New Czech Centre of Excellence for Microelectronics
The Czech Republic has announced its newly created Center of Excellence for microelectronics, ChipInvest, will supply top engineering talent from Central and Eastern Europe and Russia to leading and emerging chip companies worldwide.
The first-of-its-kind Centre of Excellence has established a specialized network throughout Central and Eastern Europe and Russia of university teams, incubators, training programs and other infrastructure. The Brno-based Center supports small- and medium-sized technology companies worldwide by serving as a comprehensive resource for cost-effective, highly skilled engineering specialists.
ChipInvest began as a partnership between the Czech Business Development Agency and Cadence in 2005 to support research-and-development of new chip technologies, emerging technology companies, and advanced training in integrated circuit design.
"Because we are leveraging pre-existing infrastructure and assets in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, we are able to bring together a critical mass of expertise and infrastructure in a very short time period," said Radomil Novak, Director, U.S. Operations-West and Adviser to the CEO, CzechInvest. "Our Centre of Excellence goes beyond typical incubators by providing a formal network for training and talent-gathering for the international microelectronics industry. It's like placing a magnet in an electric field. We are directing knowledge-flow to one place -- the Czech Republic. As a result, multinational organizations and small- and medium-sized businesses worldwide now have an unparalleled resource."
ChipInvest is headquartered at the renowned Brno University of Technology campus in the Czech Republic. European Union- and Czech-based national funding subsidizes key educational programs that provide additional training for engineers working in microelectronics design.
Through the three Czech-based incubators, entrepreneurs also can access venture capital funding earmarked for emergent technology companies.
SoftInvest, a partnership between the Czech branch of software company Microsoft and CzechInvest, will be working collaboratively with ChipInvest in order to create an innovation center focused on embedded systems. One of the objectives of the center is to provide a partner program in cooperation with Czech universities to support the creation of approximately 20 microelectronic-focused software start-up companies within two to three years.
Several leading, global microelectronics companies are currently conducting leading-edge research-and-development activities in the Czech Republic:
According to a 2005 report by the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development, globalization drives offshoring of research and development by multinationals. OECD's Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard says 40 percent of multinational investments in the Czech Republic are research-and-development related.
