The Year 2024: Significant Scientific Achievements at VŠE

The Prague University of Economics and Business (VŠE) celebrated remarkable achievements in scientific research in 2024. The university strengthened its participation in international research projects and secured funding from several prestigious grants.

Breakthrough in European Research Projects

From just one project in 2023, VŠE advanced to five prestigious European projects under the Horizon Europe program by the European Commission in 2024.

Which projects are these?

Overall, VŠE executed 19 projects with international reach in 2024, including V4 and Interreg projects, and submitted 29 additional project applications.

Success in National Grant Competitions

2024 also brought notable accomplishments at the national level. VŠE secured three projects from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, focusing on:

  • A Research Center for a Resilient, Smart, Innovative, and Sustainable Society (Lucie Nencková, FIR)
  • The impact of energy price changes on consumer and investor behaviour in the Czech Republic  (Marek Hudík, FBA)
  • Socially and economically responsible pathways to decarbonisation: modelling and evaluation of energy transition scenarios in the Czech Republic (also led by Marek Hudík, FBA)

In the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic’s competitions, three research teams succeeded with projects in areas such as:

  • Asset Pricing, Internet Data and Machine Learning with Natural Language Processing in an Era of Sustainable and Decentralised Finance under Uncertainty (Karel Janda, FFA)
  • Labour markets in Central Europe in challenging times (Lead Agency) (Klára Kalíšková, FIS)
  • Who’s talking? Pragmatics and Ethics of Large Language Models in Democracy (Miroslav Vacura, FE)

Development of the Scientific Community and Infrastructure

VŠE significantly enhanced support for its scientific community in 2024 through initiatives such as:

  • Launching a new public-facing website dedicated to science and research at VŠE (research.vse.cz)
  • Organizing six educational workshops for 89 participants
  • Partnering with the research and science portal VědaVýzkum.cz

Horizont VŠE: A New Scientific Podcast

A major step in science popularization was the development of the Horizont VŠE podcast. Transitioning from its pilot phase in 2023, the podcast became a full-fledged format promoting scientific outreach at VŠE. After four episodes in 2023, a record nine episodes were released in 2024, with three more already planned for early next year!

The podcast covered a wide range of topics, including leadership, productivity, and international relations. Many of those in english language!
Highlights from 2024 episodes included:

  • Prof. Martin Pělucha on the Science for Policy initiative and linking science with political practice
  • Doc. Daniela Pauknerová on the specifics of Czech leadership and regional differences in organizational management
  • Doc. Lubomír Cingl on the economic theories of criminal behavior
  • Jeremy Garlick on China’s growing influence and its impact on Europe – most listened episode in english.
  • Dr. Kateřina Berková on an innovative AI-supported formative assessment system
  • Jana Abíková on research in humanitarian logistics and disaster management

The podcast has become a vital medium for sharing scientific knowledge with the public, bridging the gap between VŠE’s research activities and broader audiences.

The Year 2024: Significant Scientific Achievements at VŠE