Kmec: National Innovation Centre Might Be Launched by End of Next Year

Bratislava, November 4 (TASR) - The National Innovation Centre (NIC) covering the field of science, research and innovation could be available to the public as early as the end of next year, Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and Knowledge-based Economy Peter Kmec (Voice-SD) told a news conference on Monday. The NIC will be an open platform for cooperation between people from public institutions and private companies, for educating students at schools about innovations and the latest technological trends. "We're preparing the concept of creating the National Innovation Centre where all these activities will meet, not only at the level of big politics, but we chiefly want the young generation to get involved in these activities through various educational programmes, where all the best results in the support of science, research and innovations at the governmental, academic and private levels will be concentrated, so that young people can compare their knowledge with real output in this field," stated Kmec. Kmec added that the creation of this centre is also important from the viewpoint of the national strategy developed by the Office of the Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and the Knowledge-based Economy until 2030. It should include the preparation of a new law on the support of research and innovation, where the private sector will also be included in the co-financing of these areas. Kmec pointed out that the Slovak innovation ecosystem is significantly underdeveloped compared to other European countries, which is one of the reasons why the country isn't one of the innovation leaders, but is placed at the bottom of the innovation rankings every year. According to him, the Office of the Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and the Knowledge-based Economy has already taken several measures to increase Slovakia's innovation performance, including, for example, the reform of the research, development and innovation support system. ko/mcs