Jury

Tilman Becker is a German scientist and expert in the field of Industry 4.0, since 2020 he is the director of the RICAIP Centre for Advanced Industrial Production at the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) of the Czech Technical University in Prague. With twenty-five years of experience at DFKI, Germany's largest artificial intelligence research center, he has a broad knowledge of digital transformation, natural language processing, cyber-physical manufacturing systems and human-machine interaction research. He is involved in international research projects in collaboration with leading European institutes and industrial corporations, especially in the fields of industrial robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data.

Markéta Klíčová is a PhD candidate in Nanotechnology at the Technical University of Liberec. Markéta represented the Czech Republic at the international Falling Walls Lab Finale in Berlin in 2018, where she received the Audience Choice Award. Based on the results from FW Lab, Markéta was chosen to participate in the novel project organs-on-chip at Harvard Medical School under the supervision of Prof. Donald E. Ingber, one of the most cited researchers worldwide. She continues working on many scientific projects, regularly introduces her research in the Czech media, and brings the science closer to the public.

Pavel Tomančák is an evolutionary developmental biologist who has led an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden since 2005. His laboratory is dedicated to studying the evolution of morphogenesis during the embryonic development of multicellular organisms. His research is unique due to the combination of advanced molecular analysis methods with state-of-the-art imaging and computational analysis of microscopic data. He started his scientific career at Masaryk University, studying molecular biology and genetics. He completed doctoral studies at the prestigious European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. He then worked for five years at the University of California, Berkeley, in the group of the renowned American geneticist Gerald M. Rubin. He has received two prestigious (ERC) grants and has been a member of EMBO since 2016. He has co-authored more than a hundred scientific publications that have been cited more than 60,000 times, making him one of the most cited scientists of Czech origin. From 1 February 2021, he became the Director of the CEITEC consortium in Brno, where he leverages his international experience to boost CEITEC's ambition to become a significant player in the field of science, at least in Europe.

Vojtěch Nosek is the co-founder and CEO of UNICO, a leading provider of technological innovation based on breakthrough scientific knowledge - leveraging his knowledge of the patent landscape and interdisciplinary research network to effectively connect universities, companies and investors. While studying at the Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vojtěch Nosek focused on quantitative methods in geography, where he obtained his PhD. Before founding UNICO, he worked as a technology transfer manager at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He led an international collaborative project in the field of medical research and, as a project manager, also the start-up project of the University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings at the CTU. He is an accredited member of the European Knowledge & Technology Transfer Society. He is now involved in international projects where UNICO collaborates with the World Bank and in strategic management of the company.

Veronika is a project manager who focuses on entrepreneurship and building an entrepreneurial ecosystem at Charles University, as a part of the team at the university's Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer. She is also involved in developing an innovation hub at the Hybernská Campus in Prague. Currently, she is leading the key activity 'Entrepreneurship' within the iKAP II project. Prior to this role, she led the 'Accelerator VŠEM' incubation program at the University of Economics and Management Prague. She also worked at H40 as an incubation manager for the 'Creative Incubator Art&Digital'. Her interests span the non-profit sector, CSR, SDGs, social entrepreneurship, the startup scene, education, and career guidance.

Stanislava is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) research fellow at the University of Vienna. Her groundbreaking work focuses on pioneering the development of innovative antimicrobial compounds by harnessing the unique potential of Antarctic bacterial sources. In 2022, Stanislava had the honor of representing the Czech Republic at the prestigious international Falling Walls Lab Finale in Berlin. Currently, Stanislava is in the final stages of refining her groundbreaking antimicrobial research at the University of Vienna. With a strategic vision, she is preparing to transition her research endeavors back to the Czech Republic.