The management and staff of CIIRC officially launched 2026 at a strategic meeting held on Tuesday, 13 January, at our institute. The institute director Ondřej Velek and scientific director Vladimír Mařík not only reviewed the year 2025 but also openly outlined new goals for 2026. Alongside good news, clearly supported results, evaluations and thanks for the work accomplished, a realistic view of the challenges that the new year will bring was also presented.
According to the management, 2025 was successful across all key parameters. CIIRC’s financial situation remains stable in the long term, confirming its position as a mature institution with a strong management structure, its own research infrastructure and well-functioning administrative support.
People and leadership
CIIRC enters 2026 with new leadership across several teams and departments. The Department of Industrial Informatics is now headed by Přemysl Šůcha. The Department of Artificial Intelligence is led by Mikoláš Janota, and Jan Hůla has been appointed head of the Foundational AI Research group.
Tomáš Pajdla has been appointed as the new head of the Department of Robotics and Machine Perception, replacing the long-serving head, Prof. Václav Hlaváč. Prof. Hlaváč remains a key figure in the institute’s leadership as Deputy Director and also continues to serve as a member of the CTU Academic Senate.
The New Rector of CTU: an opportunity and a responsibility
International and national assessment: excellent results, but clear priorities
Scientific director Vladimír Mařík recalled that CIIRC underwent the five-year evaluation of research organisations in the higher education segment by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MŠMT) in 2025, achieving an outstanding result. CIIRC received the highest rating in all evaluated criteria and was described as an excellent institution and a flagship of ČVUT. At the same time, important feedback was highlighted: the institute is not yet able to clearly define specific technologies or areas with which it would be unequivocally associated worldwide, and basic research is not yet in proportion to the very strong applied research. These areas will be key to CIIRC’s future strategy.
The institute was also very successful in Pillar 1 of the national research assessment under the M17+ methodology, within which the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports annually evaluates selected scientific outputs of institutions. CIIRC made a significant contribution to the overall evaluation of ČVUT, particularly thanks to high-quality results in applied research.
CIIRC’s total budget reached approximately CZK 355 million in 2025. Its structure is, however, crucial: 72% of funding comes from grants, clearly showing that the ability to secure high-quality national and European projects is essential for the institute’s long-term operation.
Project activity: high volume and emphasis on quality
The project department currently administers 33 national and 36 European projects. In 2025, 15 national and 23 European project proposals were submitted, some of which have already been successful.
The management also highlighted key project proposals submitted in 2025, including the successful Czech AI Factory project (with Petr Kadera as the principal investigator for CIIRC CTU), which was selected for funding under the calls of the Joint European Undertaking EuroHPC JU focused on the establishment of AI Factories.
At the same time, research teams were engaged in the preparation of a large-scale project for the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence within the TAČR SIGMA programme (led by Přemysl Šůcha), for which the submitted proposal is currently awaiting evaluation.
Direction for the future: visibility, excellence and transfer
For the coming period, the management clearly identified several priorities:
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better articulation and communication of CIIRC’s contribution to the world and profiling of prominent scientific personalities,
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strengthening basic research towards European-level excellence,
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and the systematic development of excellent teams and human potential.
In applied research, CIIRC achieves strong results, often in the form of functional prototypes verified in industry. A weaker point, however, remains their broader deployment. The traditional startup model does not prove ideal for this type of technology. The goal is therefore the development of small and medium-sized enterprises that will apply research results in the long term.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the management stated that 2026 will not be an easy year, particularly from a financial perspective. At the same time, they emphasized that the institute can rely on its results, strong personalities, and teams, and that the key priorities will be a focus on quality, grant funding, visibility, and long-term impact.
