Are you an independent principal investigator of any nationality, working in any discipline at a research institution in Czechia? Would you like to meet more of your peers, expand your support network, and gain new insights and inspiration in diverse topics related to your job, such as people management, making an impact at your institution, or publication strategies? Then you have come to the right place!
The core activity of the PI Forum are bimonthly informal networking events, which consist of a guest lecture, panel discussion etc. on a topic of broad interest (such as Recruitment, Communication, Publication strategy etc.) and a free networking session. These events are complemented by an online Slack platform to foster interaction and exchange of experience within the PI community also outside the networking events.
Since the kick-off event in February 2023, thanks to ongoing support from the Charles University, as well as new partnerships with Masaryk University, its Faculty of Science and CEITEC MU, we have hosted 18 PI Forum events in Prague and Brno, reaching >100 principal investigators, most of whom regularly come back.
We will be more than happy to welcome you at the upcoming PI Forum events below. If you would like to see the PI Forum events also in other cities, do get in touch with us, we will do our best to make this happen!
In the season 2025/26 you can look forward to the upcoming PI Fora:
Prague:
September 30: PI Forum #14: Open Science and Intellectual Property, in Prague
November 25: PI Forum #15: Services to the Academic Community, in Prague
February 10: PI Forum #16: Mentoring, in Prague
April 28: PI Forum #17: Junior Faculty, in Prague
June 2: PI Forum #18 in Prague
Brno:
November 4: PI Forum Brno #6: Kickstarting tour lab 102
February 3: PI Forum Brno #7: Equal opportunities
April 7: PI Forum Brno #8: Financing your research
June 9: PI Forum Brno #9: Work-life balance
To participate in the PI Forum, please register in advance in the form for each event. Registration will also ensure that you will be the first to receive information about upcoming meetings.
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Reviews, grants, committees, mentoring, event organization – activities that are only tangentially related to research itself, yet without them the academic world would likely collapse. Is this academic counterpart to civic activism really worth it? And to what extent is it good to get involved? An interactive discussion on why it’s important to make room in your schedule for services to the academic community, even though most of them are unpaid.
Starting your own lab is an exciting but daunting step – it’s not just about science, but also about people, priorities, and persistence. In this session, we’ll talk about what to look for when setting up your group, what really matters in the first months, and which early mistakes to avoid (often learned the hard way). Bring your questions, experiences, and ideas – let’s make starting a lab a little less of a mystery and a lot more of an adventure.
At first glance, the movement to make science open and publicly funded results available to anybody may appear in conflict with the principles of intellectual property and patent protection. But is this really the case? We will discuss which types of discoveries benefit from patent protection, which may be better left open, and the key factors to consider when making such decisions.
Managing multiple grants at once can be a challenge. How to plan the projects? How to distribute work? And how to not end up with a burnout? We will discuss the these questions with Lucie Doležalová (Faculty of Arts, Charles University) and Peter Fabian (Faculty of Science, Masaryk University), moderated by Filip Kolář (Faculty of Science, Charles University).
An informal space for networking and sharing experiences among Principal Investigators in Czechia, open to all independent research group leaders across disciplines and institutions. This time, PI_Forum Brno will explore different levels of academic leadership and offer inspiration on how to effectively lead a team or an institution while supporting the next generation of leaders.
