Ing. Patrik Reichl, MBA is the General Director of CzechInvest. This government agency plays an integrating role in he fi eld of business and investment support. The combination of regional, central and international activities ensures synergy. One of the main goals of the Director and the entire agency is to transform the Czech Republic nto an innovation leader in Europe.
The Czech Republic is becoming the centre of European space activities. Could this also mean opportunities for the Czech space industry?
Czech industry has been one of the most active in the region since we joined the European Space Agency in 2008. The establishment of the European Union Space Programme Agency (EUSPA) in Prague is also linked to an increase in the EU budget for space activities. As an EU institution, EUSPA is obliged to treat all companies from the Member States equally. On the other hand, I have no doubt that the opportunity to start cooperation with an agency that is only a few tram stops away from local companies is more than tempting and will make many of them want to monitor its activities. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this opportunity.
What role can CzechInvest play in the involvement of Czech companies in the space industry?
At CzechInvest, we implement several projects in the space sector, led by the ESA BIC Czech Republic business incubator. We are actively involved in creating local infrastructure and facilitating cooperation between the state, startups and established companies. Our goal is to enable especially new and innovative companies to shine in the space industry.
Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan — is it just a political commitment or an opportunity for Czech research and innovative companies? What is the role of your agency?
The Czech government has expressed its support for one of the EU-wide priorities in the fi eld of health, which is to increase the resilience of health systems for cancer prevention and care. Oncology prevention and care are part of the Strategic Framework for the Development of Health Care in the Czech Republic until They are now also supported by the allocation of CZK 10 billion in the National Recovery Plan. These funds are supposed to support, for example, the construction of the Czech Cancer Institute or the creation of conditions for highly specialised haemato-oncological and cancer care.
Together with other investments in selected research departments of universities, conditions are being created for the future transfer of R&D results. CzechInvest will be able to support this by linking with the application sphere, investment incentives and support for Technologies and Applications for Competitiveness (OP TAK) programmes, involvement in European cooperation projects (EU4Health EU programme), support for new spin-off companies, internationalisation or support in seeking private investment sources for development.
Thank you for the interview
