Dear colleagues, dear students,
I cannot begin this year’s second bulletin with anything other than the approaching final approval of our new campus. The Mephared2 project team and the newly established Operations and Technical Section have completed an enormous amount of work in an extremely short period of time before the deadline set by the National Recovery Plan expires. Thanks to their efforts, we were able to submit the application for final building approval to the construction authority on April 24. None of this would have been possible without intensive cooperation with the general contractor consortium BAK and SYNER, as well as the companies supplying the campus interior equipment, especially MERCI. I would like to thank everyone for their dedication and wish a successful completion of this stage, which we began in August 2023.
However, the work is far from over. The campus will remain very busy throughout the summer, with additional equipment being installed that was not required for the approval process itself, especially office furniture and other freestanding furniture, AV technology for teaching rooms, and many other items. In addition, there will be continuous correction of defects and unfinished work, which are inevitable in a project of this scale. Nevertheless, everything is still moving toward the goal of starting the next academic year in the new premises.
In the previous bulletin, I informed you that at the end of February the university management submitted a complete Request for Amendment of the Decision on Grant Provision (from the National Recovery Plan), necessitated by delays in the construction of the second Charles University BioCentre Albertov campus. We were relieved to receive the news that the Ministry of Education accepted the request and that, as of April 30, 2026, the proceedings concerning withdrawal of the grant — which unfortunately also threatened the financing of our campus — had been terminated.
As for the relocation itself, the evaluation of the public tender for the moving company is currently underway, and I believe we will soon be able to provide more detailed information regarding the organization and implementation of the move. An information meeting for employees and doctoral students, which should already include representatives of the selected company, is planned for the first half of June, and the exact date will be specified as soon as possible. I would like to thank everyone involved in preparing the move and also thank everyone for their patience and understanding regarding the information that is still forthcoming.
At the beginning of April, the faculty hosted the traditional Student Scientific Conference (SSC), where undergraduate students present the results of their scientific work conducted within the departments and during the preparation of their bachelor’s and master’s theses. The committee, composed of faculty academics and external experts, usually representatives of the SSC partners, awarded the three best presentations in each section, with the top two advancing to the International Student Scientific Conference held at Zentiva headquarters in Prague. In competition with students from five additional pharmaceutical faculties and universities from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, our students performed exceptionally well and earned three medal positions overall. In the Pharmaceutical Chemistry section, Ekaterina Frantsuzova (supervised by Prof. Milan Pour) won first place. In the Pharmaceutical Technology section, Zhuldyz Abisheva (supervised by Dr. Georgios Paraskevopoulos) also won first place, while Martina Košutová (supervised by Dr. Ondřej Holas) won third place. I would like to thank all the students for their excellent representation of our faculty and warmly congratulate the award recipients on their achievements.
Among the highly successful graduates of our doctoral studies, specifically the Xenobiochemistry and Pathobiochemistry program, Dr. Jan Kubeš has distinguished himself through his work focused on the study of topoisomerase II inhibitors applicable to the prevention of anthracycline cardiotoxicity. For this work, he received the Hradec Králové Mayor’s Award for Student Creative Work in the Natural Sciences, Technical, and Medical Fields, as well as the prestigious Bolzano Prize, awarded to students and graduates of Charles University for exceptionally innovative work of outstanding scholarly quality, often with an interdisciplinary dimension, developed during their studies. I warmly congratulate Dr. Kubeš, thank him for his excellent representation of the faculty, and wish him much success in his future scientific career.
At the end of March, the faculty conducted its traditional evaluation of the scientific activities of academic staff, research groups, and departments over the past five years. The comprehensive evaluation, which combines several bibliometric indicators — primarily publication quality, citation impact, and acquired grant funding — has for several years been led by the Department of Analytical Chemistry (KACH), both in absolute terms and when recalculated per academic staff member, where its lead over other departments continues to grow. According to both methodologies, the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology (KFLT) ranked second. Representatives of these two departments also dominate the rankings of individual researchers. From the faculty’s perspective, however, the key factor is the overall quality of the results achieved, which continues to improve. In 2025, almost 90% of all faculty publications were classified in the first or second quartile of their fields according to Web of Science (Journal Citation Report). A full quarter of all results fell within the most prestigious category of journals, namely those ranked in the top decile of their respective fields. I would like to thank all
academic staff, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral students for their excellent scientific contributions.
After extensive discussions with the leadership of the Faculty of Pharmacy Masaryk University, and especially with Dean Prof. David Vetchý, we decided to advance our long-term cooperation by establishing the Association of Deans of Pharmaceutical Faculties of the Czech Republic. The aim of the association is to further deepen and formalize coordination in key issues concerning pharmaceutical education, science and research, and the third mission of pharmaceutical faculties. The association is also intended to serve as a platform for joint communication with representatives of public administration and other stakeholders in healthcare on matters related to the role of pharmacy and pharmacists in Czech healthcare. We have already actively entered discussions on online medicine distribution and are participating in negotiations concerning the expansion of pharmacists’ competencies, currently including the widely discussed professional and public topic of pharmacist-administered vaccinations.
Let us make the most of the final months in our current buildings, successfully complete the end of the semester and examination period, and look forward to our beautiful new campus.
Assoc. Prof. Jaroslav Roh
Dean of the Faculty