Rules of Procedure of the Research and Development Council

Article 1

Introductory provisions

  1. The Rules of Procedures for the Research and Development Council (hereinafter referred to as the ”Rules of Procedure”) shall be an internal regulation of the Research and Development Council (hereinafter referred to as the ”Council”) regulating Council sessions.

  2. The Rules of Procedure shall be issued under Article 12 (4) of the Council Statute approved by Government Resolution No. 82 of 19th January 2005 on the Statute of the Research and Development Council (hereinafter referred to as the ”Statute”).

Article 2

Preparation for Council Sessions

  1. Dates of Council sessions shall be specified by the Council for a period of one year a minimum of half a year in advance. The Board of the Council shall determine the dates of its session in accordance with the dates of Council sessions.

  2. Preparation of documents for Council sessions shall be regulated by a timetable which shall be the ”Schedule for Preparation of Documents for Council Sessions” (hereinafter referred to as the ”Schedule for Session Preparation”) which is attached as an Annex to the Rules of Procedure. Any exception shall be permitted by the Chairperson of the Council

  3. A draft agenda of the session shall be determined by the Secretary of the Council (hereinafter referred to as the ”Secretary”) in compliance with the assignment of the Council resulting from the Act, Government Resolutions, Council Resolutions and the proposal of members of the Council. A draft agenda and documents for a session including a draft resolution shall be assessed and approved by the meeting of the Board of the Council attended by the Secretary. Such a session shall be held seven (7) calendar days prior to the relevant Council session. After being approved, all documents shall be distributed to members of the Council and permanent guests via e-mail and as hard copies.

  4. An extraordinary session may be summoned by the Chairperson of the Council in writing, via e-mail, by telephone or by any other manner. An agenda of any extraordinary session and documents to be discussed may be distributed via e-mail or submitted at the session itself.

  5. Any member of the Council may propose a change to the agenda or a change to the draft resolution. Provided that a member shall propose the inclusion of a new point he/she is obliged to submit a related written document including a draft resolution. At the beginning of its session the Council shall decide regarding any change to the agenda.

  6. In order to coordinate work relating to activities of advisory bodies and working parties of the Council, to prepare selected documents and to solve large scale assignments, the Council shall appoint a rapporteur. The rapporteur shall, in particular, be responsible for drawing up the relevant documents for the session including a draft resolution. With regard to documents the Council has not appointed, a rapporteur for the Secretary shall be responsible for preparing the documents.

 

Article 3

Course of a Council Session

  1. Council sessions shall be presided over by the Chairperson of the Council. Should he/she not be present the session shall be presided over by a Vice-Chairperson or a member of the Council authorised by the Chairperson.

  2. The Council shall have a quorum if the majority of its members are present.

  3. Sessions shall not be public. Apart from the members of the Council, permanent guests or invited experts, the Secretary and staff of the Secretariat assisting the session, other persons invited by the Chairperson of the Council or a person authorised to preside over the session may participate in it. However, only members of the Council shall exercise voting rights.

  4. At the beginning of a session the Council shall approve a draft agenda, any alterations and shall check how assignments have been met under resolutions adopted at previous sessions

  5. After discussion of each point of the agenda, the Council shall adopt the Resolution. The resolution shall be adopted by public voting unless a member of the council requests to use a secret ballot. It shall be decided by public voting whether a secret ballot shall be used. In order to adopt any resolution the majority of votes of the members present at the session shall be required. Any changes shall be voted as a change in the sequence in which these were presented.

  6. Every session shall be audio taped and brief minutes taken The Secretary shall be responsible for taking the relevant minutes. The minutes shall be approved by a Vice-Chairperson or a member authorised by the Chairperson to preside over the session. The minutes must be distributed along with documents for the next session. Any comments to the minutes shall be submitted by members of the Council in writing or via e-mail prior to the commencement of the next session. .

  7. Written minutes shall contain:

    1. a sequence number of the session, the date, time and place where the session was held;

    2. the names of all present and excused members of the Council according to the list of participants;

    3. the names of all present and excused permanent members, Chairpersons of Expert Commissions of the Council, invited experts, Secretariat staff and any other invited persons according to the list of participants;

    4. the agenda of the session;

    5. significant points of the discussion related to the individual points of the agenda;

    6. adopted resolutions relating to the individual points of the agenda including assignments along with the deadlines and persons responsible for their fulfilment;

    7. the manner and results of voting.

  8. On the business day following the date of the session the Secretariat shall distribute the adopted resolution via e-mail to members and permanent guests of the Council

Article 4

Coordination of Council Assignment

  1. ”The Working Group of Rapporteurs (hereinafter referred to as ”WGR”) shall coordinate the solutions of assignments of the Council. WGR shall be chaired by a Vice-Chairperson of the Council. Upon the proposal of the Board, the composition of WGR shall be approved by the Council and WGR meetings shall be attended by the Secretary of the Council and his/her deputy.

