New Act on Research, Development, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer

The long-awaited new Act, which will significantly reshape the Czech research environment, was adopted on July 23, 2025, and published in the Collection of Laws on September 9, 2025, as Act No. 328/2025 Coll. It will enter into force on January 1, 2027, with some provisions taking effect earlier in 2026 and others later in 2028.

This new legislation replaces the existing Act No. 130/2002 Coll. (on the Support of Research, Experimental Development and Innovation from Public Funds and on the Amendment to Some Related Acts).

A major innovation is the inclusion of Open Science, which for the first time appears directly in the text of the Act. Its principles are not only part of the general definitions but are also addressed in a dedicated section covering Sharing Research Information and Access to Research Data.

The full text of the Act is available here (only in Czech).

Last updated on September 23, 2025