Wrocław gets back in the R&D game

Neither Wrocław nor the Silesia region have ever been seen as major centers of research and development. The majority of bigger companies that have invested large amounts of money into R&D in Poland are either in Kraków (IBM and Phillips for example) or Warsaw. Although there are two special economic zones in Lower Silesia, there are not many research laboratories about. It seems, however, that all this is set to change.

Head start
When the head of the European Commission (EC), Jose Manuel Barroso, announced the EC's wish to create a European version of MIT, Wrocław's local authorities and scientists swiftly launched a bid for the European Technology Institute to be established in their city. The Polish Ministry of Education and Science has already backed the project and, significantly, other European cities close to Wrocław, such as Berlin, Prague and Leipzig, have said they are willing to help the Polish town's bid. Wrocław's chances of winning are considered good.

"We started this battle over the Institute because it is an extremely prestigious opportunity," says Rafał Dutkiewicz, Mayor of Wrocław. "The European Technology Institute will make our city known across Europe and, moreover, it will reveal our great scientific potential, which hasn't yet had a chance to see the light of day. There is also the promise of potentially enormous amounts of European funding that we can spend in the future, for example, on renovating our roads. This chance is so important for us here, that we won't even argue about the starting fee of zł.150 million for buildings, equipment and all other infrastructure."

Sleeping dragon
Experts in the region's development underline that, although there are not so many companies investing in R&D in Wrocław, the ones that have - Siemens, Whirpool and LG - are significant due to their size. Also, the automotive branch is very strong in Lower Silesia, and vehicle production requires scientific and technological innovation.

"We have one technology park already full and another being filled with companies at the moment," Grzegorz Gromada, deputy CEO of the Wrocław Centre for Technology Transfer says. "Wrocław is very strong in the field of science. Our University of Technology is said to be among the very best in the country if not in the [CEE] region, especially regarding IT, cybernetics and telecommunications. But this hardly surprising, as Wrocław has had a tradition of IT production going back to communism, when we produced computers for every country in the so-called eastern bloc," says Gromada. "In a few years' time we could become a real power in the region."