Educate to innovate

The Academy of Innovation and Venture Capital (AI&VC) will show Polish SMEs how to acquire and implement innovative solutions and finance their development through investments using venture-capital funds.

The project has been launched by a consortium consisting of the European Center for Entrepreneurship (EuCP), FIRE Innovation Center and the National Chamber of Commerce (KIG). Some 80 participants will be able to take advantage of the training offered through the scheme.

"The project resulted from the real needs of entrepreneurs. We hope that we will make them realize that investing in new technologies will help them acquire funds in the future," says EuCP's Piotr Stefaniak.

AI&VC is a series of lectures and workshops connected with an individual training scheme with an emphasis on practical skills in five areas: innovation, venture capital, presentation techniques, an individual project and meeting with an investor. The project has a total budget of zł.3 million. Some 80 percent of the training is co-financed by the EU's European Social Fund. The average cost for an investor amounts to zł.1,200 and the courses will take place in Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Wrocław, Gdynia and Katowice. KIG is already recruiting participants for the first part, which is set to start on July 28. The whole project will be completed by the end of 2007.

Agnieszka Rybińska, deputy president of the Polish Agency for Entrepreneurship Development (PARP), says that every second company in Poland closes down within the first three years of existence. "According to the OECD the foremost reason is the lack of well-qualified managers. This project enhances managers' abilities," she adds.