The Rector himself notes: “The CTU INFC will support solutions to key interdisciplinary challenges that we will face in the coming years and will enable active cooperation between top young researchers from various fields. Cross-disciplinary collaboration will help us create an environment in which bold and breakthrough projects that will influence our common future thrive in a time of transformation of science, technology and society.”
The CTU INFC supports young scientists at CTU who want to jointly address complex challenges of the near future. Researchers should be from different faculties or institutes of the university and should target high-risk projects that cross the boundaries of established fields. The grant money comes from the CTU Future Fund, to which strategic partners and investors contribute.
“Private funding makes the most sense in science where it complements public funding with speed, flexibility and a willingness to support new directions before they are fully established in regular grant schemes. The CTU INFC gives researchers the space to embark on projects connecting individual scientific disciplines before they become mainstream. It is this layer of support that can be decisive for the emergence of new teams, fields and top scientific excellence,” says Jan Barta, who helped CTU launch the new program with Pale Fire Capital.
Four private donors have now decided to support interdisciplinary research. These include the Credo Foundation, Pale Fire Capital, the WOOD & Company Endowment Fund and the IOCB Tech Group. Together, they have managed to raise 24 million crowns.
“The renaissance of Czech science and society will not happen by itself; it needs courage, talent and the trust of private capital. We support the CTU INFC because it gives young scientists the space to address topics that transcend the boundaries of individual faculties and can decide the future of the Czech Republic, from new energy to artificial intelligence. We are proud that the WOOD & Company Endowment Fund can be one of the partners in this ambition,” says Jan Sýkora, partner of the WOOD & Company investment group.
“We very much welcome the CTU activity and are glad that it has generated such a response. Thanks to interdisciplinary cooperation, we are in contact with interesting startups, for example those that connect drug development with AI. In practice, crossing the boundaries between individual disciplines is increasingly common,” describes the director of IOCB Tech, Milan Prášil, and adds: “We therefore consider the change in the approach of academic institutions to innovation and transfer to be excellent news.”
“We and the Credo Foundation did not hesitate to support the CTU INFC. In the startup world, we see every day how strong Czech scientific and technological talent is. However, there are currently no university initiatives that would help develop world-class projects and then spin them off commercially. This is a shame and a lost opportunity. We see INFC as the first and very right step by the new CTU leadership towards making the school a significant startup hub. We believe that Michal Pěchouček and his team can fulfill this ambition, and we will be happy to support them on their way,” adds Jakub Křikava, representative of the Credo Foundation.
The number of selected scientific teams that will receive money from the CTU INFC should be a maximum of ten this year, and they will be able to draw up to six million crowns for a period of up to two years. The faculties and institutes from which the researchers will be recruited do not have to contribute in any way for this purpose. The evaluation committee can include a maximum of twenty proposals in the shortlist.
The CTU INFC complements the CTU Starting Grant pilot project, which the Prague Institute of Technology finances from its own budget with an amount of CZK 50 million per year. Its goal is to attract young talents from abroad to CTU and enable them to build their own scientific groups. The CTU INFC program, on the other hand, focuses on supporting academics who are already working at CTU. The program is intended to become a bridge to the creation of new interdisciplinary centers and to obtain follow-up prestigious funding from major grants, or to support entrepreneurship and the establishment of spin-offs.
Find more information here: ČVUT INTERDISCIPLINARY NEAR FUTURE CHALLENGE (ČVUT INFC): CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2026 - Public web - Czech technical university in Prague