📋 Tender Overview
The Czechia is involved in twenty-two European infrastructures out of a total of fifty-five and even coordinates two. From this point of view it is more connected to European research than Sweden or Finland.From October 19 to 21 Brno will host the International Conference on Research Infrastructures ICRI 2022 co-organized by Masaryk University. It is an important event and to some extent also an appreciation of what we have achieved in the Czech Republic in building and using research infrastructures assesses Jan Hruk former chairman of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures. According to Jan Hruk the Czech Republic has long been successful in maintaining a coherent research infrastructure policy at the highest European level. It already had its first road map in 2010. Furthermore we are now presiding over the Council of the EU and the question of research infrastructures and their use to increase the competitiveness of the European economy is one of the priorities of our presidency.How are our research infrastructures definedThe Research and Development Support Act directly defines so-called large research infrastructures. Scientific infrastructure is essentially a service to the scientific community and the wider public enabling science-based solutions to problems. Whether it is questions in basic research or complex social challenges. The infrastructure can then be one scientific device or a set of them but also a data archive. In short in general anything that serves to grasp the key questions in a responsible scientific way. We have well-functioning research infrastructures in Brno Ostrava Prague and in central and southern Bohemia. How do you explain the Czech Republics success in building research infrastructuresAmong other things our size is an advantage. Within the scientific community which is not so numerous compared to some other countries it is easier to agree on a few priorities then link capacities and lead it all in one direction. Of course the role of the Ministry of Education is also important. Does it work like this in all similarly sized countriesProbably not. Our other advantage was that we started dealing with the issue of research infrastructures already in the first decade of this century at a time of economic growth and pro-growth budgets when money was not yet such a limiting factor. In addition it was possible to significantly involve structural funds in addition to national resources. This synergy was the main success factor and we had a truly pioneering role in the use of structural funds for building research infrastructures. We were one of the first if not the first to use European money to bridge regional gaps to build significant scientific capacity and excellence. Can you give examplesAs part of the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation OP RD we have planned the basics of research infrastructure policy. CEITEC was built in Brno computing capacities of IT4INNOVATIONS computer center in Ostrava laser center ELI BIOCEV and SUSEN center grew near Prague. All of these are centers around infrastructures that are beginning to reap the fruits of the strategic approach which was already taking shape in 2007 in the OP RDI program at the European and global level.
