National Research Programme II (NRP II)

Technology Centre AS CR has been commissioned by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR to work out a proposal of priorities of the National Research Programme II (NRP II). Centre for Social and Economic Strategies (CESES) of the Charles University cooperates on the preparation of the proposal.

This project follows the results acquired in 2001 during the preparation of the National Research Programme I (NRP I). As for the contents and organization the proposal of research priorities will be based on the development of external (international) as well as internal (national) conditions with the objective of focusing the programme on areas of the most pressing societal needs to the solution of which research may contribute.

On 7 January 2004 the Czech Government adopted the National Research and Development Policy for the years 2004-2008. On the basis of this document the National Research Program II (NRP II) will be launched in 2006 and run till 2011. The system of administration and financing of research projects under the NRP II should differ from the system approved for the NPV I (a centralized system should replace a decentralized one). Due to a limited budget of the anticipated NRP II it should be focused on a limited number of priorities.

Preparation of the thematic part of the NRP II (identification of priorities) is conducted in two stages: the 1st stage from September 2003 to December 2003, the 2nd stage from January 2004 to March 2004. Due to the extremely tight time schedule there has been not enough time for a wider communication and discussion. A multidisciplinary panel of 56 experts was set up for the first stage to define problem areas and to group them in clusters. Prioritization is the task for a closer expert group in the second stage.