As part of the series webinars organized by Századvég, the next event focuses on the much-awaited new European Innovation Agenda. We will introduce our learnings of the EU and national innovation-promoting programs and various aspects of their exploitation in Central and Eastern Europe. Building on our group’s input to the Commission’s latest public consultation, this time we will focus on the CEE practices: frameworks, challenges, success stories and shortcomings.

Our panelists are: 

• András Inotai, Head of Unit, Innovation Policy and Access to Finance, DG INNOV
• dr. Péter Lábody, Vice President, Hungarian Intellectual Property Office
• Bohumil Kartous, Director, Prague Innovation Institute
• Bence Kováts, Director, Századvég Konjunktúrakutató

Participants will learn about the national ecosystem of innovation funding opportunities in Hungary and the Czech Republic. Attendants to the webinar will understand how CEE countries approach research, development and innovation (RDI) promotion, how local innovation ecosystems develop and how intellectual property plays a key role in innovation, and what the key underlying factors of the current innovation processes are. Members of the panel will also discuss characteristics of the region, the reasons behind the region’s innovation laggardness and possible solutions.

The European Commission recently run a public consultation as a call for evidence for the new European Innovation Agenda, which among others, aims at better interconnecting innovation ecosystems and bridging the innovation divide between regions and member states. The call attracted more than 100 respondents and generated a manifold discussion in the innovation community and not only.

By this webinar, we would like to contribute to the discussion, in particular as to how better interconnecting innovation ecosystems and what to do to more effectively bridge the innovation divide within the EU by providing hands-on experience and examples from our region.