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The paper is aimed at an attempt to define a smart village in the Czech conditions. It argues that the principles of smart villages are very similar to the concept of sustainability. The analysis deals with preventing rural exclusion, promoting digital technologies for the management of the rural infrastructure, teleworking in rural areas and using ICT for participation and governance. This approach is documented in the case of the South-Moravian Region. It was concluded that it was not so much coverage or accessibility of digital technology that was the main barrier of more intensive use of the smart village concept but rather the lower qualification level and conservatism of rural population is. It is suggested that more attention should be paid to increasing the digital literacy of rural people.

Support to research-industry cooperation belongs to main priorities of the Regional Innovation Strategy of South Moravia, also considering the shortcomings identified in cooperation and knowledge transfer between these sectors. Establishing links between companies and research institutions was aimed by the JIC Voucher (2009–2015) programme, the first programme of innovation vouchers in Czechia. Even though the support of new partnerships between companies and research institutions was the main goal of the programme, the number of supported partnerships of formerly cooperating entities was higher. A follow-up cooperation, usually on financially larger research projects, took place in more than one third of supported partnerships. Thus the programme positively affected a part of participating companies to spend higher amounts on R&D needed for co-financing of projects funded from national R&D programmes. The follow-up projects were more often realised by partners cooperating even before receiving the voucher. Also the non-approved projects of formerly cooperating partners were more often realised using other sources of funds than projects of those newly cooperating on an application for innovation voucher. Despite significant benefits of JIC Voucher to strengthening cooperation between companies and research institutions, the support to large companies – also enabled by the programme – can be viewed as inessential. This is obvious especially with respect to resources and experience with research cooperation usually held by these companies.

The aim of the paper is to present original findings obtained from the analysis of the SMEs (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) embedded in the South Moravia Region (Czech Republic). Data collected from the survey during 2010 was analyzed in the context of the DERREG project and the results were set with respect to globalization tendencies. The first part of the Business network questionnaire for the Czech case study took place during the spring. Forty three Small and Medium-Sized firms out of 550 approached replied to the email questionnaire. The responses provided us with a valuable insight in to how SMEs located in various territorial settings are able to develop and maintain a certain structure to their business network. In the second stage of activities, structured interviews were conducted during the summer of 2010 with follow-up questions from the questionnaire as well as the completion of an "Actor map". The analysis allowed the interviewee to classify the firms according to the dominant function of their networks. Results found that the majority of companies were not affected significantly by the economic crisis. The worst years for them were 2008 and 2009 where profits decreased in all areas of activity. Small businesses agreed that in a time of crisis it is much harder to succeed in the market against supermarkets and wholesalers, who can afford to lower the prices. A positive side of the crisis can be the fact that much more companies try to break into foreign markets where they get offered better prices for some commodities. The majority of respondents agreed that the economic crisis is retreating and they look optimistically into the future.

Permanent development trends of the South-Moravian landscape are discussed. Four groups of impacts are observed: changes of agricultural using of the landscape, changes from the agricultural to other ways of utilization, stressing the landscape protection and influences of tourism. The changes in agricultural production occur in the less productive areas in the northern part of the region. Big changes were evoked by residential, commercial and industrial suburbanization in the hinterlands of Brno. About 1,300 rural brownfields can be found in the region. Wind power-plants form a new element in the landscape. The landscape protection has increased within EU. South Moravian landscape itself is the main offer for the tourism.