Requested budget: 2.656.360 EUR

The proposed project aims at prevention of inappropriate or unnecessary use of antibiotics. The planned activities are a reaction to the rise of antibiotic resistance, which is caused mainly by overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine, as well as by insufficient prevention measures and infection control facilitating the spread of resistant microbes in healthcare facilities and among general population. The main activity of the project will be social mass-media campaign aimed at general public. The aim of the activity is to increase awareness of general public about the risks of inappropriate use of antibiotics and build sustainable approach in the society to the wise use of antibiotics. The second part of the project is oriented towards health care providers. Guidelines for health care providers, mainly general practitioners and paediatricians, on rational use of antibiotics will be developed and introduced to health care providers at seminars across the Czech Republic. Based on data obtained from health insurance companies, the selected health care providers will be also offered feedback with regard to the use of antibiotics in their own practices. An increased level of awareness on importance of rational use of antibiotics and promotion of tailored treatment recommendations should contribute to the stop of increasing trends of antibiotic consumption in the Czech Republic.

Applicant: The National Institute of Public Health

Requested budget: 951.333 EUR

Effective utilization of locally produced electric energy from renewable energy sources (RES) represents a fundamental issue of their application growth in local grids. Difference in peaks between energy production and demand is at present being balanced through transferring excessive energy into general electricity network, which causes problems with its control. The ability to accumulate, store and efficiently distribute the electric energy at places of its usage therefore remains one of the research challenges in the field of Energy. Our research team aims to propose a solution allowing local accumulation of excessive energy in hydrogen storage tanks achieving high consecutive converse efficiency. By means of installation and operation of such testing facility in conditions of local micro grid together with development of novel alloys for hydrogen storage, we want to prove abilities of this advanced technology in real-life conditions. This project targets operational analysis and optimization of energy conversion including produced electric energy and secondary heat in storage system featuring state-of-the-art storage tank technology. Developing novel alloys allowing increased rate of stored hydrogen and improved absorption and desorption is the first step to develop experimental storage tank. New control systems of hydrogen facility are an essential part of successful operation in a micro grid and as such these will be developed during the prototype testing. The proposed bilateral project will enhance research cooperation between involved partners and provide new, high quality outputs in actual topic. Mutual knowledge transfer and support for young researchers are inseparable components of the project. Young researchers will participate in all research stages so they may acquire new skills and knowledge from their experienced colleagues.

Applicant: Czech Technical University

Requested budget: 693.600 EUR

The project is focused on the Health Care and Children prevention in the Czech Republic, especially at fight against the obesity. One of the goals of the project is to offer integrated strategy ensuring the prevention of metabolic syndrome development related to children, due to the well-timed diagnostics and treatment of the obesity. The result of this strategy will be the future reduction of the expenses of the Czech Health System related to the treatment of obesity and its complications.

Applicant: Institute of Endocrinology

Requested budget: 351.461 EUR

Project aims to efficiently contribute to systematic prevention of drug addictions in youth in the Czech Republic. The project is organised as an educational programme with a consecutive intervention for paediatricians. The project results will also serve as a backgroung for creation of a website for support and further education of paediatricians in the field of prevention of addictive drugs use in youth. Within the framework of the project, which is proposed to run for 2,5 years (30 months), an effective method of screening, consulting and brief intervention in the field of prevention of addictive drugs use in the age range 12 - 17 (the time period when children and adolescents most frequently start using drugs.) Efficiency of this method will be verified in coopeation with paediatricians from regions, that are most affected by this matter (Region Ústí nad Labem, Moravian - Silesian, South Moravian and Prague).

Applicant: Psychiatric Center Prague

Requested budget: 896.148 EUR

The main project objective is to develop methodology and collect appropriate data for optimisation of concrete utilization, based on the prediction of its behaviour and durability within entire life cycle (LC) of concrete structures. The aim is twofold: (i) to reduce environmental impacts caused by production of concrete and (ii) to increase performance quality and economy of concrete structures. Research as such represents an important contribution to efficiency of the design and construction processes of sustainable society. The project brings in the important novelty of coherent integration of modelling of environmental characteristics, structural non-linearity, uncertainties, and degradation of concrete in structural LC analysis within a complex framework. Such integration will result in time-dependent reliability measures as performance parameters of structures.

