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Credits for this course will be awarded based on the successful preparation, presentation, and defense of an original research grant proposal. Students are expected to:
1. Prepare a written research grant proposal that clearly defines the scientific problem, objectives, methodology, expected outcomes, and budget. 2. Present the proposal in front of peers and instructors, demonstrating clarity, structure, and relevance of the proposed research. 3. Participate in a discussion and peer review session, where students will respond to questions and feedback, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of the proposal content and the broader context of research planning, ethics, and scientific communication. Last update: Ušelová Kateřina, RNDr., Ph.D. (28.03.2025)
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1. Academic Career - How to Start - Choice is Critical - J. Čejka �� Challenge 1: What are critical steps when choosing a mentor and research topic �� Challenge 2: Identifying opportunities for early-career researchers �� Challenge 3: Draft a short personal statement (max 100 words) for an academic job application.
2. Ethics in Science - Principles of Working Ethics - O. Sedláček �� Challenge 1: Identification of famous cases of scientific misconduct and summarize its consequences in two sentences. �� Challenge 2: Falsification of data-list three possible courses of action. �� Challenge 3: Predatory journals
3. It’s all about people - David Viduna (ČEZ) �� Challenge 1: How well do I know myself? �� Challenge 2: How to optimally cooperate with others? �� Challenge 3: What does motivate me? How to motivate others?
4. Data and Information in Science - O. Sedláček �� Challenge 1: Identifying Trustworthy Information Sources, Recognizing Fake News and Misinformation: Recognizing reliable scientific sources is crucial for a successful scientific career. This challenge will focus on distinguishing peer-reviewed articles from preprints and unreliable sources, evaluating the credibility of news, articles and online science communication. �� Challenge 2: Searching the Scientific Literature Efficiently: Effective literature search is an essential skill for researchers. This challenge will cover how to use major scientific databases, apply advanced search strategies with Boolean operators, and filter relevant literature efficiently. Additionally, students will explore reference management tools to organize their findings. �� Challenge 3: Working with Scientific Data - From Collection to Open Science: Proper data management ensures research integrity and reproducibility. This challenge will introduce the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), best practices for organizing and storing data, and compliance with open science policies.
5. How to write a project proposal and its evaluation - J. Čejka �� Challenge 1: Clearly Defining the Problem and Objectives: One of the biggest challenges is clearly articulating the problem your project aims to solve and specifying the objectives. It can be tough to make sure the problem is well-defined, relevant, and compelling to the audience, while also aligning the project's goals with the broader context or funding priorities. �� Challenge 2: Developing a Realistic Budget and Timeline: Another major challenge is developing a budget and timeline that are both realistic and convincing. Proposals often require a detailed breakdown of resources, costs, and timeframes, and it's challenging to balance ambitious goals with practical nstraints. Ensuring that the project is feasible and that resources are allocated appropriately requires careful planning. �� Challenge 3: Demonstrating the Impact and Sustainability: Effectively conveying the potential impact and long-term sustainability of the project can be difficult. It’s crucial to show how the project will make a difference in the field and how it can be sustained beyond initial funding. This involves not just outlining the expected outcomes but also ensuring there are plans for follow-up or scaling, which can often be hard to predict or quantify. �� Challenge 4: Understanding reviewing proces. Role of Panel members and Referees. How to read referee reports.
6. ERC projects - Zdeněk Strakoš �� Challenge 1: Developing a Strong and Innovative Research Idea: One of the primary challenges is formulating a novel, high-impact research question that stands out among the competitive pool of proposals. ERC projects prioritize groundbreaking ideas that can advance knowledge in a specific field, so the proposal needs to demonstrate significant originality and potential for scientific advancement. Crafting an idea that is both bold and feasible is a delicate balancing act. �� Challenge 2: Creating a Detailed and Feasible Work Plan: ERC proposals require a well-thought work plan that outlines the methodology and timeline. This is challenging because it requires careful consideration of how the research will unfold, potential obstacles and difficulties, and how to overcome3 them. The work plan needs to demonstrate that the proposed project will lead to substantial restults even when the original objectives are not fully achieved. �� Challenge 3: Justifying the Project’s Importance in a Broad Sense: ERC grants aim at potential scientific breakthroughs but they also consider a potential for societal, environmental, or economic impacts. The need of cautious balancing of technical depth of the proposal with the clarity of communicating the main ideas to a wide group of evaluators brings in also clarity of thinking about the project itself. �� Challenge 4: Importance of the previous research path (CV + track record) as the credibility of the applicant for achieving success in the work on the project.
