In this issue, we feature an interview with the president of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR), Prof. Jiří Drahoš. The interview focuses on funding science and research at AS CR and the methodology that has become the universal tool for distributing money to the whole Czech science as a whole. On the basis of this government-conceived tool, the institutional financial grant for the AS CR should be reduced by about 50 percent by 2012. and Marina Hužvárová.
Featured in this issue is the interwiew with Professor Petr Ráb, a member of Academy Council, and of the Steering Committee of the Evaluation of Academic Institutes. Through this evaluation, the Academy Council is provided a full report of the research effectiveness of Academy Institutes. The process of research assessment is supervised by foreign evaluators. and Marina Hužvárová.
The Academy Assembly, the highest body of the ASCR responsible for the topmost priority decisions related to the ASCR, held its XXXVIII Meeting on April 21, 2011. Among invited guests were Alena Gajdůšková, 1st Vice-President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Stanislava Hronová and Vladimír Haasz, Vice-Chairpersons of the R&D Council and others. The main agenda item of this meeting was discussion the report of the Steering Committee of the Evaluation of Academy Institutes. Through the Committee's evaluation, the Academy Council is provided a full report of the research effectiveness of Academy Institutes. and Petr Ráb.