Strengths and weaknesses of the current practice

Ethical and professional aspects

Initial Phase 2021

Strengths:

Freedom of research, respect to ethical principles as well as a professional responsibility. The Institute is well-recognized not only within the Czech Academy of Sciences but also worldwide. Ethics in scientific attitudes are promoted by a long tradition as well as strategic documents, stipulated at the IBP (https://www.; the Organization Code, the Career Code, the Guideline on the Protection of Intellectual Property, the Code of Ethics etc.). Quality of research and management of human resources is also assured through additional internal regulations among other things. See https://www.ibp.cz/en/ for more details on the infrastructure of the Institute.

Technology Transfer Office is not directly available at the Institute due to a low number of employees but commission managing Technology Transfer is under the government of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Dissemination, exploitation of the results and public engagement are the following:

IBP webpage https://www.ibp.cz/en/

Printed magazine (Akademický Buletin), published by Czech Academy of Sciences

Organized “IBP Open Day, Trade Fair of Science, PR activities in Literary Café, etc.

Weaknesses:

External Communication & Employer Branding: visibility of the Institute should be bolstered externally, not only with the Czech Academy of Sciences and local universities. In this regard, the institutional web site should be improved, especially the English version. The web page should be improved in order to appeal to the Institutional Career page.

Missing much information, many rules and training courses in English, we need to improve the language barrier not only for Czech speaking researchers but also for scientists from abroad.

Interim Assessment 2023

STRENGTHS:

The research is focused to expanding knowledge for the good of mankind. Researchers have freedom in the selection of the subject of investigation, freedom of thought and expression, they use all methods available at the Institute. Good practice in research involves adoption of safe working practices and evaluation of the results using advanced scientific algorithms including statistical methods. They recognize limitations related mainly to budgetary and infrastructural reasons as well as intellectual property protection rules that are covered by internal regulation (see "Internal regulation on the protection of intellectual property rights resulting from research, development and innovation activities or created otherwise in the Institute of Biophysics of the CAS, v. v. i ." at our intranet, attached to the IR).

Our researchers recognise ethical principles related to their field of research and rules of work (e.g. working with embryonic stem cells or using ionizing radiation). These standards are documented in the Academic Ethical Codex as well as in the Institutional Ethical Codex (see Ethical Code of the Institute of Biophysics of the CAS - intranet, attached to the IR).

Researchers or the IBP are familiar with the research environment including funding and seek all necessary approvals before starting experiments. Our researchers avoid plagiarism of any kind, they validate new observations and reproduce experiments. They make every effort to ensure that their research is relevant to the society. They carefully select collaborators to be highly qualified and competent for the work required. They also adhere to the principles of sound, transparent and efficient financial management.

All researchers ensure that their results are disseminated and exploited, e.g. communicated, transferred into other research settings or, if appropriate, commercialised. Their research activities are made known to society at large in such a way that they can be understood by non-specialists (see our PR activities - action 11).

WEAKNESSES:

We focus on the visibility and communication of the Institute to be bolstered (see our PR activities at Action 11). We are working on our institutional web site to be improved, especially the English version. This activity will continue in the next period.

A number of important documents have been translated into English. Practically all scientific lectures, workshops and seminars were in the past year in English. We hope, the language barrier for scientists from abroad became less problematic. We will continue our effort to achieve better conditions for scientists from abroad.

Recruitment and selection

Initial Phase 2021

Strengths:

The Institute of the Academy is also known for its strong commitment towards improvement; thus, the Academy of Sciences established a new call for the scientific position, which is the support of so-called “stem” employees.” We believe that this process encourages the employees and guarantees long term sustainability of the high quality of research at the IBP.

Weaknesses:

According to the HR Award questionnaire, several weaknesses have been identified. Employees would like employment contracts with a longer duration than a 1-3 year period. However, the agreed employment duration always corresponds to the reasons on the part of the scientific project duration. Furthermore, according to the HR Award questionnaire the following areas for improvement were identified by researchers:

Well-presented Institutional recruitment policy, fully opened criteria for new employees’ selection. Recommendations related to career breaks (a help to shorten maternity leave – children can be placed at kids’ corner), part-time jobs for parents of children up to 6 years. Home office tools etc.

Establish an HR team for academic positions, department staff and/or non-academic positions.

Financial bonuses for employees: Award for young scientists, The Best Paper of the Year, Application Award, Internal Cooperation Award, Methodological Award, etc.

Missing HR Award training process (employees need to be well-informed about the principles of HR Award and educated in ethical aspects of scientific research.

