In December, the NANOPROGRESS, z.s. cluster once again successfully retained its prestigious Gold Label certification under the Cluster Management Excellence initiative. Nanoprogress has consistently maintained this highest level of cluster management quality certification for several years now, and as a result, it has long been ranked among the elite cluster organizations in Europe.

The Gold Label recertification process takes place every three years and confirms that the cluster meets the highest standards in management and in providing high-value-added services. This repeated success clearly demonstrates the professionalism of the cluster’s management and its ability to develop a high-quality, sustainable innovation ecosystem over the long term.

For more than 15 years, Nanoprogress has been a major driver of innovation, research, and development, particularly in the field of nanotechnology. Throughout its existence, the cluster has been developing dynamically, responding to current technological trends and systematically strengthening cooperation among companies, research organizations, and academia.

Today, Nanoprogress is one of the largest cluster organizations in the Czech Republic, and its professional management significantly exceeds standard practices. It greatly appreciates the support it receives at both the national and international levels and actively translates that support into concrete results. Over the course of its existence, the cluster has carried out countless successful projects and contributed to more than 50 patents, confirming its key role in transferring knowledge and technological innovations into practice.

With the arrival of 2026, NANOPROGRESS, z.s. is entering a new phase of its development with the goal of significantly accelerating the innovative potential of the entire nanotechnology sector. It strives to become a key driver of advanced technologies in Europe—connecting the broadest possible spectrum of stakeholders, from dynamic startups and SMEs, through leading research organizations and universities, to strategic industrial and institutional partners. NANOPROGRESS, z.s.’s ambition is to create an environment in which truly groundbreaking solutions with global impact are born.

Retaining the Gold Label is not only a recognition of our work to date, but also a commitment to the future—to continue developing world-class cluster management and strengthening the competitiveness of the Czech and European innovation ecosystems.

When four nanotechnology enthusiasts founded the NANOPROGRESS cluster in 2010, they could not have foreseen how many important discoveries lay ahead — or how profoundly those discoveries would influence the industrial and healthcare sectors. From the very beginning, attention was focused on polymer materials and their transformation into nanofibers through electrostatic spinning. Soon after the cluster was founded, we managed to construct a device that was able to create nanofibers from a number of polymers using direct current. The key new patented element of this device was the so-called overflow electrode, which enabled the preparation of nanofibers from many synthetic polymers, such as polyamide, polyurethane, or polyvinyl butyral, but also from a number of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers such as polycaprolactone, polyvinyl alcohol, collagen and many others.

A significant innovation was the development of a spinning device for the preparation of coaxial, i.e. hollow nanofibers. These nanofibers can be made from biodegradable polymers and their cavity can be filled with, for example, drugs or other biologically active substances. This began the era of so-called functionalization of nanofibers, which, in addition to the properties given by the spatial structure of the fibers, adds other functional properties that significantly increase the added value of nanofibers. The ability to functionalize nanofibers has become a key research and development element of the NANOPROGRESS cluster, which has distinguished us from the vast majority of our competitors to this day.

As our research activities grew, in 2012 it became necessary to establish a specialized Laboratory of Advanced Nanofiber Structures, which is located in rented premises of the Technical University of Liberec. Thanks to the activities of this laboratory in 2014, two groundbreaking discoveries were made. It turned out that not only direct current (DC) electric current can be used to produce nanofibers, but that the spinning process works even better using alternating current (AC). It was the very limited productivity of DC spinning that severely limited its use for production operations. In contrast, AC spinning stands out with significantly higher productivity, while at the same time allowing to influence a number of process parameters and thus change the properties of the resulting nanofibers according to the target applications. This world-unique AC technology has become another key strategic research and development element of the cluster (patent protected) and the vast majority of our current production of nanomaterials comes from this technology. The second breakthrough discovery was the preparation of linear nanostructures. Until then, all nanomaterials were created in the form of a planar membrane and various densities and basis weights. We managed to come up with a technology where nanofibers are captured on a carrier fiber, thereby creating a nanofiber yarn. We can prepare these yarns from dozens of synthetic or biopolymers in many different diameters and they can be used directly or processed using conventional textile technologies, such as weaving, knitting, and others. This has fundamentally expanded the possibilities of applying nanofibers to other fields. 

