The 1st INNOTRANS Stakeholders Meeting of the City of Prague was organized on the 20th of June at the City Hall of Prague in the Škodův palace. The City Hall of Prague welcomed 11 representatives of 8 important institutions: Prague Startup Centrum; Institute of Planning and Development in Prague; Institute for European Cooperation; Charles University Environment Centre; Ministry of Regional Development CZ – National Coordination Authority; Technical Administration of Road Network; Prague Public Transportation Company; City Hall of Prague.
Jaroslav Mach, Head of Section of Transport Development and Financing of City Hall of Prague welcomed all the attendants. After this kicking-off brief speech about the main goals, principles as well as the time-line of INNOTRANS Project and Interreg Europe. Afterwards, Jakub Pechlát, Head of Innovation Policy Office of Institute of Planning and Development, made a 15-minutes-long contribution about the innovation policy settings and key strategic documents affecting the innovation projects in transportation in Prague region. After the necessary introduction to the topics and getting familiar with INNOTRANS project, the attendants were split into 2 discussion groups.
The discussion covered 4 main topics as follows:
- Constraints and barriers of transportation innovation introducing in Prague region
- Pros and cons of financial support of applied research or technology transfer
- The key perspective areas to be supported in the (near) future
- The investment tools possibilities
All the participants were actively contributing to the discussion and found the involved topic very relevant. The idea of sharing of good practices and knowledge was mentioned several times. Need for more intensive cooperation with the institutions from abroad and better project management seems to be crucial for the stakeholders as the financial budgets enables the realization of ambitious innovative projects of high quality. According to the participants, the extra emphasis should be put on practical results and both financial and non-financial benefits from the projects. These are some of the thoughts that were repeatedly announced as the most important.