In the near future we must overcome the language barrier; thus, all institutional regulations and rules must be translated into English.

There is a certain feeling of insecurity among researchers with respect to the duration of their employment contracts, especially in their early stage but not limited to this time frame only.

Missing better visibility of women researchers and better gender & cultural diversity awareness.

Interim Assessment 2023

STRENGTHS:

Working group as well as the management of the Institute focused strongly to the improvement of the recruitment procedures in order to make them as near as possible to the principles and requirements of the Code of Conduct (see Internal Regulation "Recruitment and Selection of Researchers of the Institute of Biophysics of the CAS" from September 16, 2022, the document is attached to the IR). The procedures were open using all available instruments (advertising open positions at our web page, Euroaxess web page as well as in other possible sources of information). Effectiveness has been justified by means of committees specifically established for each position reflecting the needs of evaluation of necessary aspects of the candidates. Transparency consisted in open setting of the procedures (including detailed description of requirements and characteristics of jobs and positions at Euraxess), interviews with candidates, rules of selection, up to sending information about the results to all candidates. In order to document the improvement in detail, we have described the procedures in Action 2 in detail for each position. In order to check the opinion of our employees on the selection procedures we elaborated a questionnaire (on March 2023, i.e. 1 year and 4 months after the awarding of HRAW). The answer to the question "Are the selection procedures for positions at the IBP transparent?" was mostly positive. Many respondents answered "I do not know". It means that most employees are not acquainted with the selection procedure; those who can decide preferably select „Yes“ only with minor exceptions (only in 2 from 37 cases „No“).

WEAKNESSES:

The above mentioned weaknesses involve items that has been at least partially solved. Employees would like employment contracts with a longer duration than a 1-3 year period. The agreed employment duration always corresponds to the reasons on the part of the scientific project duration. In the case of new employees with good results there is always effort to keep them as long as possible (see chapter Evaluations at the Internal Rule: "The Career Development Rules of Research Workers at Institute of Biophysics of the CAS", attached to the IR).

Institutional recruitment policy and its criteria for selection are accessible for our employees at intranet (Internal regulation), therefore the recruitment policy is well-presented. Maternity leave, kids' corner, part-time jobs and home office are involved in separate activities. HR teams for different positions is represented by the HR Working Group with responsibility for the whole recruitment process. The recruitment process and selection will be further improved, particularly for foreign candidates, in the next period of HRAW implementation. This is also related to the improvement of working conditions and training (see the next sections).

Working conditions

Initial Phase 2021

Strengths:

An excellent situation exists in both the research environment and working conditions, in the sense of top infrastructures and facilities which are commonly open and shared among researchers, including the natural cooperation of highly skilled professional teams. The existing system allows adapting to researchers’ specific needs related to their family/work balance, including part-time contracts, flexible working hours, etc. Also, there is the use of kids’ corner; sports room, social events organized within the social fund.

Open spirit is also reflected by natural support and appreciation of co-authorships. The co-authorship of scientific papers are also supported by the newly implemented Czech National Methodology for Evaluating Research Organisations (called „Methodology 17+“). The Czech Academy of Sciences also has its own evaluation tools. Departments of the IBP are also annually evaluated by the Director according to scientometric parameters (measured according to Web of Science parameters) as well as by the International Scientific Advisory Board that was established in 2018 at the IBP.

Other principles are also naturally implemented, such as intellectual property rights (principle 31), wherein training as well as implementation are assured through the Centre for Technology Transfer of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Researchers of the IBP also work as voluntary mentors and lecturers at universities (e.g. Masaryk University in Brno, Palacký University in Olomouc, etc.) Thus, equal demands and synergies in research and teaching (principle 33) are naturally implemented.

A democratic and open system (principle 35) is maintained by IBP management and the Council of the Institute.

Weaknesses:

The outcome from the Gap Analysis is the following:

Concerning international cooperation, a financial contribution for research team members’ mobility (principle 29) is ensured at the IBP by means of the Division of international cooperation of the Czech Academy of Sciences. However, support of mandatory international mobility of PhD students employed at the IBP is missing. Therefore, it should be introduced (was introduced at the beginning of 2021). Rules for this support should be determined by a specific regulation. The regulation will be published on the IBP web page.

According to the gap analysis questionnaire, there are the following issues:

Missing internal institutional communication. This point will be improved via WG cooperation with individual department leaders. Institutional HR Award intranet was established in 2020-2021 and many institution rules were (will be) translated from Czech language into English and published on the HRS4R IBP web page.

High administrative loads - these must be reduced.

