On September 21, 2022, the leadership of AmCham CZ ’s Technology Council - led by AmCham President Milan Šlapák of GE Aviation, AmCham Vice-President Michal Klimeš of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Tomáš Szaszi of Honeywell together with Brno-based AmCham member companies, key players in the local and global market in their respective industries - met with the new rector of Brno University of Technology (VUT Brno) Ladislav Janíček.

Innovative economies depend on a research triangle. Public projects and funding compose one side of that triangle. University research comprises another. Company high-tech product development represents the base of the triangle.

How do you know if that research triangle is operating successfully enough to generate a successful, sustainable economy? When that triangle rolls along as if it were a circle.

At the meeting with VUT rector Ladislav Janíček and his team yesterday, we agreed that public sector incentives for financing could be aligned better with the goal of creating global high tech products and services. We also agreed that university and company researchers need to discuss research aims more, and find the fertile areas in which cooperation results in exponential progress for science and technology.

Photo credit: Jan Prokopius, VUT v Brně

The Brno region has one of the most impressive bases for innovation in the country. Thermo Fisher Scientific develops and produces some of the most desired microscopes on the planet there. Honeywell just made a big bet to make the region a center for AI guided logistics equipment. Garrett Motion is a top-performer in the development of new technologies for the automotive industry and Y Soft Corporation expanded from Brno to the US market, to name just a few of AmCham Brno-based member companies out of many other there.

onsemi just yesterday announced the opening of the silicon carbide semiconductor line that they developed in Rožnov, a location to the east of Brno.

How can Prague and Ostrava contribute to that development. How can the excellence available at Masaryk University Brno and VUT Brno be coordinated with Czech Technical University in Prague to make the country a global center for the development of sustainable technologies?

It will take leadership on all sides of the triangle finding ways to create a new set of mutually beneficial incentives that turn each side into partners for the country’s prosperity.

Some of the best we have in business and universities showed that commitment. 

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