Project “Scouting for European Scientific Talents” (EUROSCITALSCOUT) in Nové Hrady

The Institute of Physical Biology, University of South Bohemia, together with collaborating institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in the region and with the Nové Hrady University College, civil association, have been organizing summer stays during last four years summer stays for secondary school and university students. They have also prepared exhibition on history of research in Physics and regularly have organized the open doors days and exhibition of research departments. In fall 2004 these activities were grouped into joint project “Scouting for European Scientific Talents” which is funded by European Union through the call “Researchers in Europe&” of the 6th Framework Program. The project consists of four key activities:

Summerschool for secondary and university students “Schola ludus”: Similarly as in previous years the summerschools shall take place during July. They will begin with a week of excursions to academic institutions in Southern Bohemia and neighboring Austria which will be followed by three weeks of work on concrete scientific projects. Evening lectures will be preformed by the scientists themselves, by leaders of successful technology companies as well as by groups involved in technology transfer. The lectures will be open to public. This year, 55 students has announced participation, coming from all arts of the world from Princeton in the USA, through Austria and Lithuania down to Minsk in Belarus and Novosibirsk in Russia. Summerschools are accompanied with public lectures of researchers from academia an technology companies

Summerschools take part between July 4th and July 29th.
Public lectures take part between July 11th and July 20th

Science and Technology Youth Club: One of our experiences from previous summerschools is that among that among the students have always been found talents which already at the secondary schools are able to contribute to interesting scientific projects. There is no representative statistics how many of them may actually be found, however, each year were able to find 5 to 10 with whom we continued to collaborate over the schoolyear. The overall interest of the students from the South Bohemian - Upper and Lower Austrian border region in summerschools was understandably low: who would be interested in spending holidays at home. However, it makes most sense to care for the talents in the region. That is why the Academic and University Center in Nové Hrady, together with the local Gymnasiums in Trhové Sviny and Linz, decided to create the Science and Technology Youth Club. The main themes will be biophysical technologies and technologies of sustainable development. The students shall have chance to work on internet, to program their own web sites and organize their own club internet radio. As desert, the outdoor sports of sailing and skiing shall help to demonstrate the power of physics in forecasting the weather.

Exhibition European research area as historical entity and contemporary leader: This exhibition will consist of three main themes: historical, in which through the personality of Georg von Buquoy de Lonqueval, the first lord of the Nové Hrady castle, will present Europe at late 18th - early 19th century as a source of logical approaches used in science until present time. It will be promoted the role of scientists in the society as the source of both philosophical ideas and technological inventions. In the second part will be interactive demonstration of equation of movement which were first discovered by count Buquoy, later interdependently several times and at the end by Italian physicist Levi-Civitta whose solutions were utilized by Albert Einstein for the general relativity theory. The third part shall consist of short movie describing the science-technology region Nové Hrady - Třeboň and its broader consequences.

Exhibition complex utilization of renewable energy an scientists at work: Technology incubator in Nové Hrady includes also the demonstration hall with balcony through which the visitors may follow the function of special solar collectors and of the special algal photobioreactor. In the demonstration hall will be placed presentation origin and fate of the energy in nature and at the computer screen may be followed results of collection of solar energy from installations in Nové Hrady and Třeboň. Occasionally, in time of sample collection and analyses, visitors may see scientists themselves at work. This intimate contact with real research is unique in the context of the whole project.

Exhibitions open at July 2nd

Town round tours to Nové Hrady: Nové Hrady are every year visited by several thousands of tourists. Both exhibitions shall become part of city round tours and the existent interest shows rather well that most of the visitors will be interested in visiting the castle and the technology incubator.