The Brno scientific center CzechGlobe studies global change

Brno - The CzechGlobe scientific center opened today in Brno, where 300 scientists from various fields work. Their task is to study the effects of global change. The three main research directions are changes in the atmosphere and climate, changes in ecosystems, and socio-economic changes. The construction and its equipment cost 800 million crowns, with four-fifths of that amount contributed by the European Union, said the director of the institution Michal Marek to journalists today.
    The center is part of the Czech Academy of Sciences and is also one of eight successful projects of the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation, which supports the creation of European Centers of Excellence.
    "During the two years we were building infrastructure, we grew tenfold to 300 people. We employ 15 foreign professors, another eight scientists from abroad, and ten doctoral students," Marek mentioned the international character of the center. Atmospheric physicists, sociologists, economists, ecologists, ecosystem researchers, molecular biologists, and geneticists are involved in the research.
    CzechGlobe is also involved in the development of innovations, which is to be one of the further directions of development. "It won't be any explosive growth anymore, but rather we will fine-tune a number of things. We know how to innovate, so I would like us to push more into it," Marek stated. The center is also engaged in educational activities.
    Key infrastructural elements of the center include a network of ecosystem stations that measure carbon flows, a network of small forest watersheds, an aerial remote sensing laboratory, a large-capacity bioreactor, or an atmospheric station near Pacov and an experimental station for plant ecophysiology in Domanínek.