Ministry of Science selected twelve "Innovation Incubators"
Twelve universities were awarded in the "Innovation Incubator" competition of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Each winner will receive up to PLN 1.5 million support to assist researchers in implementing innovative solutions.
Each of the winning Incubators will search for businesses interested in implementing research results, maintain a database of ongoing research projects and their applications in practice. Selected institutions will also analyse market demand for specific inventions, valuate industrial property rights, conduct pre-production work, and verify the possibility of obtaining patent protection.
The winning universities are: Wroclaw University of Technology, Jagiellonian University, AGH University of Science and Technology, Silesian University of Technology, Adam Mickiewicz University Foundation, Lublin University of Technology, Gdańsk University of Technology, University of Technology and Life Sciences in Bydgoszcz, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Cracow University of Technology, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin and Rzeszow University of Technology.
Minister of Science and Higher Education prof. Lena Kolarska-Bobińska reminded that in the near future, researchers would have 77 billion euros at their disposal in the EU's Horizon 2020 program. "It is up to us how well we use the money. All actions universities take to facilitate commercialisation of research results are priceless" - she said.
She added that the most important task now is to build bridges between science and business and industry. "These awards are aimed to strengthen this cooperation. If companies see that universities offer supply, and universities see the demand on part of companies, it will increase the amount of research" - believes Kolarska-Bobińska.
Prof. Bogdan Marciniec of the Adam Mickiewicz University Foundation and the Poznań Science and Technology Park also believes that the awards allow to extend operation between science and business, "particularly in the context of the Horizon 2020 program and the new EU money". He emphasised that the funds from Horizon 2020 should be directed to research that has practical applications. "I am a representative of the basic sciences, but from the very beginning, I think we need to lead to such developments that will be original internationally, then it is easy to implement them" - said Prof. Marciniec.
The total budget of the "Innovation Incubator" programme, which will be completed in 2015, is PLN 18 million. It is addressed to universities and other scientific, active in the field of cooperation between science and business. Applications for funds in the competition could be submitted only by those entities that from 1 January 2009 to the date of application has at least 15 patent applications for inventions and utility models (domestic or foreign) and sold or granted a license for a minimum of four technologies.
