About us

The Center of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research (CRH) is a scientific workplace focused on plant research and plant biotechnology development. CRH brings together research teams of the Palacký University and Olomouc workplaces of the Institute of Experimental Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Crop Research Institute. Local scientists belong to world´s top experts in reading genetic information of barley, wheat and other plants important for nutrition of the ever-growing human population. Based on the results of basic research, they suggest procedures that enable breeders to obtain varieties of new generation with the desired properties, especially higher yield and resistance to drought, temperature fluctuations and other stress factors.
CRH is a Regional Branch Office of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB). In cooperation with EFB we organize a conference on plant biotechnology called Green for Good every two years. Among the most prominent guests were Patrick Schnable, a plant geneticist from Iowa State University, molecular biologist Heribert Hirt, who founded the Desert Agriculture Initiative at KAUST in Saudi Arabia, plant physiologist Richard Napier of the University of Warwick, leading world chemical expert John Pickett of the United Kingdom or World Food Prize holder Marc van Montagu, who also participated in the opening ceremony of CRH in 2013.
The Science Center was built in years 2010 to 2013 under the Operation Program R & D for Innovations for about CZK 807.8 million. There are almost 200 scientists engaged in basic and applied research.

Contact details

Šlechtitelů 241/27
783 71, Olomouc - Holice

+420 585 634 979

crh@upol.cz

 

Organizational structure

Executive Director

Ivo Frébort

Executive Director of the Centre, Palacký University Olomouc

ivo.frebort@upol.cz

+420 585 634 922

Ivo Frébort, a Czech citizen born in 1965; MSc. in Analytical Chemistry 1989, Palacký University Olomouc, CZ; Ph.D. in Biochemistry 1992, Masaryk University Brno, CZ; Ph.D. in Bioresources Science 1997, Tottori University, Japan; postdoc University of Tübingen, Germany 2001; Professor in Biochemistry, Palacký University since 2005; visiting professor Osaka University 2007.

Ivo Frébort is a founder and Director of the Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research (since 2010), member of the Executive Board of European Federation of Biotechnology (since 2012) and former Dean of the Facuty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc (2014-2018).

His research covers broad areas in enzymology, molecular biology and biochemistry, with special focus on the enzymes of hormone metabolism in plants and possible biotechnological applications, including cloning and preparation of transgenic barley (WoS 100+ papers, 1500+ citation, h-21, 2 patents). His lecturing includes Molecular Biology and Structure and Function of Biomacromolecules.

He was the principal investigator of a large infrastructure project (> 30 mil €) from EU structural funds and 30 other research projects.

ORCID: 0000-0002-4032-4961

Scientific Director

Jaroslav Doležel

Scientific Director of the Centre and Chairperson of the Scientific Board of Centre, Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR

dolezel@ueb.cas.cz

+420 585 238 703

Born in 1954; MSc. in horticulture 1978, Agricultural College in Brno; Ph.D. in Genetics, 1983, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague; postdoc 1985 - 1986, ENEA, C.R.E. Casaccia, Rome, Italy; DSc. in Genetics, 2001, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague; Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, 2013, Masaryk University, Brno.

Jaroslav Doležel has been working as a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Botany since 1983 and since 1997 he has been the head of the Olomouc workplace of this institute. Since 1992, he has lectured at Palacký University in Olomouc, currently at the Cytotaxonomy and Cytogenetics, Genome Anatomy and Cytometric Techniques. Since 2010, he has been the scientific director of the Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research and is a member of the Scientific Council of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Czech Science Foundation.

His research activities are focused on the study of the structure, evolution and function of plant genome in order to obtain the knowledge needed for the application of molecular and biotechnological methods in the cultivation of agricultural crops. His team also participated in the sequencing of complex wheat and barley genomes (WoS: 300+ publications, 13000+ citations, h-index 54, editor of three books).

Jaroslav Doležel has been the investigator or member of the research team of more than 20 projects, including EU projects. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic, in 2014 he received the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports Award for outstanding results in research, experimental development and innovation, and in 2018 he received the Czech Government National Award for his lifelong contribution to the development of plant genetics and the application of results in practice.

ORCID: 0000-0002-6263-0492

Board of Directors and Executive Board

Jaroslav MILLER
Chairperson of the Board of Directors and Board Member of the Council of the Centre, Rector of the Palacký University in Olomouc
+420 585 631 001, rektor@upol.cz

Martin VÁGNER
Board Member of the Council of the Centre
Director of the Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR
+420 225 106 453, vagner@ueb.cas.cz

Martin KUBALA
Board Member of the Council of the Centre
Dean of the Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc
+420 585 634 001, ivo.frebort@upol.cz

Ladislav ŠNEVAJS
Member of the Council of the Centre
Representative of the Chartered City of Olomouc
+420 585 513 445, ladislav.snevajs@olomouc.eu                                                               

Vladimír LICHNOVSKÝ
Member of the Council of the Centre
Representative of the Olomouc Region
+420 585 508 280, v.lichnovsky@olkraj.cz

Jan RADOŠ
Member of the Council of the Centre
Representative of the Ministry of Agriculture
+420 221 812 107, jan.rados@mze.cz

Scientific Board

Jaroslav DOLEŽEL
Chairperson of the Scientific Board
Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR
+420 585 205 852, dolezel@ueb.cas.cz

Ivo FRÉBORT
Palacký University Olomouc
+420 585 634 922, ivo.frebort@upol.cz

Jozef ŠAMAJ
Palacký University Olomouc
+420 585 634 978, jozef.samaj@upol.cz

Petr ILÍK
Palacký University Olomouc
+420 585 634 153, petr.ilik@upol.cz

Miroslav STRNAD
Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR
+ 420 585 634 850, strnad@ueb.cas.cz

Marek ŠEBELA
Palacký University Olomouc
+ 420 585 634 927, marek.sebela@upol.cz

Jan BARTOŠ
Institute of Experimental Botany AS CR
+420 585 205 881, bartos@ueb.cas.cz

Petr Tarkowski
Výzkumný ústav rostlinné výroby, v. v. i.
+420 585 634 677, petr.tarkowski@upol.cz

Olga VALENTOVÁ
Institute of Chemical Technology Prague
+420 220 443 027, olga.valentova@vscht.cz

Jiří FAJKUS
Masaryk University
+420 549 494 003, fajkus@sci.muni.cz

Antonín DREISEITL
Agrotest Fyto, Ltd. and Agricultural Research Institute Kromeříž, Ltd.
+420 573 317 139, dreiseitl.antonin@vukrom.cz

Jeffrey A. COLE
Chairman of the European Federation of Biotechnology
j.a.cole@bham.ac.uk

Jan BŘEZINA
Former Member of the European Parliament
brezina@jbrezina.cz

International Advisory Board

Prof. Richard M. Napier
University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

Prof. Dr. Heribert Hirt
King Abdullah University of Sciences and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Sebastien Praud
Biogemma, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Dr. Roland Wohlgemuth
Technical University Lodz, Poland

Prof. Dr. Nils Stein
Liebniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Gatersleben, Germany

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