News

Turn of the Year 2025

31 December, 2025

At the beginning of 2026, CERGE-EI looks back on a year which brought advances in research, education, public outreach, and community building, while also setting the stage for new initiatives in the year ahead.

We continued to strengthen our international reputation, once again ranking among the top 5% of research institutions according to RePEc. Our faculty members further contributed to the international economics research community through editorial service, publications in leading journals and externally funded research projects.

Jakub Steiner was appointed Editor of The Review of Economic Studies, Jakub Kastl and Filip Matějka published a paper in Econometrica, advancing our understanding of how market pricing and time valuation interact using detailed ride-hailing data. Sebastian Ottinger received the 2025 Otto Wichterle Prize from the Czech Academy of Sciences in recognition of his outstanding early-career research.

We launched an interdisciplinary research project titled “New Technologies and Transformations of Education, Research and the Labour Market”, led by Štěpán Jurajda and supported by a grant from the Jan Ámos Komenský Operational Programme. And we welcomed new faculty members, whose perspectives and expertise will enrich both our research and teaching: Achim Ahrens, Stephanie Ettmeier, and Teresa Freitas Monteiro.

Our IDEA think-tank contributed to numerous policy, political and public debates in 2025, including a special IDEA Talks video series ahead of the national elections on issues ranging from pensions to scientific excellence, and a comparative study of research performance across European science organisations that has informed discussions on science policy.

We welcomed new cohorts of PhD and Master students, 7 and 18 respectively. 21 New graduates joined our alumni community this year, with 9 PhD in Economics degrees, 8 Master in Economics degrees, and 4 Master in Economic Research degrees awarded. Five PhD students successfully defended their dissertations, six PhD students entered the job market, and four job placements were confirmed.

Two of our current PhD students received the Young Economist of the Year: Maxim Smirnov for his paper and Margarita Pavlova. Three second-year PhD students were awarded Second-Year Research Fellowships (Amos Njeku, Shampita Das, and Akhil Kumar). Three first-year students (Eliška Vlková, Jan Svoboda and Wenrui Piao) received the 2025/26 CERGE-EI Alumni Excellence Fellowship, reflecting the continued commitment of our alumni to supporting future cohorts through initiatives such as the Alumni Give Back campaign. This year’s campaign was launched on Giving Tuesday and raises funds to support students who will be admitted in the next academic year.

The quality and international relevance of our academic programs are also reflected in the performance of Charles University in global subject rankings. Economics and Econometrics were among the University’s top ten subjects in the Shanghai Global Ranking of Academic Subjects and ranked 185th worldwide in the QS World University Rankings by Subject. This reflects the combined achievements of CERGE-EI and the Institute of Economic Studies.

For the next academic year, we are launching a new Bachelor’s program in Economics of Markets and Organizations in cooperation with Prague University of Economics and Business, offering rigorous training in economic analysis and real-world market institutions.

Our outreach and capacity-building activities continued to expand in scope and impact over the year. We welcomed our largest ever cohort through the Academic Experience in Prague (AEP, previously UPCES) study-abroad programme with more than 100 students. The CERGEEI Foundation’s Teaching Fellows initiative continued to support the teaching of modern economics across Central and Eastern Europe, with 91 awardees who taught more than 145 courses at 53 universities in 22 countries. Of these, 28 were Career Integration Fellows. The Distance Learning Program taught 18 courses at 25 universities in 13 countries, with more than 2900 students enrolled.

This year also reflected CERGE-EI’s continued engagement with the international economics research community and the wider public. Professor Alvin E. Roth visited us in summer, meeting with students and faculty. President Petr Pavel opened the Global and European Challenges for Security and Economic Policy forum, organized by our ESC. We are very proud that the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Philippe Aghion, a long-time member of our Executive and Supervisory Committee. We hosted more than 50 speakers as part of our research seminar series, such as Laura Doval, Kfir Eliaz, Marios Karabarbounis, Frederic Koessler, Sara Lowes, David K. Levine, Christopher Phelan, Edouard Schaal, Ran Spiegler, Fabian Waldinger, David Yanagizawa-Drott.

CERGE-EI took part in several science-communication events, including Researchers’ Night and the Week of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and hosted Filip Matějka’s public lecture on rational inattention. For the first time, we also organised the CERGE-EI Festival, bringing together students, faculty, alumni and prospective students.

The coming year will be particularly special to us, as we will celebrate our 35th anniversary. Preparations are already under way for a series of events that will reflect CERGE-EI’s character not only as a place of rigorous academic work, but also a community where ideas are freely exchanged, curiosity is encouraged, and people support one another across roles and disciplines.