Academy Assembly

The Academy Assembly, the Academy of Science’s highest body responsible for the most important decisions related to the ASCR, held its XL meeting April 19, 2012. Among invited guests were Petr Fiala, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor; Miroslava Němcová, Chairwoman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic; Alena Gajdůšková, First Vice-President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic; Václav Pačes, President of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic; Rudolf Zahradník, ASCR Honorary President; Helena Illnerová, ASCR former President and others. This meeting’s main agenda item was discussion of the research methodology evaluation, which has been criticized by the ASCR since its inception. According to the Jiří Drahoš, the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, the alleged misconceptions of the prevailing methodology were highlighted in the final report of the project International Audit of Research and Development in the Czech Republic, compiled and published by a consortium of renowned foreign institutions. Another item of the meeting was a brief presentation of the Strategy for the Development of the ASCR 2014–2020, in which Professor Drahoš introduced key visions and medium-term developmental goals of the ASCR, the Czech Republic’s leading non-university public research institution.