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Good practice Imported

JIC — South Moravian Innovation Centre (Brno, Czech Republic)

Czechia · Brno · See the Czechia profile · See the Brno profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 10% 86/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

JIC has supported Brno's innovation ecosystem since 2003 — 95% incubator occupancy, 147 new tech companies in 2023, EUR 640 million in exits over five years, EUR 16.3 million venture fund launched 2026; first Czech region to win the European Entrepreneurial Region award (2024).

95+ %
Incubator occupancy rate (ongoing)
147 companies
New technology companies supported (2023)
640 EUR million
Venture-backed exits from portfolio (five years to 2024)
9 EUR million
EU co-investment facility (active since 2021)
16.3 EUR million
New JIC Ventures fund (launched April 2026)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
JIC (Jihomoravské inovační centrum) — South Moravian Region
Period
2003–present
Region (NUTS)
CZ06
Keywords
Deep tech, life sciences, ICT, advanced manufacturing

Context

JIC (Jihomoravske inovacni centrum) is a public innovation agency co-founded by the South Moravian Region, Brno City, and five Brno universities, operating South Moravia's flagship science and technology park (Brno Technology Park) since 2003.

Objectives

Manage incubation, acceleration, applied research infrastructure and the South Moravian Innovation Centre network as the anchor institution for the region's innovation ecosystem.

Activities

JIC also runs IMPACT HUB Brno and the INQB biotech incubator, covering the full lifecycle from idea to scale; a new EUR 16.3 million JIC Ventures fund targeting deep-tech spinoffs launched in April 2026, alongside a EUR 9 million EU co-investment facility active since 2021.

Results

Incubator occupancy has consistently run at 95%+; 147 new technology companies were supported in 2023 alone; EUR 640 million in venture-backed exits came from the portfolio over the five years to 2024. In 2024, South Moravia became the first Czech region to receive the European Commission's European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) award, directly citing JIC's ecosystem management.

Conclusions

JIC's triple-helix model (region + city + universities) is widely documented and replicable in principle, though the density of Brno's university cluster (five universities in one city) is unusual and may not be easily replicated elsewhere.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Multi-instrument funding: EUR 9M EU co-investment facility (since 2021) and a new EUR 16.3M venture fund (2026); no total agency operating budget figure found in source.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Founded 2003; 22 years of continuous operation to 2025, with new venture-fund capacity added in 2026.
Staffing & skills
JIC (South Moravian Innovation Centre) agency staff, South Moravian Region, Brno City, five Brno universities

Conditions for success

  • Formal co-governance across region, city and multiple universities
  • Diversified funding: EU Structural Funds, VC returns and rental income
  • Full-lifecycle infrastructure (incubation through applied research and venture funding)

Common failure modes

  • No specific evidence of gender or social-inclusion programmes found in available sources
  • Requires an unusually dense regional university cluster to fully replicate

Where it fits

Governance type
public innovation agency co-owned by regional government, city government and universities
Scale
regional (South Moravia, anchored in Brno)
Income level
high-income country (Czech Republic)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes ERDF — European Regional Development Fund

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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