Otto Wichterle Centre of Polymer Materials and Technologies

Innovation Centre of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

     Materials are one of the pillars of civilization. It was true in past times, but it is even more topical today, when synthetic polymers have a particular role in the spectrum of materials. They are used in many areas of everyday consumption, covering all technical fields, including optoelectronics and information technologies, biomedicine, pharmacy and biotechnologies.

    When the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry was founded within the Academy of Sciences in 1959, materials research of polymers, both fundamental and applied, was also conducted there from the beginning. Afterwards both these directions were developed in several departments of the institute. However, the research projects of individual departments and groups were not always successfully combined and coordinated. The need for complex solution of the material issues using various techniques and also experts from many different fields became more and more intense. That is why the project of the innovation centre of polymer materials and technologies was initiated. The role of the centre is to consolidate and combine individual methods and also experienced experts in one organization unit. The aim is more effective research, better combination of fundamental research with applied research and optimal education of future researchers and scientists.

    The project was supported within the Operational Programme Prague – Competitiveness. Thanks to this support and also the effort of many workers at the institute, this intention was successfully accomplished. The Otto Wichterle Centre of Polymer Materials and Technologies (OW-CPMT) was inaugurated in a newly reconstructed area in October 2011. Professor Otto Wichterle, the founder and the first director of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, once said “We would like to be not only beautiful, but also useful”. This sentence is also a motto of the new innovation centre.

 

   

 

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