The Czech Scientific Community Seeks Ways to Enhance Security and Resilience

How can Czechia prepare for future social challenges in terms of security and resilience? Three new studies, conducted by the Technology Centre Prague for the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TA ČR), seek to answer this question. Their conclusions will inform the upcoming call for proposals under sub-goal 3 of the SIGMA programme, which focuses on supporting the innovative potential of the social sciences, humanities and arts.

The studies propose clearly defined research objectives that are grounded in the practical needs of society and supported by the capabilities of the Czech research community. ‚We have tried to identify research objectives that, when solved through the social sciences, humanities and arts, will contribute to a deeper understanding of the social impacts of crises and strengthen the confidence and resilience of Czech society in the face of future security challenges,‚ says Ondřej Pokorný from the Technology Centre Prague.

Three key outputs

• Proposal for research goals in the area of security and resilience (English annotation)
  The first document presents a set of research topics and objectives that have the potential to contribute to strengthening crisis preparedness, societal resilience, and trust between citizens and institutions. It covers a wide range of approaches—from social and cultural to psychological and environmental factors—and formulates inspiration for research until 2035.
• Methodological procedure for identifying research topics (English annotation)
  The methodological document offers practical guidance on how to systematically identify and prioritise research topics. It is based on a combination of foresight, participatory methods, and data analysis. It is primarily intended for public administration employees, TA CR, and research organisations, and allows the proposed topics to be not only defined, but also validated and placed in the context of other strategies.
• Analysis of research capacities in the Czech environment (English annotation)
  The analysis assesses the readiness of Czech research organisations to tackle projects in the field of security and resilience. The analysis is based on the IS VaVaI database and the mapping of cooperation between institutions. The results show that the Czech environment has a broad base for interdisciplinary projects and confirm the need for closer links between the social sciences and humanities and the technical and natural sciences.

Future direction

TA CR wants to use the results to make calls for proposals more precise and to strengthen strategic management of research in the field of security. Thanks to the combination of proposed priorities, the methodology for identifying them, and an overview of the capacities of research institutions, it now has a comprehensive framework at its disposal that will help to better target support and stimulate cooperation across disciplines.