Description
The proposed project aim is to enable short term visits of young researchers and give them the opportunity to exchange experience and knowledge with academic and research staff at the partner university. Young researchers will participate in common courses during their stay where they will be educated in the field of environmental sciences. The secondary goal is to strengthen collaboration between Masaryk University (MU) using infrastructure of the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and to link the scientific teams of both institutions. The education of young researchers will be supported by organizing seminars involving invited guests (experts in the topic, colleagues from related disciplines, risk assessors etc.). The most important benefit is the opportunity for joint work of Czech and Norwegian young researchers and the enhancement of their chances of continued collaboration during their scientific careers.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to enable short term visits of young researchers at the partner university because they have a lack of opportunities for submitting of grant proposals and funding aimed at further career development. The motivation was to develop potential of young researchers and to strengthen cooperation between Masaryk University (MU) and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in fields of environmental chemistry and ecotoxicology. Moreover, Masaryk University has provided infrastructure of the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment (RECETOX) to the visiting young researchers. The collaboration brought learning outcomes, valuable social and scientific experiences, new ideas for Master projects and PhD. theses, new contacts and networks. Short term visits of young researchers from Masaryk University and Norwegian University of Life Sciences were implemented during spring 2016. In a frame of the project, 4 Czech and 4 Norwegian young researchers were supported. The second important activity of the project was organising the invited presentations of Norwegian experts in environmental sciences. Masaryk University through the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment invited three Norwegian experts who held educational seminars during theirs short term visits. These experts were invited from prestigious Norwegian research institutes as Norwegian Institute for Water research (NIVA) and Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). The most important benefit was offering the possibility for common work of Czech and Norwegian young researchers and enhancing chances of further collaboration in their scientific carreer. Similarly, the visits of Norwegian experts were very important not only for young researchers and students but for whole research centre and its future research collaborations.
Summary of bilateral results
The Czech and Norwegian young researchers have few opportunities for submitting the grant proposals which could fund their further career development through stays at universities or research centres abroad. Therefore they cannot prove their competences of independent work on national research projects or to be an adequate partner in international joint research collaborations. The implementation of short-term visits was beneficial to both Czech and Norwegian young researchers. The main goal was to enable short term visits of young researchers and to organize invited presentations of Norwegian experts in environmental sciences. MU invited three experts who gived educational seminars. These experts were invited from prestigious Norwegian research institutes as NIVA and NIPH. The increase in subsequent collaboration between CZ and NO scientists could be verified by newly produces research papers, close cooperation in research or possibility for students exchange. The main outputs were successfully implemented short term visits of young researchers and project managers., where participated alltogether 3 Czech project managers, 4 Czech and 4 Norwegian young researchers. All participant presented theirs experiences from the visits. Organization of the short term visits increased and strengthened the institutional cooperation in education and research. Further planned outputs were publicity and promotional events listed in detail in section 14.2. The main benefit was the experience in organization of seminars in cooperation with invited experts and young researchers. The young researchers established new contacts, worked on research papers and learned new information for their research work.The cooperation brought new opportunity for Czech young researchers to apply for short term stays on Svalbard within the educational course which is organised by Roland Kallenborn. Masaryk University established tighter cooperation with NIVA and NIPH.