JIC — South Moravian Innovation Centre: From Factory Closures to a Regional Spin-off Pipeline

JIC — the South Moravian Innovation Centre — was set up in 2003 by the City of Brno, the South Moravian Region and four local universities (Masaryk University, Brno University of Technology, Mendel University and the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences) after a wave of factory closures hit the region. It runs three business incubators plus a creative hub and gaming incubator, offering lab and office space (7,000 m², capacity for 60 companies at a time) and free coaching to firms under three years old with turnover below roughly EUR 400,000.
An EU Regional Policy evaluation of the 2007–2013 funding period, covering a EUR 12.5 million project (EUR 9.0 million from the ERDF), found incubated companies employed almost 300 staff by 2012, 44% in R&D roles, generated EUR 21 million in turnover and launched 53 new products or services that year. The same evaluation reported that firms enrolled in JIC's Platinn advisory service grew turnover nine times faster than comparable non-enrolled companies, and that JIC had brokered almost 360 researcher-company collaborations over its first decade. Alumni include Kiwi.com, Y Soft, Flowmon Networks and Safetica — all still operating. In 2024 the wider Brno region became the first Czech area named a European Entrepreneurial Region, and its Regional Innovation Index rose from 87.3 to 101 between 2016 and 2023.
The strongest quantitative figures — jobs, turnover, the 9x growth differential — come from the EU's 2012–2014 evaluation of the ERDF-funded phase; more recent sourcing (JIC's own anniversary release, Wikipedia, regional press) documents continued operation and prestige awards but not updated job or turnover counts, and no source reports founder demographics or a controlled comparison group beyond the original Platinn study.

Read the full analysis: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/projects/projects-database/jic-innovation-park-a-catalyst-for-innovation-and-growth-in-south-moravia_en