Erawatch Country Report 2008
An assessment of research system and policies in Poland
Written by Michał Górzyński and Małgorzata Jakubiak is one of the 27 analytical country reports for EU Member States prepared as part of ERAWATCH project. ERAWATCH is a joint initiative of the European Commission's Directorates General for Research and Joint Research Centre.
The main objective of ERAWATCH country reports 2008 is to characterize and assess the performance of national research systems and related policies in a structured manner that is comparable across countries. The reports are produced for each EU Member State to support the mutual learning process and the monitoring of Member States' efforts by DG Research in the context of the Lisbon Strategy and the European Research Area.
The report encompasses an analysis of the research system and policies in Poland. It seeks to: (i) analyze the performance of national research system and the related policies (ii) assess the strengths and weaknesses of the national research system; (iii) identify policy related opportunities and threats; (iv) support mutual learning in the Lisbon reform process through better understanding of success and failures in national research policies to increase R&D investments and strengthen the innovation capacity.
According to the report Poland's society and economy have undergone a profound transformation over the last 18 years. For a long time, transforming the Polish research system was not a priority for either political or private actors and this was reflected in a low and shrinking R&D intensity as well as a low societal pressure for stronger resource mobilization for research. Nevertheless, over the last five years this situation has begun to change. Poland has started to adjust and reformulate the role of the research system in the economy and society. Mechanisms are in place to ensure the provision of sufficiently large and well qualified human resource base for R&D as well as a solid, quality-criteria-based system to enhance basic research in universities and the institutes of the Polish Academy of Science. Nevertheless, some of the key elements of a research system are not yet in place. Resource mobilization continues to be low and this hampers possibilities for long-term investment. Increasing number of young graduates yet still lack of perspectives for young researchers and conditions for foreign researchers are not attractive.
Another conclusion is that the relevance of the European Research Area (ERA) dimension has increased in recent years. ERA is one of the most important factors facilitating knowledge circulation among university, public research organizations and business sectors. It is a crucial factor stimulating internationalization of the R&D sector in Poland. The recently adopted strategies (e.g. Strategy for the Development of Polish Science until 2015) assume that Polish active contribution to the ERA development is one of the most important challenges.
In terms of the mobilization of resources, contribution of the EU funding has started to be important since Poland joined the EU. The policy coordination and monitoring process of the Lisbon Strategy has helped to develop more explicit targets and to give a higher priority to research and innovation. New opportunities for R&D activities emerge from the joint implementation of:
• increased public resource mobilization for R&D (including stimulation of private R&D funding through a range of new support measures), which will benefit both science and business - in terms of resource mobilization, opportunities are created by public commitments (meeting Lisbon objectives) and by the availability of the Structural Funds,
• an improvement of the absorptive capacity of knowledge users and strengthening of additional institutions to improve co-operation between public research organizations and industry, through the new Innovative Economy Operational Programme jointly designed and managed by the ministries for science and for economics and supported by Structural Funds,
• an introduction of the instruments aimed at identification of the research priorities and concentration of the public funds and research potential
• structural reform of the present public science funding system,
• strengthening centres of excellence in knowledge production, increase the
economic exploitability and circulation of knowledge through the development of the new structures (e.g. Technology Platforms) replacing and stimulating the
competitive pressure to restructure of the present system.
However, despite recent policy responses some risks remain. Although there is a
policy goal of one third of R&D funding coming from the private sector, the balance between public and private resource mobilization seems increasingly biased towards public investments (leverage effects from public towards private resource mobilization might not be achieved to the extent expected). Given the private R&D demand structure and low absorptive capacity of private actors, as well as the policy focus on technology acquisition, the effectiveness of the scheduled measures to enhance private R&D remains to be seen. Additionally, the new funding opportunities resulting from the structural funds may cause too large reliance on public funding.
Also, the limited scope and significant delays in the reforming process of the state R&D sector can be considered as serious risks. Finally, not satisfactory coordination of the innovation policy can decrease the effectiveness of the last policy responses.
However, despite limited results of the Polish research institutions participation in the EU FP programmes, the role of the EU funding and programmes in the process of production of high quality knowledge is very important.
The report is only published in electronic format and available on the ERAWATCH website: http://cordis.europa.eu/erawatch/.
