The period of sustainability is not just an administrative milestone. It is above all a test of resilience, cohesion, and vision. Respondents across all NICR nodes agree that what is of key importance is to make sure that high-quality teams, functional cooperation among institutions, and continuity of ongoing projects are maintained – and all this in an environment of uncertain and increasingly competitive financing. It is equally important not to slow down our pace, to follow up on the newly created infrastructure, meaningfully share technologies and data, and push research results towards having a real impact on cancer prevention, diagnostics, and treatment. They all concur that sustainability is not just about budgets but about daily good work, open collaboration, and support of a new generation of scientists, which should guarantee that investment into NICR will result in a long-term contribution to patients and the society as a whole.
Jakub Červenka
Prague node, First Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University
Laboratory of Proteomics
With the end of financing, the NICR project is facing a major challenge: to maintain the level of quality (not only) during the sustainability period. We have strong administrative support, excellent facilities, outstanding collaborators (including international ones), ongoing projects, interdisciplinary collaboration, and a shared goal: cancer research that will help cancer patients. Unfortunately, not only during the period of sustainability financing and its sustainability (which are currently very uncertain) also play a key role.
All research teams, including the Laboratory of proteomics – and thus also I personally – are naturally actively trying to acquire financial support from various sources. We submit grant applications to the Czech Science Foundation, Czech Health Research Council, Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, Horizon Europe, European Research Council, and others. But the number of such applications submitted in the Czech Republic is growing each year and only a limited number of projects can receive support: in 2026, the Czech Science Foundation supported the historically lowest percentage of applications, just 14%. Further complication we are facing is that some grant calls financed by the EU do not permit the involvement of laboratories based in Prague, which prevents us from applying for such support in collaboration with international partners who would be keen to collaborate with us. Another problem is the high bureaucratic burden, where administration linked to projects and preparation of grant applications (including those which in the end do not succeed) often takes almost as much of our time as real research. In my view, this system of support of science and research in the Czech Republic is not sustainable without some fundamental changes.
Jiří Šána
Brno node, Faculty of Medicine and CEITEC of the Masaryk University
Translational cancer genomics
I believe that, at this point when the project moves into the period of sustainability, the key thing is to maintain and further develop cooperation among research groups, clinical departments, and other partners. A functional connection between all these areas is what, in the long term, ensures that NICR remains a strong and respected platform for cancer research. What is also important is a stability of financing, meaningful sharing of data, technologies, and infrastructures, and a good coordination of research priorities. Other things which are also vital are creation of good conditions for junior scientists, making sure that talented experts actually stay, and a systematic translation of research results into cancer prevention, diagnostics, and treatment, so that the project has a real and long-term effect.
On personal level, I can contribute to this mainly by high-quality and responsible work on my own projects, by openly sharing my results and experiences, and by active interdisciplinary cooperation. Another thing which I believe is important is the involvement of junior colleagues in research, understandable communication of results with both professional and wider public, and general strengthening of NICR’s good reputation.
Matej Šamaj
Olomouc node, Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of Palacký University and University Hospital Olomouc
When people talk about sustainability, they often – and quite logically – focus on stable financing. In my view, however, what is crucial for NICR is to preserve the consortium’s structural integrity. The biggest mistake would be to allow our fantastically functioning network to fall apart, to go back to isolated labs.
The key to successful sustainability is the ability to demonstrate to the public that investment into NICR goes beyond articles published in impacted journals, that it really leads to new therapies. The main challenge is not to slacken our pace. Promising molecules and therapeutic targets must not end up in a drawer due to endless waiting for finances: they should smoothly pass on to the stages of preclinical and translational testing. This is closely linked with continuity of the human resources. The EXCELES project helped us acquire world-class technologies, but instruments do not make discoveries on their own. If NICR is to produce top results, we must be able to attract top young people, but that cannot be done without guaranteeing decent financial conditions for young scientists, which is in the Czech system still a palpable weakness.
What can I do to reach these goals from my position of a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine? I can contribute by my daily work in the lab by generating reproducible experimental data, which are the building blocks of eventual innovative therapies. I believe that reliable data from real research is the best foundation for future translational efforts and further grant applications.
Michal Kolář
Prague node, Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Laboratory of genomics and bioinformatics
What is of key importance at this stage is based on what the NICR project meant and still means to us: it is almost four years of collaboration of several research labs that focus on the study of cancer, formation of new partnerships across the Czech Republic, and joint research results. It also means new technologies, which we have been able to start operating in our laboratory, technologies that enable a deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms of cancer. It means students who were, among other things thanks to stable financing, able to finish their theses. And it also means new students whom we may have attracted to the study of the molecular foundation of human diseases during educational workshops.
I cannot speak on behalf of the entire NICR, but on behalf of our group I can list several targets for the period of sustainability which we want to meet. We are finishing projects which we did not manage to complete during the main part of NICR. Students who started their work as part of the project are now writing and will defend their diplomas or doctoral theses. Naturally, we maintain the collaborations which started as part of NICR and use technologies which we started operating in recent years. For us, sustainability means continuing with what worked and developing it further with the support of other sources of financing.
Nevertheless, our main goal remains the same: to better understand the foundation of cancers, to try to use new findings in cancer prevention or treatment, and to educate a new generation of scientists who will be better than we are. Ultimately, we thus want to contribute to people in the Czech Republic living healthier lives.