TAČR PRODEF: National Public Call for Defense Research
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Results of the Internal Grant Agency - Postdoc Competition
At the end of March 2024, the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University (InGA), selected two excellent candidates for the postdoctoral position.
The Postdoc call was announced for the third time with the same goal - to recruit two experienced and productive junior researchers with significant international experience and integrate them into established research groups at the Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University. The financial support amounts to 972,000 CZK per year and lasts for 24 months.
Thanks to InGA, the research groups at the Faculty of Medicine have already gained three highly qualified postdocs since 2022, who continue to work here: Gustavo Rico, Ph.D., in Pavel Krejčí Research Group, Daniel Wojtas, Ph.D., in Monika Pávková Goldbergová Research Group and Maryam Azam, Ph.D., in Jan Křivánek Research Group.
This time, a total of 9 research group leaders applied for the competition. Their research topics were subsequently advertised through postings on both Czech and international websites (such as Euraxess, FindAPostdoc.com, Postdocjobs.com, UniversityJobs.com, ScienceJobs.org, BiomedJobs.com, BioJobs.com, STEMCareers.com, Researchjobs.cz, JobRxive.org).
Within three months of posting the advertisements, a record-breaking 121 candidates applied. Unfortunately, only 55 of them met the formal requirements. After thorough pre-selection and interviews with the research group leaders, 9 applicants were invited to the second round, an online interview with the committee.
Following the interviews on March 26, 2024, the two best candidates were selected based on the scoring by the committee members.
Annette Jacobsen, Ph.D., from the Department of Medical Biology, University of Melbourne, Australia, will join the Research group of Lukáš Čajánek at the Department of Histology and Embryology, focusing on the mechanisms and functions of primary cilia.
Michelle Geryk from L'Institut du Thorax Research Unit, Nantes, France, will enrich the Research group of Vladimír Rotrekl at the Department of Biology, studying cardiomyocytes differentiated from patients with cardiac mutations resulting in arrhythmia and/or cardiomyopathy.
It is truly regrettable that three other very qualified and motivated applicants could not be accepted. However, the research teams at the Faculty of Medicine maintain contact with them and are seeking other ways to finance research collaboration with them, such as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships program. We hope to meet with these applicants soon as well.
Congratulations and best of luck to all involved.
