The Czech-Finland Technology and Innovation Days take place in Helsinki

8 Jun. 2009 | CzechInvest, Czech Embassy in Helsinki

The Czech-Finnish Technology and Innovation Days took place in Helsinki from 2-4 June 2009. This event was organized between Czech and Finnish groups of experts in order to improve mutual relationships particularly in the fields of science, technology and innovation. The Czech delegates, who met their Finnish counterparts during three days in Helsinki, was headed by Peter J. Kalas, advisor to the Czech prime minister. The Czech-Finnish Technology and Innovation Days were commenced by the ambassador of the Czech Republic, Vladimir Kotzy, at SITRA (Finnish Innovation Fund) on 2 June 2009. The Czech ambassador declared this event to be a first step towards deeper and more fruitful cooperation. In this context the Czech-Finnish Technology and Innovation days create a favorable environment for dialogue between Czech and Finnish experts in the field of research, development and innovation.

Environmental policy and the system of financing technological development and innovations and were the key elements in the discussions at SITRA. Several other topics, such as the role of technology and information centers, foresight policy and the role of renewable energy were also discussed during other days at TEKES (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) and finally at the Embassy of the Czech Republic.

The Czech group, composed of experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Industry and Trade, CzechInvest, Czech Biofuels Technology Platform, Academy of Science and Nuclear Research Institute, also visited the Neste oil refinery in Porvoo and Fortum’s nuclear power plant in Loviisa to discuss the possibility of future cooperation in the field of fuel production and nuclear energy generation.