How a PhD Works Here
A Guide to Becoming a Scientist
We want to be completely open with you from day one. The academic environment in our region unfortunately sometimes tempts people towards minimalism and merely ticking boxes. The system often produces graduates who earn a degree and defend a disjointed collection of articles, but they lack a coherent vision and the ability to push the field forward. It is very easy to slip into an approach where you view a PhD merely as a checklist of duties to tick off.
To fully understand our philosophy, please read The Hollow Degree article before diving into the guidelines below.
In the faculty corridors, you will encounter other PhD students every day, and many of them will have supervisors who silently accept this superficial approach. You will see students who need only a fraction of the work to succeed and who drift through their studies taking the path of least resistance. You might very well hear completely different versions of how the academic world really works from them. Some supervisors have a tendency to filter information and deliberately do not tell their students everything. I do not do this and I will always present you with the bare reality, provided it is safe for all of us. This might be quite difficult for you to process at times, and you might occasionally find it incomprehensible why we demand such immense dedication when it is clearly so much easier elsewhere. That is exactly why our principles and the reasons behind our actions must be absolutely clear to you from your very first day.
I do not want you to fall into the trap of mediocrity. I do not bring you into the team just so you can meet the bare minimum and get a piece of paper. A PhD represents an absolute transition from a passive consumer of knowledge into a creator of it. You are here because I see your potential, and my goal is to raise you to be confident scientists who can lead your own teams and withstand the uncompromising competition of global science. It will be incredibly demanding and I will have above-standard expectations of you, but I always do this with the aim of pushing you (and myself) further. In return, I give you my word that as long as you put in the effort and maintain your scientific integrity, I will always stand firmly behind you and protect your interests in the academic environment.
You may notice a frequent shift between "I" and "we". While "I" reflects my personal responsibility and commitment as your supervisor, please understand that this "I" is fundamentally the "we" of our team. Whenever I outline an expectation or make a promise, I am voicing the collective culture and shared standards we have built together here.
Four Uncompromising Pillars of Our Work
Before we break down the individual years of study, you must accept the four basic principles upon which our research stands.
1. Deep Technical Understanding
Our field is evolving at a breakneck pace and simply flying drones and operating commercial software is no longer enough. I expect you to delve into the physical essence of the measurements and understand exactly how sensors for detecting environmental stress work or what the specifics of a given application are. You will not succeed without the ability to process massive amounts of data and programme. Without a deep understanding of these principles, you will just be instrument operators and never true scientists.
2. Open Science and Absolute Reproducibility
Research today does not just rely on the published journal article itself. Your written code, your entire methodology and your source data must be clean, shared and fully reproducible. You must learn to work with repositories, write clear scripts and adhere to a modern Data Management Plan. Open science also means a transparent declaration of what tools and models you use in your work. If your results cannot be independently replicated and verified by someone else on the other side of the world, then your work completely loses its meaning.
3. Independence within an International Team
Our research is built on your absolute independence and simultaneously on your ability to engage in close collaborative and international work. I expect you to be able to work independently and proactively solve problems, but at the same time you must be able to function in a broader team across institutions. Science is not done in isolation and without the ability to confidently share your ideas with international partners, you have no chance of succeeding in the long term.
4. Regular Communication and Evaluation
We will communicate closely and regularly. From the beginning, we will meet in one-on-one meetings and team meetings will also be completely standard for you. My door is always open and I am always ready to discuss things with you, but I must see your own proactive approach, passion and enthusiasm. I expect this not only when it comes to reporting your results, but in your engagement with the overall philosophy of science.
Year One: Mindset and Navigating the Information Fog
The first year is about building foundations. Do not expect groundbreaking results immediately, because your task is to absorb the context and learn to think like a scientist. Consider this first year a mutual trial period. I selected you because I firmly believe in your potential, but if we eventually discover that this specific high-pressure academic environment is not the right fit for you, there is absolutely no shame in shaking hands and moving on to other challenges.
Explore Year One
- What awaits you: You will read a massive number of studies and occasionally you will feel like you know nothing and that it is all useless. Initially, you will likely lack the broader context and you will not immediately see the point of all the steps and requirements. Similarly, you will probably struggle to keep up with the surrounding academic politics, and that is completely natural. At the same time, I will involve you in the ongoing research of other colleagues right from the start. You will also begin teaching from your very first year. This is crucial so you can truly master the fundamentals, learn how to speak and present confidently, and experience the academic environment from the other side of the desk. This practical exposure will help you absorb the real atmosphere of our lab. You will also discover that science is full of dead ends and largely consists of frustration and failure. I do not expect perfection from you, but rather a willingness to find solutions when things go wrong.
- What you must master: You must immediately adopt the mindset that a PhD is primarily systematic and purposeful work. Your main goal is to create a massive and bulletproof state of the art. You must start thinking critically about what you read and learn to formulate meaningful research questions. At the same time, you must learn to work sustainably. I expect maximum effort from you, but a burnt-out PhD student will not produce world-class science. You must know how to rest and ask for help in time when you realise you are overwhelmed.
Year Two: First Experiments and Clashing with Reality
In this year, you must get your hands dirty. The theory ends and real research and confrontation with the academic operation begin.
