THE ROLE OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN FOSTERING INNOVATION AND KNOWLEDGE ABSORPTION

摘要

The Czech government has clearly signalized that it wants the universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS CR) to take an increased responsibility of making academic research useful to society, preferably through innovation. In order to shoulder this responsibility, the AS CR has to build more competencies in this area. The goal is to increase understanding and promote contacts between well-qualified scientists and people from industry and/or the business world. However, there must be no conflict between good research and commercialization of innovation. Good research is a prerequisite for the commercialization and academic research has a good potential much to gain maximum from contacts with the industry and other part of society. We are not pleased with the low number of patent applications from Czech applicants. This longlasting, generally unfavourable situation is often caused by many reasons and the AS CR alone cannot directly influence it. In order to solve such plight, education programmes are being launched on to produce better trained scientists capable of contributing to a national innovation system. The programmes are tailored to the specific needs of scientists of the AS CR and are especially valuable for young graduates who acquire additional knowledge in the fields of technology transfer and innovation. The development of co-operation with the production fields with the aimed at maximising the innovation potential and technology transfer becomes one of the most important priorities of the AS CR. Key achievements of this effort and ongoing targets are reviewed.