Israel is nicknamed “The Start-up Nation”. It is considered one of the hottest innovation and technology hubs in the world. I am pleased to see a lot of interest in the Czech Republic to connect to the Israeli ecosystem and I think there remains a great potential still undiscovered to expand this.
The State of Israel is a world leader in innovation and new technologies. How do you evaluate Czech-Israeli relations in the field of research and development?
We are pleased to see so much cooperation between the two countries. The Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic has selected six projects from Czech-Israeli teams for funding through the INTEREXCELLENCE programme. The projects were from the fi elds of nanotechnology, AI or robotics.
Last year, the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, in cooperation with ISERD, funded two projects through the DELTA 2 programme which supports applied research – Mejzlik Propellers with Israeli Aerospace Industries and Dekonta with Impertec Industries. Also, IOCB and the Weizmann Institute have regular summer school dealing with drug discovery.
Recently, development in the field of healthcare and pharmacy has been a step forward, and many Israeli companies operate in the Czech Republic. How is business cooperation developing in this area?
In December 2019, IKEM performed the very first paired kidney exchange between the Czech Republic and Israel. Thanks to this, Israelis and three Czechs were given a new chance for a better life. The 2nd Czech-Israeli Innovation Forum on Smart Healthcare took place virtually in October 2020. It was organised in cooperation with the MFA and ČISOK. The main areas of interest were digitisation of healthcare and telemedicine which are fi elds with a great potential during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Czech-Israeli Innovations and Partnership Center will be established, starting its operation in May 2021. The main focus of the centre will be smart healthcare, specifically diagnostics and telemedicine. The centre will be located in the BEA Campus Olomouc. Also, there is Teva – pharmaceutical production in Opava with 1600 employees.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to the Czech Republic
All economic activity should be environmentally friendly. How do you view clean (low-emission) mobility and what is Israel’s experience?
EcoMotion Week brings together the world’s leading companies pioneering in the smart mobility field with hundreds of startups, investors, industry leaders and policy makers. This event and community is definitely interesting for the Czech Republic which is proven by the regular participation of ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab at this event.
Another well-known international event is the Smart Mobility Summit that is planned for November 2021. The summit provides a platform for numerous leading speakers from around the world, an exhibition of dozens of Israeli startups and a B2B network enabling more than 1,000 B2B meetings between Israeli and foreign companies with sustainable innovative solutions.
ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab has launched a particularly innovative fast EV charging point at the Prague Exhibition Centre in Letnany powered by Chakratec’s kinetic energy storage system. The deployment of the charging point is the fi rst of its kind in Eastern Europe and in the Czech Republic.
In business, we should not forget about culture. Is cooperation in the field of culture still taking place today?
Despite the challenging times, we continue to plan cultural activities. One example is the Mysterious Bond project, which we created in collaboration with the Faculty of Design and Art at the university in Pilsen. The mysterious bond speaks of an important relationship between our two countries. The result of the collaboration is an exhibition which opened at Prague Castle last time and a very engaging book. Now the exhibition will be on display in Náměstí Míru in May. A cultural exchange may have slowed, but it certainly did not disappear.
Thank you for the interview.
Text: redakce
Foto: archiv izraelská ambasáda
