High success rate in attracting top scientists from home and abroad and high quality results at different levels of technological advancement (TRL), i.e. from excellent basic research to close cooperation with companies. It was these two benefits that emerged the most from the presentations of the REFRESH project’s results to date at the retreat in Čeladná, which was attended not only by academics but also by representatives of partner institutions, including the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) of the Czech Republic, which administers the operational programme Fair Transformation, from which the largest project of the VŠB-TUO to date has received a subsidy of CZK 2.5 billion.
“We give you the framework and watch with amazement what all is going on. My wish for the project is that all the pieces fit together like a puzzle and that it succeeds in bringing back to the region natives who, for example, stayed elsewhere after their studies, or in attracting brand new top scientists who will contribute to the development of the region,” said Radana Leistner Kratochvílová, director of the Low Carbon Economy Transformation Support Department of the Ministry of the Environment, at the beginning of the meeting.
As the results so far show, the project is doing very well in attracting scientific reinforcements. “We said at the outset that the biggest investment was needed in people. At the moment, 40 percent of brand new people are already involved in the project. So far we have brought in 30 excellent scientists, often from abroad, which is three times more than we committed to. We have created 62 new jobs (FTE) in science and research, with a total of 106 jobs pledged over the life of the project,” REFRESH Director Igor Ivan outlined some of the results.
According to him, however, thanks to the REFRESH project, VŠB-TUO has succeeded with 14 projects in major European grant competitions for a total of more than seven million euros, in one third of which the principal investigator is a newly arrived researcher. The researchers have 391 impacted publications to their credit, a third of which are authored by a new scientist, and four patent applications have been filed. Specific selected results were detailed by the scientific directors of the four living labs, who also shared planned investments and other challenges.
“From the point of view of someone who is in industry today and every day, I very much appreciate the fact that it was possible to connect science, industrial reality and students. I believe that thanks to this, the goals of the project will be achieved,” concluded Kateřina Kupková, member of the REFRESH Board of Directors and Vice President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic.
REFRESH is based on a unique concept of interconnected living laboratories where cutting-edge research is carried out in close contact with companies and in accordance with the requirements of end users. Researchers focus on the development of new technologies for key areas such as sustainable energy, new materials or the robotization and digitalization of industry or transport automation. An important part of the project is to monitor changes in the region through the lens of social sciences and humanities under the auspices of the University of Ostrava.
Source: smaragdova.cz, “Basic research and overlaps into practice: Towards the REFRESH goals, the laboratories complement each other perfectly”, available at www.smaragdova.cz.
