Article

By: Martina Marečková, 28. 05. 2007

The emerging nanotechnology field is gaining ground in the Czech Republic with successes reported by local researchers and the commercial sector.

To ensure continued development in the new science, VŠB–Technical University of Ostrava (VŠB-TU), North Moravia, is launching the first program in nanotechnology in the Czech Republic, and other universities are also starting courses.

Students at VŠB-TU had until the end of April to apply for a bachelor’s degree program that is set to start in the coming fall semester. Around 40 people applied for the 30 places in the program, but only applicants who pass a mathematics exam will be accepted, said Stanislava Kebová of VŠB-TU’s advisory center. Successful graduates of the bachelor’s program can then go on to earn a master‘s degree in the nanotechnology program, she said.

Nanotechnology is the study and design of systems at the nanometer scale, which is one billionth of a meter. Its applications cover a broad range of topics including medicine, physics, engineering and chemistry. Nanotechnology is perceived as one of the key technologies of the 21st century with a potential to grow within a decade into a € 1 trillion (Kč 28.2 trillion) industry.

Four Czech universities are scheduled to launch optional nanotechnology courses in the fall semester, said Jitka Kubátová, manager of Prague-based Technology Center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (TCAS ČR). The courses will be supported by European Union Structural Funds, Kubátová said without elaborating at a nanotechnology conference held last week in the Corinthia Panorama hotel in Prague.

Although none of the countries in the Central and Eastern European region is significantly ahead of the Czech Republic in nanotechnology education, the country “shouldn’t rest on its laurels as things are moving ahead also in other countries in CEE,“ said Alexandr Prokop of the TCAS ČR. Prokop is the national contact point for the nanotechnology and space technology sections of the European Union’s research & development (R&D) programs.

“We’re all at the beginning, and advancement of this [nanotechnology] field depends on funding priorities of each country,” Prokop said. From the former Eastern bloc countries, only Slovenia is better off than the Czech Republic in terms of share of gross domestic product (GDP) invested in R&D, including nanotechnology. Public funding for nanotechnology R&D in Slovenia reached an estimated € 500,000 in 2004, according to European Commission (EC) data, while the Czech Republic spent € 400,000 in the same year.

The Czech Republic has a strong position in engineering, clinical medicine and mathematics in nanotechnology, while spintronics—the form of nanotechnology which uses electron spin to make potentially much faster quantum computers or nanotechnology applications in medical devices—has a big potential here, Prokop said.

As nanotechnology is still in its youth in many ways, the potential of a country to successfully develop nanotechnology must by checked by the quality of its basic science. In this respect the Czech Republic has a strong position in engineering, clinical medicine and mathematics. In general, physics, chemistry and biosciences are at least level with or better than the world’s average, and their quality is steadily rising.

He added that it’s hard to find a strong industrial partner for development of nanotechnology applications in the market in the Czech Republic. There’s a general lack of venture capital available for nanotechnology research in Europe compared to the United States, he said. One of the most visible Czech companies in the nanotechnology field is the nanofiber technology specialist Elmarco, which announced in May its intention to build a new center for the development and production of nanofibres.

Ladislav Mareš, the company’s CEO, said he believes graduates of VŠB-TU’s first nanotechnology program will certainly find jobs in the field. “The local market doesn’t offer any graduates with this type of education, we’re therefore training our staff in special programs of nanofiber product development,” Mareš told CBW via e-mail.

Investment in Elmarco’s planned R&D center for the development and production of nanofibers will be built in the Liberec North Business and Industrial Park in North Bohemia. The company plans to finance the estimated costs of Kč 750 million over the next three years partly through a loan, subsidies, the reinvestment of profit and will possibly consider entry of an investor, Mareš said. For its planned R&D center, Elmarco will cooperate with universities and look for staff through HR companies. “For fast adaptation of the new employees, we will build a special training center. Training of the new staff will focus on their fast adaptation to specific projects,” Mareš said.

Elmarco holds a worldwide patent on its Nanospider production process, a technology enabling the production of nanofiber textiles on an industrial scale. Elmarco last year supplied the first nanofiber production line worth tens of millions crowns to the U.S. Elmarco also last year signed a technology and product development agreement with health care technology company Alltracel Pharmaceuticals for the development of a next generation delivery platform for Alltracel’s “m-doc” technology, which helps to stop bleeding. Elmarco has a number of strategic partnerships and joint projects in the pipeline that will be announced at the end of June, Mareš said.