For Applied Research in Future

The Association of Research Organisations AVO, founded in 1990 with the aim to bring together institutions from various fields concerned with applied research and experimental development, has become an important establishment. Its principal aim is the advancement of Czech applied research and development as an indispensable source of knowledge and innovation for the needs of Czech industry, agriculture, construction and other sectors.

AVO´s extensive membership base with a number of experts in various fields makes it possible for Association representatives to participate in the councils and working groups of research programmes (especially the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Technological Agency of the Czech Republic), the Council for Research, Development and Innovation and its commissions and in different valuation committees. AVO collaborates closely with the Czech Technological Agency and its members are represented in commissions and councils of a number of programmes (TREND, NCK, ZETA, etc.). For several years, its cooperation with the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) has been realised in the framework of an AVO and CAS working group. The Association also has its representatives among members of the CAS Academic Assembly, and it collaborates with several CAS institutes, especially the CAS Technological Centre. It also has close contacts with the Engineering Academy and several universities, and the Confederation of Industry and the Czech Chamber of Commerce.

MEMBERSHIP SERVICES

The Association provides wide-ranging services to its members. Its active services are offered to the entire membership base as mentioned above, with focus on the enforcement of measures aimed at the creation of a suitable environment for the maintenance and development of applied research in the Czech Republic. As regards its specific services to individual members, their greater part concerns consulting in the realisation of research and development projects. The Association has created a publicly accessible database of Czech applied research institutions, which it manages. It practically supports networking between various research and development workplaces in the Czech Republic and it organises professional seminars and conferences for its members and also non-members, acquainting them with the latest achievements in research. The Association also mediates the participation of its members in domestic and foreign exhibitions and trade fairs with the aim to present and popularise the results of Czech applied research. THE ASSOCIATION TODAY AND TOMORROW

Over the past 30 years, the Association of Research Organisations has gained much knowledge and experience in how to do things still better. Its longterm priority is the maintenance and development of applied research and development in the Czech Republic, whose important role in a competitive economy and successfully developing society is not adequately appreciated. Currently AVO has some 80 members with more than 7 000 employees engaged in the area of applied research and development. AVO actively supports bioeconomics and transformation towards sustainable production. AVO is a member of the national BIOEAST HUB CZ (www. bio-hub.cz), an association of stakeholders striving for the support of bioeconomics and the use of opportunities offered by the European Green Agreement. The Czech national BIOEAST HUB CZ is the first of its kind in the BIOEAST Central and East European area. AVO members are actively involved in pilotage and workshops offering expert consulting, whereby AVO supports the active involvement of its members in the field of bioeconomics, which is an opportunity for economic restarts related to the covid-19 pandemics. AVO is developing a new business model in the field of bioeconomics for the support of small and medium-sized enterprises. An important role in AVO´s life in the past few years has been played by projects especially in the field of popularisation and propagation of research and development, in which AVO has been a partner. In April 2019, AVO successfully completed is project Cooperation – Technological Platforms in the framework of the Business and Innovation Operational Programme (OP PIK), on which it worked from 2016. Its continuation is the project Platform AVO+, whose main output is roadmaps of applied research in two key areas – 14.0 and bioeconomics for defining areas and directions that will support the virtualisation of products and technologies and the development of software solutions, making possible transition to 14.0 in the conditions of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the support of environmentally friendlier production. AVO will continue its cooperation with the platforms EuMaT

and Manufacture, and the European Technology Platform for the Future of Textiles and Clothing. The Association of Research Organisations currently participates in several international projects, including the INERREG CENTRAL programme in support of the implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept in the conditions of small and medium-sized enterprises. AVO participated in the INNO PROVEMENT international project supported by the INTERREG EUROPE programme, in which the Ministry of Industry and Trade is also taking part. AVO is involved in a consortium led by the Mechatronic Cluster (Business Upper Austria), which prepared a project for the latest INTERREG CENTRAL call focused on Industry 4.0. As a partner, AVO participates in the EURIPIDES2 2017 project. The recipient of the support is BIC Ostrava. The object of the project is the promotion of new international cooperation projects in research and development and the involvement of Czech research teams in international consortiums under the EUREKA programme. Their aim is to make the industrial public better informed and to support potential Czech experts in their efforts to participate in the EUREKA and EUROSTARS and cluster projects. Among them, special attention is focused on the EURIPIDES2 cluster project concerning research and development in the field of intelligent electronic systems. In the framework of the project, AVO has organised a number of information events, e.g. the “EURIPIDES Consultation Day” at the International Engineering Fair in Brno.

More at www.avo.cz

Bridge between Research and Practice “AVO is and also wants to be in future a component which suitably and efficiently supplements the structure of institutions in the area of research and development in the Czech Republic with quality applied research, helping to build a bridge between the creation of knowledge and its practical use. Czech research organisations have achieved such good results that they can assert themselves even on the highly competitive European market, and AVO wants to maintain its position as a representative of research organisations focused on applied research and development and a supporter of innovative firms. We want to support a rightful environment and forthcoming and simple legislation that will serve the competitive abilities of the Czech Republic, and not partial interests and lobbyists,” says Libor Kraus, President of AVO. “I personally am persuaded that the Association has built a firm place for itself as a representative of applied research pursued especially by private companies. AVO has joined efforts to support mainly small and medium-size enterprises, which it wants to help in these complicated times, also with its participation in international and national projects,” Vice-President Jan Nedělník adds.