Sustainable Innovation across Key Sectors and Societal Challenge 5: Insights from and for Czech Republic

The European Union (EU) targets growth based on smart, sustainable and inclusive economies, which can be promoted through profound changes in the European economic sectors largely spurred by the increasing importance and penetration of ICT throughout the European societies. Opportunities for industrial sectors to renew themselves are largely provided by sustainable innovations. This policy brief looks at the sectoral relevance of the SI initiatives collected in the CASIPEDIA against the challenges of climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials. The policy brief discusses how key policy developments at the national level are related to SI and connects the sectoral analysis on SC5 with policy developments at the national level. The Czech government’s National Reform Program (2016) targets long-term sustainable growth and investments in a number of fields and sectors. The analysis of CASIPEDIA results at the European level provides useful insights that can support policy undertakings at the national level and better target RD&I spending. With regards to SC 5 areas, improving innovation potential in manufacturing could tackle challenges related to resource efficiency and raw materials, while greening the energy and modernizing the agriculture sectors can support efforts in climate action and environment, respectively. Areas that are under-represented in the analysis reveal opportunities for future research and policy attention.