Biology Centre CAS (hereinafter referred to as "BC") consists of five scientific institutes composed of a total of 22 scientific teams that have their own scientific programs. Since 2016, BC has also included the SoWa research infrastructure, focused on a comprehensive study of soil and aquatic ecosystems and their interactions.
At present, the BC with its more than 780 employees is the largest institution of the Czech Academy of Sciences outside the Prague. At the same time, it is one of the largest scientific workplaces for ecologically oriented research in Europe.
The common denominator of the scientific research at individual institutes BC and vI SoWa is the topics of evolutionary biology and ecology with an emphasis on the origin and development of species diversity and its sustainability. BC creates a common platform for horizontal cooperation between individual scientific institutes and VI SoWa in the form of shared grant projects. This fact represents a prerequisite not only for strengthening the quality of scientific research at BC, but also for searching for promising interdisciplinary topics of scientific research.
As part of its scientific research, BC strives not only to push the boundaries of knowledge, but also to use the results of its research and development in practice. Therefore, BC fully supports its researchers in finding possible ways to develop cooperation with the application sphere, and thus in finding ways to strategically set or modify the focus or goals of its own research and development in an effort to maximize its relevance. Appropriately timed or regular communication with subjects of the application sphere is an integral aspect of modern scientific workplaces striving for quality scientific research with a subsequent socio-economic impact. Through various forms of cooperation, directly applied outputs or results with high application potential have been created at BC for a long time.
Applied research and cooperation with partners from the application sphere are thus an integral part of BC's activities. Within individual research topics, it is possible to establish cooperation with BC both at the level of collaborative or contract research, ensuring international mobility of researchers, testing, verification and licensing of given technologies, as well as through other ways of knowledge and technology transfer.
Technology Transfer Office (hereinafter referred to as "TTO") strives for systematic and effective transfer of knowledge from scientific workplaces of the Biology Centre CAS (hereinafter "BC") into practice. The main priorities of BC are high-quality scientific research, increasing the level of knowledge and education, precisely by disseminating research results together with finding their application in economically and socially important areas.
TTO cooperates with the application sphere in the form of their direct involvement in research through joint projects or within the framework of contract research. The transfer of results into practice also takes place during expert, consulting and service activities, verification and licensing of given technologies, popularization, establishment of spin-offs and other forms of knowledge and technology transfer.
