Science at FSV UK: The faculty's Brainstorm initiative supports new research ideas. First workshop helped develop global network for large project research
Science at FSV UK: The faculty's Brainstorm initiative supports new research ideas. First workshop helped develop global network for large project research
Online discussions have led to the creation of a network of 35 researchers from 27 countries around the world within a few months. The GRASP initiative, co-founded by Petr Witz from the Institute of Sociological Studies FSV UK, connects experts working on large projects and their sustainability. An important impetus for the further development of the network was its first joint meeting, which was made possible by the new faculty program Brainstorm.
Ten researchers gathered for the two-day meeting, with other colleagues joining remotely. The result is a concrete work plan for the next year and an outlook for the next three years. “The first hybrid meeting enabled by the faculty program Brainstorm was in many ways a breakthrough and an impetus for the further development of the GRASP network. It generated a whole range of new, stimulating ideas and specific tasks,” says Witz. “The FSV UK has also demonstrated that it can play a leading and coordinating role in similar international research initiatives.”
Joint discussion of new research topics is at the heart of the Brainstorm program, which focuses on a phase of research for which there is often not much space left in normal academic operations: developing new ideas through open scholarly discussion. “Academics are under great pressure to publish, submit grants and produce demonstrable results relatively quickly,” explains Arnošt Veselý, Vice-Dean for Science and Research at FSV UK, who initiated the program. “This is largely understandable, but the side effect is that there is surprisingly little time and space left for truly open and creative scholarly discussions. Yet these are often where the most interesting research questions and findings arise.”