Cildb: a knowledgebase for centrosomes and cilia

Ciliopathies, pleiotropic diseases provoked by defects in the structure or function of cilia or flagella, reflect the multiple roles of cilia during development, in stem cells, in somatic organs and germ cells. High throughput studies have revealed several hundred proteins that are involved in the composition, function or biogenesis of cilia. The corresponding genes are potential candidates for orphan ciliopathies. To study ciliary genes, model organisms are used in which particular questions on motility, sensory or developmental functions can be approached by genetics. In the course of high throughput studies of cilia in Paramecium tetraurelia, we were confronted with the problem of comparing our results with those obtained in other model organisms. We therefore developed a novel knowledgebase, Cildb, that integrates ciliary data from heterogeneous sources. Cildb links orthology relationships among 18 species to high throughput ciliary studies, and to OMIM data on human hereditary diseases. The web interface of Cildb comprises three tools, BioMart for complex queries, BLAST for sequence homology searches and GBrowse for browsing the human genome in relation to OMIM information for human diseases. Cildb can be used for interspecies comparisons, building candidate ciliary proteomes in any species, or identifying candidate ciliopathy genes

Price level convergence dynamics in the CR and the accession strategy to the euro-zone

Czech economy has recently accelerated the real economic convergence to the European average. Nevertheless, in terms of price convergence the Czech economy is still lagging behind the expected dynamics, which should theoretically respond to the pace of relative economic growth. This asymmetry may (as one of many other factors) contribute to some difficulties in stabilizing Czech inflation during the two-years transition period before accession to the Euro-zone, when price convergence criterion and exchange rate stability criterion should be simultaneously met. The paper points out selected issues of the Czech nominal convergence dynamics and emphasizes possible negative impacts of restrictive monetary policy measures (pushing for low inflation rate and stable exchange rate vis-�-vis euro) on the real growth of the Czech economy. In this respect, the paper tries to find some lessons from Slovenian and Greek approach for the arrangement of the Czech monetary policy in the pre-accession period.Maastricht criteria, real and nominal convergence, ERM II membership

Typology of innovation process in services

Services have expanded rapidly over last twenty years and they play a dominant role in advanced economies today. The economic research reflects these structural changes by increasing interest in integrating services into the traditional value chain. This study aims at creating conceptual framework for measuring innovation in services and for identifying different innovation patterns in service sector. The need for the concept of innovation patterns in services results firstly from the different character of the innovation process in services and in manufacturing and secondly from the high degree of heterogeneity inside the service sector. The concept presented in this study summarizes recent approaches to service innovation and creates four groups of services according the types of their innovation activities. These groups are: science-based services, problem solving services, scale-oriented services and market-oriented services. This study represents a basis for follow-up analysis of innovation efficiency in Czech business services sector.value chain, service innovation, innovation process

Closing innovation gaps in Europe: Policy options towards further integration of the EU-13 in the ERA

Investing in research is considered essential for achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and jobs in Europe. The Framework Programme is the EU’s primary instrument for the creation of the European Research Area. The FPs are expected to produce European added value, so the principle of “juste retour” does not apply here. Research needs to be of the highest quality, produced in international collaboration and selected on a competitive basis. Under such conditions, uneven participation is unavoidable. However, FP participation appears to be biased against an entire region of the EU. After almost twenty years of access to the opportunities of the FPs, the EU-13 still lags behind the EU-15. Moreover, the knowledge that is produced needs to be applied in national contexts, and the FPs also aim to increase cohesion and promote social responsibility. This is why uneven participation is an issue pertaining to the achievement of the higher objectives of the EU FPs as such. The aim of this study is to explore, identify and enlighten reasons for the low participation and success rate of EU-13 countries, in order to improve their future performance in Horizon 2020 and FP9. Combination of methods to achieve this aim was used. The study includes an extensive literature review on various aspects of participation of EU-13 in FPs, comprehensive data analysis to empirically test a number of hypotheses regarding the origins of low participation and success rates of EU-13 countries in FP7 and H2020, on-line survey among public research institutions, universities, and business enterprises, and interviews with policy-makers. Our results point in the direction of possible solutions. Some solutions will be the responsibility of each Member State government. The EU needs to take action where low participation is caused by the design and governance of the FPs as well as where patterns of participation that have emerged over time and have now become self-reinforcing create barriers of entry

Exploring the Performance gap in EU Framework Programmes between EU13 and EU15 Member States. In-Depth Analysis

The research and innovation framework programmes of the European Union (EU) are the largest programmes in the world for international research collaboration. Repeated reports point to the issue of under-performance in the framework programmes by the EU13 Member States – the countries that joined the EU in and after 2004 – in comparison with the EU15 Member States – which had entered the EU before 2004. This paper explores the background of various challenges in research and development faced by the EU13 in comparison to the EU15, in order to investigate the gap between the two groups. A set of hypotheses, divided into five domains, are tested empirically. This includes research and innovation system structure; scientific level of research institutions and quality of proposals; quantity of submitted proposals; level of international collaboration and other factors related to the framework programmes. The weak positions of most EU13 Member States on several of the indicators analysed show that the field of research in EU13 Member States requires further structural changes. This report concludes with various policy options that would help to mitigate the innovation gap in Europe