Second announcement
Welcome to the new web page of the 15th International Bat Research Conference. It supplements the basic announcement disseminated by the former web page (www.ibrc.cz) with detailed information on the Conference venue, time schedule, programme outline and particular symposia, social events, excursions and deadlines. Last, but not least, it provides the forms needed for registration, accommodation, submission of abstracts of your contributions, and applications for optional post-conference excursions and sight-seeing tours. The former web page remains active and will provide ad hoc news on the programme and also topical changes in the future.
We are eagerly looking forward to welcome you all to Prague and believe that you will enjoy not only the Conference, its scientific programme and social programme but also its venue, the modern campus of Czech University of Life Sciences, and, in particular, Prague, a large historical city that represents one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Europe.
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Prague, a UNESCO World heritage urban complex, represents a unique mosaic of architectural and urbanization efforts superimposed here
without interruption for more than 11 centuries. Prague has been a very large town since the early Middle Ages
(reported as being built of stone and mortar already in the 9th Century). It has been rebuilt many times but never essentially suffering
any extensive damage (neither during WWs I and II). The modernizing reforms and rearrangements that have reappeared many times during its history
have enlarged its diversity of urban conditions and have often revealed the unexpected aesthetic and functional qualities of the city.
The most important innovations appeared under the reign of Charles IV (who also founded Prague University in 1348 - Charles University,
the oldest university in central Europe, north of the Alps and east of Paris) and in the 16th and 17th Centuries when Prague
was capital of the Mediaeval Roman Empire. Prague hosted a large Jewish community and for centuries it was one of the most prominent cultural
and political centres in central Europe.  It has hosted endless lines of personalities who have worked in the city - from Petrarca or Giordano Bruno,
Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe or Rabbi Loew to Mozart, Einstein, Mach, Carnap, Doppler and many others
(not to mention those who are indispensably connected with the city like Jan Hus, Bedrich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Franz Kafka, Reiner Maria Rilke, Jaroslav Hašek, etc.).
Furthermore, their footprints can still be traced in the unique atmosphere of Prague, traces which you can still try to enjoy as do the approx. 5 million foreign vistiors each year.
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The organizers are very pleased to host the International Bat Research Conference in the Czech Republic. This is already the second time that the most prominent assembly of bat specialists will appear in this country. The 15th IBRC will take place 42 years to the day after the 1st IBRC organized here by Vladimír Hanák and Jiří Gaisler, pioneer personalities of modern European bat research who both will be taking an active role in the present meeting as well.
The reappearance of the IBRC in the place from which the tradition of bat research conferences first arose perhaps provides a good opportunity for comparisons with all that has changed in bat research and our understanding of bat biology during the intervening period between the two meetings. We believe that the 15th IBRC will provide a pleasant platform not only for demonstrating the topmost up-to-date achievements in the study of bat biology but also for remembering the particular steps through which our discipline has passed; discussion of which of the numerous conceptual and methodological innovations arising during that period have contributed to the current state of knowledge in the most decisive way and a reflection on the possible future.
The pre-registrations already received suggest a rich participation from a large number of countries throughout the world. Almost all the top personalities in the field have promised contributions. Nine plenary keynote lectures by the leading experts of current bat research will provide a detailed survey of our actual state of knowledge and current research perspectives in the major directions that characterize the modern study of bats. Fifteen symposia, mostly composed of invited lectures by prominent specialists, have already been formally announced. Besides these, we expect a correspondingly large number of free contributions, both oral presentations and posters, that are not included in the particular symposia.
All this promises that, in accord with the organizers' wishes, the Prague Conference could succeed in providing a realistic picture of the current state of bat science, both as it concerns its top achievements and latest perspectives and in its actual diversity of approaches and local specificities. In order to function in this way, the 15th IBRC has been essentially designed as an open meeting: the organizers do not wish to restrict either the number of symposia or the number of contributions and are ready to respect also participants' proposals concerning the form of their contributions (whether oral or poster). Unfortunately, the time available for the meeting is limited and, consequently, its timetable will perhaps be a bit stretched. Except for the plenary keynote lectures, poster session and concluding assembly (see the programme outline), the particular components of the Conference scientific programme (symposia, sessions of free oral contributions and workshops) will have to appear in parallel sessions.
The organizers will try to organize the programme schedule paying particular attention to minimizing possible overlaps in the topics of parallel sessions, though it is unlikely that they will completely succeed in all instances. In any case, the time windows reserved for particular contributions will have to be strongly respected and chairpersons and symposia conveners will be forced to control time quite rigorously. The standard dimension of a lecture slot (except for keynote lectures) will be 20 minutes (including discussion). PowerPoint (either on a Windows or Mac OS platform) is considered as the default presentation tool, but of course all other standard projection techniques and presentation tools will be available.
