Masaryk University has awarded another 13 MASH StG/CoG grants to promising researchers. Seven of them are from our faculty

This year, Masaryk University decided to award the internal grant known as the MUNI Award in Science and Humanities (MASH), which supports the recruitment of outstanding researchers to MU. The seventh recipient of this award is Professor Karola Dillenburger, an expert in behavioral analysis and education from Queen’s University Belfast.

“Top-tier science requires not only excellent ideas but also conditions in which strong research personalities and teams can develop over the long term. This is precisely why Masaryk University supports the arrival of established experts as well as promising young researchers who aspire to succeed in international competition. “In practice, the MASH program has proven to be a tool that helps bring new momentum to the university, strengthen excellent research topics, and simultaneously create an environment in which projects with global reach can emerge,” said Šárka Pospíšilová, Vice Rector for Science and Research.

The MASH grant requires recipients to work directly at MU. They will then receive up to five million crowns annually from the university’s grant agency, GAMU, for the implementation of their project over a period of five years.

Grant for Promising Young Researchers

In addition to the main MASH grant, the university has also awarded MASH StG/CoG grants for promising young researchers. This call is intended for experts who wish to apply for a European Research Council (ERC) grant in the Starting or Consolidator category under the auspices of MU. In this year’s call, 13 applicants were successful and will receive support of three million crowns per year for their projects over a four-year period.

The following successful applicants for the MASH StG/CoG grant have already agreed on their start dates at their respective faculties and departments:

Dominik Dold, who will be working on the project mosAIc: The hidden geometry of spiking neural networks at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of the Faculty of Science, focusing on issues related to the potential applications of so-called spiking neural networks (SNNs). These are artificial neural networks that, unlike classical neural networks, process information using discrete pulses, enabling more realistic and energy-efficient computations.

Katja Fahrion will join the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics at the Faculty of Science, where, as part of the DISCO – Distances from Star Cluster Observations project, she will focus on verifying a new method for calculating distances in space.

Zdeněk Prudil will also be working at the same institute within the Faculty of Science. He will focus on uncovering how the Milky Way’s disk and bulge formed. This will provide a new perspective on the early evolution of our galaxy and establish Masaryk University as a center for galactic archaeology.

Petra Vojáčková is heading to the Department of Chemistry at the Faculty of Science, where she will focus on identifying new approaches in selective catalysis by utilizing stabilizing interactions with open-shell intermediates and radical transition states. The goal is to develop catalytic systems for the enantioselective abstraction of hydrogen atoms.

Vojtěch Kundrát, who also works at the Department of Chemistry at the Faculty of Science, was successful in the call with the project ActlTube: Encapsulation of Actinide Oxides in Inorganic

Michaela Dzurov Krafčíková studies mitochondria at the Institute of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science. In the MITOCODE project, she aims to investigate the molecular signals that trigger and regulate intercellular mitochondrial transfer. This transfer is critical for tissue regeneration, immune responses, and tumor progression.

Tomáš Janovič works at the National Center for Biomolecular Research at the Faculty of Science. As part of the ENDVISION project, he plans to focus on telomeres, complexes that protect the ends of chromosomes and ensure genome stability. His goal is to create the first structural model of human telomeres, which will reveal telomere-specific vulnerabilities that can be exploited for cancer therapy, while also establishing a widely applicable framework for studying chromatin-protein complexes in their natural environment.