Bringing science home for Christmas: the annual Czexpats Conference
Each year, Czech scientists living and working abroad return home to their families for Christmas. For several years now, many combine this visit with the Czexpats in Science Christmas Conference. Held on Monday and, for the first time, conducted entirely in English, the event is organised by Czexpats in Science, which connects Czech researchers across the globe and is led by Matouš Glanc. Radio Prague International spoke with him to find out more about who the “Czexpats in science” are.
“The ‘Czexpats in science’ are Czech scientists working all over the globe. The word comes from merging the words Czech and expat. It started as a community of Czech expats in other countries, but over the years – since 2018, when we first launched this initiative – we have expanded the target audience also to foreigners in Czechia and the Czechs who have returned with substantial international experience. So today, this is a community of everybody, who shares the vision of an open and ambitious research environment in the Czech Republic.”
And all these Czexpats meet for a Christmas conference every year – what does this usually look like?
“It is an interdisciplinary scientific meeting of some 200 people. Because the heart of the community are Czechs abroad who often return for the holidays back home, Christmastime is actually the only time when we can organise such a gathering. There are usually people of all disciplines, at various career stages, who all talk about science, and about what it takes to be a scientist and to be moving around all the time.”
Why is it important for scientists from or linked to the Czech Republic to meet?
“What we strive to do, apart from connecting this community, is to unite all these people and give them a voice and transform their international experience into progress for Czech science. Meeting is a necessary first step in creating this community that we can then leverage to have a positive impact.”
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So, the aim is to strengthen Czech science through Czech scientists abroad?
“Yes, exactly. The overarching aim of our organisation is to improve science in Czechia by leveraging this international experience, of which individual people are the carriers. So, to be able to fulfil our aim, we have to start by bringing people together and making this community that we can then represent.
To get a sense of who makes up this community… who are some of the speakers at this year’s conference?
“Today’s keynote speakers are Petra Hájková, a biomedical scientist working in the UK, and Julia Leventon, an “inverse expat” (a foreigner working in Czechia) at the intersection of environmental sciences and sociology.
“So today, this is a community of everybody, who shares the vision of an open and ambitious research environment in the Czech Republic.”
Matouš Glanc
“Then we have a panel discussion with Vladimír Beneš, who is the head of the Genomics Core facility (GenCore) at the European Molecular Biology Lab. We have Joe Feinberg, a philosopher working in Czechia; Eric Glowacki, a physicist; and Johana Kotišová, who is a journalism theorist working in the Netherlands. There are also a number of smaller discussion tables with other speakers.
“Overall, we aim to represent sciences, humanities and social studies in all their width.”
What most of these people have in common is their journey away from Czechia—and, in some cases, back again.
“Precisely. They also share a global mind-set, global ambitions and the motivation to do world-class science, no matter where. Many Czechs living abroad are considering returning – or have already done so – but there are also those who do not necessarily want to relocate physically to Czechia. Almost all of them, however, wish to contribute to the development of science in the country. So hence the topic of this year's conference: Global Science in the Local Context. Together with the mentioned speakers, we will explore how global and local perspectives connect in how we do science and how we contribute to society.”
You, too, were a Czech scientist working abroad, but you decided to return.
“I have a background in molecular biology of plants and I worked in Austria and Belgium. At some point, like many others, I began considering my next steps professionally and personally, and I ended up coming back to Czechia. Since then, I have been less active in research and have instead devoted most of my professional time to leveraging the international experience of this community of thousands of people to benefit the research environment in Czechia, which we are convinced needs to move forward. And we strongly believe that international experiences and taking on the best practices from other countries are what can make the biggest difference.”
Beyond the conference, Czexpats in Science also do other projects and initiatives. For instance, you have created a map of Czech scientists that shows just how globally Czech scientists are distributed.
“The map of scientists has a very similar aim to the conference: to build a community, bring people together, and facilitate connections between Czech scientists abroad and individuals and institutions in Czechia. It is the second-largest project among our community-building activities. Apart from this, we also have two other pillars of activity.
“We strongly believe that international experiences and taking on the best practices from other countries are what can make the biggest difference.”
Matouš Glanc
“The first is directly supporting people in succeeding professionally and in bringing their experience back home. We provide information on mobility—whether to go abroad from Czechia or to return—and run several professional development projects.
“The third pillar is advocacy work, through which we represent this community of Czech scientists worldwide, giving them a voice and engaging with national science policymakers and institutional top management to push them to make changes from the top down to make the Czech science environment more open, ambitious and attractive for people from abroad. Because if we want to bring these people from abroad back home and let them shape the future of research in Czechia, we need to make sure the environment is attractive and welcoming for them – so, that's exactly what we strive for with our advocacy work.”
