Dr Jan Hrusak elected new ESFRI Chair

Dr Jan Hrusak was elected new European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Chair on the 65th ESFRI plenary session held on Greek island of Corfu on 28th June 2018.

Currently, Dr Jan Hrusak acts as delegate of the Czech Republic to ESFRI. Simultaneously, he is Member of ESFRI Executive Board and ESFRI Vice-Chair. He should take over the ESFRI Chair position at the turn of 2018, starting on 1st January 2019. Dr Jan Hrusak will serve as the 7th ESFRI Chair but he will become the very first ESFRI Chair coming from the EU-13 countries.

ESFRI was established in 2002 by an EU Council Resolution. ESFRI gathers delegates from EU Member States, European Commission and Associated Countries to EU Framework Programmes for Research, Technology Development and Innovation. The ESFRI main mission consists in defining the priorities for implementation of pan-European research infrastructures´ projects and supporting coherent approach in EU Member States national road-mapping and research infrastructures policy-making processes.

On a regular basis ESFRI prepares ESFRI Roadmap updates. The latest update is about to be presented officially on 11th September 2018 on the occasion of the ESFRI Roadmap Launch Event and ICRI 2018 conference, to be held under the auspices of Austrian Presidency in the EU Council.

Dr Jan Hrusak acts as a senior researcher in the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences and as a senior consultant of the Academic Council of Czech Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, he is Member of numerous expert platforms which take part in the research, technology development and innovation policy-making procedures at the national level of the Czech Republic and European level too. Among his most important appointments belong membership in Council for Large Research Infrastructures or European Research Area and Innovation Committee.

In 2015, Dr Jan Hrusak served as chief scientific advisor of the research infrastructures´ road-mapping procedure in the Czech Republic, leading to the launch of Large Research Infrastructures Roadmap of the Czech Republic for the years 2016-2022. Recently, he acted as the Chair of ESFRI Strategy Working Group that prepared the Long-Term Sustainability of Research Infrastructures report.