General Information

The Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR) was established in April 1993 by the Czech law No. 300/1992 as an independent institution that should promote progress over the whole range of scientific and technological development in the Czech Republic. Grants are provided to all kinds of Czech state and private research and development institutions and to private persons who are Czech citizens and reside permanently in the Czech Republic. Foreign private persons and institutions can cooperate in wo rk on the grant projects.

The basis of the funds available is provided by the state budget, but contributions from other sources, such as the industry, foundations, private donations, etc., are also possible.

Public competition is arranged in regular intervals for scientific and technological grants, the proposals are peer reviewed and the selected projects are funded, with tight control of the use of the finances granted. The general policy of GACR stresses high-quality interdisciplinary projects, those carried out in cooperation of several institutions (Academy of Sciences, universities, industrial research institutions, etc.), projects involving international cooperation and proposals fitting in cert ain priority areas.

The Grant Agency is administered by a Presidium appointed by the government of the Czech Republic. The Presidium is authorized to organize tenders for scientific and research projects and to award grants. The Presidium is assisted in these tasks by Advisory Committees set up in five general branches of science; it is also advised by additional subcommittees, i. e. groups of specialists organized according to scientific and technical fields. Together these committees undertake the work of evaluating the grant proposals received.

The work of the GACR is monitored by a Supervisory Board appointed by the Czech Parliament which is independent of the other GA CR organs.

All organizational and administrative work is handled by the GACR Office. The specialized sections of the Office deal with all phases of grant administration, from the initial review of the proposals, through the entire evaluation process, to the monitoring of currently running projects. This is done in close cooperation with the appropriate advisory committees and subcommittees. The Database Section of the Office stores all relevant information on GACR activities and prepares statistical materia ls. The Information Section maintains contacts between the GACR and the public, and it publishes the quarterly Bulletin of the GACR. In addition it makes selected data available to other grant agencies in order to promote cooperation and prevent the overlapping of awards. The further text presents detailed information on the organization of the GACR and its administrative structure.

Tenders are organized annually. All grant applications are presented on special forms in Czech and English. They are evaluated by three independent reviewers, at least one of whom is from abroad. Additional evaluation is done by members of the advisory committees, who summarize the recommendations of the outside reviewers and produce a final assessment of each project's merits and drawbacks. These assessments are then presented to the Presidium to guide it in reaching its final decision concerning each proposal.

Experience in international scientific and technological cooperation

The GACR seeks contacts with analogous institutions in other countries, in order to promote working international cooperation in science and technological development and exchange of ideas and people. An Agreement on mutual cooperation has been concluded with the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF), and similar agreements are being drawn up with the National Science Foundation, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and TNO (the Netherlands Organiz ation for Applied Scientific Research).

Contact network

The GACR, through its Advisory Committees and Subcommittees, cooperates with more than 350 leading scientists working in the universities of the Czech Republic, the various institutes of the Academy of Sciences and other Czech research institutions. Our database contains the names of more than 7,000 scientists and scholars who can act as referees from all over the world, especially western Europe, but also central and eastern Europe. The GA CR operates a database of grant projects containing all information for statistical treatment and for all aspects of the GA CR activity. Only the members of the Presidium and authorized workers of the Office have access to the Database. The GA CR exchanges relevant information with other grant organizations in the Czech Republic; the primary reason is to avoid duplicity in financing projects from the state budget. The following text gives a more detailed insight into the GACR activities.

A Summary of the GACR Rules

General Information

The GA CR grants can only be used to cover direct costs of a given project. Scientific research is directly funded, while a loan is provided for technological development; the loan bears no interest and is to be paid back in five yearly installments starting one year after the project termination.
Grant proposals can be submitted in five fields:
1. Technical sciences
2. Natural sciences
3. Medical sciences
4. Human and social sciences
5. Agricultural sciences
The forms composing the Grant Proposal specify the quality of the project, the qualification of the proposer and his team for the work on the project and the financial means required. There can be a number of co-proposers who can come from abroad. A proposer can apply for more than one grant or be a co-proposer in several grant proposals. The proposer is free in obtaining additional support from domestic and foreign sources; however, all this information must be contained in the grant proposa l forms.
A usual duration of a grant is from one to three years.
The work on the project is controlled by advisory committees and subcommittees on the basis of yearly reports submitted by the grant holder; an adequate progress is the necessary condition for the obtaining support for a further year.
The results obtained in solution of a supported project must be published in a form corresponding to the character of the given field. The publications must be of a satisfactory scientific and formal level and it must be explicitly stated that the work was undertaken under a GA CR grant, specifying the grant number. One copy of the publication must be provided for GA CR files.

