Innovation Centre of the Ústí nad Labem Region

Inovační centrum Ústeckého kraje (ICUK) is a Czech regional innovation agency based in the Ústí nad Labem Region. It describes itself as an organisation that has been helping companies and supporting regional development for ten years, working across three main audiences: businesses, schools and the region itself. Its services for companies cover starting and growing a business — economically, through innovation and internationally — and include incubation for those beginning to do business, acceleration through its Platinn programme, export and expansion support under ICUK Global, business finance vouchers, a digital workshop called OpenLab, digitalisation services through a Digital Innovation Hub (DIH), social entrepreneurship support via SPoint, and knowledge transfer between research and practice. It also runs the Startup Go! video content initiative. For schools, ICUK promotes entrepreneurship education, practical experience and competitions. Its school-facing activities include ambassadors of entrepreneurship, the Podkrušnohorský trade fair of fictitious companies, talent support, Startup Academy, ICUK Bootcamp, hackathons, the FSE UJEP service marketing course, ideathons, the Creative Minds festival, workshops and project days, talent internships, the MAKER FEST fair and the Academy of Ideas. For the region, ICUK works on ecosystem support (SMART IV – ÚK), business support (TCÚK), entrepreneurship support (RUR), strategy, analysis and mapping for the Ústí Region, OpenLab (digital workshop), supply chain support (Greene 4.0), energy storage (StoreMore) and integration projects. ICUK positions itself as one of the key actors in the region's innovation and business ecosystem. It has long been involved in supporting entrepreneurship, developing innovation and preparing projects intended to contribute to the economic transformation of the Ústí nad Labem Region. In 2026 it announced closer cooperation with private investors, bringing financial-sector expert Simon Slanina into its advisory body to connect public-sector, financial-institution and private-investor experience with concrete transformation and investment opportunities in the region. ICUK also publishes success stories of regional companies it has worked with, such as the natural cosmetics maker Nobilis Tilia, illustrating its role in helping firms grow, digitalise and professionalise. As an entity, Wikidata describes Inovační centrum Ústeckého kraj as a Czech voluntary association. Its public-facing brand is ICUK, and its website is icuk.cz. The organisation operates primarily in the Czech language and within the Ústí nad Labem Region, though its programmes explicitly aim to help companies go international.

Inovační centrum Ústeckého kraje (ICUK) is a Czech regional innovation agency operating in the Ústí nad Labem Region. Its own website states that it has been helping companies and supporting regional development for ten years, indicating a history dating back roughly a decade before the mid-2020s. Wikidata classifies the entity as a Czech voluntary association, reflecting its non-profit, association-based legal form rather than a conventional commercial company. Over that period ICUK built a portfolio of programmes aimed at three constituencies: businesses, schools and the region. For businesses, it developed services spanning the full lifecycle from starting a business through incubation, accelerating growth through the Platinn programme, expanding internationally through ICUK Global, financing through vouchers, digitalisation through OpenLab and a Digital Innovation Hub, social entrepreneurship through SPoint, and knowledge transfer between research and practice. It also created the Startup Go! video content initiative. For schools, it built entrepreneurship education activities including ambassadors of entrepreneurship, the Podkrušnohorský trade fair of fictitious companies, talent support, Startup Academy, ICUK Bootcamp, hackathons, the FSE UJEP service marketing course, ideathons, the Creative Minds festival, workshops and project days, talent internships, the MAKER FEST fair and the Academy of Ideas. For the region, it engaged in ecosystem support (SMART IV – ÚK), business support (TCÚK), entrepreneurship support (RUR), strategy, analysis and mapping for the Ústí Region, OpenLab, supply chain support (Greene 4.0), energy storage (StoreMore) and integration projects. A notable example of ICUK's work with companies is its collaboration with the natural cosmetics maker Nobilis Tilia. In 2020 ICUK ran a programme with Nobilis Tilia focused on preparing the company for further growth, covering its cost model, cost allocation to individual products and long-term marketing strategy, including target group definition and product portfolio clean-up. Six years later ICUK returned to Vlčí Hora to document what had changed. According to Martin Růžička, who joined Nobilis Tilia in 2019 and became its managing director in 2024, the company's turnover moved from CZK 88 million to CZK 180 million over five to six years — more than double. A key factor was investment in digitalisation: a new B2B e-shop, CRM system, BI reporting and a WMS system for managing the dispatch warehouse, all connected into a comprehensive management system. The impact was visible in the Christmas peak: previously the company could prepare around 500 to 550 packages per day for dispatch with seasonal temporary workers; with the same team it could handle up to 900 orders per shift, entirely paperless, with a third of orders dispatched the same day they were placed and the remaining two-thirds the next day. In 2026 ICUK announced it would strengthen cooperation with private investors. It brought Simon Slanina, an expert in the private financial segment, into its advisory body. Slanina has experience connecting the public sector, financial institutions and private investors, including through his work at the Hospodářská komora Praha Jihozápad and the FINOBCE platform, which he founded and which focuses on developing financial and investment thinking in the public sector, sharing experience with investment project preparation and finding ways to involve private capital in development projects of cities, municipalities and regions. The collaboration with ICUK is intended to connect this experience with concrete transformation and investment opportunities in the Ústí nad Labem Region. Slanina said the region faces a number of significant investment and transformation projects and that there is room for greater interconnection of the public sector, financial institutions and private investors, with the ambition to bring experience in financing and investment project preparation and to help find models that are economically sustainable in the long term. ICUK's own statement emphasised that the Ústí Region faces significant investments linked to economic transformation in the coming years, that public and European funds will remain important, but that bringing more private capital and know-how into the region is necessary to change its economy in the long term. Through these activities ICUK has positioned itself as one of the key actors in the region's innovation and business ecosystem, contributing to entrepreneurship support, innovation development and project preparation intended to advance the economic transformation of the Ústí nad Labem Region.

• ICUK ran a growth-preparation programme with Nobilis Tilia covering cost model, cost allocation and long-term marketing strategy.

• Martin Růžička became managing director of Nobilis Tilia, a company ICUK had supported.

• ICUK published a success story on Nobilis Tilia, documenting turnover growth from CZK 88 million to CZK 180 million and digitalisation.

• ICUK announced it would strengthen cooperation with private investors, adding Simon Slanina to its advisory body.

A regional innovation agency and key actor in the Ústí nad Labem Region's innovation and business ecosystem, helping companies start, grow and go international while supporting schools and regional transformation.

• Platinn

  Acceleration programme for companies that want to accelerate.

• ICUK Global

  Support for companies that want to expand internationally.

• OpenLab

  Digital workshop and part of the region-facing OpenLab (digital workshop) offering.

• Startup Go!

  Video content initiative for starting entrepreneurs.

• Startup Academy

  School-facing entrepreneurship education programme.

• ICUK Bootcamp

  School-facing bootcamp programme.

• SPoint

  Social entrepreneurship support.

• Digital Innovation Hub (DIH)

  Digitalisation services for companies.

• Greene 4.0

  Supply chain support project.

• StoreMore

  Energy storage project.

1. 1ICUK | Inovační centrum ústeckého krajeicuk.cz
2. 2ICUK posílí spolupráci s privátními investory | ICUKicuk.cz
3. 3Z Vlčí Hory do velkých řetězců: jak Nobilis Tilia rostla, aniž ztratila duši | ICUKicuk.cz
4. 4Inovační centrum Ústeckého krajwikidata.org