Masaryk University ranks among the top in Central and Eastern Europe in the success of applications for postdoctoral fellowships. In the latest call, 13 projects were successful, three of which are from our faculty.
A sharp rise in applications and an exceptional approval rate: this sums up the latest calls under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF) and the complementary ERA Fellowships (ERA F), which allow researchers to apply for funding for their postdoctoral projects from European sources.
Last year, 69 applicants submitted proposals to take up research positions at Masaryk University – an increase of almost 300 per cent. Eleven postdoctoral researchers secured funding through the main MSCA-PF programme, while two more received support from the complementary ERA F scheme. The number of successful MSCA-PF projects is almost three times higher than at the second most successful institution – Palacký University Olomouc, which was awarded four projects.
The university’s overall success rate in the last call reached 19 per cent, compared with 9.6 per cent across all applicants. “Another 52 projects are of sufficient quality to receive funding from the Czech Republic through the Operational Programme Jan Amos Komenský. Unfortunately, we have information from the Ministry of Education that it is not yet certain whether the MSCA-CZ call will be launched this year. If it does not open, it would have serious negative consequences – including the loss of talented researchers, a missed opportunity for major progress in research and a weakening of trust in systematic support for research among both Czech and international researchers,” says Lukáš Palko, Director of the Research Office at the MU Rectorate.
He adds that interest in the competition was significantly higher than in the previous year: “The excellent evaluation of so many projects reflects the proactive approach of our researchers, some of whom repeatedly take part in MSCA-PF projects as supervisors. The experience of our project support team also played a key role. Strategic management of research support, systematic work with active supervisors and internationally competitive project services have, over the long term, led to higher-quality applications and results that match the standards of a leading European research institution.”
In calls focused on postdoctoral mobility, applicants prepare the project proposals themselves and must have a supervisor at the host institution. Another condition is that they must not have previously worked at the host institution for more than a year.
This year, most applicants sought positions at the Faculty of Science, followed by the Faculty of Arts and CEITEC MU.
Tomáš Janovič (NCBR) – moving from Michigan State University to the Faculty of Science, he will join Jiří Fajkus’s research group to focus on the project TeloScope (Defining the macromolecular structure of human telomeres)
Joshua Wrigley (Department of Mathematics and Statistics) – currently at the IRIF (Research Institute on the Foundations of Computer Science), he will join the Faculty of Science under the supervision of John Bourke with the project HiDimAFOL (Higher Dimensional Aspects of First-Order Logic)
Jiří Holoubek (Department of Experimental Biology) – already based at the Faculty of Science, he will work under Daniel Růžek on the project FLAVIPREG (Decoding maternal immunity and fetal vulnerability in TBEV vaccination and flavivirus infection)
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On Saturday, March 21, 2026, 200 students aged 9-18 visited the University Campus in Bohunice as part of the MjUNI Children's University program. Lecturers from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Sports Studies prepared a rich interactive program.
