The Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic announced the second public competition in research, experimental development and innovation of the Security Research Programme 2021-2026: development, testing and evaluation of new security technologies (SECTECH).

The subject of the public competition is the selection of proposals for experimental development projects supported by public funds of the Ministry of the Interior in order to meet the objectives of the SECTECH Programme. This call for proposals does not allow the submission of proposals for projects of a fundamental research nature.

The planned allocation of the competition is CZK 300 million, with a limit of CZK 30 million per project. The maximum aid intensity per project is set at 70% of the eligible costs. The competition is open to SMEs and research organisations. The duration of the projects has been set at 36 months with implementation starting in January 2024. The project proposal must be submitted through the information system of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (https://ista.tacr.cz).

The deadline for submission of project proposals is 16th March 2023 and closes on 3rd May 2023, as follows:

The project proposal will be submitted via ISTA until 15:59:59 on 3 May 2023,
Confirmation of the electronic submission of the project proposal to ISTA will be accepted until 23:59:59 on 3 May 2023 via the Provider's data mailbox; after that time, the proposal will be considered as late delivery (i.e. not meeting the formal criteria for admission to the call for proposals).

Project proposals that may be submitted to this call for proposals must be in one of the following fields:

Artificial Intelligence;
Robotics;
Cybersecurity, connectivity and other ICT;
Advanced Materials;
Nanotechnology; Nanotechnology;
Lasers, sensors and photonics;
Instrumentation.

All information can be found on the website of the Ministry of the Interior.
If you are interested, please inform the Research and Development Division immediately, no later than 14th April.