About us

Cluster

The Nanoprogress cluster focuses on researching and developing functionalized nanofiber structures and their industrial and medical applications. We are involved in the “AdPack” European Strategic Cluster Partnership in the new emerging industry and are classified within the European excellent clusters under the European Initiative of Cluster Excellence scheme. As part of our joint research activities, we have developed sophisticated methodologies for the functionalization of nanofiber structures, built new technological equipment for core-shell nanofiber production and new equipment based on the globally unique AC electrospinning technology. We have also determined the application potential of a wide range of functionalized nanofiber structures in medicine and industry.

The Nanoprogress cluster is based in Pardubice and operates in five cities in the Czech Republic. Beside the headquarters, the cluster has two research places in Buštěhrad, Liberec and Roudnice nad Labem. The Liberec site and the Roudnice nad Labem site focuse on technological research and business while Buštěhrad concentrates on biomedical research. The cluster also has a contact and meeting point in Prague. Most members of the cluster have their premises within 150 km of the cluster location. This simplifies communication and personal meetings. Exceptions are foreign members who reside in England and Portugal. The members’ base thus geographically covers three European countries. Cluster partners are located in nine countries.

Main objectives

To promote the nanotechnology sector, mainly in its particular applications
To bolster expertise, professional abilities and ensure a smooth transfer of their results to practice and education
To promote regional cooperation between private enterprises, the academic and public sector
To promote the competitive ability and innovation activities of our members
To include the cluster and its members in international research and business activities
To ensure support from the public sector and financing using EU funds
To monitor world and market trends and to apply them to support further development of the cluster and its members

Vision

Our vision is to serve as an example of cluster Excellency, with strong synergy, trust and interconnection among our members and transparent management policy focusing on continuous improvement. We are also keen to develop and implement innovative technological procedures of functionalization of nanofibers in its woven and non-woven form with high added value for future customer-oriented industrial products and with a positive environmental impact.

Working Groups

The working groups are divided into five categories: Research, Development and Technological Development, Internationalization and International Cooperation, Marketing and PR, Trade and Services, Regional and National Policy.

Working Group Research & Development

The working group aims to identify and select new directions of nanotechnology research and development with an emphasis on polymer nanofibers and through the interconnection of qualified and competent cluster members and also non-cluster entities to set up consortia capable of implementing selected research intentions and delivering results that will contribute to expanding the cluster’s knowledge base, which is a necessary condition for the development of innovations and the support of the application potential of the developed products and their subsequent commercialization by cluster members.

Internationalization and International Cooperation

The working group is left with international events and a cluster presentation abroad. In addition, the group uses a variety of conventional and modern electronic channels to communicate internationally and to raise awareness of its activities. Likewise, these channels are used to share knowledge and insights from an international environment with members of the organization. For these purposes, profiles are created on the most important social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, which are used to distribute information on a general basis. As a further way of sharing cluster specific information, the European Cluster Collaboration Platform is very effective. The group is also very active in foreign presentations, matchmaking and networking.

Marketing and PR

The working group is actively focusing on common national and transnational events where it presents its innovative results, products and technologies. An integral part of marketing activities is also the strengthening of the cluster brand and the creation of promotional materials designed to present the cluster and its members. It should be remembered that these materials contribute, to a certain extent, to the popularization of nanotechnologies. A very important marketing channel is membership profiles on the website and in the member catalog, which are processed in several language versions.

Trade and Services

The main focus of the work of the Trade and Services Task Force is to create conditions for the commercialization of the products and services of individual cluster members. The Group works with a portfolio of products and services that consist of a cluster member’s production offer. Its employees, based on market analyzes, marketing plans and business activities, help cluster members to develop business strategies for both industry and territory markets. In its work, it seeks to create synergy effects based on collaboration between cluster members that can dramatically improve the impact of cluster members on individual markets. An integral part of the work of the working group are also services related to the implementation of business plans, legal aspects of business in individual markets, certification issues and standards in individual markets as well as planning and implementation of logistics operations and activities related to the specificity of contractual relations in individual markets, financial instruments ensuring the successful realization of business activities, including insurance related to business activities on foreign markets.