Posters (2 x 1 m: height x width) will be on display throughout the Conference, and a special Poster session (with snacks served) will be organized for an evening session on Tuesday 24 August.
The evening of 26 August will be in the hands of Merlin Tuttle, founder and past president of Bat Conservation International. His talk on bats and bat conservation will be introduced by Jiri Gaisler and Tom Kunz. The concluding plenary session on 27 August will review the major outcomes of particular symposia and will provide a space for discussion of topics of common interest.
The scientific program will be supplemented by social events with snacks and buffet (included in fee): *welcome party on August 22, *poster session on August 24. A half-day excursion with *a barbecue party at a castle ruin will take place on 25 August. The farewell reception with a concert in the historical hall of Charles University (founded in 1348) should be ordered separately (not included in Conference fee).
The participants, and accompanying persons in particular, can also apply for the sight-seeing tours available throughout the Conference. Three post-conference excursions (August 28-30) are available.
 A) Bohemian karst - valley of the Berounka river, Koněpruské caves - the largest cave system in the area with about 2 km of passages, rich in hibernating bats and fossil bat assemblages from Miocene to Early Pleistocene. |
B) Křivoklátsko UNESCO Biosphere Reserve - an extensive woodland complex preserved as a royal hunting forest of Czech kings
since the early Middle Ages. A visit to the royal castle Křivoklát (13-14th Century architecture; important roost of Myotis myotis,
Nyctalus noctula, Pipistrellus pipistrellus, etc.) and localities with peak abundance of the recently-described species Myotis alcathoe. |
 C) Příbramsko - mining region (silver, uranium, etc.) famous since the early Middle Ages, besides having a number of world 'firsts' in mining technology (the first mine deeper than 1 km, etc.). Passing through the town of Příbram, rich in baroque monuments, on the lower slopes of the forested Brdy mountains, the excursion will then visit a curious artificial underground water system (the hibernation roost of some bats) and will pass through impressive woodland stands across the highest peaks of central Bohemia. |
All three excursions will rejoin together at the ruin of a Medieval royal castle, Točník,
(the site of a continuously-studied breeding colony of M. myotis) where an evening banquet will take place, together with an optional opportunity for some bat detectoring.
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The Conference fee with early registration is 250 EUR (basic) or 170 EUR (students and accompanying persons). The registration fee at a latter term will be a bit higher: 290 and 200 EUR respectively. Unfortunately, regarding the number of symposia, we cannot afford to provide any discount to invited speakers of particular symposia (in contrast to keynote speakers who are special guests of the Conference), but we will look for possibilities of some (partial) discounts for colleagues from economically less-developed countries.
In any case, we urgently ask all who are considering participation at the Conference to register (with aid of the Registration form) as early as possible. We also will greatly appreciate early registration of your contributions - this concerns also the invited speakers of particular symposia who should not forget to register for the Conference prior to arranging details with the symposia conveners. Please, do not forgot to indicate the form of your presentation, the session for which your contribution is intended, and whether it is also being entered for the competition of Student Award. Which of the submitted presentations will be actually included in the symposia as indicated by the authors is essentially in the hands of the respective symposium conveners. The organizers will immediately inform conveners of submitted contributions and equally authors of conveners' responses. Of course, after registration you can also contact the conveners separately.
Besides the symposia, sessions of oral presentations will be arranged into traditionally-delimited blocks (Morphology, Taxonomy and distribution, Ecology, Behaviour, Conservation). Although it is still possible for further symposia to be suggested, the number of those announced is already quite large and further applications will perhaps force certain restrictions upon the extent and appearance of certain symposia. In this connection, we would like to remind everyone that there is still space for shorter sessions focused on discussions and short presentations just on a certain consistent topic - the workshops. We ask all who might be considering organizing such a kind of project to contact the organizers at the earliest opportunity.
Participants of the Conference will be accommodated either in cheap student hostels on the campus, just next to the Conference venue, or in several hotels just neighbouring the Campus. Another student hostel (of a slightly higher category) is accessible by bus, and a number of hotels of various classes are also available (besides those in the near vicinity of the Conference venue) within the range of about 15 min by public transport. All details are available at the page "Accommodation". Also, in the case that you decide to prolong your stay in Prague by several days either prior or after the Conference (e.g. for sight-seeing Prague) you can take advantage of the cheaper conference accommodation. For further details, please contact the Conference office.
However you choose to visit, the organizers will try to make all prompt efforts to ensure you a pleasant stay in the Czech Republic and believe that the 15th IBRC will be a fruitful and inspiring meeting for all participants. We are also sure that your attendance will contribute to it fundamentally and are looking forward to meet you in Prague.
Ivan Horáček
Tomáš Bartonička
Radek Lučan
Petr Benda