A lack of ecological activities.

Increase in financial bonuses

Information strategy of the IBP management must be bolstered.

IT system must be improved - a new PC infrastructure and update of webpages.

Interim Assessment 2023

STRENGTHS:

In spite of the fact that the financial situation worsened due to covid and subsequent conflict at Ukraine, the infrastructures and facilities commonly used by our researchers have been extended from institutional funding by several relatively small but important investments: modular screening station (ScanR), computer cluster graphical cards, microscope laser, hypoxic working box, trans-epithelial electric resistance station, centrifuge with supplementary equipment, computers for working offices, cell incubator, and some smaller equipment. We try to keep the research environment and working conditions at the best possible level. The infrastructure is open for common use and shared among researchers. Its performance is guaranteed by highly skilled professional teams.

Regulation for working conditions (attached) allows adapting to researchers’ specific needs related to their family/work balance, including part-time contracts, flexible working hours, etc. For our employees, there is also the use of kids’ corner and sports room (see Action 9 and Action 14). Social events are organized within the social fund (see Action 7).

An important part of working conditions is the evaluation of the results and their authors. General evaluation of the Institute is performed each year by the Czech national methodology called „M17+“ (the results are published at https://hodnoceni.rvvi.cz/ ). Our Institute has been ranked "A" as one of the best research organizations in the Czech republic. On the other hand, the Czech Academy of Sciences has its own evaluation procedure involving deeper insight at the level of departments. The latest evaluation has been performed in 2020 (period 2015-2019) with rather positive results (see the attached "BFU report of evaluation in 2020"). As a result, our budget has been increased by approximately 4%. The IBP departments are annually evaluated by the Director according to scientometric parameters (measured according to Web of Science parameters) as well as by the International Scientific Advisory Board that was established in 2018 at the IBP. IBP evaluates also young scientists and students (see Action 13). In addition, at the end of 2022, the following prizes have been awarded: Awards for the best postdoc research results (2 prizes), Awards for the best publications (2 prizes), Award for young scientists, Award for the best application, Award for internationalization, and Cooperation Award (see Action 5). These employees have also obtained financial bonuses. Regular and standard evaluation of all employees is accomplished using attestations (see Action 6) improving working conditions of our employees.

Other principles are also naturally implemented, such as intellectual property rights (see attached regulation), wherein training as well as implementation are assured through the Centre for Technology Transfer of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Specific courses on topics required by scientists improve the professionalism and research standards at the Institute (see Action 8). Lectures of famous foreign scientists as well as other workshops and conferences also contribute substantially to the improvement of professional level of our scientists (see Action 10).

We maintained democratic and open system in the recruitment and selection at IBP for both national and foreign scientists (see the section on recruitment and Action 2).

WEAKNESSES:

Concerning international cooperation, a financial contribution for the mobility of PhD students employed at the IBP has been established (see regulation on "Internal Support of Mobility Program"). The regulation has been published on the IBP web page (intranet pages).

Missing internal institutional communication has been improved via WG cooperation with individual department leaders. In addition, specific award for collaborative publications has been introduced. Evaluation of common publications from 2020 and 2021 years has been performed with the target to improve internal communication. Number of publications in 2020: 6, 2021: 7. Collaboration and communication between departments of our Institute can be seen particularly between DCBE (E. Bártová) and DME (A. Kovařík), DCBE and DSDNA (J. Šponer); DME and DSDNA; DBNA (D. Renčiuk) and DBCHMO (M. Fojta). Publications in pdf can be seen here. We will continue with this activity in future.

Improved working conditions for foreign employees has been achieved by means of translation of many important documents into English (practically all most important documents).

High administrative loads to department leaders and other scientists have been reduced by means of introducing "Project manager" position. We hope, it will not only reduce the administrative loads in the case of writing the project but also increase the effectiveness in project application.

The lack of ecological activities have been improved introducing several actions: 1) Riding by bike to working place, Timing: May 1-31, 2022, Target: contribution to energy saving, Number of participants: 20 (invitation can be seen at our web page), 2) Cleaning the territory of the Institute. Timing: April 16, 2022. Target: Ecological activity. Number of participants: 30 (pictures: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). These activities will be continued.

Increase in financial bonuses has been achieved by awarding a number of different aspects of scientific work (see Action 5).

Information strategy of the IBP management has been substantially bolstered (see Action 11, PR activities)

IT system must be improved - a new PC infrastructure and update of webpages - this weakness is in the process of improvement (PR specialist has been employed as a new position).

