Marcel Pikhart becomes new UHK Vice-Rector for Science, Research and Knowledge Transfer
Marcel Pikhart took up the position of Vice-Rector for Science, Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Hradec Králové on 1 October 2026. He previously served, amongst other roles, as Head of the Centre for Basic and Applied Research at the Faculty of Informatics and Management at UHK. In his new position, he intends to focus primarily on expanding international project collaboration, supporting ambitious research projects and fostering closer cooperation between faculties.
Mr. Pikhart professionally focuses primarily on digital technologies in education, applied linguistics and artificial intelligence.
He also serves on the editorial boards of more than ten academic journals and evaluates research projects for funding and research agencies in several countries, including New Zealand, Switzerland and Lithuania. In the fields of social sciences and artificial intelligence, he has repeatedly been ranked among the world’s top 2 % most-cited researchers in a global ranking based on the data from Stanford University.
International cooperation will be a priority
One of Vice-Rector´s key priorities in his new role is to increase UHK’s involvement in international research projects.
I would like to focus on strengthening international project collaboration at UHK. I would also like to revise the internal support system so that we can better support ambitious projects with great potential.
One of his specific goals is to secure an European project under the COST programme which supports the creation of international research networks. Such a project could significantly boost the visibility of the University of Hradec Králové within the European research community.
He also intends to place greater emphasis on closer cooperation between university´s faculties. “I would like to foster greater collaboration between faculties, as interdisciplinarity receives strong support in the European Union,” he adds.
His immediate priorities will also include implementing the recommendations for science and research arising from the International Evaluation Panel’s assessment and preparing UHK’s Research Organisation Strategy.
Research Funding Remains a Challenge
He considers the difficulty in predicting its funding to be one of the biggest obstacles to the further development of the Czech research environment.
“If we define a challenge as a real obstacle, then it is undoubtedly the unstable and, above all, completely unpredictable financial support for research provided by the ministry,” he explains.
Beyond his academic and research activities, the new Vice-Rector has a keen interest in nature and botany. In his free time, he particularly enjoys reading and listening to classical music.
