Abstract

PROBLEM
Our biggest problem is that our scientists repeatedly apply for national grants and are not motivated (positively or negatively) to become more involved in international schemes. Yet some national grant schemes replicate European schemes (e.g. MSCA PF, ERC). The most common argument of researchers is that there is more competition in European grants and they are used to preparing projects for national schemes. However, our experience and overall rough data show that the success rate in national and European projects is at a comparable level of 10-15%. A detailed analysis will be needed.

ACTIVITIES
1) Conduct a detailed analysis of national and international grant schemes from the perspective of:
- success rate,
- volume of funding per project,
- volume of funding per call.
The schemes of the Czech Grant Agency (GACR), the Czech Technology Agency (TACR) and the Health Research Agency (HRA) will be compared with similar schemes of the Horizon Europe programme. These agencies are most common grant providers at the Faculty of Medicine, MU.

2) Motivate researchers to participate in international grants:
- from the level of grant support,
- from the level of faculty management
Together with HR Department we will prepare a motivation scheme for researchers to get more involved in the European grants.

The results of the analysis and the prepared motivation scheme will be presented as a poster at the ERAMA Conference 2024.

Take away message: Accessing European research funding compared to Czech national funding is not as difficult as researchers think. It is necessary to find a suitable incentive tool to support them in the preparation of project applications.