Building a sustainable European ecosystem is a story of cooperation without borders

At NANOPROGRESS, we have been striving for a long-term connection between scientific research and industrial practice not only in the Czech Republic but also internationally. The goal is to build a strong, resilient and sustainable innovation environment across Europe that will enable the sharing of know-how, accelerate the introduction of innovations into specific products and contribute to solving key societal challenges.

We are entering into cooperation with neighboring countries

In 2014, we at NANOPROGRESS first participated in the preparation of an international project focused on supporting cluster cooperation. The INNO-DROP project laid the foundations for improving the quality of cluster management in the EU. This was followed by the AdPack and AdPack2 projects focused on the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. The result of these activities was the establishment of the European Economic Interest Grouping Ad-Pack EEIG in 2018, which enabled legally anchored cooperation between European cluster organizations.

We invented CEDEG as the metacluster of the future

The experience of Ad-Pack EEIG naturally led to the creation of a more robust and open platform. In 2021, the CEDEG, zs association was established, which took over the baton and expanded cooperation into new areas of interest, such as digitalization or green technologies. CEDEG is not only the legal successor of the original association, but a fully-fledged metastructure that today brings together more than 2,240 entities from 16 European countries, including almost 1,800 companies and over 330 research institutions.

We helped connect Europe

Thanks to CEDEG, we are able to develop specific international projects, support shared infrastructure, promote common interests within the framework of European cluster support and create conditions for truly cross-border innovation. As co-founders of CEDEG, we actively contribute to its strategic direction and, through our membership, create a bridge between Czech researchers and the European innovation environment.

"The original idea of ​​creating structured European cooperation has become a functioning ecosystem with real impact. CEDEG is proof that when vision, expertise and trust come together, borders and intellectual limits can be crossed."
Luboš Komárek, Vice-Chairman of CEDEG and Chairman of NANOPROGRESS

You can find more about this metacluster at www.cedeg.eu.