Organizational Structure of GACR

The working organ of GA CR is the Presidium, named by the Government of the Czech Republic, headed by the President of GA CR. The GA CR Presidium decides on grant awards on the basis of recommendations of Advisory Committees.
Advisory Committees (AC), consisting of 15 to 20 members and 3 deputy members, are elected for a term of three years by the GA CR Presidium and the members of the Government Council for Research and Development from candidates coming from scientific and technological institutions.
Each of the five fields of science and technology (see above) has its own AC. The AC's create subcommittees of specialists who take care of the actual project evaluation, with the help of three external reviewers, and supply the background for the AC recommendation and Presidium decision.
The Supervising Board controls the work of GA CR. It is independent of the other GA CR organs and is named by the Czech Parliament.
The GA CR Office carries out all the organizational and administrative work. It is headed by the Director, who is responsible to the GA CR President, and consist of the following sections:
1. The specialized sections corresponding to the above five fields of science and technology
2. Database section
3. Section of economy and management
4. Information section.
The specialized sections deal with all the grant administration, from the initial checkup of grant proposals, through the evaluation procedure, to the control of running projects, in close cooperation with the appropriate AC's. The Database Section stores all relevant information on the GA CR activities and prepares statistically treated materials for the use of the Presidium. Some of the materials are published in the GA CR Bulletin. The Economy and Management Section is responsible for all financi al aspects of the GA CR activities, including the preparation of the GA CR budget. The Information Section keeps contacts of GA CR with the broadest public and publishes the GA CR Bulletin that informs about all GA CR activities, brings lists of grants awarded and features a discussion section intended for open exchange of ideas on financing science and technology.

Financial Policy of GACR

Grants are provided to the organization of the grant holder (or directly to a private grant holder), under the condition that all legal regulations of the use of the funds are observed. The grant funds can only be used for work on the approved project.
The finances available for the project can be used to cover:
1. Direct costs: These include purchase of common materials, literature and software, coverage of services, overhead of the institution, travel expenses and cost of publication.
2. Salaries: Salaries can be paid to workers hired for the work on the grant project, institutional salaries can be increased in dependence on the additional work connected with the project and external workers can be paid for work on specialized aspects of the project.
3. Investments: Well-substantiated investments that have direct bearing on the project are supported. However, projects consisting of only a purchase of instrumentation, without a concrete research plan, are not supported. The grant holders are encouraged to cooperate in exploitation of instrumentation. The instruments purchased are made available to the institution of the grant holder after the termination of the project, provided that their full use is ensured.

Management of Grant Funds

Grant projects should always be carried out with financial participation of the grant holder's institution. The grant funds are transferred from the state budget to the institution in yearly installments, on condition that the holder report on the progress during the past year has been found satisfactory.

The institution manages the grant funds according to holder's instructions, in accordance with all the state financial regulations. The director of the institution is responsible for proper use of the finances, together with the grant holder who is also responsible for management of grant funds in cooperating institutions. GACR checks occasionally on the use of the funds; the grant may be withdrawn if serious discrepancies are detected.

GACR monitors the use of the instrumentation purchased for three years after termination of the project. If it is found that the instruments are not properly used, then GACR may decide to transfer them to other institutions.

Grant Applications

The Grant Application is a set of forms issued by GACR which is filled in by the applicant and provides all the information required for evaluation of the project quality and for entering the project into the database. It must be submitted before the announced deadline, in Czech and English version.

The applications may be submitted by private persons with the Czech citizenship and permanent residence in the Czech Republic or institutions permanently residing in the Czech Republic. The original of the Application must be signed by the proposer, co-proposers and representatives of the institution.

The Grant Application consists of several parts:

Part A

provides basic information, such as the pertinent AC, fundamental data on the proposer, co-proposers, name of the project, the dates of its beginning and duration, the financial means required for individual years, a 15 line abstract, a list of coworkers with their signatures and signatures of representatives of the proposer and co-proposers institutions expressing their agreement with the project and confirming that the institutions will create all the necessary conditions for the work on t he project.

Part B

specifies the finances required for current, salary and investment expenses in the individual years of the work on the project.

Part C

substantiates the proposal in detail. Within a maximal number of 10 pages, the following aspects should be treated:

the present state of knowledge in the field of the project
aims of the project and timetable for the work
basic concepts and methodical approaches to the solution of the project, including discussion and substantiation of the financial requirements, especially those concerning investments
data demonstrating the qualification of the proposers, their experience, preparedness of the institution for the task and possibilities of cooperations
practical and social importance of the project
literature and other pertinent references.

If the proposer obtained a GA CR grant within past three years, then he should give its registration number and name, the period of work on the project, the finances obtained and summarize the results obtained and their importance, listing the publications or other outputs of the project.

Part D

gives data on the proposer and co-proposers, including a brief scientific curriculum vitae, listing important recent publications, patents, etc. (over last 5 years).

Part E

informs about any grants the proposer and co-proposers hold, specifying the institution(s) providing the grant(s), the financial amount(s) granted, the name of the grant and its duration and the part of the working time spent in working on this grant project. Further, the same information must be supplied about any grant proposals submitted, including other proposals to GA CR.

Evaluation of Grant Proposals

There are five principal criteria for evaluation:

Qualification of the proposer for work on the project, including capabilities and experience of the proposer and co-proposers, their previous contribution to the field and the institutional background
Expected contribution to the field
Social importance of the project
Importance of the project for scientific and technological infrastructure, including education of scientists and technicians, stimulation of important, but underdeveloped fields and emphasizing interdisciplinary and interinstitutional projects
Adequacy of the financial requirements.