Training and development

Initial Phase 2021

Strengths:

Although some improvements are needed, certain aspects of Continuing Professional Development (principle 38) and Access to research training and continuous development (principle 39).

Weaknesses:

Based on the Gap Analysis, we will organize courses (that are missing) of biostatistics, graphics and we will bolster language courses and courses aimed at the management of science.

Missing well-developed educational process for postdoctoral research fellows and training for early-stage researchers in academic writing and publishing.

Insufficiency in professional leadership and communication skills and time management also applicable for senior researchers.

There are not too many lectures provided by foreign scientists working at worldwide recognized laboratories.

Interim Assessment 2023

STRENGTHS:

In order to achieve continual professional development of our scientists, we organize regular courses on various aspects of research and scientific life starting from writing scientific articles (EMBO course), communication skills, biostatistics, Excel standard and advanced use, graphics, language courses and courses on the management of sciences. In order to improve awareness of our employees about gender issues, we elaborated Gender Equality Plan (see the attached GEP) and organized several actions to realize it.

Professional development of young scientists is increased also by means of improved mobility activities under new regulation (see Action 1). They also participate at workshops and conferences at national as well as international level. In order to bolster biophysical aspect of professional development at the Institute, we established the Czech Biophysical Association, which will ensure information sources related to the international IUPAB body and organize its own international conferences (see Action 10, Conference of CBA).

WEAKNESSES:

The activities in the previous period improved the weaknesses mentioned in the Initial Phase. We will continue to achieve further improvement.

Have any of the priorities for the short- and medium term changed? (max 500 words)

We have developed the Gender Equality Plan that involves description of the current status and actions to improve it (GEP). Owing to the fact that gender issues represent an indispensable part of HR aspects, new Action on Gender Issues have been added to the HR Award Action Plan in order to coordinate these activities.

Our approach to data management have been developed and published at our web pages (see https://www.ibp.cz/en/about-ibp/open-data-and-it-network-rules ). Open science also represent an important aspect of HR and, therefore, it is involved in the Action Plan.

This year finished the first term of Prof. Eva Bártová as the director of IBP. On 14.3. the Academic Commission elected Prof. Eva Bártová for the second term (the title page of her presentation is here), which was approved by the Council of the Institute as well as by the Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The "Future directions" from her presentation can be seen here). The strategic priorities for the next period involve a number of points related to HR Award Implementation, e.g. "Support of teams presentations for public", "Support of academic freedom of teams", "Support of pre-gradual and post-gradual education of students", "Focus to the quality and deepening of international collaboration", "Social activities", "Support of parents working in science", etc. In the presentation of Eva Bártová, the Institute has been evaluated as one of the best in the Czech Academy of Sciences. As a striking weakness, the gender-imbalance in leadership positions have been pointed out, which contrasts with the demographics of students, post-docs and junior scientists. Steps should be put in place to encourage gender diversity in leadership positions (graph). HR Award represents one of the most important steps in the future (conclusions).

Have any of the circumstances in which your organisation operates, changed and as such have had an impact on your HR strategy? (max 500 words)

On May 11, 2022, we established an Application Laboratory for Agriculture Biotechnologies (Press Release see here) connecting biotechnological research in the Institute with private companies engaged in agriculture, food and breeding. This platform has been established from the support of the project "Potraviny AV21" and belongs to the net of similar laboratories. The establishment of the laboratory is more important for the institute strategy, however, it will contribute to the improvement of the working conditions and thus there is also substantial contribution to the HR strategy.

Are any strategic decisions under way that may influence the action plan? (max 500 words)

We have established Czech Biophysical Association (the seat at the Institute of Biophysics, CAS). The statutes of the association have been signed on October 27, 2022. The first meeting has been held on June 23-24, 2022 at Třešt. The goals of the association are: organization of various professional or social events focusing on the field of biophysics or other disciplines for both members of the association and the general scientific community, assistance in achieving and subsequent dissemination of scientific research results, organization, deepening and coordination of cooperation among association members each other and with other entities operating in the field of biophysics or other disciplines, the association's participation in various scientific organizations or other entities or the creation of an institutionalized forum enabling effective communication between the members of the association and their joint communication with third parties. International conference „Focus on microscopy and biophysical methods“ in the New Castle in the South Bohemia has been organized on June 7-9, 2023. Contribution to the HR strategy is obvious.

We have decided to apply for HRAW support in the frame of OP JAK programme. The call will be announced in the beginning of 2024. It will be possible to apply for support of all basic needs – salaries for HRAW team, support of courses, education and mobility of young researchers, development of data management plan hardware, support of PR activities, etc.