RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH POTENTIAL IN SELECTED REGIONS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Research and development sectors belong to very important factors for the development of the country and regions. The sector of research and development is not the same in all regions. Each region is in fact unique and individual regions differ among themselves - they have different natural conditions, historical development, economic structure, demographic characteristics, etc. (Klimova, 2013), and it all more or less affects its research potential of regions. The aim of this paper is to measure research potential in selected regions in the Czech Republic (CR) and compares their differences in this sphere. To this analysis there will be also related science and research support from the Cohesion Policy of the European Union (EU) through the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation. The analysis will be carried out in four regions in the CR and they are Plzen, Usti, Hradec Kralove and Moravian-Silesian Region.