In January 2000, the Government of the Czech Republic adopted
the National Research and Development Policy of the Czech Republic. A substantial
part of this strategic document represents the definition of the fundamental
structure and function of the oriented research as a research oriented at support
of the national economy development and at improvement of the quality of life
of the population. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech
Republic was entrusted by the Government with preparing and commissioning a
public tender for elaboration of a proposal of the National Research Programme
(NRP) which should aim mainly at specifying selected priority research directions
and proposing a process of the Programme implementation.