Since 1 January 2024, the Faculty of Information Technology of the Czech Technical University in Prague (FIT CTU) has been the lead partner of the new project “Enhancing capacities for technology transfer, company building and innovations in the field of ICT” (CapTTict), which aims to support the development of technology and knowledge transfer in 9 countries in the Danube region.
The CapTTict project for EUR 2.266 million was supported under the 1st call of the Interreg Danube Programme of the 2021–2027 programming period. It aims to support the development of technology and knowledge transfer in information and communication technologies in nine countries – the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania and Ukraine. As part of the project implementation, FIT CTU acts as the lead partner responsible for the overall project coordination, also using its experience in technology and knowledge transfer. A valuable benefit of the project will be establishing new contacts and cooperation within the international environment.
“We have prepared this project to improve support for students and academics in establishing technologically advanced startups and contribute to a mutually beneficial connection between academia and business. We have managed to bring together great partners from 9 countries who are succeeding in overcoming the obstacles in technology transfer in their ecosystems. We believe that together we will be able to find and describe ways to connect interesting business problems and technologies from universities and research institutes,” said doc. Ing. Pavel Kordík, Ph.D., from the Faculty of Information Technology, CTU.
The project’s core is the search for new synergies, cooperation, and exchange of experiences between innovators in each country. In contrast, the project will also provide support services for developing business plans in technology transfer and commercialization. The project includes creating an incubation/acceleration programme – Danube Digital Accelerator for ICT – enabling 30 participants to get acquainted with perspective technologies. At the same time, the project will allow access to and interconnection of innovative activities, experts, research capacities and equipment using AI in an international environment through the digital EXPERTS.AI tool.
Another essential part of the project is to map the ICT innovation environment of 4 non-EU partner countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine) and support the development of their Smart Specialization Strategies (S3).
The project is part of the Interreg Danube Region Programme, which supports cooperation between public institutions and the private sector in a heterogeneous region of 14 countries. The projects result in so-called “soft outputs”, such as addressing common challenges and needs in specific areas, influencing political frameworks, tools and services, and specific small-scale pilot investments.
The project is co-financed by the European Union under the Interreg Danube Region Programme.
