Martin Svoboda is director of the Department of Innovation, in the Section of Competitiveness, at the Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic. His agenda also covers the preparation of policies for cluster development in Slovakia, including funding of “soft” cluster development activities via the support mechanism of the Ministry of the Economy of the Slovak Republic. He has taken part in the preparation of several strategic documents on innovation policy, support mechanisms and also documents related to setting up programming periods for the European Structural and Investment Funds for research, development and innovations.