Prague Innovation Institute Celebrates Five Years of Operation. It Implemented Projects for Prague Worth More than CZK 260 million
The Prague Innovation Institute has been connecting business, research and education in the metropolis for five years. It helps to introduce innovation into the capital's services for citizens, coordinate support for research and innovation in its territory, and also collaborates on technological innovations with real impact. This public benefit organization was founded by the City of Prague.
"Prague wants to build on a large base of research organizations and innovative enterprises on its territory. Only this way can successfully lead to attracting talented people from around the world who can build projects and businesses with high added value here. That is why it needs an organization like the Prague Innovation Institute (PII), which is also engaged in the direct development of innovations in line with the city's strategy. So far, it has delivered activities and outputs at a value multiple times higher than the city spends on its operation," says Daniel Mazur, Councillor of the City of Prague for ICT, Smart City, science, research and innovation.
That is why the Prague City Council approved a subsidy of 12 million crowns in February this year, which it also did in the previous three years, for its operations. Thanks to it, the institute annually implements activities for the capital city in the amount of 50 to 70 million crowns. This June, for example, PII will introduce the Innovate Prague platform, which will connect parts of Prague's innovation ecosystem and facilitate their cooperation.
In previous years, PII provided a programme of assistance vouchers for Prague. Through it, the city distributed a total of 10 million crowns among 15 companies and 8 university spin-offs, starting projects worth a total of over 6 billion crowns.
The Prague Innovation Institute has long supported startups through incubators and accelerators. It also has technological innovations with a direct impact on people's lives, such as the Cogni Trainee app on its account. The application helps with the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases and was created in cooperation with the Czech Technical University, T-Mobile and neuroscience specialists from the National Institute of Mental Health. The Innovation Institute also participates in projects of digital 3D models of cities, in the creation of a digital tool for soil quality management using satellite Earth observations, in a project of mitigating pollution from transport and in the introduction of robotics and automation in nuclear energetics.
"The meetings industry also draws inspiration from the innovations raising not only from this environment in Prague. At the Prague Convention Bureau, we support and actively try to bring professional scientific congresses and conferences with high added value to Prague. It is for them that we need strong congress ambassadors in the specific fields, who will provide expert patronage over the event, as well as a strong innovation environment. From the opposite point of view, the events we acquire for Prague, in turn bring valuable know-how from a plethora of sectors of human activity to the destination, enriching not only the local scientific community, but also residents through implementation of various latest trends and knowledge. The importance of professional events also finds evidence in the number of events that PII organizes itself or participates in their organization," adds Roman Muška, Director of the Prague Convention Bureau.
The organization alone has organized 10 large conferences, and it co-organizes conferences such as the Prague Bio congress (focusing on biotechnology), the Engaged Investments Conference, the Vodafone Idea of the Year and Tech Happy Hours. Under the auspices of the President of Czechia Petr Pavel, PII together with the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) have been organizing the CASSINI Hackathon focused on space technology and defense. It organizes educational events as part of the Czech Journey to Space project, and this year it will participate in the prestigious international EUDIS Defence Hackathon dedicated to innovation in the defense industry.
These and many other professional congresses and conferences can be found in the Prague Convention Bureau events calendar, which provides an overview of events in meetings Prague. The Prague Convention Bureau informs about individual key innovations from various industries through its regularly published "Innovative Prague" bulletin on the organization's blog.
PII is also the only innovation centre in the Czech Republic that, in addition to supporting the knowledge economy, also focuses on the development in education. It brought innovations worth 120 million crowns to Prague schools. For example, it has launched programmes focused on machine learning and AI in 20 schools. The institute is piloting circular innovation hubs in 17 schools, involving 2,500 students and 150 teachers. It also regularly organizes Startup Day for high school students to gain a basic understanding of how to start a business, as well as a similar event called Startup Night for university students.