Regional and National Politics

The group is focused on compliance with national and regional development strategies. Work activities will help to develop know-how in the nanotechnology area, which is absolutely crucial for the long-term sustainability of stable economic development and the wider use of nanofiled structures. Group approach appeals to compliance with the National RIS3 Research and Innovation Strategies. The active involvement of the Nanoprogress cluster organization in the Liberec region led to its inclusion in the Council for Research, Development and Innovation of the Liberec Region last year and the development of the subsequent cooperation in setting up the regional RIS3 strategy.

On a national scale, cooperation with the National Cluster Association has been highlighted, where the Cluster Manager has been appointed as its representative for negotiations at the Challenge Preparation Platform and the OP PIK Monitoring Committee, and has participated in several meetings of this Platform and Committee. There is also active cooperation with the Nanoassociation of the Czech Republic in organizing and participating in domestic and national events for the popularization of nanotechnologies and on business missions, such as in Belgium, Israel, USA, Spain and Portugal.

On the recommendation of these partners towards the government office, Nanoprogress became an official member of three National Innovation Platforms (NIP): Mechanical Engineering, Energy, Metallurgy; Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Medical Devices, Life Sciences, and the Cultural and Creative Industries.

Nanoprogress also actively collaborates with the Academy’s Technology Center to take part in a number of joint seminars and events and furthermore to consult international projects where it is the only cluster organization that has already been awarded the third COSME funding and is running an international consortium composed of six representatives of leading European cluster organizations.

Thanks to the above-mentioned successes and activities, the Technology Center of the Academy of Sciences has included the Nanoprogress cluster organization in the H2020 work group commenting on the work program “Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Biotechnology, Advanced manufacturing and processing”. In this way, it will be possible to improve the individual challenges and continually improve support for the development of the EU innovation environment and the H2020.

Achievements and awards

podnikatelsky projekt roku

Project “Nanoprogres” was elected the best enterprise project of 2014 in the Collaboration of companies – clusters category and became one of the most successful national enterprise projects financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

ESCP4i AdPACK orez

Nanoprogress, together with its international partners (Packbridge, Plastiwin, InovCluster, BalticNet-PlasmaTec, Packaging Cluster), leads the European Strategic Cluster Partnership AdPack in the emerging smart packaging industry.

Nanoprogress, together with 6 partners, established the Ad-pack EEIG legal structure to support and develop innovation and internationalization of European businesses and innovative institutions. This ecosystem includes more than a thousand representatives of the private legal sector.

The cluster was awarded the gold medal of cluster excellence. By winning this award, Nanoprogress is ranked among the European Cluster Elite.

Zlatý klastr 2016

The cluster was awarded the 2016 Gold Cluster Award for the Most Dynamic Cluster in 2016. In the evaluation of cluster organizations carried out by FaME and the NCA in 2012 and 2016, Nanoprogress moved from 27th to 3rd.

Our team

Ing. Luboš Komárek, MSc.

Chairman of the Board

Ing. Luboš Komárek, MSc. studied Mechanical Engineering at BUT and Business Economics and competition at the INDEG Business School in Lisbon. It has both professional skills and work experience gained in the Czech Republic and during an eight year stay abroad. Nanoprogress is responsible for strategic project management, periodic control of planned activities and outputs according to the implementation plan and industry consultation. Furthermore, he is responsible for presenting the cluster on selected events, supervising the preparation of cluster excellence processes, cluster development and internationalization, patent and cluster policy, and overseeing business activities, is also in charge of project applications for cluster organization development and is responsible for time and material fulfillment project work.

