The Czech Science Foundation — Grantová agentura České republiky (GAČR) — is the Czech Republic’s national funding agency for basic (fundamental) research. If you searched the bare acronym “GACR” expecting something else, note there is no widely known unrelated organization sharing this initialism in English-language research contexts; the acronym in this space refers specifically to the Czech Science Foundation. This guide covers what GAČR funds, how it differs from the Czech Republic’s applied-research agency, its main grant programmes, its international funding mechanisms, and how researchers based outside the Czech Republic can access GAČR funding.
What GAČR is
GAČR has funded basic research in the Czech Republic since 1993, making it the country’s longest-running national mechanism for competitive, investigator-initiated research grants. It funds projects across all academic disciplines — natural sciences, technical sciences, medical and life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities — awarded through open, discipline-organized competitions rather than through calls tied to a specific applied outcome. GAČR is a public institution funded from the Czech state budget; it is not a private foundation and not a university.
GAČR vs. TAČR: basic vs. applied research
A common point of confusion for researchers new to the Czech funding landscape is the distinction between GAČR and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (Technologická agentura České republiky, TAČR). The two are separate public funding bodies with a clean division of remit: GAČR funds basic, curiosity-driven research with no requirement for direct application or commercial exploitation, while TAČR funds applied research, experimental development, and innovation projects, including industry-facing and commercialization-oriented programmes. A project proposing to generate new fundamental knowledge belongs at GAČR; a project proposing to develop or commercialize a specific technology, product, or process belongs at TAČR. Researchers assembling a Czech funding strategy that spans both basic discovery and downstream application may need to engage both agencies at different project stages.
Governance and grant panels
GAČR’s funding decisions run through discipline-specific expert bodies rather than a single central committee: proposals are assigned to discipline committees (oborové komise) and further to panels made up of researchers in the relevant field, who evaluate proposals (typically alongside external peer review for many programmes) and recommend funding decisions to GAČR’s governing bodies. This peer-panel structure is the same general design pattern used by comparable European basic-research funders — see CASRAI’s guides to DFG (Germany) and FWF (Austria) for direct points of comparison. For the current composition of GAČR’s governing bodies, discipline committees, and panels, consult gacr.cz directly, since panel membership and discipline groupings are reviewed periodically.
Main grant programmes
GAČR organizes its portfolio around career stage and project scale rather than a single generic “grant” instrument. As of the agency’s most recently announced tender cycles, the core programmes are:
- Standard Projects — the backbone of GAČR funding since 1993 and the programme through which it funds the largest number of projects each year. Standard Projects typically run three years, are open to researchers and teams at any career stage, and are not restricted to a particular career-length window.
- JUNIOR STAR — aimed at excellent early-career researchers, up to eight years after their PhD, who have a strong international publication record and significant experience abroad. JUNIOR STAR projects run up to five years with budgets reported up to roughly CZK 25 million, and are explicitly designed to let awardees establish scientific independence, including founding their own research group.
- EXPRO — GAČR’s most highly selective, largest-scale individual programme, aimed at experienced, established scientists proposing ambitious, higher-risk basic-research projects. EXPRO projects run up to five years with budgets reported up to roughly CZK 50 million.
- Postdoc Individual Fellowship (PIF) — for researchers within roughly four years of completing their doctorate, offered in two directions: an incoming track for postdocs coming to work in the Czech Republic, and an outgoing track for Czech-based postdocs to work abroad. PIF projects typically run two to three years depending on the track.
- Restart Grants — a newer programme aimed at researchers returning to active research after a career break of at least one year (for example, for childcare or dependent care), generally open to those within roughly ten years of their PhD (or longer where the break itself extends that window), with projects submitted within about two years of returning from the break. Restart Grants typically run two to four years.
Because programme names, budget ceilings, and eligibility windows are revised at each annual tender announcement, always confirm the current year’s exact terms on gacr.cz before relying on any figure as fixed.
International funding: bilateral and Lead Agency (Weave) projects
Beyond its domestic programmes, GAČR funds cross-border collaborative research through two distinct mechanisms:
- Bilateral cooperation agreements — joint calls with specific partner funders outside Europe, including Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and South Korea’s National Research Foundation (NRF), through which Czech and partner-country teams submit coordinated but separately reviewed proposals to their respective national funders.
- Lead Agency projects under the Weave initiative — GAČR participates in Weave, a joint scheme among several European basic-research funders that lets a single collaborative proposal, involving researchers from two or three participating countries, be submitted once and reviewed by just one “lead” agency, with the partner agencies accepting that review rather than duplicating it. GAČR’s Weave partners include Austria’s FWF, Germany’s DFG, Switzerland’s SNSF, Poland’s NCN, Slovenia’s ARIS, Luxembourg’s FNR, and Croatia’s HRZZ. Any of the participating agencies can act as the lead reviewer for a given Weave proposal, not only GAČR.
