- What is C4SYS?
C4Sys stands for Center for Systems Biology and it represents the Czech infrastructure for systems biology. As a distributed infrastructure it concentrates the knowledge potential in the field of systems biology and links the diverse systems biology research in the Czech Republic to the European infrastructure for Systems Biology ISBE.
- What does it provide?
The C4SYS infrastructure is a multi-purpose platform offering academia and industry at the national level easy and rapid access to expertise in the broad field of systems biology. Its portfolio includes a spectrum of approaches to build and exploit predictive maps and models of complex biological systems that range from molecular to whole organism level, the design of experimental approaches to efficiently collect data that are fit for modeling and stewardship of relevant data, models and maps. C4Sys services comprise consulting, support through contract activities, development of standards, and teaching and training.
- Who does it serve?
In its operational phase, C4SYS will primarily serve their own national communities, nevertheless with a large fraction of international users, too. C4Sys is involved in international research networks and collaborations with top-ranked institutions worldwide. C4SYS will maintain associated staff and resources, and retain the obligation for ensuring longer term maintenance and curation of the resources being provided.
- How is it structured?
C4Sys is collaboration between the hosting institution Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and 3 partnering institutions: Masaryk University in Brno, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, Global Change Research Center – Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Agreements to exploit C4SYS’ large synergy potential have been signed on a national level with the research infrastructures CIISB (Instruct), Czech-BioImaging a ELIXIR-CZ.
The infrastructure is comprised of a central management team at the lead partner and 11 groups, providing experimental, training and modelling expertise and conducting research necessary to improve the infrastructure. Overall C4Sys RI will be managed and supported by 21 scientists, 13 technical and 11 administrative workers. Prof. Rudiger Ettrich, Ph.D. (CNSB) has been elected by the General assembly as director, and Petr Baldrian, Ph.D. (MBU), Jan Sterba, Ph.D. (USB), Jan Cerveny, Ph.D. (Czechglobe) and Prof. Jiri Damborsky, Ph.D. (MU) have been appointed as representatives for the steering committee.
- How is it funded?
C4SYS is a priority project on the national roadmap since 2011. The preparatory phase of C4SYS was funded from institutional recourses where each partner supported the infrastructure partially from own grants and projects. After a deep evaluation in 2014, this year C4SYS as a consortium gained the status of a national infrastructure and was awarded financial support by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) until 2022. Thus 70% of the overall costs will be covered by the government while 30% is contributed by the c4sys partner institutions (grants, service contracts etc.)