Future Labs
GovTech Poland Center in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister
We are an inter-ministerial team working alongside the Prime Minister – this means that we work across the entire public sector to coordinate strategic digital projects, involving entrepreneurs, civil servants, citizens and all those who can support the transformation of the Polish public sector with their ideas. We draw on the best international experiences, but also share our knowledge with other countries, showing Poland as a country that is able to contribute as much as the world's biggest players in the digital sphere. It is also crucial for us that competent, creative and visionary people, including young people, always have an attentive partner in the government.
Our primary goal is to coordinate the entire process of creating digital tools by the public administration, focusing not only on the technological aspect itself, but also by participating in the process of creating digital reality and its popularization among citizens. The key element of the Center's operation is an open and proactive approach to relations with entrepreneurs, non-governmental organizations and other innovators.
The Center is also responsible for key digitization projects in Poland – from those already operating to those just emerging. The Center connects all those who, by means of innovative technological solutions, support solving the challenges faced by the public sector, thus improving the efficiency of the public sphere and improving the quality of life of citizens.
As part of the government’s largest educational and technological program – Future Labs, introduced by the Ministry of Education and Science and the GovTech Center, every primary school in Poland has purchased, among other things, its own 3D printer. Thanks to this unique – not only nationally but also internationally – investment in education, primary schools and general schools of the arts have been furnished with modern equipment worth PLN 1 billion PLN 200 million to develop the competences of the future among children and youth in Poland, to support their passions and talents, and enable them to learn about the world and their own history with the use of modern technologies. In addition, Mobile Future Labs were launched in Poland in September 2022. Each day, 16 teams of educators visit primary schools in all regions of the country to conduct a series of workshops using modern equipment, giving thousands of students a chance to experience the most interesting educational adventure of their lives.
GovTech Center is also co-developing “Business and Management” – a new subject that students will take already in the 2023/2024 school year. As of 2027, secondary school graduates will be able to take exams in this subject on the secondary school completion exam. B&M will replace “Entrepreneurship Basics” in the curriculum, thus responding to the need to educate young people in entrepreneurial, managerial and leadership competences.
As part of business education, GovTech is also organizing the “Business and Management Championships” event. This nationwide economic competition is aimed at secondary school students.
“Leaders of Innovation” is another project implemented at the GovTech Center. This is an internship program addressed to youth and young adults, providing opportunities to undertake a 3-month paid internship in public administration.
The GovTech Poland Center co-organized the largest stationary hackathon in Europe – HackYeah!, during which participants developed innovative technological solutions together within a strictly defined period of time. During the event, primary school students could try their hand at the #HackEdu challenge entitled “My class lesson in the school of tomorrow.” The task was to design a lesson of their dreams using equipment from the Future Labs equipment catalogue.
In cooperation with the Creative Industries Development Center, we organized the HackYeah Game Jam – an event based on developing a game to unleash creativity. During the 24-hour hackathon, hundreds of programming enthusiasts competed for a prize pool of PLN 375,000!
Another GovTech Center project was an international essay competition on the social, ethical and cultural aspects of using artificial intelligence. Students from all over Europe discussed the vision of the development of artificial intelligence and looked for ways to use it in everyday life.
Together with NASK, we are developing a training and internship program – “Career of tomorrow”. The program allows trainees to acquire extensive knowledge in the field of internet marketing and work in enterprises and non-governmental organizations. The aim of the program is to conduct internships for 1,200 people and to improve the competences of potential employees, thus facilitating the implementation of the digital transformation process for Polish organizations. The program was developed especially for people with disabilities, who will have the opportunity to attend a series of training sessions using professional mobility programs.
A project valued at over PLN 180 million is Poland.Business Harbor, whose main goal is to facilitate trouble-free relocation for IT specialists, start-ups and small, medium and large companies to the territory of the Republic of Poland. The package of services offered by the program provides necessary information on visas, Polish law, as well as the efficient start-up of a business in Poland.
“GovTech Inno_Lab” is our new program, which was developed to support local governments in procuring new technology supplies and services. Since 2022, local governments have had the opportunity to map their needs for innovation, and entrepreneurs can take part in a competition for the implementation of solutions.
GovTech Center not only organizes its own initiatives, but also provides such support to others. An ideal example is the PAX East and PAX West initiative. In the case of PAX East, the Center supported independent creators by providing them with a stand at one of the most important events of its kind in the United States.
In addition to official events and important projects for the development of Polish digitization, we conducted two editions of the International Comics Competition “Legends and Fairy Tales from the Countries of Carpathian Europe”. The competition was addressed to people studying in one of the 9 countries of the Carpathian Europe initiative (Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary). In order to compete for prizes worth over PLN 100,000, participants had to digitally create a comic book depicting a legend or a fairy tale relating to one of the Carpathian European countries.
We also support the “Games in Education” project. This initiative began in July 2022, when the recruitment of interested game developers was launched. Lesson plans are prepared on the basis of qualified games, which are to help students and teachers in using an innovative formula of classes based on combining two worlds – computer games and education. Two games that have been selected for such lessons are This War of Mine, produced by Poland’s 11 bit studios, and Gra Szyfrów [The Game of Ciphers] – a gaming project of the Institute of National Remembrance.
