Within a public tender focused on the support of verification of results of applied research and experimental development in terms of their practical application and for the preparation of their subsequent commercial utilization (hereinafter the GAMA Project), CULS acquired financial support from TAČR in the amount of CZK 18,655,824.
The date of the beginning of the GAMA Project was set for September 2016, and the date of its completion for December 2019.
The TAČR committee assigned financial support to CULS on the basis of a well prepared project proposal and institutionally-set functional system of technology transfer and management of intellectual property.
For the GAMA Project, compared to other TAČR programmes, CULS acquired an entire volume of funds in advance. These funds will be distributed internally through the Board for Commercial Cooperation for subprojects.
The plan is to support approximately 16 subprojects. The following results should emerge from these: 3 patents, 1 prototype, a functional sample, 1 pilot operation, verified technology, 2x software, 6x utility model, an industrial design and 3 others (licensing contracts, spin-off, start-up, test series, methodology, etc.)
The Board for Commercial Cooperation (BCC) assesses the quality of a subproject under the terms of the GAMA Programme, in particular 1) commercial potential, 2) project suitability for verification of results applicability, 3) project team, and 4) efficiency of the use of acquired funds. These subprojects are submitted to the Board by the CITT Department, which keeps complete records of them. The BCC consists of an absolute majority of external members who were nominated by faculties and institutes.
The acquisition of subprojects takes place through CITT faculty representatives who seek scientific research projects with commercial potential at their faculties. The CITT faculty representatives also aid applicants in submitting the appropriate application and fill-in the relevant subproject form (so-called cover sheet), which can be found at www.citt.czu.cz in the “Commercialization Fund – Grant application” section.
Applicants may submit application for funding of a subproject on the basis of announced specific calls.
Before they are submitted to the Board, subproject are assessed by CITT faculty representatives, who write a professional statement regarding each project, and their assessments are based on the same criteria as the BCC. However, such an opinion is not binding for the BCC.
The BCC will decide on the selection and method of the commercialization of subprojects and propose to the Rector the assignment of funds for their funding.
Through CITT faculty representatives, CITT monitors the efficient use of resources of subprojects, and once every three months it submits to the Board an interim report on the state of subprojects. The BCC evaluates these reports, and on the basis of information on the progress of subprojects, it will decide on the continuation or termination of the subproject.
If a subproject is halted from which it arises that the requested output will not be submitted, the funds spent up to this point will not be returned to the provider. This is a natural process, wherein, for example, it will be shown at time of implementation that the project did not produce the desired technical parameters, or that it does not have the expected market potential.
Application forms (so-called cover sheets) and the deadlines for their submission can be found at www.citt.czu.cz in the “Commercialization Fund - GAMA” section.
Commercialization Fund – Grant application must also be submitted into the ERDF DMS Livelink – TAČR GAMA.
