On 27th April 2017, the Regional Center of Expertise Czechia was officially launched. After more than a year of efforts by the Charles University Environmental Center, the network was successfully accredited by the United Nations University (UNU). In the Czech Republic, RCE Czechia is the first association of this type, joining the network of Regional Centers of Expertise across the world which today comprises more than 150 such RCE associations. In Central and Eastern Europe, this model of cooperation has been applied only minimally – so far only 4 RCEs have been established in Albania, Russia and Serbia. Full minutes from the opening meeting can be downloaded here.

RCE Czechia is direct follow-up of the MOSUR Project. You can read more about RCE Czechia on its web pages.

A final project meeting of the MOSUR partners took place in the historic administration building of Charles University on 29 April 2014. During the afternoon session of the meeting, members of the public had an opportunity to hear about the most interesting project outputs from individual partner organisations. At the conclusion of the meeting, a discussion took place on the options for continuing cooperation among academic institutions with other social actors from the non-profit and private sectors. 

Fifteen representatives of 8 partner organisations took part in the final meeting (the Charles University Environment Center, the University of South Bohemia, the Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Masaryk University, the Business Leaders Forum, Veronica Ecological Institute, the University of Finance and Administration, and Green Circle). The public session in the afternoon was introduced by Charles University Environment Center director Prof. RNDr. Bedřich Moldan, CSc. and apart from the project partners, several other interested parties from the public also participated. 

To view the outputs presented to members of the
public, go the Czech version of this article.

Photographic record of the meeting

Envigogika, a specialist peer-reviewed professional periodical published by the Charles University Environment Center, focusing on original academic papers and additional informative articles from the field of environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD), published a number of special issues over the past two years in both Czech and English as part of the MOSUR project.

A successful International Spring School on Sustainable Development, organised by the Charles University Environment Center as part of the MOSUR project and in cooperation with the Open University of the Netherlands, took place in Týnec nad Sázavou from 30.3. - 5.4.2014. A total of 18 students from 6 different European countries and studying at Bachelor and Master level in various academic disciplines participated in the school. Of these, 13 were non-Prague Czech students. Ten experienced foreign academic staff contributed to the internationality and professionalism of the school. During the school of the spring school students became better acquainted with the concept of sustainable development and specific real life case studies.

For the full programme and all school outputs, see the school's wiki work pages here.

Zimní část kurzu Jihočeské unverzity v Českých Budějovicích Krajina euroregionů (KA3 - KBE/018), která proběhla 19. – 23. 2. 2014 navazovala na podzimní kurz a cílem bylo srovnat oblast z hlediska fyzicko-geografických podmínek, turismu a života místních obyvatel mimo hlavní sezónu. Kurz tedy doplňoval a rozvíjel témata z podzimní části, navíc byl kurz doplněn o nová témata.

In January 2014, a Pyramid workshop was organised by the Charles University Environment Center (Charles University in Prague) in collaboration with the United Nations Information Center in Prague as part of a full-day event on “The World after 2015 – Education for Sustainability” aimed at Czech professionals interested in education for sustainable development.

The Charles University Environment Center organized scientific writing and editorial workshops designed specifically for Czech students interested in publishing academic articles in impact journals; one of the workshops was for academic journal editing and review staff and provided an insight into impact journal methodology. The workshops were led by Associate Professor Rodrigo Lozano from Utrecht University, who is Associate Editor for the Journal of Cleaner Production (Impact Factor for 2012 = 3.398). in mid-February 2014

A member of the Charles University Environment Center took the opportunity to examine the Croatian approach to incorporating sustainability into the education system during a study visit to Zagreb 14-17 October 2013 funded by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP). Participating in the study group were representatives of Northern Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Romania, and Macedonia representing a cross-section of the education sector from secondary school principals to university academics and higher education teachers to NGO representatives and government education officials.

The results of environmental and sustainable development research undertaken at Prague universities were presented at an interdisciplinary conference staged at Charles University’s Science Faculty on 25 September 2013.

This was the first conference organised as part of the “Prague Universities’ Framework Agreement on Cooperation in the Environmental Field” which seeks to strengthen cooperation and share information relating to research and education in the environmental field at universities, as well as the University Teachers’ Forum (a wider and loose association of university teachers and institutions in the Czech Republic aimed at progressing the debate on education for sustainable development). The Charles University research programme (linking seven university departments) called PRVOUK “Environmental Research” was also presented at the conference.

For more information, click here (Czech only).

A large group of Czech students from a number of non-Prague universities recently returned from a sustainability field trip to the Austrian region of Graz-Styria full of inspiration for how to foster greater understanding and acceptable of the sustainable development concept in the Czech Republic.

The Charles University Environment Center (CUEC) extends a very warm thank you to everybody who participated in the Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainability (TDRS) conference held in Prague on 23 & 24 May 2013, and helped make it such a success, especially those who contributed key note presentations and posters. CUEC and the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems are now working together on the conference follow-up and hope to make the key conference outcome - a list of transdisciplinary research policy recommendations for the European Commission's DG Research - available very soon.

Slides, posters and podcasts are linked here from presentations given at the conference. The actual final programme amended on conference day can be downloaded here.
This one and a half day workshop invited approximately 50 experts from across the EU area who are working in TDRS. The event was aimed at professionals from European Research Area (ERA) organisations and policy areas, and for those running (or have run) transdisciplinary research projects on sustainability.