Open AccessEnergy research in the Czech Republic – comparison of R&D expenditure and results with foreign countries
Author(s) -
Zdeněk Kučera,
Tomáš Vondrák
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
ergo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1802-2170
pISSN - 1802-2006
DOI - 10.2478/ergo-2014-0001
Subject(s) - czech , renewable energy , fossil fuel , production (economics) , greenhouse gas , natural resource economics , business , economy , economics , political science , agricultural economics , macroeconomics , engineering , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , biology , electrical engineering , waste management
Energy research is one of the fields of the National Priorities of Oriented Research, Experimental Development and Innovations. The Czech Republic is facing rather ambitious targets in the utilization of renewable energy resources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improvement of the overall energetic efficiency of the national economy. The fulfilling of these goals will require an intensive R&D in a broad spectrum of disciplines and technology fields. The present article evaluates the extent and the structure of the support of the energy research in the Czech Republic and brings comparisons with foreign countries both in expenditure and results in various research fields. The Czech Republic spends relatively more public resources in the nuclear technology research. It is accompanied by higher publication activities. It is in a stark contrast with significantly lower patenting activities in this field, except of the branch of non-fossil fuel production, in comparison with both the World and EU-27 countries.