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Business Support:
Joanna Manikowska
☎ +48 (0) 22 334 9894
+48 (0) 22 334 9875
joanna.manikowska@paiz.gov.pl
R&D activities have an important role in the growth of the economy, improving competitiveness and in the level of innovation. Analysis comparing Poland to the other EU nations, indicate a great scope for development of the sector in this country. The average expenditure on R&D in the EU is 1.83% of GDP, whereas in Poland it’s 0,57%. The percentage of innovative companies among the businesses that are active in the EU is 54,1%, whilst in Poland it’s 24,5%.
Why Poland? The Potential gains for investors connected to offshoring and outsourcing of R&D in Poland are:
- the low costs of running R&D activities in Poland,
- the availability of qualified staff,
- great development potential - large numbers of young well qualified personnel, with a knowledge of foreign languages,
- possibilities for cooperation between business and the scientific-educational world,
- an excellent location at the centre of Europe.
The positive experiences and great results of firms with their own R&D centres, has meant that most decide to expand their activities and the scale of their investments. Examples are: Nokia Siemens Networks, which has increased employment at its Wroclaw centre by 40% and Motorola that year on year increases employment at its software centre in Krakow (currently employing 1000 specialists).
Poland was found at the top in the EU, in terms of the growth in numbers of young employees in the R&D sector between 2001 - 2006 (aged 25 - 34), and also of the share of the total number of people employed in R&D.
In Poland there are 458 higher education institutions, of which 132 are state owned (18 of these are technical institutes employing over 25 thousand workers), and 326 are privately owned. The number of students reached the level of over 1,9 million and 420 thousand graduates yearly. The biggest academic center is Warsaw, where the number of students only at the Warsaw University is 56 thousand.
As a whole, higher education employs 87,789 personnel, including 75,762 in public education and 12,027 in the private sector. In Poland there are also over 200 R&D centres (98,000 R&D employees), including: the Polish Academy of Sciences, independent and specialised R&D centres and support agencies.
According to the Central Statistical Office in 2009 in Poland there were 1 157 units carrying out research and development activity, of which 697 were enterprises.
In Poland in the R&D sector there are 119 682 people employed, of which 37% (44 471) hold Ph.D. degree, 32% (38 661) below Ph.D. degree and 9 726 hold professor degree.
Potential R&D is also developing due to other entities, among which there are over 697 businesses both in Poland and abroad. It’s estimated that foreign firms will invest app. 100 million USD in R&D centres.
International companies perceive Poland more and more as the right place to locate investments requiring skilled human resources. The number of R&D centers in comparison to BPO centers remains still low.
Today there operate app. 45 R&D centres, employing several thousand Polish scientists and specialists. Most work in the telecommunications, automotive, chemicals, aviation, food and IT sectors (e.g: General Electric, Samsung, IBM, Motorola, Delphi, Siemens, Oracle, Wabco, ABB, Plisa, Lufthansa, Maersk, Philips, Accenture, HP, Volvo, GalxoSmithKline, Aircraft Engines Aerospace, AVIO Group and UTC/Pratt & Whitney). These centres are mainly located in large urban areas with well developed academic institutions, developed infrastructures and provide attractive working conditions for potential employees.
Large amount of state aid
In Poland R&D activities are financed 58,5% from the national budget, 24,5% by business entities and 17,0% of finance is from other sources. The significant influence of foreign direct investments in the R&D sector must be stressed, particularly for the development of this field in the business environment.
In 2008 companies and other institutions carrying out research and development activity spent for researches 7,7 billion PLN, of which 2,3 billion PLN was spent for basic research. For technical science, nature science, humanities and social science were spent 52,2%, 22,1% and 8,6% respectively.
Whilst R&D may develop in each of the economic sectors. In Poland however due to the industrial traditions and well developed scientific environment, it is particularly attractive in sectors like:
Examples of existing R&D center in some of above mentioned sectors are presented on the maps below:
Main factors which decide about locating R&D centers are:
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stable growth of the Polish economy,
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low costs of carrying out researches,
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highly qualified human resources,
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intellectual potential,
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higher education institutions,
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research institues which are open for creating clasters within domestic international cooperation,
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strategic location,
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investment incentives,
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work quality of the Polish employees,
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regional strategie sof development/ regional innovation strategies,
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cooperation of business environment with academic centers,
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successes of scientists and students,
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presence of R&D centers of companies like: ABB, Google, Microsoft, Unilever and other.
Companies interested in obtaining financial support for research and development projects may profit from the following forms:
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System of financial suport for projects of considerable importance for the Polish economy (multiannual programmes) provides support for research and development projects (qualifying criterion for the support is employing at least 35 people as a result of the project and incur costs in the amount of 3 million PLN).
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EU Structural Funds
Enterprises carrying out research and development activity may profit from Operational Programme Innovative Economy (POIE) and Operational Programme Human Capital (POHC):
Opperational Programme Innovative Economy
1.4. Support for goal-oriented projects
4.1. Support for implementation of results of R&D works
4.2. Stimulation of R&D activity of enterprises and support within the scope of industrial design
4.5. Support for investments of high importance to the economy
4.5.1. Support for investments in the production sector
4.5.2. Support for investments in the sector of modern services
Opperational Programme Human Capital
4.2. Development of skills of the R&D system Staff and increasing awareness of importance of research to economic growth
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