We have worked tirelessly on the further development of AC spinning technology for both planar and linear structures, and especially in the possibilities of their advanced functionalization. In 2020, we managed to integrate so-called sputtering into the AC spinning process. Thanks to this innovation, we can incorporate and fix fine powder materials and particles into the interfiber spaces and thus create composite nanofiber structures. For example, activated carbon can be incorporated into a nanofiber filtration membrane, thus providing it with sorption capabilities in addition to the standard mechanical filtration function. The composite membrane prepared in this way is capable of removing an exceptionally wide range of unwanted particles and contaminants from both air and water.  

The driving force behind the research and development carried out within the NANOPROGRESS cluster has always been the synergistic involvement of cluster members in the R&D process at all levels of the value chain, from chemical and polymer synthetic producers, through analytical support, in-house researchers and developers of nanotechnology and spinning equipment, to the applicators of emerging solutions in commercial applications and products. It is thanks to intensive research and the involvement of many cluster members that we have managed to develop a number of unique technological solutions and products, which can be divided into three main groups: 

Biomedicine, healthcare and cosmetics

• Protective equipment - respirators, masks. Thanks to the global Covid pandemic, we have accelerated the development of protective equipment, where the nanofiber membrane ensures extremely high protection against viral and bacterial pathogens, while the functionalization of the fibers with biocidal substances (betadine) further enhances the protective effect and extends the useful life of the mask or respirator.
• Implantable nanofibrous carriers and wound dressings. Nanostructures made of biodegradable polymers functionalized with biologically active substances from stem cells for the treatment of bone, tendon, cartilage defects and skin injuries, where the nanofibers serve as a supporting matrix for cell growth, while also undergoing gradual biodegradation and thus gradually releasing active substances at the site of tissue damage, significantly increasing the regenerative effect.  
• Cosmetic masks based on nanofibers functionalized with active substances, vitamins, where the extremely large active surface of the nanofibers results in highly effective transport of active substances into the skin.

Environmental technology

• Nanofiber filtration membranes for water and air filtration, optionally functionalized by incorporating sorption, antimicrobial or antifouling components. These membranes are capable of very effectively removing both unwanted particles and pathogens, as well as contributing to the capture of a number of contaminants, or preventing the overgrowth of the filtration membrane with biofilm, which reduces filtration capabilities. 
• Nanofibrous carriers of bacterial biomass for water purification. Nanofibrous yarns processed into 3D carriers are an ideal environment for the growth of microorganisms that effectively degrade unwanted contaminants from water, including pesticides, drug and hormone residues, and other micropollutants.

Food and other industries

• Nanofiber filters for filtration of vegetable oils, wine, distillates and other media. Nanofiber-based filters provide high filtration efficiency and, thanks to higher permeability, also reduce energy costs. At the same time, these filters, thanks to the specific properties of nanostructures, also demonstrate quantum sorption effects and can, for example, eliminate unwanted phosphatides, pesticide residues and other substances from vegetable oils or wine, and thus significantly increase the sensory and nutritional quality of filtered foods in one process step.
• Intelligent textiles. Nanofiber textiles with incorporated electrically conductive component for protective clothing for explosive environments. Textiles with powdered activated carbon for protective clothing for environments contaminated with CBRN substances. Textiles with integrated nanofiber biosensors for the detection of specific substances.

Our cluster organization was successful in the latest call for proposals under the Operational Program “Technologies and Applications for Competitiveness” (OP TAK) with two major innovation projects focused on the development of nanofiber structures, advanced technologies, and high-performance applications.

Nanofiber filters for filtration of vegetable oils, wine and other media

The processing of vegetable oils—in this case, rapeseed oil—is a relatively complex process that involves a series of technological steps, beginning with pressing and filtration, followed by acid hydration to remove phospholipids, alkaline refining to remove fatty acids, bleaching to remove pigments, oxidation products, and metal residues, and ending with deodorization. All of these process steps have a negative impact on the nutritional and, above all, sensory properties of vegetable oil and are, of course, energy- and material-intensive. 

The initial idea was to replace conventional cotton sleeve filters with nanofiber filters, which would be more efficient and require less frequent maintenance. After a series of experiments, we actually succeeded in doing so. But to our surprise, the filtered oil also contained significantly lower levels of substances that were undesirable from a sensory perspective. This was followed by rigorous testing and analytical evaluation, which demonstrated that—thanks to as-yet-not-fully-understood, likely quantum-sorption phenomena on the nanofiber membrane—filtering the oil at an appropriate temperature does indeed result in a significant reduction in the content of phosphatides, fatty acids, oxidation products, and pigments. In a single process step, we thus obtain oil stripped of the vast majority of undesirable substances, with nutritional and sensory properties corresponding to those of virgin oil. This eliminates the need for additional process steps, which has a very positive impact on both the quality of the oil and the energy intensity of the entire vegetable oil processing process. 

