Two years ago the SYRI National Institute was founded in response to the pandemic. Its goal was to learn from the unprecedented situation resulting from the pandemic. Nobody really expected that new challenges were about to emerge. Scientific director of the institute Klára Šeďová talks about them, and much more. SYRI National Institute is a virtual scientific hub where experts from Masaryk University, Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences cooperate and where scientists find new opportunities to collaborate and offer real-time solutions and recommendations.
“After Covid-19 Czech society was hit hard by the war in Ukraine, AI and its impacts on our daily lives, the energy crisis and security risks of all kinds. These are very dynamic times with systemic risks, and we must be able to react to them,” says scientific director of the institute and expert on education from Masaryk University Klára Šeďová.
The SYRI project and the institute are half way through. What makes the collaboration of experts from Masaryk University, Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences special?When the institute was founded in 2022, it enabled broad cooperation between scientists from key academic institutions who can now work together on their respective research projects in nine groups. Back then, it was something new in the Czech scientific community. The direction in which information and key findings are forwarded to politicians is exceptional as well. It may sound strange, but nobody had done it before on a systematic basis. We organise round tables for members of the Chamber of Deputies, conferences
in the Senate and other events. The purpose of these efforts is to bring key information to decision-makers who actually influence policies and actions that bring about a change. Our goal is to create a long-term institute, and in it, a stable channel where politicians can interact with academics. Data-based decision-making is a big topic in the public discourse now, but the actual practical implementation is not meeting expectations. SYRI has real things to offer in this area, and I do not recall any scientific entity in the Czech Republic that would be this active. We are not working for ourselves in this regard. Our goal is to start a process in which
other actors will participate in the future, not just our scientists. I believe that ten years from now political decisions will be based on evidence. Politicians using scientists is a matter of common sense.
Read more:
M_Magazine_april_2024.pdf (muni.cz)Pages: 24, 25.