A research result becomes useful when someone outside the lab can use it. The Young AI Research Forum brings early-career AI researchers together with people who have taken that step: through applied research with industry, shared AI infrastructure, technology transfer, and company building.
Many young researchers want their work to matter beyond publication, but the route there is rarely described. There is more than one. You can contribute to industrial innovation from within your institution, validate and scale a prototype on advanced AI infrastructure, license a result through technology transfer, or found a company.
The forum covers four routes:
The question is not whether you become a founder. It is how your work gets used.
No experience of industry collaboration or entrepreneurship is assumed.
15:30–16:00 Registration and poster set-up. Check in, collect your name tag, put up your poster.
16:00–16:10 Opening. Welcome from the organisers: CZAI, RICAIP and prg.ai.
16:10–16:30 Keynote 1: How to conduct applied research that people actually use. Zdeněk Hanzálek and Libor Přeučil, CIIRC CTU (ROBOPROX). Where applied-research opportunities come from, how working with companies shapes research questions, and what industrial collaboration adds to an academic career.
16:30–16:50 Keynote 2: Beyond the Prototype: Compute, Data and Testing at Scale. Petr Kadera, CIIRC CTU (Czech AI Factory). Solving the problem is the first step. Turning the result into something deployable needs computing resources, industrial data and validation environments. What the Czech AI Factory provides, and how researchers get access to it.
16:50–17:20 Research pitches I. Pitches 1–6, five minutes each.
17:20–17:40 Coffee break
17:40–18:00 Keynote 3: From research project to startup. Václav Nežerka and Slávek Zbirovský, CONSTRIQ. Cloud2BIM, a Horizon Europe result that turns 3D laser scans of buildings into digital models, was released as open source and drew unsolicited requests from firms across Europe and the United States. In 2026 it became CONSTRIQ, a CTU spin-off with paying customers. The talk covers testing demand before writing a business plan, negotiating licence and equity with the university, building a founding team across research, engineering and business, and combining first revenue with European funding.
18:00–18:40 Panel: The next step after your research – academia, industry or startup? Sintija Meissner, Head of Technology Transfer and Fundraising, CTU in Prague; Veronika Štěpánková, startup consultant at JIC and co-owner of Enantis; Jan Kořenek, FIT BUT and Dynanic (BrnoLogic). How each route works in practice, what support exists at CTU, JIC and in the wider ecosystem, and how to judge which one fits a given result.
18:40–19:10 Research pitches II. Pitches 7–12, five minutes each.
19:10–21:00 Discussion tables, posters and networking. Four tables, drinks and the poster area. Move between tables as you like.
Four tables run in the evening, one per route. Each has a host and a topic. Join the one closest to your situation and move when you want to.
1. Applied research and industry collaboration – "I want to work on real problems." Getting into industrial and collaborative projects as a PhD student or researcher, applied AI research and testbeds, research careers connected to industry, opportunities within RICAIP, ROBOPROX and NCUI.
2. Developing and scaling ideas – "I have an idea and want to take it further." Finding collaborators across disciplines, building interdisciplinary teams, access to computing and experimentation infrastructure, moving from prototype to validated solution, opportunities within CTU INFC and the Czech AI Factory.
3. Technology transfer and spin-offs – "My result may have commercial potential." Recognising commercial potential, intellectual property and licensing, the technology transfer process at CTU, early-stage commercialisation, CTU programmes (Get Spin-off Ready, Start-up Ready) and JIC Applied.
4. Startups and investment – "I want to build a company." Deep-tech company building, team and business development, market entry, fundraising and venture capital, scaling from MVP to product, JIC booster programmes and JIC Ventures, and investors active around CTU.
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