On 30 September 2015, Czech Deputy Prime Minister for science, research and innovation Mr. Pavol Bělobrádek presented an Analysis of research, development and innovation in the Czech Republic. The analysis confirmed that the Czech Republic has a sound scientific background and top professionals. However, Czech science lags behind in applied research and it is unable to establish cooperation with industry. Management and funding of Czech science is fragmented also.
Total expenditure on research and development and innovation in 2013 accounted for nearly 3 billion euro. 92,000 people (of which 55% were researchers) were employed in the area of research and development. Eight major scientific centers and 40 regional research centers originated in the Czech Republic in recent years with financial support from the EU.
Although the ratio of expenditures for science in the Czech Republic is comparable with the EU average, the Czech science lags far behind in an average number of international patents and in cooperation of the private sector with the public sector. Czech science has also a much lower results in applied research (less than 11% of the total number of results).
Illustrative photo, Source: flickr.com/Justin S. Campbell
