The Faculty of Business and Economics at Mendel University in Brno is involved in an international project aimed at strengthening collaboration among leading European universities and providing systematic support for doctoral education. The project establishes a platform known as the Doctoral School Network, which connects research teams and PhD candidates across partner institutions and enhances their involvement in international research.
The network brings together the University of Lille (France), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany), the University of Reading (United Kingdom), Ghent University (Belgium), the Kyiv School of Economics (Ukraine), and the Cracow University of Economics (Poland). The project also funds research and training stays for the faculty’s PhD candidates, giving them the opportunity to carry out part of their research at partner institutions while further developing their academic and methodological skills in an international environment.
“Participation in this type of international collaboration is key to the further development of doctoral studies at our faculty. The Doctoral School Network connects leading institutions and enables our students to gain experience that is essential for their future academic and professional careers in an international environment,” says the Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at MENDELU, Assoc. Prof. Svatopluk Kapounek, Ph.D.
The project was launched with a kick-off meeting at the Faculty of Business and Economics at MENDELU, where representatives of the partner universities came together to discuss the future direction of the collaboration as well as the concrete involvement of PhD candidates. Among the participants were Jan Fidrmuc (University of Lille), Philip Verwimp (KU Leuven), Christoph Schaeffer and Philipp Harms (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), Piotr Stanek (Cracow University of Economics), and Alexander Mihailov (University of Reading). The meeting created space for direct interaction between international partners and the faculty’s PhD candidates, as well as for identifying shared research topics.