The many projects of the Faculty of Science of the University of Hradec Králové: More than 12 projects supported by the Czech Science Foundation and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic have been put on the table over 2018

 Together with a further 2 projects that the Faculty of Science of the University of Hradec Králové won in 2017, a total of 12 projects were run in 2018. “It’s actually an awesome amount of projects given that the Faculty was established in 2010. And going back in the history of our University we see that in what concerns projects funded by the Czech Technology Agency this is the highest number of projects obtained in any specific time period by a single faculty of the University of Hradec Králové,” says Vice-Dean for Science, Research and External Affairs, Assistant Professor Štěpán Hubálovský, and he adds: “It is also proof that the Faculty has basic and applied research developing uniformly.”

And so, in 2018, the Faculty of Science worked on 6 GA ČR projects (one junior project and 5 standard projects) and 6 TA ČR projects (one under the Éta programme and 5 under the Epsilon programme). Projects were awarded to all five faculty departments: The Department of Chemistry, Department of Physics, Department of Biology, Department of Cybernetics and the Department of Mathematics. “The fact that the departments have succeeded in their efforts is mainly due to them having well-prepared all the project applications and also thanks to all the qualified experts working at the individual departments. Also important is the timeliness and the great contributions of the project topics in terms of both basic and applied research,” notes the Vice-Dean, Mr. Hubálovský.

Notwithstanding the fact that success goes hand in hand with highly qualified academic workers, the new building constructed in the Na Soutoku campus into which the Faculty moved around the turn of the year 2017 has been a positive supporting factor: “Many colleagues now have excellent working conditions – be that in terms of the size of  the premises and the number of laboratories at their disposal, which makes it much easier to put together well-qualified research teams, or the state of the art equipment, purchased on a regular basis, located at the individual workplaces. All this is reflected in the effective work that they do and I will even go as far as to say that it is also thanks to this support that so many successful projects could see the light of day,” adds Assistant Professor Hubálovský.

The projects are already showing results, as mentioned, for example, by Assistant Professor Anton Galaev, the main researcher in a project funded by the Czech Science Foundation and referred to as Singular Spaces from Special Holonomy and Foliations:  “A further 5 research workers from the Department of Mathematics of the Faculty of Science of the University of Hradec Králové and also 2 workers from the Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences are working on the project with me. Our primary output so far this year is the preprint of an article that we have been working on together with Assistant Professor Yaroslav Bazaykin, (O charakteristických třídách foliaci kodimneze jedna) (https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.01143). We expect the other project teams to produce their results shortly.”

Another successful project is led by Dr. Lenka Plavcová. She has taken on a junior GA ČR project that concentrates on the Trade-off between the radial growth of a trunk and a fruit yield in relation to the characteristics of xylem in regards to grafted apple trees and pear trees: The aim of the project is to better understand the division of resources between vegetative growth and fruit production while taking into consideration the structural and functional characteristics of xylem. During a vegetative season, we monitored, for example, the growth response of trees using automatic dendrometers and we measured photosynthetic parameters and water potential during an ever increasing period of drought. These data shed light on the impact droughts have on the growth and the physiological state of fruit trees. We also measured anatomic-wise in detail the structural characteristics of xylem in (wood), sprigs and roots. The analytical data were then compared with the growth potential of fruit trees and their predisposition to alternating productiveness.”

That is not, however, all the Faculty of Science of the University of Hradec Králové has to offer and it plans to file more project applications in the future.