Abstract
Within the next few years, Europe’s economic paradigm will change fundamentally. Its manufacturing base will continue to shrink, and therefore future growth and social welfare will rely increasingly on knowledge-intensive industries and services, and ever more jobs will require a higher education qualification. Human resources are a core determinant of quality in higher education and research. Universities must therefore work to enhance their human potential, both qualitatively and quantitatively, by attracting, developing and keeping talent in teaching/research careers. Excellence may only emerge from a favourable professional environment based in particular on open, transparent and competitive procedures. Research and development (R&D) has proven to be a crucial factor in shifting the world’s technological frontiers, while at the same time facilitating new technological and scientific innovations. This paper will focus on R&D at the Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation at the Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic. After a description of a literary search in the introduction, the specific real situation at this institute is mentioned, i.e. the number of submitted and solved national and international projects, statistics on research and development sources, and of course human resources at the institute. In the conclusion, the reader will be able to get a picture of how to increase the institute competitiveness in international collaboration.