Updated 18 October 2010 – Conclusions of public debate “Research and Innovations. Allies or Rivals?”

On 6 October 2010 the Forum Science Is Alive! organised a panel discussion “Research and Innovations: Allies or Rivals?” with panellists representing the innovation industry, academic research, specialists in the Czech entrepreneurial environment and foreign experts dealing with research, development and innovations assessment. Video record of the panel discussion is available at: http://www.primyprenos.cz/detail.php?zaznam=1007&year=2010 A more detailed summary of the debate is attached to this report. Summary conclusions of the discussion are: Basic research, development and innovations are governed by different rules and have different goals and motivations. The assessment of their results and funding must take these specificities into account. Quality must be the major criterion for distributing public funds in all segments of research, development and innovations. Control systems and assessment criteria must correspond to international standards. The structure of basic and applied research does not have to necessarily overlap with the priorities of industrial development and innovations. Benefits of systematically supported excellent research become obvious over a longer time span. The efforts to address the imbalance between the focus of development and innovations to the detriment of academic research and development can harm the entire research and development and innovations system in the Czech Republic. The linkages between research and industrial applications (technological transfer) demand the activity of all innovation actors. In this respect the structures in the Czech Republic are not yet fully efficient. The research and development and innovations policy has no vision of development of disciplines which hare in a good position to contribute to long-term competitiveness of the country. Priorities have not been set. A significantly larger volume of public support for development and innovations should be directed at modern and fast developing fields. Based on the expert discussion and analysis of its conclusions, the Forum Science Is Alive! sees the major tasks of the Czech research, development and innovations policy to be: 1. To draft research and innovations assessment system supporting quality and competitiveness according to international standards. Research and innovations assessment and funding cannot be confused due to the absence of clearly defined qualitative criteria in the area of innovations. 2. It is necessary to increase the efficiency of instruments ensuring technological transfer between the research and innovations sectors. Their success and efficiency should be assessed together with other research, development and innovations segments. 3. In the interest of increasing competitiveness it is desirable to support primarily modern and knowledge intensive innovations, which on the global level go naturally hand in hand with topical research. While Czech academic and higher education research places emphasis on modern scientific disciplines, in the sphere of industrial development and innovations in the Czech Republic public funds go toward traditional, mostly civil engineering disciplines. On behalf of the Forum Science Is Alive! Marek Piliarik Photo gallery is available at http://photo.rdx.cz/index.php?show=photo&pid=15028&aid=490 A complete video recording of the discussion is available at http://www.primyprenos.cz/detail.php?zaznam=1007&year=2010