So, we got PP4. No, it is not a new parking fee or another obligatory acronym to add to the collection of institutional mantras. Subprogramme 4 of the Czech Health Research Council is a way leading towards continuation of NICR – and a confirmation that we have a decent chance of maintaining and further developing what we have built together. We did well in the evaluation of applications. In fact, we were the best of all evaluated projects in the competition. That is nice, but one also needs to add that with the good evaluation we also got some very tangible obligations.
PP4 is not a ‘subsidy to survive’ but an obligation to prove that NICR will continue to function as a well-consolidated multidisciplinary national authority that can back up its achievements by certain parameters. And that includes not only publications and projects but also education, communication, and openness to patients, state authorities, and the general public.
This is where indicators come into play. For instance, by 2030 we should increase the annual number of seminars for schools and early career researchers to at least 17, of workshops to 38, and the number of summer schools from two to four. We should also increase the number of qualification theses and the number of our institutions with HR Award. And it should be visible: it is envisaged that, every year, we should produce at least 16 reports for the media, at least 10 events for the general public, and 5 events for patient organisations. We should also be more active in social media and increase our media presence.
In other words: it is not enough that individual teams do top science – after all, that is what they did already before the beginning of the NICR project period and why they joined our consortium. We must also work with the talents of junior researchers, create further links between the teams and the national infrastructure, communicate, and show why cancer research benefits the society. Numbers are the kind of outcome that can be checked but their meaning is in what they are based on, what they actually describe.
That’s what the main significance of PP4 rests in. Czech academic oncology has never had this level of interconnection and collaboration. For the very first time, we have a somewhat longer-term framework within which research teams and institutions from across the country can cooperate and jointly create something that transcends particular grants and individual teams. NICR was not a one-off project but the foundation of something more lasting.
We are under no illusion that resources from PP4 could solve all the needs of our teams. They won’t by far, but that was not the provider’s ambition either. The resources can, however, function as a as a catalyst and very important starting point when searching for further financing – from grants, EU resources, institutions, or partners. And a renowned, well-functioning network with clear goals and measurable outputs in, in this context, in a much better position than several dozen individual teams regardless of how well they function.
To do that, however, we crucially need one thing: a factual (not just declaratory) support from our institutions. Not just signatures in the right places (and a week later, after the full round, in five reports) but actual adherence to NICR and its future. Some statutory representatives have already promised us such support, and it is important that they openly endorse the project. It is the institutional foundation and real, strong administrative support from our institutions, the recipient and corecipients, which will determine whether we manage to use the real potential of PP4. Ultimately, this will determine whether scientists and academics will have support for their work, not just some more official homework to do on their own while searching for ways of completing some forms in order to demonstrate activity.
So, yes, we did find support for further sustainability of NICR. That is excellent news, but it is not the finish line. Now, we must deliver what we have promised – and use this opportunity to stabilise and further develop something that would retain, as an integral part of the structure of Czech science, its place and significance even long after 2030.
Full throttle. Clear direction. No coasting.
Aleksi Šedo, Director of NICR