Prime Minister attends signing of first major offset deal

Łódź University's accelerator - one of the most interesting programs in the offset deal has now kicked off. An agreement were signed in Łódź in the presence of Prime Minister Lesek Miller, concerning the cooperation between the town's university and the university of Texas in Austin,The project created, with the help of the Americans, is called an accelerator of high technology, and is one of the most crucial elements in the offset program. Its value has been estimated at more than $500 million. The project contributes to the interactive cooperation between the world's of business and science. The Łódź accelerator will draw on the experiences of Texas university, where the accelerator program helped turn around a region plagued by unemployment into the third largest basin of entrepreneurial activity in the U.S. It is hoped that the program will result in a similar economic miracle in Łódź. "Scientific back up as well as legal and business advice will be granted to the most advanced scientific projects drafted by Poles," said Dr. Elżbieta Guzek, from Łódź University. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) A.C.