University students can now apply for scholarships. Starting in the 2025/2026 academic year, these scholarships will be paid out by the CSG Endowment Fund. Supporting education is one of the main pillars of the fund, which was established by the CSG Group in March this year to mark the 30th anniversary of its founding. The scholarship program is intended for students of Czech universities in bachelor's, master's, or doctoral study programs. In addition, the CSG Endowment Fund is also launching a pilot scholarship program to finance studies at foreign universities.

"The aim of the Endowment Fund is to motivate young people to study fields that primarily correspond to our group's focus. This is to increase their attractiveness. We will provide students with scholarships, but this does not oblige them to join us after graduation. On the other hand, this does not prevent us from working with them, for example by offering them internships at one of our companies," says Bohuslav Přikryl, CSG Vice President for Science, Research and Innovation and member of the CSG Endowment Fund's Board of Trustees, which is responsible for its educational pillar.

Those interested can fill out and submit a scholarship application on the CSG Foundation website. Applications will then be evaluated so that selected students can begin receiving scholarships in October, at the start of the academic year. Applications are open to students in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs who have a grade point average of 2.0 or higher from the previous academic year. Logically, first-year bachelor's students are not eligible for scholarships. In addition to the grade point average, the overall life situation of the scholarship applicant will also be taken into account.

"Applicants must be citizens of the Czech Republic or have a valid residence permit, be enrolled in full-time study, and be under 26 years of age for bachelor's or master's programs and under 31 years of age for doctoral programs. The amount of the scholarship will be determined individually, with a maximum amount of CZK 15,000 per month. The scholarships will be awarded and paid for the entire academic year," says Adam Valenta, manager of the CSG Endowment Fund.

The CSG Endowment Fund primarily intends to support students in fields related to the CSG Group's business activities, i.e. mainly technical and economic fields. However, this is not exclusive. Students from non-technical fields may also receive a scholarship if they meet all the conditions for its award.

Pilot program also for foreign universities

In addition to supporting students at Czech universities, the CSG Endowment Fund will also focus on supporting students at prestigious foreign universities on a pilot basis. In this case, the scholarship will be used to partially or fully cover the costs of study, living expenses associated with the stay at the place of study, and travel expenses.

"Given that this is a pilot year, we will support students who have been selected on the basis of recommendations and their excellent academic results. In future years, however, we will proceed in the same way as for the call for applications for students at Czech schools. We will also take into account the social status of applicants. Our goal is to enable talented young people who would not otherwise be able to afford expensive studies abroad to study," says Kateřina Petko, director of the CSG Endowment Fund.

The Endowment Fund's scholarship program complements the activities that CSG develops for the academic community. The group has signed framework cooperation agreements with most Czech universities and plans to develop cooperation with them in research and development focused primarily on breakthrough technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic systems, big data processing, and quantum systems in order to maintain its competitiveness in the future.

The CSG Endowment Fund has based its activities on three fundamental pillars. In addition to supporting education, it also contributes to volunteer fire departments and brigades through grant calls. The third pillar is the Employee Project Support program, in which the Endowment Fund contributes to charitable, sporting, and cultural activities carried out by group employees in their free time. The Foundation is also ready to help employees who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in difficult life situations. This year, the CSG Foundation is managing a budget of CZK 50 million.