At the UP management meetings on Wednesday, December 18, 2024 and January 15, 2025, they discussed the grants received so far and currently submitted. The UP budget for 2025 is also starting to be prepared, and a new collective bargaining agreement will be addressed this year. Read the full summary (in Czech) (after logging in the UP Portal), we will prepare another one for you in 14 days. More detailed information will subsequently be available in the minutes of the management meeting in UPShare, as well as in the minutes of other bodies, in UP standards and documents and on other information platforms.

Lawyer Michael Kohajda will become the new rector of Palacký University. After his appointment by the President of the Republic, doc. Michael Kohajda will lead the university for the next four years, from 1 May 2025 to 30 April 2029. Read more.

The Department of Development and Environmental Studies is conducting a research on gender-based discrimination of migrant women working in STEM fields (science, IT, engineering, mathematics) in the Czech Republic. The researchers are looking for migrant women working in these fields who have experience working in the Czech Republic and would be willing to share their experiences as part of my research. Participation in the research is, of course, anonymous. If you are interested, please contact the researcher at nela.przetakova@upol.cz.

Extensive infrastructure interventions and system upgrades to Moodle will take place between 2 February 2025 (8pm) and 4 February 2025 (evening hours). There will be prolonged outages or complete system unavailability.

Have you witnessed or participated in a situation on UP premises that threatened your safety or the safety of the university environment – for example, a physical attack, theft, disturbance, or trespassing? The Security Department asks that you report such incidents via the Security Incident Reporting application on the UP Portal. This is solely for data collection, monitoring of situations and subsequent evaluation – not for immediate resolution or intervention. Therefore, always call the emergency services in case of an acute threat. The data collected will help to better monitor and evaluate the security situation and possibly adjust internal measures.

The Rector's Award Ceremony for 2024, free admission to the Art Museum and the Fort Science, and a free AFOcinema await us all during UP Academic Week – from 17 to 23 February. There will also be a Mass for the University, a special pub quiz and the long-running Donate Blood with the Rector challenge, which you can still sign up for. The full programme for the week can be found on the website.
Why Academic Week and why in February? It commemorates the re-establishment of the University of Olomouc after the Second World War, which took place with the passing of a special law on 21 February 1946. Between 1860 and 1939, only the theological faculty functioned in Olomouc, after which Czech universities were closed by the occupation administration of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Do you have last year's wall or desk calendars lying around? Give them a second chance with UP Press and the Marketing Department. From Monday, February 3 until the end of the month, you can bring your old calendars to UPoint or the Bookshop (Skriptárna) at the Zbrojnice/Armoury. Afterwards, the UP Press will use them in the production of upcycled notebooks or in workshops during university events so that they make you happy once more.

EDUCATION

Thirteen sessions on topics such as climate change, the importance of biodiversity, water availability or smart cities, and three credits to boot. This is the cross-cutting course Sustainable Development in Theory and Practice (in Czech), which you can enrol in as an optional "C" course. It will be taught every Monday at 16:30 in the Botanical Garden of UP, and you can find it in STAG under the code EKO/URTP. You can read more in the article (in Czech). You can also find in the special database more C-level courses on sustainability, some of them also in English!

On the UP International Cooperation website you will find a range of internships, courses, work placements and summer schools for academic and scientific staff and teachers. The current offers can be found on this page. (in Czech) Among them, we would like to highlight, for example, the large overview article AIA: Scholarships under international agreements (in Czech)with a wide range of remarkable summer courses, such as the Albanian language summer school. The invitations are always coming, so check there from time to time!

NEWSLETTERS

What does it mean that UP is a member of the European University Network Aurora? Not only a stronger position among universities, but also a lot of opportunities for everyone: semester stays for students or young researchers, internships for postdocs or financial support for projects and summer schools. Did you know that UP teachers have opened 10 courses for the summer semester for students from foreign schools? You will find everything in the new issue of the Aurora at UP newsletter.

Interesting news from Czech universities can be read regularly, also in English, on the website Universitas, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter (in Czech).

INVITATIONS

The award ceremony of the UP Rector's Awards for the past year will take place on Wednesday, 19 February at 4 pm for the first time in Olomouc's Metropol cinema. Also for the first time, the ceremony will be open to the public. Roman Vencl, head of the Moravian Theatre Drama Department, will guide the visitors and the award winners through the ceremony. The programme will be accompanied by the Desigual Quartet. Admission to the event is free, seats must be reserved. Dress code: semi-formal. The event will be followed by a free screening of AFOkino from 6 pm: The Hunt for the Oldest DNA.

Although women make up the majority of students at universities, their representation in science does not match this. Women in science and research have long faced specific challenges and obstacles, as by the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February. This year, UP has prepared two events to mark the occasion, with the aim of raising the profile of the great work of women in science and research: a public panel discussion with female scientists (in Czech) and, one day later, a breakfast with science, aimed primarily at junior female scientists and PhD students. See the links for details and to sign up.

Try out how people with disabilities ski on specially adapted skis with the Centre for Applied Physical Activities (APA) of the Faculty of Physical Culture of UP. You can visit the first Days on Monoski for free already this Sunday, February 2, in the Kareš Ski Resort in Loučná nad Desnou, followed by stops at Kraličák, Olešnice, Orlické Záhoří, Hrubá Voda near Olomouc and Troják. Dates and more information can be found in the UP Journal article. (in Czech)

COMPETITION

Today we have a competition with Premiere Cinemas, our partner and the most visited multiplex in Olomouc. All you have to do is answer the contest question to our email soutez@upol.cz by Wednesday, February 5, and the evening at the cinema is yours! Competition question: This year, for the first time, the 2024 Rector's Awards ceremony will be open to the general public. Where will the awards be presented on Wednesday 19 February?