5 topics in Health Sciences for MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships at Palacký University Olomouc

Call for Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellows

Join our team as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow!

Faculty of Health Sciences, Palacký University in Olomouc, invites young and talented researchers to express their interest in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship programme (MSCA PF), which provides funding for 12-24 months of research. The fellowship includes a salary, mobility allowance, family allowance (if applicable), and research expenses.

In addition to being eligible for MSCA, applicants who submit their proposal with Palacký University in Olomouc and pass the 85% threshold, but are not funded by MSCA due to the budget limit, have the opportunity to be funded by theERA Fellowships (a scheme only accessible to widening countries like Czech Republic). And those candidates who have passed the70% thresholdin the evaluation will qualify to have their projects funded through the MSCA-CZ grants of the Operational Programme Jan Amos Commenius of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Czech Republic.

As the host institution, we offer candidates the opportunity to work with supervisors with extensive experience (more information about our fields and supervisors below). In addition to ensuring that candidates receive the best possible guidance and support, we are providing a 2-day training workshop, which takes place online at the end of April.

To be considered for the opportunity, candidates will undergo a pre-selection process based on their CV, project idea and motivation. There are three main eligibility requirements:

• Applicants must hold a PhD and have at most 8 years of full-time research experience by the time of the application.
• Applicants of any nationality are welcome, but they must not have lived or worked in Czech Republic for more than 12 months during the 3 years leading up to the closing date of the call on 11 September 2024 (mobility rule).
• Applicants must choose the Faculty of Health Sciences at Palacký University in Olomouc as their host institution.

To apply, candidates must complete the registration form and submit the following documents (PDF format) as attachments by 15 April 2024 (applications that do not follow these instructions will be discarded):

• One-page motivation statement that includes the background of the candidate, the project idea and how it intersects with the supervisor’s expertise (and Palacký University in Olomouc).
• CV (maximum 3 pages)

The selection process will be a collaborative effort between the supervisors and our research advisers. Selected candidates will be contacted by the middle of May and informed of the next steps in the process, which include joint preparation of an MSCA PF application with their supervisor.

For any other further questions, please contact Marika Svrčková (marika.svrckova@upol.cz).

Health Economics

Assoc. prof. Jarmila Zimmermannová, Ph.D. habilitated at the University of Economics in Prague in 2017 in the field of finance. From 2003 to 2009 she worked in various positions at the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, most recently as Deputy Director of the Department of Sustainable Energy and Transportation and Head of the Department of Environmental Tax Reform and Transportation. She represented the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic in the OECD Working Group – Joint Meetings of Tax and Environment Experts. From 2011 to 2022, she worked in various positions at the Moravian Business College Olomouc, in particular as Rector, Vice-Rector for Science and Research and associate professor at the Department of Economics and the Department of Sustainable Development. Currently, she works at Palacky University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Centre for Science and Research. She is also Vice-Dean for International Relations and Internationalisation. In the field of bioeconomics, she is the leader of the Socio-Economic Section of the Platform for Bioeconomy (Czech Republic) and from March 2022 also a member of the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) Scientific Committee. Her main areas of expertise are public economics, public finance, and the impact of financial and economic policy instruments. She is the author of a number of scientific articles and a monograph. She has lectured internationally at universities in Hungary (Budapest Business School), Germany (Hochschule Nordhausen, Duale Hochschule Villingen Schwenningen, Ruhr Universität Bochum), Slovenia (University of Maribor), the Netherlands (Utrecht University), Israel (Kinneret Academic College), China (Dalian Minzu University) and Spain (University Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona).

Mental Health and Well-being

Simona Dobešová Cakirpaloglu, Ph.D. is a prominent scientist and expert whose academic background and professional interests are focused on the issues of psychosocial risks and mental health. She began her academic career by obtaining a Master’s degree in psychology from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc in 2003 and in 2007, she earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the same university. Currently, she holds the position of Deputy Head of the Institute of Social and Human Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Palacký University in Olomouc. Professionally, Dr. Dobešová Cakirpaloglu specializes in several key areas. One of them is occupational stress and burnout syndrome, where she strives to identify factors contributing to burnout and exhaustion among healthcare professionals and seeks ways to alleviate these issues. She also addresses workplace bullying and its impact on individuals’ mental well-being, with her work aiding in the identification of strategies to address this problem and improve the work environment.  Dr. Dobešová Cakirpaloglu is a researcher and expert whose work significantly contributes to improving the quality of life and mental health of individuals.

Epidemiology of Infectious and Non-infectious Diseases

Ondřej Holý, Ph.D., is assoc. professor in epidemiology at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Palacký University Olomouc. He is author and co-author of more than 40 scientific papers, as well as 5 textbooks. Currently he is Vice-Dean for Strategic Management and Quality, and he is also the director of the Science and Research Centre. His main area of expertise includes epidemiology of infectious diseases, emerging and re-emerging infections, transmission of infectious diseases and its prevention, and history of epidemics and pandemics. He is also known for refuting fake news in medicine within the “Lovci šarlatanov (Quack Hunters)” project (https://www.lovcisarlatanov.sk/), mainly about COVID-19 and vaccinations hoaxes. He has experience from foreign universities and research groups – University of Kuopio/University of Eastern Finland (Finland); The Pathogen Research Group – School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham (UK); European, multi-centre, prospective prevalence pilot-study of Cronobacter sakazakii infections in humans (EUCRONI) (Austria); Epidemiología y microbiología molecular de patógenos en alimentos – Universidad del Bio-Bio (Chile). He is a member of different professional and scientific organizations – Czechoslovak Society for Microbiology; Society for Epidemiology and Microbiology. He is guarantor of the Ph.D. program Health protection and promotion at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Palacký University Olomouc. He is a member of the Subject-Area Board for Ph.D. program – Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine and Hygiene at Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Palacký University Olomouc. Recently he also joined the international and interdisciplinary project called Sinophone Borderlands, he is a member of the new Civilisation Crisis research group (budget of this project 6 mil. Eur, funded by ERDF). Currently, Ondřej Holý is the co-supervisor of a successful MSCA candidate working at the Palacký University Olomouc and solving a project called “The Viral Imaginary: Between Crisis and Routine”. He is also member of the HR award working group at the Palacký University Olomouc.

Healthcare Management

Daniela Navrátilová, Ph.D. is devoted to management issues with an emphasis on strategic management. In her profession, she focuses primarily on the transfer of theoretical knowledge about the tools of selected management disciplines into the practice of private and public organizations. In her scientific work, she tries to find an answer to the question, to what extent workers in managerial positions are guided only by their intuition and to what extent they actively use specific management tools that can be learned. Apart from academic practice, she works as a lecturer and trainer of management and communication skills. She actively participates in the creation, coordination and implementation of many national and international scientific or developing projects.