Encouraged by these successes, we attempted to implement similar technology in a field as conservative and traditional as winemaking. We replaced standard cellulose filters with nanofiber filters; however, initial results showed that our filters were too effective—they even removed the pigments from red wine, turning it into white wine. After a series of experiments, we developed an optimal technological solution for filtering grape must that removes only unwanted impurities, including bacterial pathogens. The presence of these pathogens in wine is the reason why winemakers must stabilize the wine by adding sulfites, which, however, have a negative sensory impact on the wine’s quality. Thanks to our solution, the need to add sulfites to the wine is significantly reduced, resulting in the preservation of all the wine’s nutritional and sensory properties. 

Nanofibrous carriers of bacterial biomass for water and air purification

During 2014, we developed a unique technology for the production of nanofiber yarns. Using this technology, the desired layer of nanofibers is continuously applied to a carrier fiber via AC spinning, resulting in a strong fiber coated with an extremely complex nanostructure. These AC nanostructures closely mimic the so-called extracellular matrix of cells and thus provide an ideal supportive environment for the growth and proliferation of various types of microorganisms. Microorganism communities, consisting primarily of bacterial and fungal biomass, are capable of degrading contaminants in aquatic environments, ranging from nitrogenous compounds to pesticides and residues of pharmaceuticals and hormones. This led us to the idea of using these nanofibers as carriers of microbial biomass for water treatment. We have created various 3D versions of nanofiber carriers, ranging from small units on the order of centimeters—of which the required quantity can be used depending on the volume of water being treated (tens to hundreds of units), to large carrier structures measuring many square meters, which can be used both in stationary treatment plants and in modular mobile treatment systems for local applications at contaminated sites. For these carriers, we are able to very precisely identify the appropriate composition of the microbial community and specifically seed it with a culture of the required microorganisms based on the specifics of the contamination, which significantly promotes the formation and stabilization of the necessary microbial community. Tests at a number of sites have demonstrated that these biomass carriers are capable not only of effectively removing nitrogenous substances but also of significantly reducing concentrations of micropollutants, pharmaceutical residues, hormones, and pesticides—something conventional water treatment methods cannot achieve. We have also adapted and successfully tested a similar concept for removing undesirable volatile substances from the air—substances that are generated, for example, in wastewater treatment plants, biogas plants, and similar facilities, where they produce unpleasant and sometimes even hazardous odors.

Implantable nanofibrous carriers and wound covers

Nanostructures created using electrostatic spinning closely mimic the so-called extracellular matrix of cells, making them an ideal supportive environment for cell growth and proliferation. This led us to the idea of using our nanostructures as cell carriers in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. We are able to prepare nanostructures from biocompatible and biodegradable polymers, and we can further functionalize them using biologically active substances. We have therefore created nanofiber carriers from biopolymers, which we have functionalized in several ways—with stem cells, stem cell extracts, growth factors, and other biologically active substances. We experimentally implanted these carriers into several types of tissue defects—damaged cartilage, bone defects, and we also plan to test them on tendon damage. The nanofiber structure at the implantation site promotes the ingrowth of new tissue; furthermore, the gradual natural degradation of the biopolymer leads to the slow release of the biologically active substance, which thus consistently maintains an optimal concentration at the defect site to maximize the regenerative effect. 

We achieved similar results with nanofiber wound dressings, where the target therapeutic indications include slow-healing skin lesions, leg ulcers, burns, and others. Here, the functionalized two-dimensional nanostructure not only acts as a barrier, protecting the wound from pathogens while ensuring breathability, but the biodegradation of the polymer also results in the gradual release of the active substance into the site of injury, which further accelerates the regeneration process. 

The use of nanofiber-based functionalized cell carriers and wound dressings in experimental models and, to a limited extent, in human models has demonstrated high effectiveness in promoting the regenerative healing process of damaged tissue, as well as a significant reduction in adverse complications.

Representatives of the Nanoprogress cluster organization, as part of the PolyEnvi21 National Competence Center, attended the PLASTKO 2024 conference at Tomas Bata University in Zlín last week. During the two-day event, there was an intensive discussion about polymer materials and their recycling.