Four private partners have joined forces to help fund the initiative: Pale Fire Capital, the Credo Foundation, the Wood & Company Foundation, and IOCB Tech Group. Together, they have committed CZK 24 million to support ambitious research projects with the potential to address complex challenges beyond the boundaries of traditional academic disciplines.
The CTU INFC is aimed at interdisciplinary teams composed of researchers from different faculties and institutes across the university. The program specifically targets high-risk, high-reward projects that have the potential to generate transformative scientific and technological breakthroughs. Up to ten teams will be selected in the first funding round, with each team eligible to receive up to CZK 6 million over two years.
“ČVUT INFC will support solutions to key interdisciplinary challenges that we will face in the coming years and will enable active cooperation between top young researchers from various fields.”
The initiative forms part of a broader effort to strengthen CTU’s position as a leading innovation hub in Central Europe. It complements the university’s CTU Starting Grant program, which allocates CZK 50 million annually to attract outstanding early-career researchers and international talent to Prague.
“Private funding makes the most sense in science where it complements public funding with speed, flexibility and a willingness to support new directions before they are fully established in regular grant schemes. ČVUT INFC gives researchers the space to embark on projects that connect individual scientific disciplines before they become mainstream,” comments Barta. He believes that such a layer of support can be crucial for the emergence of new teams, fields and scientific excellence. “Thanks to interdisciplinary cooperation, we are in contact with interesting startups, for example those that connect drug development with AI.”
By combining private capital, entrepreneurial thinking, and academic excellence, CTU is adopting a model increasingly seen at the world’s leading research institutions. Similar approaches have played a key role in building innovation ecosystems where groundbreaking research, startup creation, and venture investment intersect.
One notable example is the Kauffman Fellows Program, a globally recognized leadership and education network for venture capital investors. Over the past three decades, the program has helped identify, mentor, and connect some of the most influential figures in the venture capital industry, contributing to the growth of innovation ecosystems across the United States and internationally. Among notable Kauffman Fellows are Trish Costello, Mamoon Hamid, Jenny Lee, Mala Gaonkar, Michael McCullough, or Justin Rockefeller.
Another inspirational example is the Thiel Foundation, an American private foundation created and funded by billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook.