The Grant Application must be evaluated by three independent reviewers, at least one of them being from abroad. The Presidium may approve an exception if the project contains classified facts, is specific for the domestic conditions so that a foreign reviewer would not be competent or on the basis of other substantiated recommendation by an AC. The independent reviewers should meet these criteria:

They should be specialists in the field and have broad experience over a more general area (especially when evaluating interdisciplinary projects).
They should be informed about infrastructure of science and technology in the field and their contribution to education.
They must not be co-proposers of the project.
They should not come from the same institution as the proposer, should not be related to him neither have antagonistic relations to him.

GA CR maintains and continuously extends a database of experts who could act as reviewers.The reviewers fill a GA CR form, with numerical evaluation of the project according to the above criteria, and evaluate the project verbally. The verbal evaluation can be disclosed to the proposer, with strict maintaining of the reviewer anonymity. All the Project Proposal materials are confidential, it is prohibited to copy them or to make them available to a third party.

The procedure of grant project evaluation is as follows:

Project Proposals are first formally controlled by the Office and those with serious formal shortcomings are excluded from the further treatment.
All the remaining projects are preliminarily evaluated by AC subcommittees which select the external reviewers. The proposers may suggest reviewers and, on the other hand, indicate the names/institutions to whom the proposal should not be sent. The subcommittees may take these suggestions in account but are not bound to do so.
If a subcommittee finds serious substantial shortcomings in the proposal, it can exclude it from further proceedings but must substantiate its decision in a review which is submitted to the appropriate AC and, after approval by the Presidium, is communicated to the proposer.
The final evaluation stage is open to all projects for which at least two external reviews are available. With a high-quality projects for which the external reviews were not obtained in time, special procedure can be agreed on by the AC and the Presidium.
On the basis of the reviews and their own assessment, the AC subcommittees propose an order of the projects; they prepare their own numerical and verbal evaluation.
The AC's may propose a decrease in the finances required. The proposer is notified and form B of the Application is returned to him. The proposer must confirm in writing that he can work on the project at decreased costs or substantiate in detail why the project cannot be solved at a lower cost. The AC then recommends that the project be refused, transferred to the next round or be treated otherwise.
The order of the project proposals prepared by AC subcommittees is discussed by the AC which can change the order if it deems it necessary. The final AC orders are supplied to the Presidium which can also change them in preparing the general order for financing.
Interdisciplinary projects are evaluated by all the pertinent AC's and the final decision is made at a joint session of the chairmen of the appropriate AC's and the Presidium. q A protocol about the evaluation procedure is signed by the AC chairman and the Presidium member responsible for the given field.
The Presidium decides on grant awards. The list of grants awarded is published in the Bulletin and the protocols are stored in the Office.
Each proposer is notified in writing about the award or refusal of a grant. For the grants awarded, contracts are prepared between GA CR and the proposer institution (or private proposers), specifying all the substantial and financial conditions.
All the proposers and representatives of their institutions may obtain copies of all the verbal reviews of their proposals, with strict maintenance of the reviewer's anonymity.

GA CR Monitoring Activity

The monitoring activity is based on yearly reports by the grant holders specifying the results obtained, the ways the funds were used and any problems encountered. The report must be submitted before January 15 of the following year, on GA CR forms consisting of several parts:

Part DA (maximum three pages):: Description of the progress in the work, the methods employed and problems encountered; the participation of the coworkers and any changes in the team; use of the instrumentation obtained for the grant funds; attainment of partial or final aims of the project; evaluation of the results; publications, posters, lectures, patents, reports, etc.
Part DB: gives a detailed survey of the use of the finances granted, together with information on the institutional means used. Further, financial means required for the following year should be specified in detail and should not exceed the sum given in the initial grant proposal (exceptions can be permitted on the basis of proper substantiation of individual requirements).
Part DC: summarizes the aims and programme of work in the following year.

The final report must be submitted to GA CR within one month after finishing the work on the project, using the GA CR forms whose structure is analogous to that of the forms for yearly reports. The report must be supplemented with copies of publications, patents, refereed reports, etc. that resulted from the work on the project.In justified cases, the time for finishing the project can be extended by a maximum of 6 months.

GA CR has the right to carry out control of the work and management of finances at any time directly at the grant holder's institution and stop financing the project if serious discrepancies are found. All decisions on the continuation or stopping of projects are made by the Presidium, on the basis of AC recommendations.

All the publications containing results of work on projects partly or completely financed by GA CR grants must state this fact explicitly.

Publication of Information on Grant Projects and Documentation

GA CR can publish in its Bulletin the following data on the grants awarded: The name and address of the holder, the name of the project and the summary of its content as given in the form A of the Grant Project Application. Details of the project can be disclosed to other parties by the grant holder. The grant budget, names of the referees and their reports, personal data on the holder and his coworkers are confidential. The verbal evaluation of the projects can be made available only to the grant p roposers and representatives of their institutions, maintaining the referees anonymous.

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