Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MOLIPEC (Molecular Life of Plants ERA Chair)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-04-01 bis 2025-12-31
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.
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.
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 MOLIPEC project reached four milestones by the end of December 2025.
M1 Strengthened leadership: The ERA Chair in plant molecular biology was established. The IPMB International Advisory Board was established. The IPMB IAB met two times and other two meetings are planned for years 2026 and 2027. Seven strategic documents were 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/(öffnet in neuem Fenster).
M2 Centralised services and facilities: New office, laboratory, and storage space was prepared and has been in used by ERA Chair researchers. IPMB Service Group has been established and provided services to researcher groups. BC Growth Facility, BC Bioimaging Facility and BC Outreach Facility have been developed.
M3 Established new research groups: Two new research group leaders were recruited and appointed and two new research groups in Plant Cell Morphogenesis and Plant Terrestrialisation were established.
M4 Advanced skills and knowledge: New Mentoring Program was created. 111 hours of individual consultations were provided. 44 days of best practice onsite consultations (BPC) at 16 institutions were organised. BC employees attended 4 BC workshops, 24 external workshops, and 9 networking events organised or supported by the project. 80 Plant Sciences Seminars were held in České Budějovice and 59 guest speakers (21 from the Czech Republic + 38 from abroad) visited the Biology Centre.
M1 Strengthened leadership: The ERA Chair in plant molecular biology was established. The IPMB International Advisory Board was established. The IPMB IAB met two times and other two meetings are planned for years 2026 and 2027. Seven strategic documents were 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/(öffnet in neuem Fenster).
M2 Centralised services and facilities: New office, laboratory, and storage space was prepared and has been in used by ERA Chair researchers. IPMB Service Group has been established and provided services to researcher groups. BC Growth Facility, BC Bioimaging Facility and BC Outreach Facility have been developed.
M3 Established new research groups: Two new research group leaders were recruited and appointed and two new research groups in Plant Cell Morphogenesis and Plant Terrestrialisation were established.
M4 Advanced skills and knowledge: New Mentoring Program was created. 111 hours of individual consultations were provided. 44 days of best practice onsite consultations (BPC) at 16 institutions were organised. BC employees attended 4 BC workshops, 24 external workshops, and 9 networking events organised or supported by the project. 80 Plant Sciences Seminars were held in České Budějovice and 59 guest speakers (21 from the Czech Republic + 38 from abroad) visited the Biology Centre.
All strategic documents (incl. IPMB International Advisory Board, IPMB Group Installation Strategy, IPMB Service Group, IPMB Mentoring Programme, MOLIPEC Communication, Dissemination, and Exploitation Plan, MOLIPEC Data Management Plan) are publicly available at https://molipec.bc.cas.cz/(öffnet in neuem Fenster) and could inspire other research institutions. We are open to share our experience with other research institutions.
The MOLIPEC project initiated establishment of BC Outreach Facility and supported development of educational laboratory OpenLab České Budějovice. This activity already attracted other public and private funding of EUR 734,000. The concept of modern education in life sciences will be spread around the Europe in the following years under OpenLab Network brand.
The MOLIPEC project initiated establishment of BC Outreach Facility and supported development of educational laboratory OpenLab České Budějovice. This activity already attracted other public and private funding of EUR 734,000. The concept of modern education in life sciences will be spread around the Europe in the following years under OpenLab Network brand.