SME support and the fear of bureaucracy
He spoke to the WBJ about the advantages and limitations of the law, whether Poland should follow in Finland's innovation footsteps, and whether Poland can bring its R&D spending up to European standards.
How do you feel about this law? Will it be effective?
I feel that it's very necessary that we have a new law in this area. I am looking forward to the benefits of the new law. I know tens, if not hundreds of other ways of stimulating innovativeness and not all of these ideas have been implemented in the current law. But [when] proposing a new law, you have to be conservative in a sense. So you have to check the situation and then you can proceed in a more courageous way.
How do you think Poland should proceed?
I think we could relax some still-existing constraints, and give more freedom to those wishing to get involved in the innovation business. So the way to go ahead with improvements with the law, if we feel they are needed in the future, would be probably to be more active in terms of providing measures to foster small-and-medium-enterprise (SME) innovativeness.
What more could be done to encourage SMEs?
I think the bureaucracy has to be assessed after a year or two of this law being in power and that is something we are very much afraid of - bureaucracy - because we have too much of it. This applies both to the country of Poland and to the whole of Europe.
Then, concerning the R&D centers, there is also a limitation that you can only get the status of R&D center once you have R800,000. Perhaps we chose the right level but perhaps not.
Finland's innovation network is renowned for its support of SMEs. Should Poland be following its example?
Obviously this is an example for us to follow, and this applies to many other countries as well. My "but" applies to the fact that Finland is a very special country when it comes to social structure and work ethic. I think in Finland there is a combination of factors that don't all necessarily exist in other countries like Poland. The decision to increase funding for R&D, and to have a better love for innovativeness are not sufficient, they do not guarantee success.
Some in the government believe Poland can reach a level of two percent of GDP invested in innovation by 2010 - is that realistic?
Yes, I think it's realistic although I have some doubts about whether this will happen in 2010 or perhaps in 2013. But I think we will reach the level, perhaps even higher than two percent. However, the problem is the healthy ratio of research funding, which comes from two major sources: one is the budget and the other is extra-budgetary means. The funding coming from extra-budgetary sources should be roughly two times higher than from the budget.
According to the Lisbon Strategy, the total amount should be three percent of GDP. Can Poland reach this level in the near future?
This is obviously a little bit of fiction. But I have a background in research, and this is based not only on my personal convictions but also on knowing many different countries: There is no other way. The world in this century will very much depend on how much we spend on research.
And in that sense, I as an optimist believe that Poland will join the race and will try to do everything to increase the funding. I don't know whether, by the year 2016 or 2017, we will have the level of three percent. But perhaps we will have more?
How do you feel about this law? Will it be effective?
I feel that it's very necessary that we have a new law in this area. I am looking forward to the benefits of the new law. I know tens, if not hundreds of other ways of stimulating innovativeness and not all of these ideas have been implemented in the current law. But [when] proposing a new law, you have to be conservative in a sense. So you have to check the situation and then you can proceed in a more courageous way.
How do you think Poland should proceed?
I think we could relax some still-existing constraints, and give more freedom to those wishing to get involved in the innovation business. So the way to go ahead with improvements with the law, if we feel they are needed in the future, would be probably to be more active in terms of providing measures to foster small-and-medium-enterprise (SME) innovativeness.
What more could be done to encourage SMEs?
I think the bureaucracy has to be assessed after a year or two of this law being in power and that is something we are very much afraid of - bureaucracy - because we have too much of it. This applies both to the country of Poland and to the whole of Europe.
Then, concerning the R&D centers, there is also a limitation that you can only get the status of R&D center once you have R800,000. Perhaps we chose the right level but perhaps not.
Finland's innovation network is renowned for its support of SMEs. Should Poland be following its example?
Obviously this is an example for us to follow, and this applies to many other countries as well. My "but" applies to the fact that Finland is a very special country when it comes to social structure and work ethic. I think in Finland there is a combination of factors that don't all necessarily exist in other countries like Poland. The decision to increase funding for R&D, and to have a better love for innovativeness are not sufficient, they do not guarantee success.
Some in the government believe Poland can reach a level of two percent of GDP invested in innovation by 2010 - is that realistic?
Yes, I think it's realistic although I have some doubts about whether this will happen in 2010 or perhaps in 2013. But I think we will reach the level, perhaps even higher than two percent. However, the problem is the healthy ratio of research funding, which comes from two major sources: one is the budget and the other is extra-budgetary means. The funding coming from extra-budgetary sources should be roughly two times higher than from the budget.
According to the Lisbon Strategy, the total amount should be three percent of GDP. Can Poland reach this level in the near future?
This is obviously a little bit of fiction. But I have a background in research, and this is based not only on my personal convictions but also on knowing many different countries: There is no other way. The world in this century will very much depend on how much we spend on research.
And in that sense, I as an optimist believe that Poland will join the race and will try to do everything to increase the funding. I don't know whether, by the year 2016 or 2017, we will have the level of three percent. But perhaps we will have more?
