V4-Germany Forum is a joint project of The Aspen Institute Central Europe and The Aspen Institute Germany launched in 2017. A gathering of government, think-tank and academia representatives together with startupers and business people explored areas of common interest, perspectives of cooperation and aimed to identify policies towards a common future in the European Union. The sixth workshop was held in Berlin on June 3-4, 2019.
There is a high degree of complementarity between Germany and Visegrád 4 countries, which provides a strong ground for cooperation based on common interests. The group has explored possibilities for shaping strategic agenda in the European economic policy. Besides the strong industrial cooperation, there is also strong cooperation in the high-tech and startup scene, and between SMEs, etc. Though, the level of manufacturing still does not match the collaboration in RDI. The experts have stated, that V4 and Germany should use their national support for SMEs at least partly in bilateral coordination, and use European funds for bilateral support of RDI. Building of international, diverse teams should be incentivized both in V4 and Germany in the startup scene and RDI sectors, as the diversity is a necessary prerequisite for a success of innovation teams. Exchange of students between V4+Germany should be supported. Similarly, the exchange of postdoc students is behind the actual level of business cooperation.
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