Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MOLIPEC (Molecular Life of Plants ERA Chair)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-03-31
Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences together with Prof. Jiří Friml (ISTA) proposed the project “MOLIPEC: Molecular Life of Plants ERA Chair” to create a research centre of excellence in plant molecular biology to improve research quality and capacity of the Biology Centre, the Czech Republic & the ERA. We identified the five most important areas for improvement to reach research excellence that are comprehensively addressed by the MOLIPEC project. These include: (1) lack of independent international advice and evaluation, (2) insufficient and non-consolidated research services and core facilities, (3) no strategy for establishment of new research groups, (4) lack of efficient mentoring, (5) low attractiveness and international visibility.
The first important objective O1 is to strengthen research leadership by establishment of the IPMB International Advisory Board (IPMB IAB) and by organising regular IPMB conferences and IPMB IAB assessment meetings. While IPMB is evaluated in accordance with the rules of the Czech Academy of Science, the institute is missing regular guidance and mentoring on leadership and research development from an international perspective. The ERA Chair as a chair of the IPMB IAB and other outstanding plant molecular biologists are helping to implement European standards of research excellence at IPMB within the MOLIPEC project.
Service units and core facilities, a standard at top research institutions, are missing at IPMB/BC as a relic of past research strategies. This is ineffective, increases the running costs of each group and puts extra burden on PIs to carry out basic routine tasks. The second objective O2 is to establish centralised services and core facilities to increase the quality and efficiency of available services and infrastructure to researchers and to decrease operating costs and unnecessary expenses.
The third objective O3 is to organise international recruitment of two new PIs and to establish two new research groups in plant molecular biology under the supervision of the ERA Chair to complement current research directions and increase the palette of approaches and experimental techniques at the institute.
The fourth objective O4 is to support career development and professional growth of all employees by a new mentoring programme, individual consultations, workshops, networking days, and best practice onsite consultations. The ERA Chair and members of the IPMB IAB are playing a key role in research mentoring.
Progressive research leadership, professional services, state-of-the-art core facilities, excellent research and mentoring programme have been creating a platform for fostering excellence and thus promoting IPMB international visibility. The fifth objective O5 is to ensure national and international attractiveness and visibility by new communication strategy, implementation of web, social media, podcasts to communicate research successes, organisation of plant biology seminars, events for schools and public, international workshops and conferences.
The first important objective O1 is to strengthen research leadership by establishment of the IPMB International Advisory Board (IPMB IAB) and by organising regular IPMB conferences and IPMB IAB assessment meetings. While IPMB is evaluated in accordance with the rules of the Czech Academy of Science, the institute is missing regular guidance and mentoring on leadership and research development from an international perspective. The ERA Chair as a chair of the IPMB IAB and other outstanding plant molecular biologists are helping to implement European standards of research excellence at IPMB within the MOLIPEC project.
Service units and core facilities, a standard at top research institutions, are missing at IPMB/BC as a relic of past research strategies. This is ineffective, increases the running costs of each group and puts extra burden on PIs to carry out basic routine tasks. The second objective O2 is to establish centralised services and core facilities to increase the quality and efficiency of available services and infrastructure to researchers and to decrease operating costs and unnecessary expenses.
The third objective O3 is to organise international recruitment of two new PIs and to establish two new research groups in plant molecular biology under the supervision of the ERA Chair to complement current research directions and increase the palette of approaches and experimental techniques at the institute.
The fourth objective O4 is to support career development and professional growth of all employees by a new mentoring programme, individual consultations, workshops, networking days, and best practice onsite consultations. The ERA Chair and members of the IPMB IAB are playing a key role in research mentoring.
Progressive research leadership, professional services, state-of-the-art core facilities, excellent research and mentoring programme have been creating a platform for fostering excellence and thus promoting IPMB international visibility. The fifth objective O5 is to ensure national and international attractiveness and visibility by new communication strategy, implementation of web, social media, podcasts to communicate research successes, organisation of plant biology seminars, events for schools and public, international workshops and conferences.
In December 2023, the MOLIPEC project reached the first milestone “Strengthened Leadership”. The ERA Chair in plant molecular biology is established. The IPMB International Advisory Board is established, met for the first time in May 2023, concluded strengths and weaknesses of the institute, and gave the first feedback and suggestions for improvement. Seven strategic documents are written, published, and used: IPMB International Advisory Board (27 Feb 2023), IPMB Group Installation Strategy (31 Mar 2023), MOLIPEC Communication, Dissemination, and Exploitation Plan (26 Jun 2023); MOLIPEC Data Management Plan (30 Jun 2023), IPMB Service Group (29 Sep 2023), IPMB Mentoring Programme (29 Sep 2023), and BC Core Facilities (21 Dec 2023). All documents are publicly available at https://molipec.bc.cas.cz/(opens in new window). During the first 15 months, the MOLIPEC project has created key strategic tools of high quality leadership for further development of fair, transparent, predictable, and attractive research institution and has made a significant improve of and positive change to the institute. The IPMB International Advisory Board pointed out the need of a Career Order that would define rights and competencies of researchers and employees at all stages of professional career. This missing document will be prepared in year 2024 as a follow up to the basic set of strategic documents.
Strengthened leadership (milestone M1) will allow establishment and development of high quality and efficient centralised services and infrastructure (milestone M2) in the second phase of the MOLIPEC project that is running now. Both phases will create a high quality working environment with attractive conditions for excellent research in plant molecular biology (milestone M3) and continuous lifelong career development (milestone M4). Three milestones M2-M4 are supposed to be achieved during the second reporting period RP2 by month 36.
Strengthened leadership (milestone M1) will allow establishment and development of high quality and efficient centralised services and infrastructure (milestone M2) in the second phase of the MOLIPEC project that is running now. Both phases will create a high quality working environment with attractive conditions for excellent research in plant molecular biology (milestone M3) and continuous lifelong career development (milestone M4). Three milestones M2-M4 are supposed to be achieved during the second reporting period RP2 by month 36.
During the first reporting period RP1, seven strategic documents were newly written, published, and used: IPMB International Advisory Board (27 Feb 2023), IPMB Group Installation Strategy (31 Mar 2023), MOLIPEC Communication, Dissemination, and Exploitation Plan (26 Jun 2023); MOLIPEC Data Management Plan (30 Jun 2023), IPMB Service Group (29 Sep 2023), IPMB Mentoring Programme (29 Sep 2023), and BC Core Facilities (21 Dec 2023). Several top research institutions have shared with us their best practice with formulation and implementation of important documents and processes. We also reflected current European standards. All our documents are publicly available at https://molipec.bc.cas.cz/(opens in new window) and could inspire other research institutions. We are open to share our experience with other research institutions.