Czech Academy of Sciences

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The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) was established by Act No. 283/1992 Coll. as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. It is set up as a complex of 54 public research institutions. The Academy employs over 8,000 employees, more than half of whom are researchers with university degrees.
The primary mission of the CAS and its institutes is to conduct primary research in a broad spectrum of the natural, technical, social, and humanities. This research, whether highly specialized or interdisciplinary, aims to advance scientific knowledge development while also taking into account the specific needs of the Czech society and the national culture. Researchers of the Academy institutes also participate in education, mainly through doctoral study programs for young researchers and by teaching at universities as well. The Academy also fosters collaboration with applied research and industry. Integrating Czech science into the international context is being promoted through numerous joint international research projects and the exchange of scientists with counterpart institutions abroad.
The supreme self-governing body of the CAS is the Academy Assembly, two-thirds of which comprise all Academy institutes, the remaining third being representatives of universities, state administration, business circles, and other notable personalities. The executive body of the Academy is the Academy Council headed by the President of the CAS. The Council for Sciences is primarily engaged in setting science policy of the Academy. Members of each of these Academy bodies are elected for four years. Academy Evaluation Committees, which correspond in their professional fields to respective science sections of the Academy, perform an independent assessment of the quality of research and research objectives of the individual Academy institutes.
The CAS is financed primarily from the state budget. The pattern of research funding at the Academy conforms to current international standards. In addition to primary institutional financing of the Academy institutes' research objectives, target-oriented financing is more widely practiced to carry out research projects and grant projects selected based on free competition.
The CAS was the first institution in the Czech Republic to establish its own Grant Agency, financially supporting research projects selected through a peer-review procedure involving reviewers from abroad. The individual Academy institutes obtain additional financial resources by participating in national as well as international research programs. The CAS has also been assigned financial responsibility for 71 specialized Czech scientific societies associated with the Council of Scientific Societies.

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