UCT Prague successful in the prestigeous MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship call

Two new holders of the prestigious EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA PF) will join UCT Prague. These grants enable talented postdocs to implement their own excellent research project and boost their career development.

Dr. Emilia Jakubowska from Poznań University of Medical Sciences received an exceptional 100% evaluation score for her project "Advanced manufacturing of drug substances by co-processing with excipients through heteronucleation in a milifluidic device (ManCoProc)". Supervised by prof. František Štěpánek, the fellowship will be implemented at the Department of Chemical Engineering during 19 months, incl. 3 months of "non-academic placement" at Zentiva.

Dr. Yirong Zhao succeeded with her two-year project "Developing high-energy tellurium/selenium redox-amphoteric conversion cathode chemistry for aqueous aluminum batteries (TSRA)". After completing her current postdoc at the Technische Universität Dresden, she will join the group of prof. Zdeněk Sofer at the Department of Inorganic Chemistry.

Another 14 projects achieved sufficient evaluation score to obtain synergic funding from the OP JAK programme, for which the Project Center is preparing a joint application (joint project Chemfells VII). In total, 16 of the 25 submitted proposals are thus eligible for funding from one of the available sources, same as in the 2022 call.

UCT Prague thus confirmed the success of previous years and once again ranked among the most successful Czech institutions. Out of the total number of 8039 submitted projects, 1249 will be funded, 12 of them to the Czech Republic institutions. Currently, 5 MSCA PF projects are implemented at UCT Prague (incl. 2 from a specific call for Ukrainian researchers) and 11 MSCA PF projects financed by OP JAK (Chemfells V and VI projects).

• Results MSCA PF 2023:

University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (UCT Prague) is pleased to announce the successful conclusion of an intensive educational program for a group of 10 university students from NIMS University Jaipur. This unique program, which lasted from September 25 to November 18, combined theoretical instruction in chemistry with practical experience acquired during a two-week period.

Advanced Educational Program for Students from NIMS University Jaipur

The program offered by UCT Prague was carefully designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of various aspects of chemistry, from theory to practical application. The course was divided into several segments, ensuring that students gained a deep understanding of the subject and practical skills.

Block Teaching: The program began with two weeks of block teaching, covering approximately 10 courses in half-day sessions. Topics included raw material sources for the chemical industry, chemical technologies, process design, technical catalysis, and chemical product safety. Typical Laboratory Tasks: Students participated in laboratory tasks, divided into five groups and rotating through 1-2 day tasks. Safety training was provided collectively and then specifically for individual tasks. Project: Students worked on projects in groups of three, involving laboratory measurements, evaluation, protocol, and a joint presentation.

Practical Training at ORLEN Unipetrol: Intensive Experience in the Petrochemical Industry

The final part of the program was conducted in collaboration with ORLEN Unipetrol in Litvínov, where students completed a two-week internship in a petrochemical operation. This practical module gave students the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge gained at UCT Prague in a real industrial environment.

The ORLEN Unipetrol internship program included:

Initial training, first aid, fire safety training Familiarization with multiskilling and a training unit Operator training simulator for DCPD Work with distillation columns and a training laboratory Tours of the operation

This diverse and intensive program allowed students from NIMS University Jaipur to not only expand their academic horizons but also gain valuable practical experience, which will be key to their future careers in the field of chemistry.

This educational project is an example of successful international cooperation in education, strengthening the relationship between UCT Prague and NIMS University Jaipur. We expect similar initiatives to continue developing and strengthening scientific and academic cooperation between the Czech Republic and India."

UCT Prague ranks well among Czech universities and 556th overall in the QS World University Rankings

A small ratio of students to an instructor traditionally count most in terms of solid QS World University Rankings. Individual educational support and the involvement of students in research earned UCT Prague 35th place in the world—and first in Czechia—for this criterion in this year’s ranking.

After the QS methodology was expanded this year to evaluate nine different parameters, UCT Prague placed fourth among Czech universities, dropping two places compared to last year. UCT Prague monitors its position in several ranking systems, all of which have different methodologies and resultant rankings. UCT Prague is rather unique in Europe due to its small size and chemistry focus, and this also impacts rankings.

“My comments are similar every year. University rankings are good for holding up a mirror to ourselves, spurring us to think about what others are doing differently and what we could improve. But they have a downside, because trying to improve rankings at all costs can lead to the pursuit of numbers that correspond to a certain ranking methodology at the expense of quality. We Czechs have experience with this because of our research evaluation system. Let’s try to make the right decisions, even if sometimes they can be politically bold and unpleasant for some. I believe that, in the long term, making the right decisions will have a positive impact in terms of rankings as well,” says Pavel Matějka, UCT Prague Rector.

UCT Prague’s international environment, with a high (by Czech standards) percentage of international students, contributed to this year’s good placement. In recent years, UCT Prague has also attracted international researchers, both of which contributed to UCT Prague ranking 201st in the international criterion.

Other Czech universities (16 in total) were also ranked. The largest, Charles University, placed 248th in the world. Masaryk University ranked 400th; and CTU Prague, 454th.

More detailed information about the QS World University Rankings, including methodology, are on the 2024 website.