The five thematic presentations were concluded by a presentation by Jana Frantíková, CzechInvest manager, about the Technology Incubation and the UP Science and Technology Park, which introduced the new building Envelopa Hub, which will house the digital innovation hub DIGI2Health and coworking Element for business support.
The speakers agreed that the establishment of SPVs is not a simple matter and the process takes several years at individual universities or institutes of the CAS. Naturally, this cannot be done without the active support of the leadership of the institutions concerned. Even the functioning of the SPV itself is dependent on the support of the parent institutions in the beginning. As far as the functioning of individual SPVs is concerned, the presenters presented several models ranging from completely separate operating companies (CUIP), through transfer offices such as IOCB TECH to companies with a special status, such as i&i Prague, which is a subsidiary of IOCB TECH and is thus practically its SPV.
A few remarks on the speeches of the invited speakers
The participants of the workshop heard the experiences of Otomar Sláma from Charles University Innovations Prague a.s. (CUIP), Martin Fusek from IOCB TECH s.r.o., Jan Urban from ČVUT tech s.r.o., Ondřej Moš from The University Company TUL, s.r.o. (TUC TUL) and Jaromír Zahrádka from i&i Prague, s.r.o.
Founded in 2018 with an impressive track record of 108 licenses sold and 10 spin-off companies declared by the CUIP director. The primary purpose of the SPV is to make money, it’s the number one priority. We should not back down from this demand. Martin Fusek, the doyen of Czech transfer, was uncompromising on this issue. IOCB TECH, with its fund and its subsidiaries, is one of the traditionally excellent transfer companies. This is also thanks to i&i Prague, which is active on the market.
A new approach to the functioning of the transfer office and communication with the originators was presented by Jan Urban from CTU. He convincingly layered one novel approach after another. It was interesting to see the reactions of those present to his performance. Noise in the hall, shaking of heads and applause.
The workshop programme followed the StartUP Day, a networking afternoon in a friendly spirit, which was attended by Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Edvard Kožušník, Mayor of Olomouc Miroslav Žbánek, MP Martin Major and partners for supporting entrepreneurship, startups and innovation in the region. VTP UPOL was founded in 2000 with the aim to use the research potential of the university in companies, and to ensure technology transfer, respectively. scientific results between the university and the commercial sphere.
