Another edition of Brno PhD Talent is coming. 9 million to be distributed among applicants

There is another opportunity for aspiring PhD students in the natural sciences and engineering fields of four Brno universities to receive interesting financial support for their research work. This year, the organisers from the Brno Municipality and the South Moravian Centre for International Mobility (JCMM) have pledged CZK 360,000 for each of the 25 selected students, paid over 3 years. Registration for the 16th edition of the Brno PhD Talent will traditionally take place in early autumn, from 5 to 24 September. A workshop for applicants will be held on the first day of registration.

The scholarship competition is open to all first-year PhD students (2024/2025) from Brno University of Technology, Masaryk University, Mendel University and the University of Veterinary Sciences Brno.

The application in English should include a CV of the applicant, a research project and a description of the project background (team and facilities). The selection process has three rounds in total. In the final one, the finalists will present their projects to an expert committee. Further details for the application process can be found on the JCMM website.

At the award ceremony of the 15th Brno PhD Talent in March this year, nine young scientists from the BUT, fifteen from MU and one from Mendel University received a cheque for further research in areas such as electron microscopy, biomedicine or bioplastics production. Fourteen women and eleven men from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary or Iraq were behind the successful projects, which received a total of 8.25 million crowns, each of the 330,000 crowns awarded, divided over three years. Each of the more than 150 applications was assessed by two external evaluators.

Over the 15 years of the Brno PhD Talent, the number of supported scholarship holders among promising male and female researchers from Brno universities is close to four hundred. Among the graduates of the Brno PhD Talent, we find for example Lukáš Flajšman from CEITEC BUT, who is working at Aalto University in Finland on his own scientific project for the Finnish government with the aim of creating a magnetic wave amplifier. Another successful scholarship recipient is Michaela Vojníková, also from CEITEC BUT, who is heading to the USA to study at the University of San Diego on a Fulbright scholarship. She will continue her research on so-called lipobots, theranostic nanoparticles that also have the character of intelligent nanorobots, with the world's leading expert in nanorobotics, Professor Wang. The talented researcher's long-term goal is to develop new non-invasive treatments for cancer.

Project Brno PhD Talent is fully funded by the City of Brno. The implementation of the competition, which has been held annually since 2009, is ensured by the JCMM.