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. Through our blog, we will regularly bring you a summary of the most important developments from these sectors in connection with the congress industry. Welcome to the first edition!

Space Technologies are newly Tested in Prague

On the occasion of the centenary celebrations, the Aerospace Research and Test Institute (VZLU) opened a new building in Prague Letňany called “C3T – Czech Centre for Competitive Technologies“, the construction of which began in mid-2021. The new centre will primarily test space and aviation technologies. At the same time, however, technologies such as urban air mobility will be developed here, i.e. the urban transport of the future, which is characterized by autonomous flying vehicles and new methods of propulsion. “There is currently no similar building in the Czech Republic. Within Europe, similar workplaces are only in large countries where the space industry is a tradition, such as Germany, France, Italy or Spain,” explains VZLU CEO Josef Kašpar.

Space and its role in the development of the city were also discussed at the recent conference The Role of Space: City, Research & Defence. It showed space as a place where not only research is carried out, but also a wide portfolio of activities in which the capital city of Prague can engage and from which it can profit in the future. However, data from space may not only serve the city, but also the development of financial services. And how can that be done? This is exactly the focus of the fourth CASSINI hackathon, which takes place in the first week of November in a hybrid form in ten European hubs, including Prague.

Evaluation of the Innovation Performance of the Czech Republic at European Level

The European Commission recently published its updated 2022 “European Innovation Scoreboard”. This overview analyses the innovation and research performance of the European Union countries and selected non-EU countries. Although the Czech Republic is generally rated as a “medium innovator”, since 2021 it has shown the highest possible performance growth (+11.7%) of all the countries surveyed and at the same time it is growing at a faster rate than the performance of the entire European Union. It is rated above average mainly in terms of share of in-house innovators with market novelties. On the other hand, for example, its performance was lower in entrepreneurial training and government procurement drivers of research or in the share of material resources coming from recycled waste. The complete profile of the Czech Republic can be viewed here.

Will Prague Have its First Climate-Neutral Neighbourhood?

The first climate-neutral city neighbourhood independent of gas or coal could be in future built in the new Bubny-Zátory district. The study, which was approved by the City Council at the beginning of October, envisages the establishment of an Energy Centre near the Bubeneč wastewater treatment plant to supply by-product heat from the plant or cool down a third of the city, including, for example, the newly emerging building of the Prague Philharmonics.

Digitalisation in the Lead Role

Digitalisation became the central topic of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first week of November. Through the Czech Digital Week, Prague and other Czech cities hosted a wide range of various events focused on cybersecurity, new technologies, the future of the Internet and digital education. “Czech Digital Week clearly proves that digitalisation is a world where something is happening constantly. And it doesn’t matter if you’re from the government or from business. On the contrary, it often goes hand in hand. And this cooperation of companies and the state is utterly essential,” says Ivan Bartoš, Deputy Prime Minister for Digitalisation.

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