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NF Neuron Awards

Neuron

What are the NF Neuron Awards?

NF Neuron Awards aim to increase the prestige and motivations of scientists, who are bold enough to try and change the future, and to increase the visibility of science and scientists amongst the general public in the Czech Republic. See more details on the NF Neuron website.

Who can apply/be nominated for the NF Neuron Awards?

  • Award for Promising Scientist (Promising): excellent talented researchers with a PhD awarded at most 10 years before the announcement of the call for nominations. Must be a Czech citizen or have permanent residency (“trvalý pobyt”) in the Czech Republic and be able to communicate in Czech or Slovak language.
  • Main Award (Main): excellent scientists (age unrestricted) researching in the Czech Republic or abroad who have, through their discoveries or their long-term work, contributed to the advancement of science, to increase the prestige of the Czech Republic on an international scale and who are role models and inspiration to other members of the scientific community. Must have been born in the Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia) and be a graduate of a Czech university, and must have regular current contact with a Czech institution, e.g. through lecturing.
  • Connecting Science and Business Award: scientists, the transfer team, the business entity, the investor, or a combination of all of these, depending on who has contributed most to a successful transfer of a scientific result from the academic into the commercial realm.

Why apply/be nominated for the NF Neuron Awards?

  • It is a prestigious award that demonstrates your scientific achievements to the wider community.
  • It raises the profile of Czech science in the world.
  • It increases the visibility of excellent science amongst the general public.
  • You get a financial bonus of 500,000 CZK (Promising Scientist) / 1,500,000 CZK (Main).
  • You get an opportunity for mentoring, media coverage and networking with Neuron's business community (Connecting Business and Science).

When to apply/be nominated for the NF Neuron Awards?

The nomination is annually: deadline is at the end of March, nominations generally open in late January/early February.

Nominations must be submitted by deans and rectors of public institutions, directors of academic institutes, representatives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, members of the scientific board of NF Neuron or laureates of previous years’ awards.


  Please consult the Project Office Project Office for help with your nomination, to secure agreement  
  for the director to be your nominator and (if required) to obtain an IOCB recommendation letter.  

How to apply/be nominated for the NF Neuron Awards?

  Promising Scientist Award  
  1. Find and read guidelines (available only in Czech):
  2. Prepare a CV in English (PDF) as part of your application.
  3. Contact the Project Office to secure agreement to be a nominator from the IOCB Director (Please provide us with your application documents).
  4. Complete and upload your application documents on Neuron portal
    • Name of candidate
    • Institution of candidate
    • Field of research of candidate
    • E-mail address and phone number of candidate
    • CV (upload PDF, English)
    • Brief justification of candidate’s nomination (English, max 1000 characters)
    • Name of nominator
    • Institution of nominator
    • E-mail address and phone number of nominator
  5. Submit your application/nomination before the deadline (end of March).


  Neuron Award (Main category)  
  1. Find and read guidelines (available only in Czech):
  2. Prepare a CV in English (PDF) as part of your application.
  3. Contact appropriate people and ask for a Recommendation letter (you must supply at least 2, but can supply 3; one can be from the IOCB Director, see below). These should be converted into PDF format so that they can be uploaded to the nomination site.
  4. Contact the Project Office to secure an optional Recommendation letter from the IOCB and agreement to be a nominator from the IOCB Director (Please provide us with your application documents).
  5. Complete and upload your application documents on Neuron portal
    • Name of candidate
    • Institution of candidate
    • Field of research of candidate
    • E-mail address and phone number of candidate
    • CV (upload PDF, English)
    • Brief justification of candidate’s nomination (English, max 1000 characters)
    • 2-3 recommendation letters (upload PDF, English)
    • Name of nominator
    • Institution of nominator
    • E-mail address and phone number of nominator
  6. Submit your application/nomination before the deadline (end of March).


  Connecting Science and Business Award  
  1. Find and read guidelines (available only in Czech):
  2. Prepare a description of the project that is being nominated (brief annotation, short – max 1000 characters – description of the scientific part and commercial phase of the project, expected economic balance sheet).
  3. Prepare a presentation describing your project transfer (max 10 slides).
  4. Contact the Project Office to secure an optional Recommendation letter from the IOCB and agreement to be a nominator from the IOCB Director (Please provide us with your application documents).
  5. Complete and upload your application documents on Neuron portal
    1. Name of nominator
    2. E-mail address and phone number of nominator
    3. Name of the nominee
    4. Institution of the nominee
    5. E-mail address and phone number of the nominee
    6. Title of project/event
    7. Brief annotation of the nominated project
    8. Short – max 1000 characters – description of the scientific part and commercial phase of the project
    9. Economic balance sheet – including:
      1. the economics of the project to date,
      2. the expected market, its size + justification,
      3. the expected revenues and costs over time, profit,
      4. the need for investment over time, entity using the applied result, justification of nomination)
    10. Justification for the Neuron Connecting Science and Business Award
    11. Name of the entity using the output of the scientific work
    12. Presentation (max 10 slides, PDF format)
    13. (optional) Other relevant documents
  6. Submit your application/nomination before the deadline (end of March).


Contact: Nadace Neuron na podporu vědy / The Neuron Foundation, info@nadaceneuron.cz, Vratislavský palác, Tržiště 366/13, 118 00 Praha 1


IOCB

IOCB awardees (4) of the NF Neuron Awards:

  • Josef Michl: 2016 laureate for the NF Neuron Award for contribution to world science (Neuron website)
  • Petr Cígler: 2017 laureate of the NF Neuron Impuls Award (Neuron website)
  • Hana Cahová Macíčková: 2018 laureate of the NF Neuron Award for young talented researcher (Neuron website)
  • Pavel Hobza: 2022 laureate of the NF Neuron prize in the field of chemistry (Neuron website)
  • Tomáš Slanina: 2023 laureate of the Neuron Prize for promising researchers in the field of chemistry (Neuron website)