Ministry of Science has allocated PLN 6.5 million to the implementation of the "Brokers of Innovation" programme.

"We assume that the winners will primarily achieve the higher number of license agreements and spin offs (businesses started at universities - PAP ), and that the brokers will manage to break the waves of the university bureaucracy and create an environment strongly involved in improving the level of inventiveness" - the minister told reporters. She admitted that she hoped that the brokers would motivate their colleagues - scientists and students - to creative work on new and yet unknown technologies.

Each broker of innovation will receive fixed salary for two years, which will be up to PLN 5.9 thousand per month. "The programme is designed so that you obtain an additional gratuity for successes in the implementation of this programme" - Minister of Science told the laureates. Broker will receive bonuses for achieving the conclusion of a license agreement (PLN 7 thousand) and for leading to the formation of a spin-off (PLN 9 thousand).

"This program is bit of an experiment" - said Kudrycka. She admitted that the results of the winners of the first edition will determine whether such programs and competitions will be organized in the future.

"The role of brokers will be to build bridges between business and universities and research institutions" - one of the winners of the program, Dariusz Kołoda from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw said in an interview with PAP. He admitted that the brokers had a lot of work ahead to speed up the commercialisation of research in Poland. Kołoda explained that in the project he would want to work primarily with chemists. From the projects carried out at his university he wants to choose those that have a potential for innovation. Then he intends to seek out companies with whom scientific cooperation can be established who would like to bring research results to the market.

According to another broker, Michał Markiewicz of the Institute of Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, there are many scientists who have good ideas but do not know how to communicate with the market. In his opinion, the greatest way to get other scientists to commercialise ideas is by showing them a good example. Markiewicz wants to start with commercialise the technology he is working on. "Now scientists are judged primarily by their publications. And commercialising anything takes time. We have to convince them that it is worth the effort. This will be the most difficult task" - added Markiewicz .

The winners of the first edition of the competition represent 20 schools, mainly technical ones, but there are also universities and one non-public school. Thirteen of them are TOP 500 Innovators winners, who have already completed training in research results commercialisation.

The tasks of 30 brokers selected in the first edition include initiating the process of commercialisation of research results, establishment of spin offs and concluding licence agreements.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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