Moving up the charts

A recent European Commission report places Poland eighth among EU countries in its ranking of the most popular locations for R&D.

The survey, based on results obtained from over 400 firms, showed that companies expect their global investments in R&D to grow by an average of five percent a year over the next three years.

The industry sector that outsources R&D the most is pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. The IT hardware sector outsources R&D the least (five percent).

Małgorzata Wejtko, director of the economic promotion department at the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) said gaining eighth place in the survey shows that the country has proved its attractiveness for such projects.

"The position of Poland in the EC ranking indicates that the strategy of establishing a global R&D center in Poland has begun to bring its effects", said Wejtko. "The second wave of investors - those who are interested in the high level of education and knowledge of Polish staff - is coming to Poland. It is believed that Polish employees have the ability to solve complex problems and that there are no unworkable projects for them."

According to PAIiIZ, about 30 R&D centers have been established in Poland so far, and over 2,000 Polish specialists have been employed.

For example, Motorola's software center in Kraków is third in the company's inside ranking on the number of staff employed in its research centers around the world. The decision to locate it in Kraków was based on the quality of Polish academic centers as well as on the region's transport infrastructure.

Also, such well-known companies as ABB, Avio, Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, Lincoln Electric, Oracle, Siemens, TRW Automotive and Whirlpool have R&D centers in Poland.