Mgr. Jiří Amler

Internationalization Manager

Mgr. Jíří Amler has a foreign political and foreign business education specializing in the Korean peninsula, where he graduated from postgraduate studies. He has experience with foreign service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. Since 2002, he has worked as a sales manager, where he has mainly devoted to export and import activities in the field of building chemistry, textile products, specialty textiles and textile raw materials in a wide range of geographical destinations. During his work, he also devoted himself to introducing innovative textile products, such as 3D knits. He also provided backoffice activities, logistics operations, etc. He lectures externally on logistics and international trade at VŠFS where he leads several final works. She is capable of active communication in Russian, English, Korean and partly German. The cluster is in charge of supporting internationalization and business activities.

Ing. Vojtěch Černík

Chief Accountant

Ing. Vojtěch Černíkhas years of experience in managing and coordinating projects, preparing project work and project applications, managing processes and evaluating project economics. His other competencies include managing and coordinating company operations and managing human resources. Mr Černík also completed a cluster facilitation course, and as a tax adviser assistant he is responsible for the cluster accounting records. In the cluster he is responsible for administration and accounting control.

Ing. Bořivoj Frýbert

Chairman of the Steering Committee

Ing. Bořivoj Frýbert has many years of experience in top management positions, production and general directors, has been a member of a number of associations and statutory bodies and has been the president of the Czech Managerial Association. His main activities include the management of strategic cluster development, control of the implementation of operational plans, co-ordination of the cluster members’ cooperation at the level of their owners, cluster representation at the top negotiations, and motivation and management of the cluster management. He is also responsible for consulting support for strategic decision making and continuation of mentoring and top management of the cluster organization.

Ivo Zavřel

Business manager

Ivo Zavřel has been engaged in foreign trade since the beginning of the nineties and in the development of business relations between Czech companies and foreign partners, especially in Eastern Europe. For six years he worked as the head of representation of Czech companies in Moscow. In his activities, he devoted himself both to the direct export of goods from Czech producers, to the coordination of the supply of more entities for the final customer, and to the management and administration of the supply of investment units for foreign customers. During his activities abroad, he held all necessary business and administrative meetings with foreign partners and also managed in several countries a network of foreign dealers who traded goods of Czech manufacturers. The Nanoprogress cluster is responsible for the development of shared infrastructure through time and factual control and business development.

Ing. Tomáš Janoušek

Manager for cluster lab operations

Ing. Tomáš Janoušekgraduated with a focus on nanotechnology, nanomaterials and biotechnology in the field of wastewater treatment. Within the cluster, he is in charge of plant management and the implementation of partial project work related to research, production and testing of nanostructures.

Mgr. Martin Šlais, Ph.D.

Specialized Project Coordinator

Mgr. Martin Šlais, Ph.D. has obtained a Master’s degree in Ecology and Limnology at the Faculty of Biology of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice and a Doctoral degree in the field of Veterinary Toxicology at the Veterinary Faculty of the Veterinary and Pharmaceutical University of Brno. He has significant experience in leading specialist teams in the field of research and development of pharmaceuticals and biomedical innovative technologies. He has authored more than 80 studies in preclinical toxicology. Clusters include, amongst its responsibilities, project applications for contracted research and their timely and material fulfillment.

Ing. Kateřina Lajblová

Finance Manager

Ing. Kateřina Lajblová has extensive experience in financial management in manufacturing and trading companies and service companies, in dealing with banking institutions, factoring companies, and other financial institutions. In practice, he also dealt with financial management in companies undergoing restructuring, as well as experience in the field of company transformation. It is a certified guarantor of double-entry bookkeeping according to valid standards. Its main work in the cluster is financial management and controlling, especially financial supervision of the implementation of individual cluster projects and their link to the cluster as a whole.

Ilona Horníková

Cluster Assistant

Ilona Horníková has high school education and many years of experience with administrative support and leadership of top managers and secretariat management. Its core business activities include keeping records, preparing records, conducting business correspondence, directories, statistics, members’ databases, archiving documents.