7. Scientific leadership - Paul Diddams �� Challenge 1: Balancing Innovation with Practical Constraints: Scientific leaders often face the challenge of fostering innovation and pushing the boundaries of research while dealing with limited resources, time, and funding. Encouraging creativity while ensuring that the research remains feasible and grounded in reality requires a delicate balance. �� Challenge 2: Mentoring and Supporting Diverse Teams: Leading a scientific team involves mentoring early-career researchers, managing diverse personalities, and promoting collaboration. One challenge is adapting leadership styles to the individual needs of team members, ensuring that everyone is motivated and supported while fostering an environment of growth and development. �� Challenge 3: Navigating Conflicts between Academia and Industry: Scientific leaders often have to navigate the differences between academic and industrial research environments, such as conflicting priorities (publish or patent, basic vs. applied research) and varying expectations regarding collaboration, commercialization, and funding. Managing these tensions while maintaining the integrity of scientific goals can be particularly challenging.
8. Managing a lab - how to build a young group - Mariya Shamzhy �� Challenge 1: Fostering Collaboration and Communication: In a young group, establishing strong communication channels and fostering a collaborative culture can be challenging. Team members may have different working styles, backgrounds, and levels of experience. Ensuring that everyone feels comfortable sharing ideas, asking questions, and collaborating effectively is crucial to building a productive and positive team environment. �� Challenge 2: Balancing Mentorship with Independence: Providing mentorship to early-career researchers while encouraging their independence can be difficult. It’s a challenge to find the right balance between guiding them through their research and allowing them the freedom to explore their own ideas, make decisions, and develop their skills. Striking this balance is key to empowering young scientists while ensuring they receive the support they need. �� Challenge 3: Resource Management and Sustainability: Managing resources, such as funding, lab space, and equipment, is often a challenge for a young research group. Securing funding, maintaining efficient use of resources, and ensuring the group has what it needs to succeed can be a constant struggle. Additionally, building a sustainable structure for growth, including recruitment and retention, is vital to the long-term success of the lab.
9. Application of Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry - F. Uhlík �� Challenge 1: Identify areas in which AI can be helpful for your research / activity �� Challenge 2: How AI works �� Challenge 3: When to trust and when not to AI
10. Why and how to Start a Company - J. Neuman (NenoVision) �� Challenge 1: What is your motivation, where does your drive come from, and what is your WHY? �� Challenge 2: How to work with ideas, how to sort them, and how to fulfill my WHY. �� Challenge 3: Practical aspects to consider before you start the company.
11. How to Drive a Star-up Company - J. Neuman (NenoVision) �� Challenge 1: Define three essential leadership skills for running a company and explain why they matter. �� Challenge 2: Why do companies fail? Choose a company that failed to summarize its main mistakes in two sentences. �� Challenge 3: Defining a company-winning strategy - changes to the plan. Learning by doing.
12. Scientific Diplomacy - O. Fojt (UK Embassy) �� Challenge 1: Identify one major international scientific collaboration, list at least two diplomatic challenges it faced and describe your solutions or the things you tried and failed. �� Challenge 2: Role-play: You are a science diplomat who wants to promote Professor Jiří Čejka (or someone else) to become a future Director General of an international research facility like ITER, CERN, or one of the ERICS etc. How would you approach this task to succeed, what resources you would need and who would be your national and international partners. Think about your time plan, communication strategy, key stakeholders to engage and also about the competing countries and their strengths and weaknesses. �� Challenge 3: Sometimes we need to get new research partners that we do not know in person. Write a brief email persuading a foreign institution or a leading researcher to collaborate on your research project. Describe steps which you would do to maximize your success and which would stimulate an interest of that foreign institution or a leading researcher in working with you. What are the unique selling points of your lab/project and what's in it for them? What can you offer to showcase your lab and good work? Last update: Ušelová Kateřina, RNDr., Ph.D. (28.03.2025)
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