Czechia has always been good at technological solutions. In research, our strengths are the scientific skill at our universities and the technological capabilities of our companies.

What universities are led by people who want to move past the status quo into an innovative economy? What companies have the current technological base, the know-how, and the courage to make large investments into technology? And what political leaders are ready to make difficult decisions to place major public resources on the sort of cutting-edge research that can deliver major technological advances- or could fail?

The country has a set of assets. Some of those assets have greater capacity to expand than others. We must concentrate our resources on developing them - on developing the Big Bets.

It will take all sides of this triangle- government, business, and universities- to take Big Bets on each other. To build the understanding and trust to take those bets is why we met last week in Brno. Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš for the interactive discussion.

We also thank Brno University of Technologys rector Ladislav Janíček, Josef Švejda and Radek Václavík of onsemi, Jan Ludvík of Honeywell, Yveta Germano of AT&T, Libor Urbanec of Garrett Motion, and Petr Střelec of Thermo Fisher Scientific for presenting, and David Uhlíř of JIC - South Moravian Innovation Center, František Kubeš of Brno City Hall, prof. Radimír Vrba of CEITEC BUT and others for contributing to the debate. Thank you, Faculty of Electrical Engineering BUT and CEITEC BUT for hosting us!

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AmCham Czechia spent several hours last Thursday getting an advanced course in how government makes decisions from Ivan Bartos, the Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and the Minister of Regional Development. Deputy Prime Minister Bartoš holds the portfolio for two of AmCham's four main priorities- digitizing government and land use reform- and, as the chair of Česká pirátská strana has a major voice in two others- developing advanced technology and STEM immigration. 

Innovation policy requires fitting many pieces together in the government, in the universities, and within companies. It requires understanding different timelines, and often conflicting motivations. We were turbocharged by Minister Bartoš' ability to process all that information and propose how to move forward.

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