On behalf of the MPO, Marián Piecha, Senior Director of the EU Funds Section, Petr Filipi, Director of the Innovative and Digital Solutions Department, and Robert Wenzel, Head of the R&D Infrastructure Department, attended the meeting. 

NCA Board Representatives: Jiri Herinek (online), Ivo Riha, Lubos Komarek, Katerina Podana.

On behalf of the European Commission, Ms Jitka Vocaskova - Policy Officer, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (online).

The NCA Board of Directors met with representatives of the MPO to discuss the possibilities of future support for the work of cluster organisations in the Czech Republic. The NCA, through its re-elected Board of Directors, expressed its willingness to cooperate and motivate cluster organisations to work well in order to promote cooperation between the research and business sectors and to ensure the competitiveness of the Czech environment and the introduction of innovations into practice. J. Vocaskova (EC) described the situation of cluster policy within different EU countries and their status and informed about the conceptual non-project financial support from the public administration.

MPO highlighted the OP TAK - Cooperation Clusters open call, which is announced as a continuous call and aims to support quality clusters in their work. The call will be open until spring 2025, and the MPO expects ambitious, sustainable and high-quality projects.

The MPO has also expressed its interest in re-opening communication with the NCA after the close of the application intake of this call to further systematically support cluster organisations and set up mutually beneficial cooperation.