ŠAVŠ/TAČR Digital Czechia in a Digital Europe

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• Increasing the cooperation of universities with startups. There should be a higher connection between state universities and colleges and the business environment. These are mainly technically and economically oriented fields, which offer enormous potential for the future development of startups. This cooperation is particularly evident in the case of Sweden and Ireland. In Sweden, universities work with startups to motivate their students to start other startups, offer startups new potential employees with a high level of education, no less important is the academic view of startups, where research into universities helps to develop new ideas and thoughts in meaningful solutions. In Ireland, the situation is similar, co-working centers are also involved in mutual cooperation. • Supporting the creation of incubators and accelerators is an absolutely necessary part of the activities that should be developed by government bodies. Without this support, there would be a risk that many start-ups may relocate to other EU member states. All the most popular countries (e.g. United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany) are making enormous efforts in this area to attract new start-up business activities. The activities of these entities in the mentioned jurisdictions can be an inspiration for how to deal with the running of incubators and accelerators in the Czech Republic. • Intensify business consultation. All the countries analyzed provide intensive business consultation services. This support may be free of charge or, where appropriate, partially paid by the relevant bodies. The consulting activity will enable those interested to find out whether it makes sense to set up a startup at all or not. The aim should be to raise awareness of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activities and the risks associated with entrepreneurship, as is the case in Germany, for example. State institutions provide consulting services for those interested in establishing a startup in Germany, and coaching “Gründercoaching Deutschland” through KfW banks also provides the best innovative startups. • Reducing visa barriers for citizens with ICT specializations from outside the EU. Due to the current shortage of ICT workers on the Czech labor market, it is absolutely necessary to attract new ones who are citizens of non-EU countries. Unfortunately, given the current boom in digitalization, it cannot be assumed that the Czech Republic would be able to attract ICT professionals from developed EU countries given the current wage level in the Czech Republic. Germany and the United Kingdom can again be an example of how to reduce administrative barriers to obtaining visas for citizens specializing in ICT from non-member countries. That is, countries that currently register a critical shortage of ICT workers in their national labor markets. • In the context of Brexit, attract a startup or more from Great Britain. Similar efforts are currently being made by the Netherlands, for example. The aim is to benefit from membership of the European Union.