News
CERGE-EI Wins a Postgraduate Fellowship from UniCredit & Universities Foscolo Foundation
18 December, 2015
CERGE-EI succeeded in the UniCredit & Universities Foscolo Europe international competition and won a three-year postgraduate fellowship in a total of EUR 150 thousand. The competition was announced by the UniCredit & Universities Foscolo Foundation, which is connected with UniCredit, a leading European banking group.
Owing to the obtained funds, CERGE-EI will be able to offer outstanding doctoral graduates working conditions comparable to the conditions overseas or in the private sector. Today, the prize was handed over by Jiří Kunert, CEO of UniCredit Bank, and Giannantonio De Roni, Secretary of the UniCredit & Universities Foundation. CERGE-EI is one of the two schools in Europe which has obtained the fellowship.
"Quality education and top science are the best added value for a competitive development of our economy. Moreover, the fact that one of the grants will go to the Czech Republic is a proof that talented young economists also have the potential to achieve the highest education and produce the best results in their work," says Jiří Kunert, CEO and Chairman of the Board of UniCredit Bank.
In the seventh annual UniCredit & Universities Foscolo Europe competition, higher education institutions specialising in economics or finance from seventeen European countries were fighting for the two grants offered. Thanks to the grant, the winning institutions will be able to attract and retain excellent postgraduates in Europe. Besides the Prague CERGE-EI, also the School of Economics at the Bocconi University in Milan succeeded in this year's competition.
"It is increasingly difficult for the best European universities to compete with American institutions, which often enable young scientists to fully concentrate on their research only. Also thanks to our foundation, long-term support for postgraduate employees will even up the starting field, allowing European universities to provide the best graduates in the labour market with a competitive offer," explains Giannantonio De Roni, General Secretary of UniCredit & Universities Foundation.
The grant in total of EUR 150 thousand will be paid out to CERGE-EI gradually, over the course of three years. Absorption of the postgraduate fellowship will start at the beginning of October 2016.
"This prize will allow us to attract the best candidates on the labour market, offer them positions leading to permanent progress in their career and retain them for the three-year period of the scholarship. This will further enhance the quality of our international university specialists and help us reach a leading position in economic research," says Michal Kejak, Director of CERGE-EI.
What distinguishes CERGE-EI is its focus on top economics research and education. According to Social Science Research Network, CERGE-EI ranks among the top 2 % of institutions in the world. CERGE-EI will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year. Throughout its existence, it has raised more than 400 economists, almost 200 of whom are PhD graduates.
