Czech philanthropists Hana and Dalimil Dvořák donate record sum to science

Czech leading chemists Hana and Dalimil Dvořák announced that their private foundation will donate an unprecedented sum of money in the history of Czech philanthropy to science. The Dvořáks have pledged to contribute 200 million Czech crowns to dozens of chemistry and science students over the next two decades.

The private foundation, Experientia, founded by Hana and Dalimir Dvořák, has already been supporting and offering grants for early-stage researchers, but now it will also focus on high school and university students. The donation of 200 million Czech crowns will rank Experientia among the country’s top ten private foundations and the biggest ever focused exclusively on science.

The money which will be donated comes from patent royalties from antiviral drugs used to treat HIV. Mrs Dvořáková acquired her wealth by being part of the team of the world-famous Czech scientist Antonín Holý, whose research led to the development of drugs to treat a wide number of diseases, including HIV.

After the year 2000, Hana Dvořáková began to receive substantial sums of money from patent royalties. With their modest lifestyle, she says her family would never make use of so much money and therefore they started donating to numerous charities.  Seven years ago, she and her husband decided to establish their own foundation, which would focus exclusively on science.

So far, Experientia has helped 13 young scientists from the Czech Republic to launch their careers. Hana and Dalimil Dvořák are hoping that in addition to promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad, their activity will help Czech science reach world-class results and, maybe even help one of the young Czech scientific hopefuls win a Nobel Prize one day.

“The choice to support young scientists is obvious. We want our activity to have an impact. That’s why we are investing into a relatively narrow field, to be able to see the result in the foreseeable future and so far it seems promising,” says Mr Dvořák.

Source: www.radio.cz