University in Zlin opens Science and Technology park worth a quarter-billion crowns

Beginning today, the Science and Technology Park at Tomáš Baťa University (TBU) in Zlín will offer to innovative companies well-equipped offices and super-clean laboratories whose environment can be likened to a sterile operating. The school has invested CZK 225.8 million in the park’s construction; more than half of this amount will be reimbursed to the university from the European Prosperity Programme, which is part of the Operational Programme Industry and Enterprise. The park arose through the renovation of a brownfield containing several dozen old buildings that Tomáš Baťa originally built as dormitories for his students. The cost of construction work amounted to CZK 155 million.

The celebratory ribbon-cutting on the occasion of the new park’s opening featured the participation of Minister of Industry and TradeMartin Říman; Alexandra Rudyšarová, acting CEO of CzechInvest; Ignác Hoza, rector of Tomáš Baťa University; and Petr Sáha, TBU vice-rector for strategy and development and president of the international Polymer Processing Society. Also on hand for the event were representatives of the Zlín region and the city of Zlín, partners of the university from a range of firms and the general construction supplier, members of the academic community and other guests. Besides the Science and Technology Park, a Technology Transfer Centre is also being established in a renovated building.

“The science and technology park will offer 5,600 square metres of offices, laboratories and specialised workplaces which will be used by researchers from up to twenty-odd private companies and, of course, the university,” says Alexandra Rudyšarová, acting CEO of CzechInvest,which is responsible for distributing European Union funding in the Czech Republic. “For the establishment of the science and technology park, the university received aid from the European Union’s Prosperity Programme, which assists the creation of a basis for innovative business. The EU contributed 142 million crowns for the park’s construction.”

“For us, the priority is companies involved in the development of plastics and the processing thereof, and development of products for end-consumers. Food-production is another priority. Both of these fields have an important place in industry in the Zlín region and in research at the university, which is why we chose them,” explains Ignác Hoza, rector of Tomáš Baťa University inZlín.

“We estimate that when the park is fully occupied, around 100 people will work there. The first two firms are setting up there and we have signed preliminary agreements with others,”says Jindřiška Ondráčková, director of the University Institute, which is over the park within the university. “The opening of the Science and Technology Park was preceded by research conducted among two hundred local companies, in which we discovered exactly what would be useful for companies in the region.”

For more information please contact CzechInvest's Public Relations Department. 

More about the TBU science and technology park and technology transfer centre:

The Science and Technology Park and Technology Transfer Centre at TBU in Zlín comprise a complex supporting the development of science, research, development and innovative business. The complex offers a full range of professional and specialised services to entrepreneurs and research and development workers. The project involved the construction of 5,600 m² of technical facilities in the form of offices, laboratories, clean rooms and specialised workplaces prepared for research and development activities focused on polymer materials for healthcare, veterinarian care, food-production and biotechnology. In the park, interested parties from a range of firms can use the services of top-quality, internationally recognised science and research specialists and experts in analysis, measuring and testing of materials and products or verification of new technologies. In addition to the Science and Technology Park, a Technology Transfer Centre has been established in a renovated building. This centre offers advisory, information and consulting services in the area or intellectual and industrial property protection.
More information is available at web.uni.utb.cz.

Contact to Tomáš Baťa University:
Andrea Kadlčíková, Spokesperson, TBU, tel.: 576 032 754, mobile tel.: 724 218 331