According to Dean Tomáš Kašparovský, the faculty faces a number of challenges over the new year, including setting up a new system of doctoral income, space missions, joining the chip cluster and electing a new dean.
As we are the university faculty with the highest number of doctoral students, instigating a new system of doctoral income (in accordance with the recent amendment to the Higher Education Act), that includes all the entities with which we cooperate and all possible alternatives, is a huge procedural challenge, according to the Dean of the Faculty of Science, Tomáš Kašparovský. "The challenge will be to set it up in such a way that we can effectively recruit students into doctoral studies and provide them with an income, either from our own or partner sources, or by finding a combined form that we can use in cases where other suitable sources of funding are unavailable. In future, therefore, students would be funded directly by their departments and not by the faculty. It's about setting up a system for collaboration. As a faculty, we must make sure that studies are completed in a timely fashion, as this is one of the main parameters that affects the distribution of funds for doctoral income. The law allows us to move closer to world standards by ensuring that the doctoral examination will only take the form of a dissertation defence, nothing else, and that is a big step forward, " Kašparovský concluded.
Read more about the changes related to doctoral income in an interview with Vice-Dean Luděk Bláha.
Another challenge, this time in the field of research, has been the preparation of two space missions. "The GRBAlpha satellite was recently followed into Earth orbit by the GRBBeta satellite, which is testing new technologies for future fleets of small satellites. In addition to a gamma-ray detector, it also carries the world's smallest ultraviolet telescope, which will help examine even the most massive and hottest stars near the Sun, stars too bright to be observed by the large NASA or European Space Agency satellites," Kašparovský explained.
Colleagues from the Department of Geography, led by Rudolf Brázdil, will be working on remote sensing. "our department is cooperating with Brno University of Technology (BUT); they supply the hardware in the form of the satellite, and we supply the research software."
The third challenge is the faculty's involvement in the ‘chip cluster’, via cooperation between our Semiconductor Laboratory Cleanroom at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and the collaborating company onsemi. "The Czech Republic is about to make a major investment, with the multinational company onsemi preparing to invest in the production and development of new chips. Our faculty will be involved in the material sciences aspect of this venture, developing new materials for the chips. onsemi will be re-equipping our Semiconductor Laboratory, a strategic investment of the Czech Republic in which our faculty plays a large role. The facility, a central laboratory for educating students in chip manufacturing, is also made available to students of BUT and the Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT). Interestingly, the first ever TAČR grant (number 001) was provided to a cooperative project between onsemi and our Department of Condensed Matter Physics", concluded Kašparovský.
Regarding construction, the Faculty, along with MED MUNI, is awaiting construction of the Preclinical Centre and Molecular Medicine Centre at the BioPharma Hub. The faculty will also be investing in building A8 at the Bohunice University Campus, where the laboratories will be updated to ensure their suitability for cooperative projects with the aforementioned preclinical centre.
Finally, the faculty faces the challenge of electing a new dean in the autumn.
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