Two technologies from Tomas Bata University in Zlín advanced to the finals of the 2025 Innovation Award and received Honorable Mention in the competition for the INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 2025 Award.
Illustrated educational book for children \"Don\'t forget your feet\" and a revolutionary anti-corrosion additive with exceptional effectiveness (Rokospol, a.s.). These two products advanced to the finals of the prestigious Innovation Award 2025, which is announced annually by the Association of Innovative Entrepreneurship of the Czech Republic. This year was the thirtieth one. 97 technologies were registered, six of which advanced to the finals. Both above technologies received Honorable Mention in the competition for the INNOVATION OF THE YEAR 2025 Award. \"Don\'t forget your feet\" is an illustrated book with practical advice and examples on how to use your feet and how to properly care for them. Its primary goal is to help children, their parents, and educators learn about the function and importance of the feet in the human musculoskeletal system in an entertaining way. \"It is divided into nine chapters that deal in detail with the issue of children\'s feet. The book includes QR codes with links to animations with physical activities on the given topic, memory games and coloring books. This book is primarily intended for children, parents, and teachers of kindergartens and elementary schools,\" says the book\'s co-author, Dr. Radmila Soukalová from the Faculty of Multimedia Communications at Tomas Bata University in Zlín. The book offers children the opportunity to change bad habits in childhood and thus avoid problems in adulthood. The book is focused primarily on acquiring habits that support the proper development of the feet and prevent pathological changes. The entire set is primarily intended for children and teachers in kindergartens and elementary schools, also for parents and the general public. However, it could also find application in the healthcare sector. The creation of the book is a new unique solution for caring for the health of the feet as well as the posture of the body. The reader can thus be one step closer to a healthier lifestyle and thereby reduce subsequent problems with body structure and posture. Another of technologies that advanced to the final of the Innovation Award 2025 is the revolutionary anti-corrosion additive Antikor3000, which can replace previous generations of anti-corrosion pigments. Antikor 3000 is the result of cooperation between the research department of Rokospol a.s. and scientists from the Nanomaterials and Advanced Technologies group from the Center for Polymer Systems (CPS) of Tomas Bata University in Zlín. The exceptional effectiveness of the additive is based on a combination of barrier and chemical protection of the metal substrate, while the additive does not contain any toxic elements. \"The basic building blocks of the system are particles of new pigments with a controlled shape and chemical composition that suppress unwanted electrochemical reactions of metallic materials,\" says Ing. Michal Machovský, Ph.D., head of the investigative team from TBU. This additive is in the form of a gel semi-finished product, which can be used to modify both existing coating systems and new formulations. The high degree of protection allows the application of coatings in lower thicknesses and in fewer layers while maintaining the same corrosion protection class. Therefore, the new coatings are not only more economical, but also more environmentally friendly. \"The high and long-lasting effectiveness of protection from a practical point of view also means that it is possible to extend the service intervals between repeated coatings, thus reducing the costs of long-term upkeep of metal surfaces,\" confirms the other benefits of Antikor 3000, the company\'s technical director, Ing. Dušan Navrátil. The Innovation Award has been announced by the Association of Innovative Entrepreneurship of the Czech Republic regularly since 1996. The competition evaluates the highest quality innovative products of applicants based in the Czech Republic. “We have been regularly proposing technologies developed at TBU to the Innovation Award for several years. I am pleased to say that our technologies are always ranked at the top. In the past, for example, a volleyball or throwing chairs for disabled athletes,” concludes the director of the Transfer Technology Center, Ing. Ivana Bartoníková.
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