The Czech Science Foundation (GACR) is announcing calls for proposals for tenders in the area of Standard Projects, JUNIOR STAR, POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP, and International and Lead Agency projects. The submission deadline is 3 April. The winners will be announced in October and November this year. Projects which win funding after passing the multi-stage evaluation process will be launched in 2025.
„The Czech Science Foundation has been supporting all areas of basic research for 30 years. This year is no different. Scientists can submit project proposals to our traditional calls for proposals, whether it is the call for standard projects or more focused calls for, for example, early-career researchers. After two years, we are opening the EXPRO call for excellent scientists again,“ said the GACR President, Prof. Petr Baldrian, Ph.D.
The submission deadline for Proposals for projects starting in 2025 is 3 April 2024. The winning proposals will be announced in October and November this year, except for international tenders, which will be announced in coordination with the partner agency abroad.
The project proposals will be assessed in a multi-stage transparent evaluation process, in which expert reviewers from other countries also participate substantially in addition to experts from Czech research institutions. Among the winners, there is not a single project which has not been reviewed internationally. In case of the highly selective EXPRO and JUNIOR STAR projects, this process is the responsibility of international experts only.
Standard projects are the backbone of targeted aid for basic research in the Czech Republic, with GACR having financed hundreds of them each year since its founding in 1993. Through these projects, the best basic research in all areas is supported. Standard projects are usually worked on for three years and their proposals may be submitted by all researchers and their teams without limits on the length of their scientific careers. Project proposals are evaluated on the basis of a multi-level selection process.
- Tender Document – Standard Projects 2025
- Practical Information – Standard Projects 2025
- Things to Watch For – Standard Projects 2025
After a year’s break, the EXPRO competition is once again open for the most excellent Czech scientists. A few selected researchers and their projects are going to raise five-year funding for their teams. During this period they will be able to draw up to 50 million CZK, i.e. an average of CZK ten million per year. The projects with the greatest potential to be part of a breakthrough in their field will be selected for funding by international panels. The research team will also be required to submit a project proposal to the European Research Council (ERC).
The JUNIOR STAR tender is almost always met with great interest by applicants from the ranks of excellent scientists in basic research who are at the beginning of their career (up to 8 years after being awarded their Ph.D. titles) who have had their work published in prestigious international journals and have significant foreign experience. The goal of these five-year projects with a budget of up to 25 million CZK is to give the applicants a chance to gain scientific independence, including potentially founding their own research group to bring new topics into Czech science. Similarly to EXPRO projects, the review of JUNIOR STAR project proposals is carried out solely by external reviewers.
- Tender Document – JUNIOR STAR 2025
- Practical information – JUNIOR STAR 2025
- Things to Watch For – JUNIOR STAR 2025
For the third time, GACR is announcing the POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP (PIF) tender this year. This type of grant is aimed at scientists who have finished their doctoral studies in the past four years. It can take two forms – either allowing a Czech scientist to carry out two years of research at a prestigious research centre abroad (with the condition of spending a third year at a research centre in the Czech Republic) or allowing a Czech postdoc or foreign scientist to come carry out research and begin their career at a Czech research centre.
- Tender Document – POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP – INCOMING 2025
- Practical information – POSTDOC INDIVIDUAL FELLOWSHIP – INCOMING 2025
Projects worked on by scientists and their teams in cooperation with researchers from partner states are a separate category of grants. Project proposals are either evaluated by both agencies (bilateral cooperation), or they are recommended for funding by one agency and the other adopts its recommendations (Lead Agency cooperation).
Bilateral-cooperation
- Taiwan – National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)
- South Korea – National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
This year, the call with the Brazilian agency FAPESP cannot be launched due to the partner agency’s request to modify our mutual cooperation. The call is expected to be renewed next year.
- Tender Document – International-bilateral projects 2025
- Things to Watch For – International-bilateral projects 2025
Lead Agency
- Austria – Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
- Germany – German Research Foundation (DFG)
- Poland – National Science Centre (NCN)
- Slovenia– Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS)
- Switzerland – Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- Luxembourg – Nation Research Fund (FNR)
- USA – National Science Foundation (NSF) – GACR is always a partner agency
- ADDED 23. 2. 2024: Croatia – Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ)
For reasons on the side of the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ), a decision on the launch of this year’s call, in which GA CR would be the Lead agency, will be made in the coming days.
Further international calls based on Lead Agency cooperation may be launched during the year.