BRT Takes the Stage at MATE University’s Research Excellence Event
BRT Director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík was recently invited to speak at a prestigious professional event hosted by the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE). The event, titled “Reproducibility of Results in Agricultural and Life Sciences”, took place as part of the Professional Day of the Research Excellence and Flagship Research Groups Programmes at MATE. The event gathered leading researchers, strategists, and academic leaders to explore topics critical to the development of science and higher education. There was a strong emphasis on reproducibility, internationalisation, and enhancement of academic reputation.
The program opened with remarks from Dr. Zsombor Boromisza, Deputy Director General of the Buda Campus of MATE, and an address by Prof. Dr. Zoltan Kovacs, Director of Research Strategy at MATE, focusing on the development of the research ecosystem and MATE’s positioning in international rankings.
Keynote Session: Advancing Academic Merit
During the first scientific session on the internationalisation of science, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík delivered a keynote lecture titled: "Advancing Academic Excellence: Strategies for Growth, Organizational Development, and Scientific Reproducibility."
Insights shared:
- Strategies to foster academic growth at institutional and international levels
- Best practices for enhancing organizational structures to support cutting-edge research
- Practical approaches to promoting scientific reproducibility, a cornerstone for credible and impactful research (using the OSIRIS Project as an example)
- His own experiences and success stories from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZU)
His speech set an inspiring tone for the day, underlining the vital connection between institutional strategy, international collaboration, and scientific integrity.
Following Dr. Roubík, Dávid Békési, Head of International Relations at MATE, provided an overview of MATE’s international relations and future pathways for deeper international embeddedness.
Afternoon Discussions: Academic Reputation and Reproducibility
The afternoon session dove deeper into the practical aspects of enhancing academic reputation:
- Prof. Dr. Zoltán Lakner discussed the international embeddedness of research at MATE, and informed the on-site and online audience about the publication performance of MATE, emphasizing its international comparison, and the composition of research funding sources in a very interesting and awareness-raising presentation.
- Dr. Monika Varga summarized the reproducibility-related activities and results in the HEU OSIRIS project. In her presentation, she highlighted that MATE's role in the project is to represent the specificities of agricultural and related life sciences, focusing specifically on computational reproducibility. She explained that we are witnessing a major change in the coming period, with high quality journals increasingly incorporating the requirement for researchers to support the conclusions of their publications with data (at least in line with FAIR principles), as well as to share the analytical and computational methods used
- Prof. Daniel Ames, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Environmental Modelling and Software, Elsevier, (Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA), offered a global perspective on the challenges and opportunities from an editors’ perspective, highlighting the importance of reproducibility in agricultural and life sciences, with a special focus on computational reproducibility. He emphasized the need to share data and analysis codes for credible and transparent publications. He presented interesting illustrative examples from his own field of hydrological modelling, including the open databases and tools they developed.
Future Prospects
The event not only highlighted cutting-edge issues like scientific reproducibility but also strengthened ties between Czech and Hungarian academic communities. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík’s participation reaffirmed CZU’s growing international leadership in sustainable development, agricultural innovation, and research excellence.
"It was an honour to be part of such an inspiring event at MATE University. I am confident that the strong commitment to scientific excellence and international collaboration will propel MATE to even greater achievements. I wish all my colleagues at MATE much success in their future activities and in building a thriving, globally respected research community." - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hynek Roubík
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