New ESFRI chair Jan Hrušák visited research infrastructure in Vodňany

The Chair of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Jan Hrušák visited Vodňany. He was welcomed by Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters Pavel Kozák, director of CENAKVA Otomar Linhart and the Vice-dean for foreign relations Vladimír Žlábek.

“We have been studying water, fishes and crayfish,” summed up CENAKVA activities Otomar Linhart. CENAKVA/South Bohemian Research Center of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses has been operating under the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters since 2010 and has recently gained the status of a large research infrastructure. It will bring a significant financial support to further develop the possibilities to share this unique infrastructure. “We have also made a fruitful experience from infrastructure project AQUAEXCEL funded by Seventh and Eight Framework Program” said Linhart.

During his visit, Jan Hrušák delivered a speech on ESFRI and had a discussion on the future of freshwater research.

“ESFRI is primarily a platform for discussion and a strategy for European research policy,” said chair Jan Hrušák, whose three-year term has began on 1 January 2019. The most evident form of ESFRI work is related to ESFRI Road Map which is regularly revised.

“An important criterion for the inclusion of a project on the ESFRI Road Map is if had an European added value. To have at least three partners with the same interest and complementarity in three member or associated countries, ” stressed Hrušák. The next ESFRI Road Map update is scheduled for 2021 and this year ESFRI is planning a call for projects that are considering inclusion in the ESFRI Road Map.