Preliminary Report from visit to NCBIR, Poland. Warsaw/Vienna/The Hague, July

Transcription

1 Preliminary Report from visit to NCBIR, Poland Warsaw/Vienna/The Hague, July

2 1 Recommendation to the board, Executive summary - Poland is getting an important economic and innovative power in the EU. The Polish government and the European Commission are investing heaviliy in R&D and innovation, partly through EU-Structural Funds. - NCBIR is a large funding agency, mainly active in the field of applied research and innovation. It has a large budget (> 1 bln/year) and a large professional staff (>250 employees). It also runs a number of International (European) programs like Eureka, Eurostars, Era-Nets, etc). - There does not seem to be a possible conflict of interest. With PARP Poland is already represented in TAFTIE. NCBIR is quite complementary to the current Polish member, that is more dedicated to enterprise development. The possibility of conflict and the added value of a second Polish member was a main point for discussion during the visit of Klaus Schnitzer (TAFTIE Chair) and Jeroen Heijs (Chair of the Membership Policy Group) to Warsaw on 26 th july. PARP showed no objections to a membership of NCBIR. - The willingness of NCBIR to invest in the TAFTIE-network is not totally clear yet. NCBIR asked for more time to discuss internally once again their willingness and ability to become a full TAFTIE-member or become a strategic partner. They indicated they would also have a discussion on CEO-level with PARP to discuss the possibilities of cooperation in this. They will inform us on their conclusions before te EWG in September. - Recommendation by the EWG: PM Agency Management of RDI Funding programmes (no of >20 programmes) Size (No of staff; desired: > 20) 257 Budget managed ( /a, desired: > 30M) EUR1.006 mln (2012) Budget sources - Ministry of Education and Science - Ministry of Defense - Ministry of Internal Affairs - European Commission SME client base (no of SME clients pa, desired: > > ) Maturity: years in operation (desired > 2 years) Founded 2007 Country GDP (*mln) EUR *) GERD as a share of GDP (%) 0.76% **) GERD publicly financed as a share of GDP (%) 0.53% **) Source: *) Eurostat, 2012; **) Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013

3 2 Indispensable criteria 1. National coverage The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBIR) has full National coverage. 2. EU 27 + FP7 Associated Countries: Poland is a full Member of EU. 3. Implementing R&D or innovation (RDI) programmes for SME. NCBIR is implementing a number of RDI programs. It s mission is to support industry and academia in technology transfer and commercialisation, stimulate cooperation between public science sector and industry and contribute to the development of Polish economy and entrepreneurship. The majority of contracts are with enterprises (316 in 2012) or consortia (332). The number of SME is not exactly clear but most clients fro industry are SME. 4. Public organisation or private organisation with public funding/mission. NCBIR is the implementing agency of the Minister of Science and Higher Education. It was appointed in the summer 2007 as an entity in charge of the performance of the tasks within the area of national science, science and technology and innovation policies. When if was founded, it was the first entity of this type, created as the platform of an effective dialogue between the scientific and business communities. The National Centre for Research and Development is an implementing agency within the meaning of the Act on Public Finances dated 27 August 2009 (Journal of Laws no. 157, item 1240 and from 2010 no. 28, item 146), created to perform tasks related to scientific, science and technology and innovation polices adopted by the Polish government. 3 Weighted Criteria 5. Centrality of position in National Innovation System 6. Track record in Innovation policies (on the basis of evaluation reports etc.) 1-5 points (1 = very weak, 5 = very strong) 7. Size and maturity of the organisation 4 (size 5, maturity 3) 4 PM 8. Ability and willingness to invest and PM

4 contribute to the Taftie network 9. Absence of conflict of interest with existing members 10. Financial liability (budget managed) 5 Total points 4 PM 5. Centrality of position in National Innovation System There are three central organisations in Polish Innovation System: - National Science Centre (for fundamental research) - NCBIR (for applied research and innovation) - PARP (for industrial innovation and regional development) Therefore NCBIR is not the central organisation in Polish NIS but a very important one. Their original core business was in the academic world, but recently they moved more and more to business environments, mostly through partnerships or consiortia with public science sector and industry. 6. Track record in Innovation policies The track record of NCBIR is not yet very well documented. NCBIR is a relatively young organisation (founded 2007), so the track record is still short. On the website there is no information on evaluation of the organisation or the programs they run. In the meeting o 26 th of july they told us that there were some evaluaton reports available, but only in Polish. They will look if there are executive summaries available in English and send them. On the other hand the budgets are rapidly growing from EUR 100 mln in 2008 to over EUR 1 bln. in This reflects professionality and great trust in this organisation by various Polish Ministries and the European Commission. 7. Size and maturity of the organisation NCBIR was founded in 2007 and currently employs over 250 personel. Altough it is a relatively young organisation it has shown a very rapid growth. The budget managed in 2012 was just over EUR 1 bln. The number of projects in 2012 was Plans of the applicant added value and committment 8. Ability and willingness to invest and contribute to the Taftie network During the visit we were not totally convinced on the willingness of NCBIR to invest in the TAFTIE-network. They looked on TAFTIE as more or less a service

5 organisation were the could get information - or even consultancy - on different subjects. They were clearly not familiar with the way TAFTIE operates. We asked them to discuss internally once again their willingness and ability to become a full TAFTIE-member or become a strategic partner. They indicated they would also have a discussion on CEO-level with PARP to discuss the possibilities of cooperation in this. 9. Absence of conflict of interest with existing members There could be a possible conflict of interest with the current Polish TAFTIEmember PARP. Both organisations develop activities in the same area of innovation policies ith PARP coming in from an entrepreneurship policy and NCBIR from a science policy background. We discussed possible conflicts of interests with Michal Polanski, director of the Economic Promotion Department of PARP. Mr. Polanski expressed that there was no objection from the side of PARP to NCBIR becoming a second Polish TAFTIE-member. He indicated that there would be a meeting on CEOlevel between both organisations on the possibile membership and the possibilities of cooperating. He also expressed that there would be no possibilties of sharing the chairmanship of TAFTIE next year. 10. Financial liability (budget managed) The financial liability of NCBIR with a budget over 1 bln is very good.