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Overdue research program complete

EU funds will provide 2.4 billion euros to innovation sector

By Victor Velek
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 2nd, 2008 issue

After many delays and accusations of incompetence, the Czech Republic is heading toward approval of the last of its 24 programs designed to tap European Union funding.
The Education Ministry has completed its proposal for the Research and Development for Innovations Program, which should bring universities and other research centers 2.4 billion euros ($3.8 billion/61.5 billion Kč) over the EU’s 2007–13 budgetary period.
After being approved by the Cabinet this week, the program will still need to be endorsed by the European Commission. The ministry believes Brussels will give the program the green light by the end of August, with the first call for projects this fall, spokeswoman Kateřina Böhmová said.
Putting the R&D program back on track was one of the top priorities of new Education Minister Ondřej Liška of the Green Party. Criticism over the ministry’s poor preparations of its operational programs led to the resignation of his predecessor, Dana Kuchtová, six months ago.
In total, the country may draw 26.7 billion euros from EU structural funds over the next five years.
According to Liška, the country’s last EU program will open research centers with Europe-wide influence, regional innovation centers sensitive to development needs, boost university research infrastructure and the commercialization of research.
In the previous funding period, no program was designed specifically for research, so the current program has been eagerly awaited by the innovation community.
The Czech Academy of Science has three priority projects already on the table that it would like to see funded by the program: building a particle accelerator in Brno, a biotechnological center in central Bohemia and an astrophysics laser facility.
In total, the projects are worth more than 16 billion Kč ($995.3 million), said Jiří Rákosník, a member of the academy’s presidium.
“The delay has caused troubles and a state of uncertainty to our research institutes,” he said.
Lengthy preparations for EU funding on the whole are also a complication for the South Moravian Innovation Center, which supports innovation entrepreneurship.
“There is a widening gap between the two funding periods,” said Michal Kostka, the center’s deputy director. “Ending projects could not smoothly continue through to new ones.”  
A recent report showed that Czech research facilities have little international engagement. This must change, Liška said.
“We want to generate top-class, globally competitive knowledge usable also for businesses,” he said. “But this is impossible without heightened international collaboration. And that’s where our researchers lag behind.”

Victor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com


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