Innovation Hub East at the Technical University of Liberec

by Jana Šimanová

On Friday, 1st March 2024, Deans Jaromír Moravec and Aleš Kocourek and CxI Director Miroslav Černík welcomed guests from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Urban Mobility – Innovation Hub East at the Technical University of Liberec. Since May last year, TUL has been part of the European Innovation Network within the Skills2Scale project (we wrote about it here). The guests from EIT were mainly interested in projects related to sustainable transport, autonomous mobility, energetics, and renewable energy sources. During the meeting, dr. Traian Urban presented all the activities of the EIT Urban Mobility – Innovation Hub East. Dean Aleš Kocourek introduced the EIT representatives to the structure of TUL and the research focus of its divisions. Dr. Josef Břoušek presented research and development in autonomous mobility and Dr. Lukáš Hubka in the field of energetics and renewable energy sources. Later, the guests visited several research laboratories and attended demonstrations of prototypes of single- and two-track electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles. Many other topics were discussed throughout the visit, including the possibilities of coordinating activities for developing international cooperation of TUL in research, development, and innovation, as well as technology transfer and support for startups and spinoffs.   

Innovation Hub East was established in January 2020 and covers the geographical area of the eastern part of Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Israel. As of August 2020, the main office is located in the center of Prague, Czech Republic. Innovation Hub East works with partners from top universities, research centers, cities and municipalities, industrial corporations, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The partners are active in many projects covering the topics of functional mobility, micro-mobility, shared mobility, traffic monitoring through artificial intelligence, smart parking, building and monitoring innovative urban transport ecosystems, as well as projects related to the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases. Innovation Hub East is actively expanding its family of partners across Europe and facilitating the collaboration of international consortia and teams to build sustainable urban spaces that provide a qualitatively higher standard of living for citizens. Innovation Hub East is also active in organizing acceleration and scale-up programs.