Masaryk University has joined the European Erasmus+ project called ETHICS, which aims to improve the quality of research in Georgia by introducing standards of research ethics and integrity according to good practice in the EU. Together with three other European partners, we share our experience in the field of research ethics with the Georgian partners of the project, which are 10 Georgian universities and 3 state institutions. The project is managed by Ilya State University of Georgia.
The project was officially launched at the beginning of May with a kick-off meeting organized by the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague. Apart from discussing the project meetings, the agenda included lectures and a study visit where representatives of the European partners shared their recommendations and examples of good practice. Individual working groups will work on the development of a research integrity module, rules and standards for research ethics and integrity, training for researchers and other sub-objectives of the project. Experts from Masaryk University are involved in the project activities, especially from the Institute of Medical Ethics of the Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Informatics and the Faculty of Social Studies.
"The project is interesting for Masaryk University for two reasons. The first reason is the opportunity to transfer our own good practice to our colleagues in Georgia. This means putting such examples together and describing them well. We will be able to use these materials within the university either to improve our own processes or to improve internal communication. Specifically, this includes, for example, the prevention of plagiarism, an area in which MU has long excelled in the Czech Republic, or the functioning of the MU Research Ethics Committee, which is more or less standard from a Western perspective, but does not have such a tradition in the Czech or Eastern European area. The second benefit for MU is the cooperation with prestigious foreign partners - the VU in Amsterdam and the European Network for Academic Integrity. Cooperation on the project outputs will allow us to gain insight into the functioning of processes and procedures related to academic ethics in Western European partners, which is an opportunity for adapting the functioning mechanisms to the environment of Masaryk University," describes the project's principal investigator Mgr. Tomáš Foltýnek, Ph.D.
Dr. Jana Djakow and Associate Professor Martina Kosinová from the Department of Simulation Medicine at Masaryk University Faculty of Medicine were the first women in the Czech Republic to receive degrees from international professional societies in the field of resuscitation and anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine, respectively.
At the beginning of November, six graduates of the Faculty of Medicine received the Masaryk University Vice-Rector's Award for Excellence in Doctoral Studies.
