TOPAZ is a

think-tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

of the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

TOP 09 TOP 09 (, ) is a liberal-conservative list of political parties in the Czech Republic, political party in the Czech Republic, led by Markéta Adamová, Markéta Pekarová Adamová. 14 of its members sit in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Rep ...

, which is its founder. It was established in April 2012 as a civic group, today it operates as an association. Mission of TOPAZ is to transmit

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

ideas to wider partisan and non partisan public and to continue in educational activities that were coordinated by TOP 09 Internal Commission for Education in last years. Content of association's activity is discussion about society-wide topics along with independent experts, cooperation with expert committees of

, fundraising, creation of body alternatives to

public administration Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...

outcomes and creation of analytical and conceptual materials that deal with individual issues and suggest possibilities of solving. Establishment of TOPAZ as an educational platform of

was inspired by similar projects abroad, for instance

Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party The Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party is the educational institution of the Austrian People's Party (Österreichische Volkspartei). The Political Academy supports civic, political and cultural education by means of seminars, traini ...

Konrad Adenauer Foundation The Konrad Adenauer Foundation ('' German: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: KAS'') is a German political party foundation associated with but independent of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The foundation's head ...

with a bond to the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

Association Leadership

List of TOPAZ leading organs and its members:

Association Director

Karel Schwarzenberg Karel Schwarzenberg (, 10 December 1937 – 12 November 2023) was a Czech politician, diplomat and statesman who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Czech Republic), Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 2007 to 2009 and ...

Executive Council

* Reda Ifrah – Executive Council Chairman * Helena Langšádlová * Jan Husák * Jan Vitula *

Marek Ženíšek Marek Ženíšek (born 26 November 1978) is a Czech politician and political scientist, who has been serving as the Czech Minister for Science and Research in the Cabinet of Petr Fiala since May 2024. He was vice-chairman of TOP 09 between 2009 ...

Academic Council

* Miroslav Zámečník *

Zdeněk Tůma Zdeněk Tůma (born 19 October 1960) is a Czech Republic, Czech economist. From 2000 to 2010, he was Governor of the Czech National Bank (CNB). From 2011 to 2019, he worked in the private sector at the audit and consulting firm KPMG Czech Republi ...

* Hynek Jeřábek

Educational Events and Discussions

TOPAZ organizes

conferences A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

and

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some part ...

s focusing on education of

members and non partisan public. Task of this activity is to bring significant personalities and experts to discussion, local civic initiatives and regular civilians including youth. Point of this discussion is to familiarize public with contributions of

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and to present

policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an or ...

values in general. The main point is to search and create new opinions that can be used by

in real

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

Publication Activity

Outcomes from educational events of TOPAZ create collections that contain contributions of

conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

and

guests. List of collections (date of publication in brackets): * Electromobility: future development of power engineering and transportation (5. 11. 2015) * Social living (28. 5. 2015) * Economy development of Visegrad group (16. 3. 2015) * Power engineering: threats and chances (10. 11. 2014) * Smart Cities Memorandum (9. 9. 2014) * Opinions about Europe (7. 5. 2014) * Do not be afraid of reforms (20. 9. 2012) * Election manual of TOP 09 and Mayors (23. 8. 2012)

Internship Project

Through TOPAZ university students have a chance to participate in an

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

in statewide office, parliamentary club and regional offices of

. This project works under association since 2014. TOPAZ cooperates in this project along with Faculty of Social Studies at

Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...

and Philosophical Faculty of Palacký University, Olomouc, (through programme YoungPower). Trainees come also from Faculty of Social Science at

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

Metropolitan University Prague Metropolitan University Prague (, MUP) is one of the oldest and largest private universities in the Czech Republic. It was founded in 2001 as the University of Public Administration and International Relations. It has been ranked by the Czech Min ...

Partners

Partners of TOPAZ are: *

Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies The Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, also known as the Martens Centre and previously as the ''Centre for European Studies'', is a think tank and European political foundation affiliated to the European People's Party (EPP). The Mart ...

References

External links

TOPAZ Home Page

TOPAZ: Public Register Statement

Documents of TOPAZ (Statutes)

TOP 09

YoungPower - UPOL
{{Authority control TOP 09 Think tanks based in the Czech Republic 2012 establishments in the Czech Republic