The National Centre for Research and Development

The three-hour event was devoted to the presentation of the Polish R&I financing system to the international community in Brussels and informal discussions among Polish and foreign experts in the field of research and innovation.

The Back2Business event was opened by Dr. Wojciech Kamieniecki, director of the National Centre for Research and Development - in his speech he emphasized the role of NCBR as the institution that is at the forefront of supporting Polish entities in the R&I area and its plans of an active participation in the largest innovation funding programme – Horizon Europe. The director also highlighted the role of Poland which must be innovative as well, creating the best possible conditions for innovation in science and business.

The guests of honour included Andrzej Sadoś - Permanent Representative of the Republic of Poland to the EU, Arkadiusz Pluciński - Deputy Permanent Representative of Poland to the EU and Signe Ratso - Deputy Director-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission.

The cooperation between all Polish institutions involved in financing research and development projects is crucial for Poland to be more and more innovative and to support scientists and entrepreneurs in their projects. In the first part of the event, all participants could learn about the activities of the main Polish institutions involved in financing science and innovation as well as conducting scientific research: apart from the Deputy Director of the NCBR - Przemysław Kurczewski, short speeches on the profile of individual institutions were delivered by: prof. dr hab. Zbigniew Błocki - Director of the National Science Centre, Malwina Górecka - Head of International Promotion of HE Unit at the National Agency for Academic Exchange, Michał Pietras - Director of Programme Division at the Foundation for Polish Science, prof. dr hab. Paweł Rowiński - Vice President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Dr. Piotr Dardziński - President of the Łukasiewicz Research Network, and prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Żądzińska - Chairwoman of the KRASP Science Committee, Rector of the University of Łódź. Dr. Grażyna Żebrowska, Director of the National Agency for Academic Exchange, participated in the networking part of the event.

Among the invited guests from the Polish side there were representatives of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Poland to the EU and members of offices representing the Polish public and private sector in Brussels. Guests from Brussels included directors and officials of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission and its executive agencies, representatives of R&D offices from EU Member States and other countries, and sectoral organizations such as Science Business, ERRIN, EARTO and IGLO.

During the event, there was also an opportunity to get acquainted with the projects of 6 beneficiaries of R&D programmes of the National Centre for Research and Development, who achieved great success thanks to the funding. In the atrium of the building at 40 Rue Belliard in Brussels, each of them had its own stand where they could show their accomplishments. The project beneficiaries included two institutes: Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Aviation and the International Eye Research Centre - Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences and four companies: BioEngineering.pl Sp. z o.o. with its project of a bionic hand prosthesis, Saule Technologies producing perovskite cells, AEROSIZE Sp. z. o. o. with its avalanche airbag devices and Wheelstair Sp. z o.o. which created a device that allows wheelchair users to climb stairs independently.

Back2Business event was full of interesting speeches, informal talks as well as inspiring meetings, over 80 people participated in the meeting. Thank you for joining us! The next edition of Back2Business will take place in 2022.