Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol2-1 > Innovation Poland

The Polish National R&D Centre has launched programmes that focus on increasing business R&D and implementation of new technologies. The analysis of the TrendChart- ERAWATCH database shows that less financial allocation is actually earmarked to R&D infrastructure than for measures in support of human capital development.

One of the planned initiatives of the Ministry of Economy is to launch sectoral foresight studies, in order to identify sectors with the biggest innovation potential.

The majority of existing measures are supported within the EU Structural Fund interventions. In total, the contribution of the EU Structural Fund interventions is estimated at 15% of total innovation investments of the manufacturing sector during the last four years for which the data are available.

On a year-to-year basis, this represents almost €600m spent over the period of four years during which the projects were implemented (2005 to 2008).

Over the last three years for which the data are available (2004 to 2007), the largest companies (more than 499 persons) reported a significant increase of more than 50% of their innovation investments, whereas companies employing between 250 and 499 persons reported a decline of 16.7% (Central Statistical Office 2009c).

Over the same period, two out of five sectors considered as major innovation investors (ie manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, and manufacture of food products and beverages) reported a decline in their investments by 29.4% and 2.3% respectively.

Main innovation challenges

• To stimulate and deepen innovation internal capacities of Polish companies.
• To improve science-industry co-operation.
• To promote multidisciplinary profile skills for innovation.

Conclusion

In the science sector there are attempts to consolidate funding on the best-performing research institutes. A similar approach could be applied to measures in support of innovation activities within companies.

The recently planned sectoral foresight initiatives might prove useful in moving towards the concentration of funding in industries with the highest innovation potential. Fostering science-industry co-operation should be particularly encouraged in sectors with high R&D investments.

The biggest challenges are the implementation of the EU Structural Fund interventions, while ensuring that the selection process in place allows for selection of the most innovative projects. A recent evaluation has highlighted several potential problems regarding the selection process of interventions of the OP-IE, which is the flagship programme in support of innovation during the programming period between 2007 and 2013.

At present, there is a lot of pressure to use the planned financial allocations, which result in lower-quality projects being funded. At present it is more important to concentrate public administration efforts on delivering the existing programmes as effectively and efficiently as possible. After recent frequent legal changes, it is of utmost importance that more stability be introduced into the legal framework.

The Innovation Voucher illustrates to what extent the administrative requirements can change the type of instrument from a simple instrument to a grant with a heavy administrative burden involved.