The networking seminar on 26th of May was organised in close cooperation with the Competence Centre on Health Technologies in Estonia and South Moravian Innovation Centre in Brno. The Embassy of Czech Republic values the cooperation with JIC, Masaryk University and the South Moravian Regional Authority in Brno for their help in arranging the visits.

The Estonian delegation had participants from the following institutions: Competence Centre on Health Technologies/Estonian Connected Health Cluster, ETC OÜ, The University of Tartu, TBD Biodiscovery OÜ, Quretec OÜ, Bio-Competence Centre of Healthy Dairy Products LLC (BioCC) and Estonian University of Life Sciences. Czech counterparts were represented by the following institutions: CzechBio (umbrella organisation for Czech biotech companies), Accord Research, s.r.o., ACRO-CZ, CF Plus Chemicals, s.r.o., SOTIO, a.s., Holstein Cattle Breeders Association and LentiKat´s, a.s.. The aim of the visit and the seminar was to have better contacts between Czech and Estonian enterprises and research institutions dealing with biomedicine and biotechnologies and to enhance the cooperation in this field that has much potential and is dynamically developing in both countries.

The opening remarks of the seminar were presented by the Deputy Head of the Czech Embassy in Estonia Mrs. Alena Teznerová expressing the hope that the meeting will bring new impetus to mutual cooperation between Estonia and the Czech Republic in the very perspective biotech areas. Estonian Honorary Consul in Brno Mr. Vladimír Bulinský was also enthusiastic about the contact seminar to lead the way for new joint projects between these two countries. The activities and services of the South Moravian Innovation Centre were introduced by Ms. Terezie Krpcová.

The presentations made by the participants gave a good overview of the activities, perspectives and possibilities for further cooperation with other enterprises and research institutions. The most important part of the seminar was bilateral meetings and networking.

On 27th of May the Estonian delegation had a chance to meet the members of the Faculty of Medicine at the Masaryk University whose delegation was led by the vice-dean of the Faculty Mr. Aleš Hampl. Both sides appreciated the contacts and hopefully joint cooperation projects will arise from the meeting.  Estonian participants also met with the representative of the South Moravian Regional Authority Mr. Václav Božek. In addition, the delegation visited biotechnology incubator INBIT and extremely high-level research institution Central European Institute of Technology CEITEC.

The Embassy of Czech Republic in Estonia will be delighted to provide any assistance needed for further developments in collaboration; preliminarily the counter-visit by the Czech delegation to Estonia was already agreed for the autumn 2017.

 

Alena Teznerová, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Estonia