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Radek Špicar is a Charles University and Cambridge graduate. He spent study time at Georgetown and Harvard Universities. He is a former deputy of the Government Vice-Chairman for Finances, Martin Jahn. At present, he works at Skoda auto as an External Affairs Director. He lectures at the Economics Research Institute of Charles University and at the Academy of Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His long term interests include Diplomacy in Economics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Culture Industry, Think tanks and NGO's contribution.
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Creativity in Skoda Auto
We appreciate that the year 2009 was chosen as year of creativity and innovations since they can be considered as one of the biggest advantages for Europe. Unfortunately, there still exists a huge room for improvement in this area. Co-operation between companies and universities doesn't work ideally. It remains important to sustain basic research, but it is more and more necessary to support applied research and transfer its results into practice faster than now. When it comes to financing of research, we must try to shift from institutional to project financing. Skoda Auto is the biggest private company in the Czech Republic. With 250 million EUR of annual spending in R&D, our company represents a leader in the country. Despite the current difficult situation caused by the economic crisis, Skoda Auto keeps concentrating on R&D and innovations which we consider to be our key comparative advantages. In the beginning of 2009, we opened our brand new Technology center representing an investment of 45 mil EUR. Currently, research facilities in Skoda Auto represent the third biggest research capacity in the whole Volkswagen Group. Our company is also a regular winner of various design awards. Besides many other projects, Skoda Auto co-operates with the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design Prague (VSUP) whose students help us with projects in our design department. One of the first specific results of this creative co-operation is a ?Fit to Age? project whose aim to make cars more suitable for senior drivers.
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