  2. WGR meetings shall be held in accordance with the Schedule for Session Preparation and the progress made shall be checked in terms of time and factual correctness.

  3. Rapporteurs for other tasks and Deputies of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports and of the Minister of Industry and Trade may participate in WGR meetings.

  4. The Council shall authorise a Vice-Chairperson of the Council and the WGR Chair to formulate an opinion of the Council, after discussing it at the WGR meeting, on requests for adopting budget measures in the event where the amount of funds does not exceed CZK 10 million and at the same time does not exceed ten (10) per cent of the binding ratio of expenditure for research and development or five (5) per cent of the amount of total expenditure for research and development allocated from the relevant budget chapter.

  5. The Council or its Chairperson may authorise Vice-Chairpersons, members of the Secretary of the Council to fulfil other assignments.

Article 5

Meetings of Expert and Working Commissions of the Council

  1. The manner of meetings of Expert and Working Commissions of the Council shall be regulated by the Statutes and Rules of Procedure of the individual commissions.

  2. Activities carried out by Expert and Working Commissions shall be managed by and dates of their meetings shall be specified by their Chairs.

  3. Rapporteurs appointed by the Council shall participate in meetings of Expert and Working Commissions of the Council and such meetings may be attended by invited experts having an advisory vote.

Article 6

Meetings of Working Groups

  1. Upon the proposal of the Council a rapporteur shall determine a date and an agenda of a meeting of the relevant working group. A rapporteur shall notify the Council at its next session of the results of the meeting.

  2. In order to solve certain issues a rapporteur who manages the working group, may invite experts who shall participate in meetings of the working group having an advisory vote.

  3. The Secretariat of the Council shall assist the activities of working groups in terms of organisation and administration.

  4. The activities of working groups shall be terminated by completing the assignment with the solution for which it was established.

Article 7

Information on Activities of the Council

  1. Council Resolutions and information on significant points that were discussed shall be published as ”Information from the Council Session” on the web sites of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and on www.vyzkum.cz. The document entitled ”Information from the Council Session” shall be approved by the Secretary of the Council.

  2. The Chairperson shall submit to the Government the Annual Report on Council Activities, for the previous calendar year, approved by the Council. The Report shall also be published on the web sites of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and on www.vyzkum.cz.

  3. Information on activities of the Council requested by citizens under Act No. 106/2000 Coll., on Free Access to Information, as amended, shall be provided by the Secretariat.

Article 8

Final Provisions

  1. These Rules of Procedure shall come into effect on 11th March 2005.

  2. Any amendments and alterations to these Rules of Procedure shall be approved by the Council.

Annex

Schedule for Preparation of Documents for Council Sessions

Day

Event

Objective

Responsible Party

0

Fri

9:30-12:00 Council session

Approval of all documents

Chairperson of the Council

13:00 – 15:00 WGR meeting

Assignment of tasks unless these were specified by the Council

WGR - VCP Viklický

1

Sat

Preparation of documents for the Council session

To draw up a final draft document

Rapporteur or Secretary

2

Sun

3

Mon

4

Tue

5

Wed

6

Thu

9:00 Submission of documents by rapporteurs to the Secretary

  

Rapporteur

12:00 Distribution of WGR documents

 

Secretary

7

Fri

9:15 WGR meeting

Approval of documents to be submitted for internal comments

WGR - VCP Viklický

12:00 Distribution of documents for comments by Council members

+

Secretary

8

Sat

Internal comments by the Council

 

Members of the Council

9

Sun

10

Mon

11

Tue

12

Wed

12:00 Deadline for comments

Submission of comments on a standard form

Members of the Council

13

Thu

12:00 Distribution of comments by the Council

    

14

Fri

9:15 WGR meeting

To specify the manner of answering comments

WGR - VCP Viklický

15

Sat

Solution to comments

To answer comments, the most significant ones to discuss with the relevant members of the Council

Rapporteur or Secretary

16

Sun

17

Mon

18

Tue

19

Wed

1:00 Distribution of materials to the Board of the Council

Answer comments or resolve clearly formulated discrepancies/disputes

Secretary

20

Thu

      

21

Fri

9:00-10:00 Meeting of the Board of the Council

Approval of documents for the Council session or resolution of discrepancies resulting from the preparatory process;

assignments for the next but one meeting

Chairperson + Vice-Chairpersons + Secretary of the Council

22

Sat

Adjustments according to Board conclusions

  

Secretary

23

Sun

24

Mon

12:00 Distribution of documents to the Council

  

Secretary

25

Tue

Study final proposals of Council members, distribution of draft changes

 

Members of the Council

26

Wed

27

Thu

28

Fri

9:30-12:00 Council session

Approval of all documents

Chairperson of the Council

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