Prague/Brussels, September 5, 2024 - Charles University, and with it Czech science, has received another large financial injection for its research. Michal Smetana from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University has been awarded a grant from the European Research Council (ERC) of more than one million euros for his MICROCODE project, which will study the stability of military alliances.

"Receiving this ERC grant is great news and the future researcher, Assoc. Smetana and his team are to be congratulated. The project is not only important thematically, but also symbolically and motivational for other researchers in the social sciences and humanities. After Dr. Kuzmičová's success last year, this is another piece of the puzzle. "It's worth it" also in the social sciences and humanities, and I believe there will be more successes in the coming years. At the same time, this is another successful project that builds on the support of the university's PRIMUS program, which is also important for university policy," said Ladislav Krištoufek, Vice Rector for Scientific and Creative Activities at Charles University.

Associate Professor Smetana, who is also the director of the university's research center of excellence Peace Research Center Prague (PRCP) and the head of the Experimental Lab for International Security Studies (ELISS), received the ERC Starting Grant together with his team. The MICROCODE project will allow him to investigate how public opinion influences military alliances.

"We are drawing on the latest findings in experimental political science, security studies, and political psychology. We then use this knowledge to develop a new theoretical model that links changes in public opinion in allied states to decision-making at the highest political levels," explains Michal Smetana, who also points out a novelty in the project's methodology. "The project focuses primarily on public attitudes in allied states and their influence on collective security decision-making. With Russian aggression in Ukraine, fears of a Chinese attack on Taiwan, and escalating violence in the Middle East, the question of alliance commitments is a key international security issue today. Thanks to the ERC funding, we now have the opportunity to test our theoretical models using experimental methods on large samples of the public and political elites in NATO member states," the researcher added.

"For FSV UK, winning the ERC Starting Grant is a confirmation of the ever-increasing quality of its research in a challenging international competition. I believe it opens the door for other successful applicants for this and other prestigious grants. The Faculty has been striving for a long time to support cutting-edge research activities, and as Dean I am very pleased with every such success," emphasized Tomáš Karásek, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University.

Associate Professor Michal Smetana is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of International Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, Director of the University's Peace Research Center of Excellence (PRCP) and Head of the Experimental Lab for International Security Studies (ELISS). He received his Ph.D. in International Relations from Charles University and passed the habilitation exam at Masaryk University in Political Science. Previously, he was also a visiting researcher at Stanford University in California, the Stockholm Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Frankfurt Peace Research Institute (PRIF). His research and teaching focus on topics linking security studies, international relations and political psychology, with an emphasis on nuclear and chemical weapons, arms control and disarmament, WMD proliferation, deterrence theory, international norms and experimental methods. He is the author of several scholarly books and numerous articles in top scientific journals.

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