The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic announced a public competition of the TACR SIGMA programme - sub-objective 5 Applied Research Centres.
The public competition is aimed at supporting the establishment and development of applied research centres that will connect research organisations and enterprises in addressing strategic topics with high application potential. These long-term research projects will produce practically applicable results and support their application in practice. The public competition will focus on topics with high relevance for innovation, whose solutions require a coordinated and systematic approach beyond the scope of conventional short-term projects.

At least two entities must be involved in the project. The main applicant must always be a research organisation, and the other participants must include a company (the size of the company is not specified).

Four research themes have been identified for this call for proposals:
1. AI4CZ - Artificial Intelligence in Research, Development and Innovation;
2. Semiconductors;
3. Circular economy and raw material security;
4. Affordable, resilient and connected transport for the security of the Czech Republic in a multipolar environment.

The project proposal must fully cover one selected research topic. Applicants must have previous demonstrable experience within the chosen research topic.
Each research institution may submit only one project proposal in each of the four identified themes as principal investigator. It may also be involved in two other projects per theme as a partner. These data are for the whole of MUNI, which is viewed as a whole by the TACR.
For this reason, all proposals prepared at MU will be submitted for consideration to the Committee for Strategic Research Projects of the Masaryk University.

Project proposals are submitted in the new SISTA Technology Agency application.
All information about this competition can be found on the TACR website.

If you are interested in submitting a project proposal, please contact the Project Support Unit immediately.

If your project proposal involves ethics, it will need to be reviewed by the Research Ethics Committee. For projects that will produce applied results, consultation with the Technology Transfer Office is also required.

The competition closes on 17th September 2025.