Our Director Michal Smetana won the Neuron Award for Promising Scientists 2025!

The Peace Research Center Prague Director Michal Smetana has won the Neuron Award for Promising Scientists 2025 in the field of social sciences. The jury praised his innovative approach to combining the fields of international relations, security studies, and political psychology, into which he has even introduced experimental methods from natural sciences.

"It is a great joy and a huge honor not only for me, but for our entire research team. We have a very ambitious research agenda planned for this year, so it is also a great encouragement for our future work," said Associate Professor Smetana, who has long been involved in research on international security, war, and peace. As director of the Peace Research Center Prague (PRCP) and head of the Experimental Laboratory for International Security Studies (ELISS), he investigates how people and societies respond to threats, what creates trust between states, and why conflicts escalate. Since September 2024, he has been the recipient of the prestigious ERC Starting Grant, under which he focuses on the stability of military alliances. He presents his research at leading universities around the world, such as Harvard, Stanford, and Cambridge, and is one of the Czech scientists who significantly shape the international debate on security issues.

“Winning the Neuron Award is an extraordinary recognition of the outstanding and internationally acclaimed scientific work of Associate Professor Michal Smetana. His research not only pushes the boundaries of the field, but also brings socially relevant insights. It is also proof that the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University is capable of creating an environment in which excellent science is systematically developed and personalities of international renown are nurtured," adds Professor Arnošt Veselý, Vice-Dean for Science and Research at FSV UK.

This year, the award went to a total of seven young scientists who have achieved significant global success in their fields and who, in addition to their curiosity, also share experience from elite global workplaces. The winners receive a prize of CZK 500,000 to support their further scientific work. An overview of the other winners can be found here.

For over fifteen years, the Neuron Foundation has been recognizing excellent scientists in Czechia and supporting their work. The winners of the Neuron Awards are selected by a scientific council, which annually nominates and awards prizes in seven fields (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, computer science, and social sciences). To date, the Neuron Foundation has spent over CZK 150 million on supporting and popularizing Czech science, awarded over 130 prizes, and supported 13 scientific expeditions with CZK 6 million.

We are proud to be led by such an internationally recognized scientist, who continues to push the boundaries of our field. We wholeheartedly congratulate him on the success!