Applicant: Czech Technical University

Requested budget: 933.815 EUR

Leishmaniasis is a serious vector-borne parasitic disease affecting more than 12 million people worldwide, including the Southern Europe. The present knowledge on factors affecting Leishmania life cycle is limited and the current spread of the disease and emergence of Leishmania resistance to antimonial drugs stress the need for new strategies to control this disease. In our current and previous research we study Leishmania development and interaction with vectors (phlebotomine sand flies) and mammalian host. In this project we focus on processes playing a role in Leishmania development in sand flies, transmission to the host, parasite differentiation and genetic exchange between different Leishmania strains. Aims of the project include analyzes of the whole genome transcriptome of three main life-cycle stages (amastigotes, pro- and metacyclic promastigotes), comparison of gene expression profiling of virulent/avirulent Leishmania strains, analysis of genetically modified Leishmania strains and identification of molecular virulence factors. We also aim to study molecular factors affecting sand fly vector competence for various Leishmania species; particular attention will be given to genetically-modified or drug-resistant strains and evaluation of the risk of their circulation through sand flies. Knowledge of factors affecting Leishmania life cycle, genetic exchange and transmission is fundamental to understanding a complicated epidemiology of leishmaniases. Detailed information about Leishmania differentiation process and virulent factors would help to develop stage-specific therapeutic strategies and select targets for new drugs or candidates for future vaccines.

Applicant: Charles University

Requested budget: 336.000 EUR

Number of persons with a brain damage is 149.6 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants. So a year nearly 15,000 people suffer a brain injury, mostly in their productive age. Different high degree of brain damage is as a result of the most frequent automobile accidents. Mild brain injuries subside by nausea, severe injuries then mean at best incompetent person living in the care of family members. In the worst case, the patient is placed in long-term care, who is excluded from any social group and has no chance of returning to everyday life. Aim of the project corresponds to challenge FM Norway in the priority area 3.2, thus improving access to social services in all 14 regions of the Czech Republic in healthcare. Social service is aimed at a specific target group - patients who have medium and heavy brain injury and their families. Thus the project focuses on the creation of an electronic portal that will facilitate better awareness of lay (families of patients, patients - the primary target group of the project) and professional (physician neurological hospital departments - the secondary target group of the project) public, as well as the exchange of information and experience among experts (tertiary target group of the project) in the field of cognitive rehabilitation. The main output of this 3-year project (36 months) will be working on-line electronic platform providing information about cognitive rehabilitation for the general public and experts. This platform will serve primarily as: a place of exchange of information professionals in the form of a moderated discussion forum, as well as the directory containing regularly updated database of sites that provide services within their cognitive rehabilitation and their specialization, and also as a source of information for family members of patients who are looking for a complete and current information on the rehabilitation of people with brain damage.

Applicant: Psychiatric Center Prague

Requested budget: 896.185 EUR

The main project objective is to develop methodology and collect appropriate data for optimisation of concrete utilization, based on the prediction of its behaviour and durability within entire life cycle (LC) of concrete structures. The aim is twofold: (i) to reduce environmental impacts caused by production of concrete and (ii) to increase performance quality and economy of concrete structures. Research as such represents an important contribution to efficiency of the design and construction processes of sustainable society. The project brings in the important novelty of coherent integration of modelling of environmental characteristics, structural non-linearity, uncertainties, and degradation of concrete in structural LC analysis within a complex framework. Such integration will result in time-dependent reliability measures as performance parameters of structures.

Applicant: Czech Technical University

Requested budget: 1.762.940 EUR

The rare diseases (RD) patients comprise ~5% of the Europe population. As RD diagnostic challenges can only be addressed by shared solutions, we propose to establish an undiagnosed rare diseases program within Central/Eastern-Europe (CEE) by digitalized phenotyping based on human phenotype ontology (HPO), together with whole genome sequencing (WGS), followed by artificial intelligence (AI)-based bioinformatics. We aim to utilize a unique variant database which complements underrepresentation of variants from studied populations in commonly used international databases. The main objective is to identify genetic causes in the most severe RD-undiagnosed cases in CEE populations. We aim to increase the detection rate up to 50% by using WGS. First, we will clinically describe patients with standardized HPO phenotype data, followed by a WGS and bioinformatics methods. These methods will be transferred to CEE partners allowing for standardized analysis of the entire genome. The main project output will be establishment of a standardized cohort of RD phenotypes and WGS data to identify disease-causing variants in at least 100 RD trios (child-mother-father). The project outcomes will also foster precision medicine treatments and/or drug repurposing, as shown in our preliminary results. Moreover, the detection of causative variants has direct impact on family planning via targeted preimplantation or prenatal diagnostics.

Applicant: Charles University