Five hundred young scientists will take two month internships at the best American universities, announced Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Higher Education, during the European Economic Congress in Katowice.
The new internship and training programme TOP 500 Innovators is open for Polish young scientists. The first 50 will be trained at two U.S. colleges - Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Participants in the two-month internship will learn how American scientists deal with the transfer of knowledge and research to the economy. According to Kudrycka, American scientists will "infect young Polish with the virus of innovation", allowing them to see up close how foreign companies made for the purposes of such transfer operate.
First scientists will go to the U.S. this autumn. The rest will leave by the end of 2015.
"Two groups will go to the U.S. Firstly, the so-called innovation leaders, who will professionally mediate between science and business, secondly scientists, who will have the opportunity to learn how to meet the needs of entrepreneurs" - Barbara Kudrycka explained PAP during the European Economic Congress 2011.
Minister of Science and Higher Education said that this program is needed because the activities of, Centres of Technology Transfer operating at some universities is "pathetic". "We want to make sure that those centres work not only on paper" - she added during a discussion on the role of universities in a competitive European economy.
In terms of the number of obtained patents, Poland is in the second fifty of the world. In Poland, there is one implemented patent per million people, while in the Czech Republic there are four, 50 in France, 109 in Germany, and more than 261 in China, Taiwan and the U.S.
Rectors of Polish universities present at the University of Economics in Katowice, where the discussion about the future of Polish universities was held, pointed out that without subsidies there can be no innovation. "Low foreign travel allowances are only one of the problems" - said Prof. Janusz Żmija, rector of the Agricultural University in Krakow. Prof. Wiesław Banyś, rector of the University of Silesia noted that in this situation, establishment of the Polish Agency for Academic Exchange is inevitable.
Meeting participants expressed the belief that transfer of science into the economy would not be possible if businesses continued to be afraid to engage in risky projects. "There is a long way from idea to application, it is really is 90 percent of work. This is not only Polish weakness, it concerns the whole of Europe. That's why we are so far behind the U.S. and the Asian tigers" - said Prof. Karol Musiłl, rector of the Jagiellonian University. According to Musioł, the blame for the lack of cooperation between universities and businesses falls not only on universities, but also on businesses, which do not want to take risks and prefer to watch the actions of universities. He added that the National Science Centre could help change this attitude.
Participants agreed that the work on new technologies and cooperation with the business would not be possible without the access of young scientists to modern laboratories. They did, however, express the view that in 5-10 years this weakness would become past, because many universities all over the country joined investment projects.
TOP 500 Innovators programme is addressed to both public and private universities. The Ministry will allocate PLN 30 million to this purpose. The two-months “innovation virus infection" is expected to cost PLN 60 thousand per person, without the costs of accommodation and travel. Candidates will be selected in competition. Application forms can be found on the ministry's website.
"We continue to call the completion of research a success, rather than the commercialisation of results. Polish universities will not be innovative if they do not seek financing from the sale of their own products" - concluded Kudrycka.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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