Business incubators, research centres

 

VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava Business Incubator

It started with a university Business Incubator in 2008, which has since gone a long way. It became part of the Innovation Support Centre of the VŠB-TUO (CPI). Today, thanks to the CPI, VŠB-TUO is among the major drivers of innovation entrepreneurship in the Moravian-Silesian Region. CPI services are intended for VŠB-TUO employees, external companies, students and the public.

The Innovation Support Centre (CPI) is organizationally divided into the Project Support Centre, the R&D Result Commercialization Centre, the Business and Career Support Centre and the Protolab Additive Manufacturing Centre.

The incubator programme has become the pillar of the CPI, intended for hi-tech innovation companies for under three years. The companies may be given fully equipped offices in the CPI building, as well as the conditions for their successful development in the form of a personal consultant and legal, marketing or business consultancy. Companies, as well as students and aspiring entrepreneurs, have the opportunity to attend professional workshops in the field of business and informal networking events. In recent years, the occupancy rate of the offices has been steadily around 95%, allowing for flexible response to the demand of prospective tenants. The CPI also includes a co-working space and refresh zone.

The Innovation Support Centre is responsible not only for promoting innovative entrepreneurship but also for securing the commercialization of science and research results, protecting the intellectual property of the university and contributing to the university's involvement in the implementation of high-quality educational and research projects.

The individual departments of the CPI work closely together and are thus able to prepare project applications for business start-up grants or provide professional advice on intellectual property protection.

In 2013, CPI launched a new acceleration program, Green Light, which is nowadays one of the best in the Moravian-Silesian Region. From the beginning of its existence, it received applications from hundreds of projects, of which dozens participated in the competition.  Many graduates do successful business not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. For all accelerated projects, see https://greenlight.vsb.cz/.

The CPI is home to around 40 companies, providing top-quality 3D printing services to small and medium-sized businesses in the region, and has opened its own optional subject "Start-up Business". It cooperates with Czechitas, a non-profit organization that educates women in IT, organizes IT marathons, provides student internships, holds the prestigious BIC accreditation by the European Business and Innovation Centre (EBN) under a license from the European Commission.


 

Nanotechnology Centre

The Nanotechnology Centre was established on 1 February 2007. It is a research institute at the VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava – the first such institute in the Czech Republic to have the word ‘nanotechnology’ in its title – and it grew out of the former Materials Chemistry Institute.

The Centre researches, prepares and analyzes nanomaterials (materials smaller than 10-9 m). Internationally renowned experts are involved in a wide range of research activities involving nanocomposites, nanomaterials with photofunctional and antibacterial properties, friction composites and sorption materials. Other work at the Centre includes the study of toxicity and the influence of nanoparticles on the environment and living organisms.

The Nanotechnology Centre collaborates closely with a range of important Czech and international institutions on joint research projects. Staff have published hundreds of research articles in internationally renowned scientific journals, as well as creating a significant number of patents and other forms of protected intellectual property. The Nanotechnology Centre works closely with industry and business on various projects and as a provider of analytical services.


 

ENET centre

The core of research and development at ENET Centre is energy transformation. The Centre aims to convert feedstock raw materials, particularly waste and alternative fuels, into exploitable forms of energy and investigate their subsequent effective use.

The aim of the ENET Centre is research and development of renewable energy sources without harmful effects on the environment, including new technologies of transport and processing of energy raw materials, their efficient energy transformation and modern solutions of the so-called microgrids of electric and thermal energy using accumulation.

ENET also focuses on the priorities outlined in Horizon 2020 and prepares projects under calls focusing on new renewable source and energy storage technologies, Smart Grids and Smart Cities.


 

 Others HERE