The project aims to offer a theoretical framework for a significant yet under-explored set of phenomena which I will call ‘moral impossibility’ (MI), and to use the theoretical understanding achieved to propose a new approach to intractable moral conflict. MI refers to what – for moral reasons – lies outside the range of possibilities available in one’s choices. While empirical and logical impossibilities are widely accepted, moral ones are far less obvious, yet they shape and delimit, often silently, all choices. These include the possibilities we never consider, those we cannot make sense of (e.g. because too morally abhorrent), and those we consider but cannot bring ourselves to carry out. Neglecting the role of MI leads to crucial misrepresentations of situations of conflict in contemporary philosophy. Using recent case-studies, I propose to analyse intractable moral conflict in terms of moral possibilities that are not shared between the parties, in opposition to the dominant ‘disagreement’ model. The objectives of the research are 1) to construct a conceptual framework of MI, 2) to conduct a normative analysis of its most controversial manifestations, and 3) to use the conceptual and normative frameworks to offer a new understanding of the causes, meaning, and possible resolution, of intractable moral conflict. Each objective corresponds to a work package with a distinct methodology and contributing to a different branch of ethics: moral theory/moral psychology, normative ethics, and applied ethics. The action, proposed at a crucial stage in my research career, will be carried out at the Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value at the University of Pardubice, where I will be trained in its distinctive research methods, case study analysis, and included in its wide European and global networks, and where I will in turn set up a new Czech-Irish link with my home institution (UCD)'s Centre for Ethics in Public Life.

The input of the humanities and social sciences is vital in fostering a viable civil society. Informed public debate concerning the good life needs the kind of reflexive cultural self-understanding that they can offer. In cultural reflection, conceptual analysis, which is the domain of philosophy, has a key role. This vision of philosophy and the human sciences as cultural self-knowledge currently remains a minority view. However, during the twentieth century, it found powerful proponents in two leading philosophers of history and the social sciences: R.G. Collingwood (1889–1943) and Peter Winch (1926–1997). The aim of the planned project is to confront these two thinkers and tease out their underlying visions of philosophy. By engaging with these thinkers, the present project reopens questions about (1) the place of philosophy among the sciences, as well as (2) issues concerning the very nature of philosophical inquiry and (3) its impact on civil society and its challenges. The relation between Collingwood and Winch remains almost completely unexplored at present. The relationship between philosophy and human historicity, which was a key issue for both, presently remains underdeveloped in the analytic tradition. The planned research will take advantage of extensive manuscript material at the Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value (CE) at the University of Pardubice (UPa). The CE has the unique combination of full access to the relevant Peter Winch manuscripts and a team of scholars knowledgeable in the post-Wittgensteinian tradition to which Winch belonged. The project furthermore includes a short visit to the Collingwood Archives at Oxford. The scholarship will enhance the CE’s reputation as the ‘go-to’ place for anyone doing research in the post-Wittgensteinian tradition. It will help the ER establish his reputation as a global expert and to expand his research network in a new direction, i.e. towards scholars on idealism.

The progress of information technology had a pronounced impact on the way of doing business in the finance profession. The applications of data analytics became increasingly significant. With the widespread usage of emerging new digital technologies to finance profession, there is a profound need to equip students with technological skills and knowledge in order to cope with the demands of the current business environment. Fact that is in line with the EU European Data Strategy.The project objective is the design of a competitive, innovative, contemporary and Hands-on Joint Multidisciplinary Master Degree in the field of Financial Data Analytics and Sustainability. It will be offered in English language by 4 EU member states universities on north-south European axis. During 4 semesters students will study in at least three countries. They will not acquire skills only in the field of Finance but also Statistics, Econometrics, Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Fintech and Big Data Analytics.Through the cooperation with two old EU member states universities, European values will be empowered in the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Moreover, ERASMUS Mundus underrepresented countries will be supported.The outcome of the project will be the development of a Joint Master and initiation of the accreditation procedure in all countries. Specifically, structure of the programme, syllabi, course outlines will be created. Admission requirements and application procedure, selection, monitoring, examination/performance, evaluation rules/procedures will be agreed by partners. Joint Degree Partner Agreement and Student Agreement will be drafted. Promotion and awareness-raising strategy will be carefully designed to attract as many students from different EU member states and third countries. As a result, the program should be launched in Fall 2024, aiming at 50 students every year contributing by this way to the new digital needs of the EU labour market.

In photovoltaics (PVs), a significant scientific and technological attention has been given to technologies that have the potential to boost the solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency and to power recently unpowerable devices and objects. The research of various solar cell concepts for diversified applications (building integrated PVs, powering mobile devices) has recently resulted in many innovations. However, designs and concepts of solar cells fulfilling stringent criteria of efficiency, stability, low prize, flexibility, transparency, tunable cell size, esthetics, are still lacking. Herein, the research focus is given to a new physical concept of a solar cell that explores extremely promising materials, yet unseen and unexplored in a joint device, whose combination may solve traditional solar cells drawbacks (carrier recombination, narrow light absorption). It features a high surface area interface (higher than any other known PVs concept) based on ordered anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays, homogenously infilled with nanolayers of high absorption coefficient crystalline chalcogenide or organic chromophores using different techniques, yet unexplored for this purpose. After addition of supporting constituents, a solid-state solar cell with an extremely large incident area for the solar light absorption and optimized electron pathways will be created. The CHROMTISOL solar cell concept bears a large potential to outperform existing thin film photovoltaic technologies and concepts due to unique combination of materials and their complementary properties. The project aims towards important scientific findings in highly interdisciplinary fields. Being extremely challenging and in the same time risky, it is based on feasible ideas and steps, that will result in exciting achievements. The principal investigator, Jan Macak, has an outstanding research profile in the field of self-organized anodic nanostructures and is an experienced researcher in the photovoltaic field

Lipids are involved in numerous pathways of human metabolism that are related to pathological states. Alterations of lipid concentrations in the blood of cancer patients have been reported but the biological origin is still unknown. Deciphering the mechanisms of the lipid dysregulation mechanism could dramatically change oncology because it can open new avenues for cancer detection with subsequent effective treatment and drug development targeting dysregulated pathways. Early cancer diagnosis is one of the main unmet needs in medicine, which can improve the unfavorable prognosis of patients. The potential of lipidomics has not been fully explored yet, because analytical workflows have limitations in terms of accurate molar quantitation and insufficient coverage of the lipidome. Biologists predict up to 100,000 lipid species in nature, but current methods typically report less than 1% of this number. Here, we will develop novel approaches for quantitation of more than 2,000 lipids from >80 classes using 13C stable isotope labeled internal standards and ultrahigh-resolution methods in liquid or supercritical fluid chromatography, mass spectrometry, and ion mobility. The comprehensive characterization of lipidome will allow us to construct Cancer Lipidome Atlas (WP1). We will develop new Bayesian software for automated data processing and statistical evaluation applicable to the main lipidomic and metabolomic workflows (WP2). We will correlate lipidomics data with metabolomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics data to unravel why lipidomic dysregulation in blood has a similar pattern for various cancers (WP3). This strategy will be applied for the comparison of ten types of cancer with control samples in cell lines, animal models (mice and pigs), human samples (tissues and plasma), and extracellular vesicles. Our initial hypothesis is that the lower activity of CERS2 triggered by cancer cells can downregulate very long fatty acyl ceramides and other sphingolipids.