"We are delighted to welcome a new patron: Jan Barta"

The 2025 Neuron Awards for science have been handed out and the laureates are known, but applause is also due to a new patron of the Neuron Foundation who has decided to support outstanding science. He is the entrepreneur Jan Barta, an internet investor and a descendant of the legendary inventor František Křižík. "I welcome Honza among us, we appreciate it very much. Jan Barta is known as a man who contributes to good causes: he supports education, the development of democracy and now top-class science too. All of that is a path to a better future for the Czech Republic," says Monika Řasa Vondráková, director of the Neuron Foundation.

An international outlook and vision

Barta joins Jaroslav Beck, the technological visionary whose patronage of Neuron we introduced recently. What is it that distinguishes the two newest donors? They definitely look ahead, their businesses have an international dimension and what matters to them is that the Czech Republic should be educated and competitive. "The level of education we secure today defines what kind of society we will be in a few years' time. We try to support opportunities for Czech scientists to meet top experts from around the world and learn from them," says the entrepreneur Jan Barta, who founded the Pale Fire Capital group in 2015.

In an interview for Neuron, Jan Barta points out the parallels he sees between science and business. "There is, for example, the courage to think outside the conventional ruts, the courage to endure short-term failures on the way to long-term value. Work with a high degree of qualified uncertainty. Weighing up a quantity of variables and reading extensive data inputs, say. There are plenty of parallels to be found," explains Jan Barta, who is a notable supporter of democratic principles, of Czech scouts and guides, and of good teachers too.

Basic and applied research alike

Barta understands the innovative environment as well as the necessity of deep knowledge of phenomena. "I don't think applied research should be placed above entirely free and independent basic research (blue-sky research). I see both as extremely important and valuable for moving society forward. In any case, though, the swift connection of business and science is one of the few things that can really help us catch up on our deficit and get innovation going so that we can begin to devote ourselves to a greater extent to more progressive fields and disciplines with higher added value," Jan Barta believes.

And what is it like to have the famous innovator František Křižík as an ancestor?

"When your parents tell you at home how your great-great-grandfather once electrified the National Theatre, that story about science in the service of the public is somehow present in you. It shows itself, apparently, in a sense of needing to be somehow useful and of value oneself. And perhaps also in a greater sensitivity to the subject of supporting science and research and respect for the people who have devoted their working lives to them," says Jan Barta, the new patron of the Neuron Foundation supporting outstanding scientists.