The Visegrad Group: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slova…d Group on Mutual Co-operation in Innovation and Digital Affairs 22/09/2022, 08:47 EU funds; to share the best practices and expertise to generate successful innovation and business models; to promote and publicly present the most successful innovative projects which were supported by R&D&I programmes; to cooperate in the process of frequency allocation in order to gain competitive advantage for the V4 region in the preparation for the next generation mobile services (5G); reinvigorate the cooperation within the V4 Innovation Task Force through continued regular meetings on different focus themes, rendering it an effective institutional tool aimed at creating a solid basis for enhanced joint endeavours in the field of research and innovation; emphasize activities of the V4-Plus “Regional Start-up Platform”, and to focus on innovation management and knowledge sharing in the field of IP services provided by National IP Offices, and by the Visegrad Patent Institute; provide opportunities to strengthen and expand regional innovation clusters and foster the innovation and/or digital ecosystems within the framework of existing national and EU funding mechanisms and for joint research, development and innovation projects to access to capital and more rapid and effective commercialization of technology; to facilitate joint V4 research, development and innovation projects inter alia by dedicating a special budget line in the International Visegrad Fund for R&D&I-related grants available to the scientific and business community; to secure transformation of innovative start-ups into successful businesses by leveraging capital, knowledge and networks and make joint efforts to promote V4 innovative start-ups at international level; support SMEs in adoption of innovation, digital technologies and taking part in Industry 4.0 projects; to support programmes at regional and national levels aimed at increasing ICT and digital skills in all groups of people at all educational level; to secure the adoption of digital technologies and services in order to support the data economy at national and regional levels; to improve the quality and affordability of ICT infrastructure, products and services through investment and fair and transparent policy and legal frameworks that encourage competition; to work towards sustainable, efficient, resilient and secure cyber space based, inter alia, on timely and proper implementation of the NIS Directive, allowing the joint internal market for the high level cyber security and protection of critical information infrastructures and resources; to address unjustified barriers to free flow of data such as data localisation that throttle economies of scale and thwart the growth of V4-based companies that should compete globally; to cooperate closely on reviewing the rules regulating the electronic communications market and confirm that main interest of our countries is to create clear unambiguous and future proof rules which will give legal certainty to all providers and users of electronic communication networks and digital services; to develop policy frameworks that further promote effective privacy and data protection; to emphasize the need to coordinate actions aimed at boosting competitiveness, innovativeness and digital transformation of V4 countries and to coordinate positions at EU level with respect to research and innovation and agree to meet regularly to advance progress in this field. Signed in Warsaw, on 28th March 2017 Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Prime Minister of Hungary Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic [1] http://www.visegradgroup.eu/2004/declaration-of-prime https://www.visegradgroup.eu/calendar/selected-events-in-2017-170203/joint-declaration-of Page 2 of 2