For researchers already familiar with SNSF’s side of this mechanism, see CASRAI’s SNSF Starting Grant and SNSF Ambizione/Eccellenza guides.
Application process: the GRITA portal
GAČR proposals are submitted and administered through GRITA, GAČR’s online grant-information and application system. Applicants use GRITA to prepare and submit proposals, track review status, and manage awarded projects through interim and final reporting. Unlike funders that accept proposals on a rolling basis, GAČR runs its major programmes (Standard Projects, JUNIOR STAR, EXPRO, PIF, Restart Grants, and international/Lead Agency calls) on annual tender cycles with a shared submission deadline each spring for projects starting the following calendar year, followed by review through the discipline committees and panels described above, with results typically announced in the autumn. Because deadlines and required forms are set fresh for each tender year, confirm the current cycle’s exact dates on gacr.cz rather than assuming a fixed annual date.
Eligibility for researchers outside the Czech Republic
GAČR’s core domestic programmes generally require the funded project to be hosted at an eligible Czech research organization (a university, institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, or similar recognized research institution), with a principal investigator affiliated with that host institution. Researchers based outside the Czech Republic have several routes into GAČR funding without needing to already hold a Czech affiliation: the incoming track of the Postdoc Individual Fellowship is designed specifically to bring early-career researchers into a Czech host institution; JUNIOR STAR and EXPRO are open to applicants with significant international experience, including researchers currently based abroad who propose to establish or continue their project at a Czech institution; and the bilateral and Weave Lead Agency mechanisms let non-Czech co-investigators participate as full partners on a joint proposal reviewed by GAČR or a partner agency. As with all programme-specific rules, verify current eligibility criteria for the exact programme and tender year on gacr.cz before applying.
How GAČR compares to other national funders
GAČR sits within a family of European basic-research funders that share a similar remit — discipline-agnostic, investigator-initiated, peer-reviewed basic-research funding — but differ in governance model, programme structure, and international collaboration mechanisms:
- GAČR vs. FWF (Austria) — both are national basic-research funders and both participate in the Weave Lead Agency initiative together, making a joint GAČR-FWF proposal one of the more direct forms of collaboration between the two systems. See CASRAI’s FWF overview.
- GAČR vs. DFG (Germany) — DFG is a self-governing, membership-based association rather than a state budgetary body, and operates at a substantially larger budget scale, but the two funders are Weave partners and DFG’s Individual Grants Programme is broadly the closest German counterpart to GAČR’s Standard Projects. See CASRAI’s DFG overview.
- GAČR vs. Horizon Europe / ERC — Horizon Europe is the European Union’s supranational research funding programme (of which the European Research Council is one pillar), open to teams across and beyond the EU, whereas GAČR is a national funder whose core programmes require a Czech host institution; Czech researchers commonly pursue both in parallel, and GAČR’s EXPRO and JUNIOR STAR programmes are often discussed as the closest national-level equivalents to ERC’s ambition and selectivity. See CASRAI’s Horizon Europe overview.
Frequently asked questions
What does GAČR stand for?
GAČR stands for Grantová agentura České republiky, the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, which operates in English as the Czech Science Foundation.
Does GAČR fund applied research?
No. GAČR funds basic research only. Applied research, experimental development, and innovation projects in the Czech Republic are funded separately by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR).
Can researchers based outside the Czech Republic apply to GAČR?
Not directly to most domestic programmes without a Czech host institution, but there are several routes in: the incoming Postdoc Individual Fellowship track, JUNIOR STAR and EXPRO applications proposing to relocate to a Czech institution, and bilateral or Weave Lead Agency collaborative proposals with a non-Czech co-investigator.
What is the Weave initiative?
Weave is a joint scheme among several European basic-research funders, including GAČR, FWF (Austria), DFG (Germany), SNSF (Switzerland), NCN (Poland), ARIS (Slovenia), FNR (Luxembourg), and HRZZ (Croatia), that lets a collaborative proposal involving researchers from two or three participating countries be reviewed once by a single “lead” agency rather than separately by each funder.
What is GRITA?
GRITA is GAČR’s online system for submitting and processing grant proposals and administering awarded projects, including reporting.
How long do GAČR Standard Projects run?
Standard Projects, GAČR’s core general-purpose programme, typically run three years.
What is the difference between JUNIOR STAR and EXPRO?
JUNIOR STAR is aimed at early-career researchers (up to roughly eight years post-PhD) establishing scientific independence, with projects up to five years and budgets reported up to roughly CZK 25 million. EXPRO is aimed at experienced, established researchers proposing higher-risk, larger-scale basic research, also up to five years but with budgets reported up to roughly CZK 50 million, and is GAČR’s most selective individual programme.
