National Innovation Platforms (NIPs) are consulting groups that are set up by the RIS3 Management Committee through the National RIS3 Manager in order to identify needs, refine/specify strategic priorities, identify business opportunities and discuss the targeting of proposed measures (i.e. the interventions intended to support the priorities of the National RIS3 Strategy). NIPs are established for individual areas of smart specialisation as a forum that provides impulses and recommendations.
NIPs mainly include representatives of important actors in the application sector (especially businesses with research activities and cluster organisations), representatives of leading research organisations (representatives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, higher education institutions, research organisations), representatives of public administration and representatives of the regional level. The composition of National Innovation Platforms and a precise description of their role is set out in the NIP statute.
The domains of research and innovation specialization, which represent the main “vertical” thematic priorities of the National RIS3 Strategy, are built on the strengths of the Czech Republic. Each domain contains a list of relevant R & D & I topics in individual application industries and in specific key technologies. R & D & I topics are conceived as strategically important topics for a given domain and as such are a basic element of the projection of domains of specialization into support programs. In addition to technological and application topics, R & D & I contain domains of specialization and topics that use the results of research in the social sciences and humanities. These are mainly topics in the field of the impact of technologies on people and society in the context relevant to the focus of the domain.
