientific community in the form of conference papers and, above all, articles in professional journals. A direct economic benefit can be seen in the education of young scientific and technical workers at a world-class level.

By comparing the ERC CZ program with the GA ČR Junior Grants and Grant Projects of Excellence in Basic Research EXPRO, which are similar in type, the ERC CZ program is competitive in terms of various evaluation parameters. It is fully comparable to the EXPRO program, which aims to support research teams led by a top internationally recognized scientific personality or a young scientist with potential for excellence. The results of the ERC CZ program have the highest citation response and average percentile among the compared programs.

The ERC CZ program aims to involve specific Czech research facilities in the European (international) research area. Demonstration and measurement of cooperation takes place with the help of foreign scientists in solving ERC CZ projects and their co-authorship of the results. The USA has the most – 70 collaborations and Germany – 67 collaborations.

Due to the multidisciplinarity of the projects, the solution teams have a different number of workers with the same structure. The teams are made up of senior and junior researchers. On average, 7 junior workers or students were involved in one project. Considering the supported projects, it is about 200 young scientists. The program clearly contributed to the development of human resources in research.

Interest in obtaining an ERC grant within the Czech scientific community is growing. The number of submitted projects and their quality is growing. In comparison, the quality of projects measured by the number of successfully evaluated projects is growing faster than the number of submitted projects.

The ERC CZ program stimulates scientists to submit projects with a motivational tool in the form of the obligation of the researcher to submit an adequately modified project proposal to the ERC call no later than two years after the start of project funding from national sources. With this motivational tool, it increases the quality and number of submitted project proposals. The Czech Republic still lags behind compared to other countries.

The motivational effect and financial support provided within the ERC CZ program is proving to be very effective and beneficial. The program enables the development of some methods and techniques that were more financially demanding and could not be implemented within standard projects.

MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships enhance the creative and innovative potential of researchers who have a PhD and want to acquire new skills through advanced training, international, interdisciplinary and cross-industry mobility. The closest deadline is September 13, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. The JU deadline is September 5, 2023 12:00 p.m. If you are interested, please contact project support: projects@prf.jcu.cz

EIC Transition Open is a funding system for projects in any area of science, technology or application, as well as challenge-focused funding in specific strategic areas. Deadline is April 12, 2023 and September 27, 2023. If interested, please contact the project department.

HORIZON-MISS-CLIMA-01: Testing and demonstrating transformative solutions to build resilience towards health risks caused by the effects of climate change. The deadline is Wed 20 September 2023 17:00. Please inform the Project Support about your intention to apply.

HORIZON-MISS-2023-CLIMA-OCEAN-SOIL-01: Mission Climate adaptation, Mission Ocean & waters and Mission Soil Deal for Europe – Joint demonstration of an integrated approach to increasing landscape water retention capacity at regional scale. The deadline is 20 September 2023 17:00. Please inform the Projekt Support about your intention to apply.