Projects supported in the Excellent Research Call of the Programme Johannes Amos Comenius of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
The Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (OP JAK) supported excellent Czech research projects in the Excellent Research call. Out of 74 applications submitted, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MŠMT) selected a total of 26 excellent research projects worth more than CZK 12 billion (more here). The Programme Johannes Amos Comenius is co-financed by the European Union.
Our institute will lead the LasApp project
ÚFE is the main coordinator of the LasApp Project: Breakthrough Laser Technologies for Smart Manufacturing, Space and Biotechnology Applications, which will be led by Pavel Peterka. The LasApp project brings together 6 partners, besides our Institute also the Institute of Physics of the CAS (HiLASE centre in Dolní Břežany), the Faculty of Science, Charles University (Biocev centre in Vestec), the Institute of Instruments of the CAS in Brno, the Technical University of Liberec (CXI centre) and the Institute of Plasma Physics of the CAS (TOPTEC centre in Turnov). On 18 January, the kick-off meeting of the partner institutes took place in the main building of our institute (we wrote here). Broad collaboration with other institutes in the Czech Republic will be important by creating a distributed infrastructure covering and coordinating research and development activities in the field of cutting-edge laser technologies, both in research on advanced laser radiation sources and their potential use for smart processing and refinement of materials for circular economy, space and biomedical applications. The project includes, among others, the workplaces that assembled and commissioned the first Czechoslovak lasers in 1962-1963 and are now among the leading workplaces in the field of laser technology in the Czech Republic and internationally.
At ÚFE we will focus on research of special optical fibers for fiber lasers, namely new types of active fibers and hollow-core fibers for gas lasers and for transmission of high power radiation and their use in new types of fiber lasers and in other applications. This is the first research work package of the LasApp project, and will be coordinated by Pavel Honzátko.
We are co-investigator in three other projects
Novel nanomaterials for biomembranes, sensors and green energy storage - these are some of the goals of the AMULET project (Advanced MUltiscaLe materials for key Enabling Technologies), on which we will collaborate with 7 other partners (we wrote here). The main coordinator is the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the CAS and other members of the consortium involve the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS, the Faculty of Science of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and the Faculty of Science of Charles University, the Nuclear Physics Institute of the CAS and the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague and our Institute. This broad cooperation aims to bring the new unique materials developed during the project into various fields of application.
The SenDiSo project is dedicated to sensor research. It will be led by Jakub Dostálek from the Institute of Physics of the CAS, who received his scientific education and practice in the Prof. Jiří Homola´s team. Marek Piliarik´s Nano-optics research team will participate in the project on behalf of ÚFE.
Another project involving ÚFE is the QueenTec: Quantum Engineering and Nanotechnology project, coordinated by the Institute of Instruments of the CAS in Brno (ÚPT). ÚFE will use its competences in the fields of precision time and frequency as well as fibre-optic communications. Ultra-precise quantum ion clocks (UPT) and the distribution of ultra-precise signals at national and European level will be developed together with UPT and CESNET (ÚPT, ÚFE, CESNET).
Projects supported by the TREND programme of the Ministry of Industry and Trade
The TREND programme is a programme of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO) to support applied research and experimental development and is implemented by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA ČR). Applicants submitted 388 project proposals to the public competition, of which 125 were supported. Within the TREND programme, we have been awarded two projects in which we will be a co-investigator.
The project Development of sensors for the detection of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the energy and automotive industry is led by Tesla Blatná and will be carried out by Jan Grym's research team Synthesis and characterization of nanomaterials. The project Development of an industrial nanosecond fibre laser with high pulse energy and high average power will be led by Ondřej Schreiber from Narran, formerly a researcher at ÚFE, who was successful at the SPIE Photonics West conference in San Francisco. From our institute, Pavel Honzátko's research team Fiber Lasers and Non-linear Optics will work on the project.
