First Aktion AT-CZ project for the Department of International Business

The Czech-Austrian ‘Aktion programm’ (Aktion AT-CZ) is funding a first time project in which researchers and students from the Department of International Business of the University of Economics, Prague, are teaming up with their counterparts from the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland, Eisenstadt, to carry out a joint research and scientific writing project. The project is scheduled to last from February 11 to September 30, 2019.

The project presents a unique opportunity for pre-doctoral students of both countries to conduct internationally coordinated research activities under the guidance of their teachers. This project stands out as it is the first project that gives Bachelor and Master students a chance to work on a publication which is work normally reserved for PhD-students. This allows these students to contribute their valuable ideas and collect first experiences in academic work within an international team. The Aktion program is one of the few initiatives in the world that funds pre-doctoral students engaging in economics-oriented research.

Within the framework of the project, the teams will meet on several occasions in both Prague and Eisenstadt in order to set up the project, define tasks that each member shall carry out and merge the individual contributions into a paper that will be submitted to a quality economic journal. In between the meetings, the team members will carry out individual research and write their respective sections of the article.

This approach gives the member institutions the opportunity to improve the quality of their respective education and research activities; therefore, the project submission was highly welcome.

Alexandra Baldwin of the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland stated: ‘After the first afternoon, it was clear to me that this project was headed in a very positive direction because all the students were eager to contribute to the activities on hand and the working climate was one of mutual respect and interest.’

”It was a great opportunity to get familiar with the process of writing an economic paper from scratch”, said Martin Hammerbauer of the University of Economics, Prague.

Jan Kašpar, other Czech student, added: “I was positively surprised by the synergy between the Austrian and Czech team members.”

“I am delighted that our project was accepted; the team work has been really intensive so far,” commented V. Hinčica from the University of Economics, Prague.

Joint press release