EU funds help: Scientists in Břežany help small and medium-sized enterprises

A great advantage of the Dolní Břežany Innovation Centre for companies is that they can fully exploit the potential of digitisation and advanced manufacturing technologies offered here, especially in the field of 3D printing. They are given an opportunity to test the entire process of product development and production, including innovative procedures of mass production, before deciding to invest in the new products.

"Another advantage for companies is that, thanks to 'de minimis' aid, they can use the services of the Brain4Industry centre on very favourable terms." "We apply our expertise and experience primarily in the fields of mechanical engineering, for example in creating tools and moulds, the automotive industry, defence and security, aviation, healthcare, and energy," describes Klára Horová, Brain4Industry's communications director.
 
SEVERAL NEW PRODUCTS ARE ALREADY IN SERVICE
"We have already had a number of very successful collaborations with Czech companies in the project. Examples are the successful digitisation of the Speed Lease company that operates the SIXT car rental in the Czech Republic, or the development of an innovative orthosis for Ergona. "Thanks to cooperation with Brain4Industry, the newly developed orthosis is tens of percent lighter, its production time has been reduced from two months to two weeks, and the entire process has, of course, become cheaper," Andrej Chrzanowski, director of Brain4Industry, lists the achievements. The Dolní Břežany centre comprises the Brain4Industry Academy that provides courses on digitisation, additive technologies (3D printing), product development as well as soft skills needed for innovation. The course topics include "How to optimize processes", "Introduction to digitisation" and "AI in practice". The courses are designed primarily for small and medium-sized enterprises.

"We launched the Brain4Industry Academy only in April of this year and so far we have trained approximately 150 participants from small and medium-sized companies in areas that we consider key for the development of innovations," adds Klára Horová.
Brain4Industry is a consortium of research institutes, top scientific institutions and technology companies (Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Central Bohemian Innovation Centre, STAR cluster and Cardam company) that helps small and medium-sized manufacturing companies to take advantage of the benefits of digitisation, additive manufacturing or artificial intelligence in order to strengthen their competitiveness and transform production.
The pursuit of those goals was significantly supported by EU funds. The aid co-financed the project of building the innovation centre in Dolní Břežany. The project was implemented between 2021 and 2023 and cost almost CZK 111 million, with most of the funding going towards the construction of the modern building. "We received a grant from the EU of more than CZK 83 million for this project." If we did not received the grant, it would not be possible to build the innovation centre at present," says Andrej Chrzanowski.
 
DOLNÍ BŘEŽANY IS A HUB OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH
"The project expanded the innovation infrastructure in the area of advanced manufacturing technologies, especially additive technologies, built an innovation centre and equipped it with the necessary technologies," Klára Horová describes the scope of the project.
The new centre has joined other research institutions operating in Dolní Břežany, such as the HiLASE laser centre, which is part of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the ELI Beamlines laser research centre - now ELI Eric.
After starting its activities, Brain4Industry joined the network of European Digital Innovation Hubs operating under the Digital Europe I programme. This programme will run until 2025 and is fifty percent funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. "The total project budget is almost three million euros, with one and a half million covered by a European Union grant." "The other more than CZK 35.5 million comes from the Czech budget," describes Andrej Chrzanowski.
 
"We have already had a number of very successful collaborations with Czech companies. For example, the successful digitisation of Speed Lease.” Andrej Chrzanowski, Director of Brain4Industry
 
EU FUNDS HELPED WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN INNOVATION CENTRE. Dolní Břežany, near the Czech capital, is becoming one of the most important research hubs in Europe. It already hosts several modern research centres. One of them is Brain4Industry that helps to transfer scientific knowledge into the production of companies. Scientists here have already helped to create several prototypes of products that are manufactured today. EU funds contributed to the establishment of the centre with more than CZK 83 million.
 
Photo: Deník daily/Jiří Macek + Brain4Inudstry archive