Prague is not only an amazing historical city with a wealth of monuments, excellent gastronomy, cordial residents, and a wide range of events. It is also a modern and innovative science hub. Prague excels in many fields, such as artificial intelligence and robotics, biomedicine, low-carbon technologies, data technologies and selected creative industries, providing ideal opportunities for holding conventions and conferences with the matching topics.
In the 30th edition of Innovative Prague you can learn how talents from Prague are help global change and how Prague supports progress in science. We will present latest dicoveries in HIV treatment and in extending the photoswitches “life expectancy”, togeher with the tips for scientific events and interactive projects in prague.
Support for Scientists’ Easier Start
In the Czech Republic, innovations in science currently receive support mainly in the form of legislation. The Research, Development, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Act offers scientists an easier start to their careers. It will provide assistance, for example, with the involvement of scientists in projects in the form of career programs in the initial phase, simplifying the process of transferring knowledge into practice and, under the influence of new support programs in crisis mode, bring greater security and efficiency to scientific careers.
How to improve everyday life in Prague? Jurors of the Kick Prague 2025 innovation marathon were looking for the best solution and answer to this question. The award and financial support for the development of their innovative idea went to the Czech duo Petr Kocián and Antonín Forst with their NavigAR project. With the help of augmented reality, passengers can navigate their movement more easily not only in the Prague metro, but also when transferring to other means of public transport. The solution was not desingned for the locals only, but it also considered the needs of city’s visitors. Other projects focused, for example, on making street lighting or irrigation in Prague more efficient. The project and financial resources provided to winners aim to support the implementation of the winning ideas.
Scientists and Entrepreneurs from Prague Gain Recognition Abroad
Building a startup attractive for large foreign companies – this is exactly what an ambitious young entrepreneur from Prague has succeeded in. In the hectic environment of San Francisco, alongside investor stars, Pavla Bobošíková seized her business opportunity. During the covid pandemic, she founded the startup WFHomie, focused on helping companies maintain a corporate culture while working from home. With its services, it has gained the clientele of such giants as Google, Meta and Firefox in a short time. After three years of operation in Canada, she sold the startup to GoCo, a company based in the Silicon Valley technology center. She is now based in San Francisco, where she leads the startup development program at the Neo equity fund. The prestigious company selects new talents very carefully – according to some, it is more difficult to be among those with whom the Neo fund cooperates than to get into universities of famous names, such as Harvard or Yale.
Prague is also conquering the world in the field of healthcare. Virologist and biochemist Tomáš Cihlář, a graduate of the University of Chemistry and Technology (UCT) in Prague, participated in the development of an injection to prevent the HIV virus infection, which has already been recommended for approval of the European Medicines Agency. The substance lenacapavir, contained in this drug, can protect against infection for almost half a year. The product has already received approval from US regulators and is entering the market under the name Yeztugo. It could play a crucial role in the fight against AIDS, and steps are been taken to make it affordable for vulnerable patients.
To the Core of Molecules
Milliseconds have become tens of hours. A team from UCT Prague and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) of the Czech Academy of Sciences has completely changed the view on the current work with photoswitches – molecules that fundamentally change their properties under light. Untul recently, molecules have only been able to stay in the so-called triplet states for only a few milliseconds, but a team led by Petr Kovaříček from UCT has developed a completely new type of switches, which have increased the “triplet life” to tens of hours. These “endurance athletes” will find their application in many places thanks to their affordability, but they will be an important asset mainly for medicine. When irradiated with light, they can generate reactive oxygen, which kills even the most resistant bacteria.
Scientists from the laboratory of Tomáš Pluskal from IOCB also looked into the streamlining of medical processes. For the first time, they have succeeded to complete a set of data about behavior of molecules in mass spectrometry, a process that reveals the composition of chemical substances. The extensive MSⁿLib spectral library presents a multiple expansion of the existing records of individual substances. At the same time, the scientists also accelerated the process of analysis. This step enables easier knowledge sharing among scientists in the sector and speeds up the procedures in their research.
What is Coming up?
Science is rich in events and is always looking for new ways to share news with the world. At the end of November, the sixth annual Science Communication conference will take place in Prague, this time focused on non-conventional creative methods in PR in science and research. On November 26, guests such as David Mareš and Pavlína Konopáčová from the Technical University of Liberec or Julie Nekola Nováková and Věra Ondřichová from the Academy of Sciences will participate. In addition to the key speakers of the conference, the program will also include flash talks – short speeches by participants where they will share their own experiences from the implementation of creative approaches in science communication.
The Academy of Sciences is building a “science centre in the open air” – an educational trail at the Academy campus in Prague 8. The centre will consist of interactive exhibits introducing the public to current research projects of local institutes with the aim of making science accessible to the general public. Visitors will have the opportunity to propose future improvements of the trail with their own ideas.
Would you like to learn more interesting facts on innovation? Browse through the previous three issues of Innovative Prague: