The IOCB becomes a partner of Neuron
The Neuron Endowment Fund, which has been honouring top Czech scientists for over ten years, has entered into a partnership with a leading scientific institution in the country. The Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB) has decided to develop the legacy of its famous director Antonín Holý and, through Neuron, to support outstanding Czech science across scientific fields. The content of the partnership is above all the further honouring of outstanding scientists with the prestigious Neuron Awards for science, support for young scientists and motivating them to return with their research from abroad to the Czech Republic.
"A partnership with one of our best institutions in the Czech Republic is very valuable for Neuron. At the same time it is a natural step, because both organisations are aware of how important long-term and systematic support for outstanding science and scientists is. Neuron has been honouring top scientists in seven scientific disciplines with the Neuron Awards for over ten years — in that time it has honoured 85 scientists and paid out CZK 66 million in awards. I greatly appreciate that the philosophy of the Neuron Awards and of the whole fund resonated with the IOCB's intention to support Czech science across scientific fields," says Monika Vondráková, co-founder and chair of the administrative board of the Neuron Endowment Fund.
"Thanks to Antonín Holý and the money flowing from his patents and licences, the IOCB has an exceptional position among other scientific institutions. We have long felt that it is our duty to distribute his legacy not only into supporting chemical research but into Czech science as such," explains Zdeněk Hostomský, director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. "Neuron has a way of honouring outstanding Czech scientists from the very broadest scientific community that is worked out and proven over a decade, and we are in tune with it."
The two institutions were symbolically brought together three years ago, when the Neuron Endowment Fund gave financial support to the creation of the play The Elegance of the Molecule. It charts the story of a chemist of world significance — Antonín Holý, who worked for many years at the IOCB and is behind, among other things, the discovery of a drug against AIDS and hepatitis B.
The institute's subsidiary IOCB Tech will contribute 15 million crowns to Neuron's activities over the next three years.
"I am very glad that we can work together on supporting scientists in the Czech Republic. As recent months have shown, basic science is the most important mover, and supporting it is our contribution to the development of society," says the director of IOCB Tech Martin Fusek.
