Two of our projects have received support from the new Czech Academy of Sciences programme PRAK

Technology for the production of cheaper fuels by converting methane into methanol and nanostructured catalysts for the chemical industry - these are two projects of the Heyrovsky Institute, which will be financially supported by a new programme of the Czech Academy of Sciences called PRAK and will facilitate the transfer of scientific discoveries into practice.

The road from research to practice is long and thorny. The Czech Republic currently still lacks more systematic support for knowledge and technology transfer. The Programme for Application Development and Commercialisation (PRAK) of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) wants to change this. It is a new concept of systematic support for scientists that will significantly facilitate the path of research results into practice.

"PRAK is a tool for accelerating the transfer of scientific knowledge into practice, which makes it possible to finance activities for which there has often been no money in the budgets of departments," says Martin Smekal, head of the Centre for Technology Transfer of the CAS (CeTTAV).

The Academic Council of the CAS has approved the first ten projects, two of which are being carried out at our institute. The following projects have received financial support and support from the specialists of the Centre for Technology Transfer of the CAS (CeTTAV):

  • Nanostructured catalysts for the chemical industry
  • Catalyst for the conversion of methane to methanol

"I consider the success of our projects under the new PRAK programme as proof that our institute has a number of promising results of science and research with high commercial potential and applicable in practice. Their implementation will enable us to accelerate the demanding process of transferring our technologies towards our commercial partners," says Jiří Trnka, Head of the Heyrovský Centre for Technology Transfer.