According to the recently published EC innovation ranking, Poland, alongside Bulgaria, Romania and Latvia, is one of the least innovative countries of the European Union. In 2008-2012, the EU\'s innovation rate growth was slowest in Greece, Cyprus and Poland. The ranking was prepared using indicators such as public education, venture capital investments, spending on research and development or foreign income from patents held.

"Reports such as the one recently announced by the European Commission, as a rule do not reflect the current situation and describe the situation a few years ago. And those few years in Poland was the time of intensive systemic changes supporting the development of innovation and a spectacular growth of spending on R&D" - commented director of the National Centre for Research and Development, Prof. Krzysztof Jan Kurzydłowski. Representatives of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education agree with this opinion: according to them, data in the report do not include the changes that followed after 2011. "In addition, used indicators often do not take into account the specificities of particular states" - they added.

"The analysis shows that long awaited spring has come to the Polish sector of innovative technology. The data show a progressive increase in the industry spending on research and development, and since 2007 overall spending on R&D has increased by 35 percent. More programs are implemented in a public-private partnership, including capital funds, which assume the risks associated with the implementation of innovation" - said Kurzydłowski.

Ministry of Science adds that the number of patents in Poland is rapidly increasing: in 2011 in Poland almost 2 thousand patents for domestic inventions were granted, almost 44 percent more than a year before. The National Centre for Research and Development director, in turn, draws attention to omitted in the EC in the study growing number of patents obtained by Polish scientists and entrepreneurs from the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Patent Office of the United States of America (USPTO). According to Kurzydłowski, in 2012 there was an over 50% increase in their number in comparison to the year 2011, and almost 90 percent increase in 2010. "This is another reason why I look with optimism at the development of Polish innovation" - assured Prof. Kurzydłowski.

Ministry reminded that for several years Poland has been heavily investing in research infrastructure, which is already beginning to be used for the implementation of innovative projects.

Representatives of the Ministry of Science assure that promoting innovation and boosting the commercialisation of scientific research are the most important challenges faced by the government. They reminded that the ministry proposed the "Package for Innovation". It includes tax concessions for researchers in establishing companies and the possibility of transferring 1 percent CIT to selected scientific, units and programs to invest in the commercialisation of science.

Ministry also reminded of its active programme TOP 500 Innovators for those involved in research and commercialisation of the results. In addition, in mid-March the ministry has launched the programme "Innovation Brokers" to support innovation managers. Soon to be launched are also Academic Incubators of Innovation, which will support universities in the commercialisation of research. The ministry is also working on the project Polish Innovation, which will focus on the implementation stage and start-ups.

In addition, according to the Ministry of Science, in December 2012, the National Centre for Research and Development has launched the Spin-Tech programme, which aims to support scientific institutions in establishing special purpose vehicles, and the Bridge VC program that creates a kind of public-private fund that will invest in innovative projects . The investments will reach PLN 420 million: PLN 220 million is the Centre’s contribution, the remaining amount will come from investors.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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