CzechInvest: Your port of entry for R&D-related investment and more

CzechInvest is a well-known partner of investors coming to Czechia. However, it might be less obvious that it also provides considerable support in the field of research and development (R&D). These efforts are concentrated especially in the agency’s Innovation Department, which provides advice on issues such as funding, the legal and institutional framework, and successful matchmaking for R&D projects. It also organises missions and seminars that cultivate the Czech R&D scene.  

CzechInvest bases its support for R&D on solid analysis of massive amounts of data. The agency makes use of public information about nationally funded R&D activities, analysing the register of research projects and identifying targeted actors. Furthermore, data on international cooperation is also used to track “who does what with whom and where,” as the department commonly refers to its monitoring activities. The data include joint publications with individual countries and participation in Horizon Europe and other programmes of international cooperation in R&D.

CzechInvest also proactively collects own data, not only through continuous contact with Czech research facilities, but also through a unique internal database of excellent R&D entities in various fields ranging from information technologies to medicine, chemistry and other fields. Moreover, the database of these entities has been publicly available on CzechInvest’s website in the form of an interactive map since the first half of 2019.

Insight into this wealth of collected information about Czech R&D can also be found on the website at www.czech-research.com, which CzechInvest created to help foreign investors and other partners to navigate the system of Czech research. The website serves as a gateway to specific domains of R&D, allowing interested parties to find out who the key players are in Czech R&D, see the system’s key main documents and become familiar with the institutions and companies that form the backbone of Czech research. These include, among others, 19 technical universities and universities with STEMM-oriented faculties and the Czech Academy of Sciences with its 54 outstanding institutes, and selected research organisations. The website also provides an overview of new R&D infrastructure comprising eight top-notch European Centres of Excellence and 40 regional R&D centres that are actively building cooperation with international partners and industry. The information about the various entities provided on the website is complemented with relevant news from Czech R&D and calls issued within programmes that financially support international research cooperation. The official partners of the website are the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic.

Apart from providing information services, CzechInvest also supports the internationalisation of Czech R&D. The agency has a long history of organising technology missions to foreign countries, thereby bringing Czech firms and institutions together with partners in specific fields, primarily in applied research. Since 2005, more than 60 outgoing and incoming missions of this kind have been carried out and have resulted in valuable endeavours and projects. The concept of technology missions involves a very hands-on approach, where selected researchers and innovative companies along with universities embark on a “door-to-door” roadshow and visit carefully selected foreign partners, thus enabling practical discussion and establishment of new partnerships.

CzechInvest then complements these efforts with activities in Czechia, such as local seminars and conferences on relevant technologies and trends in research. In this way, CzechInvest bridges the gap between the industrial sector and academia and facilitates dialogue between all of the parties involved in R&D. Czechia offers a sea of excellent R&D that is gaining great recognition for its world-class quality. CzechInvest is continuously mapping this sea to facilitate collaboration between foreign companies and researchers on projects with value-added. Therefore, if you are interested in sailing off into Czech R&D, do not hesitate to contact the experts at CzechInvest, who will provide their services to you free of charge as part of the Czech government’s business support measures.

www.czech-research.com

The website was officially launched by CzechInvest in December 2016. Its main goal is to provide an overview of the Czech R&D system and its important players to foreign investors and other interested parties. The sections of the website cover the R&D system, R&D environment, funding, news and events, and a series of articles on key sectors and trends in applied research.

Zdeněk Havel
Project Manager for Mobility & Smart Technologies
CzechInvest