nowEurope

Steven’s post started a new period of NowEurope and this is to reveal more about CITT and our plans.

CITT is the acronym for the CENTROPE Information Technology Transfer project focused on ICT in the Central European region. No change for NowEurope, right? In 2004-2006 we were watching this region at NowEurope for the NETIES project and next two years we will be closely looking especially at four neighbouring countries - Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. One may see that as nostalgia for the monarchy, but I would rather take it as a return to the natural closeness in the Schengen time.

One of our major goals is mapping the key players in ICT research and innovation and helping them to network and find partners across the borders and across the industry - academia gap. We will be also trying to interconnect clusters into international groups that could be competitive at European scale. Next to the four countries above we will be certainly looking further and monitoring the ICT trends in other parts of Europe.

Steven mentioned three famous Hungarian innovators. OK, I’m adding three Czechs. Joseph Schumpeter (sometimes called the father of innovation and born not far from Brno). Roman Stanek, one of the most successful IT entrepreneurs in Europe, has recently started his third business with developers in Brno and Prague. Jan Muhlfeit, the highest positioned Czech manager (Microsoft Chairman Europe) is one of the pioneers convincing Czech and European politicians to pay more attention in supporting innovation. I’m sure we could find more in Austria and Slovakia and prove the Central Europe is not only the geographically attractive hub between West and East, but also the knowledge region with high concentration of smart and creative people.

When writing my last post for the NETIES project at NowEurope I wished to come back again. Last year when Zuzana Lettner of Vienna Business Agency (Vienna IT Enterprise) invited me and FIRST Innovation Park to discussing the project idea, NowEurope was the natural choice for building on the community sharing interest in our topics. So here we are and looking forward to your experience, opinions and suggestions.