Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, Prof. Jacek Guliński met with the winners of the last edition of Top 500 Innovators - Science, Management, Commercialization.

"While presenting the participants of the meeting with travel promise documents, Prof. Guliński reminded that the program would equips participants with unique skills that they could acquire at the world’s best research centres. The next group of winners of this year’s edition will go to the California Univeristy at Berkeley" - reads the Ministry of Science and Higher Education release sent to PAP.

Deputy Minister emphasized that in addition to scientific publications on the so-called Philadelphia list (a list of journals from all over the world with the highest scientific significance), also of importance is the implementation and marketed products. "The measure of your success will be what you can do when you return. You are at the forefront of innovation, success and a fresh approach that you can introduce in your institutions" - Prof. Guliński told the young scientist.

According to the press release, 376 candidates from universities, research institutes, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and technology transfer centres across Poland competed for a place in the recent edition of the government program. 116 finalists of the third edition of Top 500 Innovators, representing 63 academic institutions across Poland have already been selected in the competition.

James Day, Secretary for the Environment, Science, Technology and Health of the U.S. Embassy said he was glad the young researchers were going to these great American universities and he was looking forward to continuing the cooperation. He added that the heart of Silicon Valley is a great place to broaden horizons, gain knowledge about the commercialisation of research results and exchange experiences. The winners should take advantage of these resources, and build a network of contacts that will help them further their careers, encouraged the representative of the U.S. Embassy.

After the meeting at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the participants went to the U.S. Embassy, where they met with Stephen Mull, U.S. Ambassador to Poland.

Top 500 Innovators is the largest government program to promote innovation in science, with a total budget of around PLN 30 million. According to plan, by the end of 2015 500 Polish scientists and employees of technology transfer centres should go for internships and training abroad to scientific and research centres at the to of the Shanghai ranking (Academic Ranking of World Universities). 160 participants of the two previous editions of the program took internships at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley in Silicon Valley.

With workshops conducted by eminent practitioners, study visits and internships in the most innovative companies, program participants learn how to successfully commercialise research results. An important part of the course is improving the ability to work in a team and a multidisciplinary research team, creative thinking, effective decision-making, conflict resolution. Program participants also observe the work of foreign companies, in which commercialisation of research results plays an important role, meet with entrepreneurs and representatives of venture capital.

After returning to Poland, the winners of the previous two editions of TOP 500 established an association to promote innovative solutions in education and support academic centres in successful implementations of research results

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

agt/ mrt/

tr. RL