Explore Year Two
- What awaits you: You will design and execute your first experiment. Making honest mistakes, whether it is a flawed sensor setup or a bug in your code, is a completely normal part of the learning process. The only unacceptable action is hiding those errors. If you mess up or if the data does not make sense, you will not panic. You will come to me immediately so we can find the cause and fix it together. You will start writing your first real paper and I expect your active participation in international conferences so you can get a feel for the wider world. You will build upon your teaching experience by taking on more responsibility in guiding younger colleagues at the bachelor's or master's level, because explaining the subject matter to someone else is the best way to consolidate your own knowledge and workflow. Furthermore, you will begin acting as an opponent for bachelor's theses. Even though supervisors are usually against this practice, the ability to critically evaluate the work of others is an absolutely crucial skill for your development.
- What you must master: You will start navigating how science is done, how it is funded and how it is evaluated. You will find out how journal quartiles work, understand the differences between types of articles and learn to identify journals and conferences with unethical practices. At the same time, you must clearly master the rules of authorship ethics, understand the logic of who should be listed on an article and why, and adopt an absolutely uncompromising stance against plagiarism and data falsification. Most importantly, you must understand the vast difference between merely getting a degree and having a true scientific mission. You will also realise that university politics and tabular evaluations of science do not always align with pure research principles.
Year Three: My Right Hand and a Thick Skin
You are no longer a beginner. You know the environment, you know our data and the dynamics of our cooperation are changing. You no longer just come for advice, but you bring your own functional solutions and you can constructively challenge my ideas.
Explore Year Three
- What awaits you: You will have to mentally withstand the first truly brutal revisions of your articles from reviewers. You will learn that criticism of your work is not a personal attack and you will learn to process it professionally. At this stage, an internship abroad or a longer stay outside the country is absolutely essential. You will not understand global science from our local basin and you must build your own international network of contacts. Communication with foreign colleagues has now become completely routine for you. Behind the scenes, you will also start unofficially supervising bachelor's theses yourself, and you will slowly begin to peer-review external scientific studies to understand the publication process from the other side.
- What you must master: You are becoming my key colleague. You help me plan long-term research, understand my steps and realise that my demands have a clear purpose. You must now be able to actively and confidently communicate your research outputs to both a narrow expert community and the general public. You are beginning to thoughtfully build your own scientific identity through consistent dissemination activities.
Year Four: Independent Researcher and Creator of Vision
At this stage, you must function as an independent unit. I act more as your consultant and mentor and merely guide you gently.
Explore Year Four
- What awaits you: You are one or two steps ahead of me in your specific topics. Before embarking on any new work, you can think it through rationally and plan it so you do not waste time and resources. Independent and confident communication with international partners is now your absolute standard and daily routine. You can identify achievable funding opportunities for your research.
- What you must master: You can independently design an experiment, write an article and formulate a high-quality project proposal. For projects, however, you must prepare for a hard landing and fully understand that the grant environment is extremely competitive. The chances of your major project succeeding the first time are minuscule. You must learn to accept rejection, process the committee's criticism constructively and submit the application again and better. You will manage a journal revision without my constant supervision. You proactively come up with your own ideas, understand that modern science is highly collaborative and can seamlessly work in a wider international team. An overview of the state of the art in your narrow focus is an absolute given, and you can study any additional expertise on your own.
When You Will Go to Your Defence
Article counts are just a necessary evil and the common language of the academic world and they certainly do not serve as a free pass to a degree. The entire study period is primarily about whether you have learned to do actual science and whether you can survive in it long term. I will only let you go to your defence when I am certain that you can plan research, write and defend a project and constructively criticise your own work. You will only go there when your dissertation tells a comprehensive and coherent story and genuinely pushes the boundaries of our field. You will not defend because you have met the university's metrics, but because you have something to offer global science and can stand your ground in its immense competition.
Life Outside the Academic Bubble
Not every one of you will stay at the university and pursue an academic career after a successful defence. Your PhD must, however, prepare you to solve the most complex problems absolutely anywhere. Even if you eventually leave for the commercial sector or public administration, you must take with you the ability to think analytically, manage projects rationally and defend your decisions in front of any audience. My ultimate goal is to raise you to be resilient and top-level experts who will not get lost in any environment. I want to always be able to stand behind you with pride and, conversely, I want you to never have to be ashamed of me.
Transparent Financial Realities
The legal framework for PhD scholarships in the Czech Republic currently sets your minimum income at 1.2 times the national minimum wage. Because this baseline changes annually, your exact scholarship will fluctuate. You must understand from the very beginning that the faculty covers only about half of this required monthly amount from its core budget. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to co-finance the remainder of your income.
This additional funding can come directly from my active research projects or you will need to secure it yourself through the grant agencies we outline below. Most often we use a combination of both approaches. You might begin your studies funded by my current project and subsequently secure your own grant to cover the later years. It is also possible to combine your scholarship with a standard employment contract at the faculty, although you should be aware that these formal positions are relatively scarce. To fully grasp your financial rights and obligations, I strongly recommend that you read the current Higher Education Act (Act No. 52/2025 Coll.) and regularly check the official Dean's directives on the Faculty website (currently No. 03/2026).
Science is undoubtedly a tough grind. Fortunately, we make sure to have a lot of fun while doing it.
Welcome to OpenSkyLab.