The National Centre for Research and Development

During a conference organised by the National Centre for Research and Development, the Research and Innovation Programme was inaugurated as part of the Swiss-Polish Cooperation Programme. The programme's budget for basic and applied research is CHF 41.176 million.

The participants in the event, which took place on 10 April, had the opportunity to learn about the opportunities and scope for Polish-Swiss cooperation, and were shown examples of successfully completed joint projects and the general principles of the Research and Innovation Programme. The programme is being implemented as part of the Second Swiss Contribution and supports basic and applied research. Each of the two parts of the programme has a different operator. The National Centre for Research and Development is responsible for implementing the programme in the field of applied research in cooperation with the Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse. The programme aims to increase the scientific potential and innovation of Polish research units, universities and enterprises by strengthening scientific and research cooperation with Swiss partners and other international partners. In the field of basic research, the partners are the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Polish National Science Centre. Switzerland's contribution is 35 million Swiss francs, while Poland is contributing 6.176 million of financing.

The programme will be available to universities, research institutes and other entities conducting research and employing researchers. In applied research calls, the beneficiaries may also be entrepreneurs, with particular emphasis on SMEs. The programme also aims to promote women researchers and young scientists. Participating in joint research projects is an opportunity for them to improve in their fields of knowledge. This is a step towards building one's own research teams, thus developing one's scientific career.

“Cooperation under the previous programme, during the years 2007-2017, brought very good results: more than 500 researchers involved from almost 50 research institutes and universities in Poland and Switzerland. In the current stage, we wish to further develop the potential of scientific staff and support the institutional development of research entities. We do hope that joint Polish-Swiss projects will foster the development of new knowledge and help bring novel, innovative solutions to global markets”, said Prof. Jerzy Małachowski, Acting Director of the National Centre for Research and Development, as he opened the conference. “We would like these new collaborations to create long-term partnerships that will help enrich the capacity of research institutions as well as their international outreach”, emphasised Prof. Małachowski.

Prof. Martina Hirayama, State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation, Swiss Confederation, also spoke about the very good Polish-Swiss cooperation in the field of education, research and innovation. She stressed that Switzerland, which is at the forefront of many global innovation rankings, devotes significant resources to creating international interdisciplinary research networks. “Our world is currently facing multiple changes, to name but a few: climate change, geostrategic competition and conflicts, migration and recent public health crisis. One thing is clear: no country is able to face the challenges of our time by itself, no matter how competitive and strong it is in terms of knowledge and experience. It is all the more important that we collaborate in an open dialogue based on shared European values and objectives,” the Swiss minister pointed out.

Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education Dr. Andrzej Szeptycki pointed out that Switzerland was a very important partner for Poland, but said we also had a lot to offer. “We have in total more than 7000 research entities in Poland. We have in total some 185,000 people involved in the R&D sector. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, our current host NCBR works, as well as the Łukasiewicz Research Network and the National Science Centre, implementing a number of important initiatives in the science sector”, said the deputy minister of science and higher education.

“Nowadays, the key to economic success is a combination of knowledge, research and development. Research is essential for social and economic prosperity in the long term”, reminded the conference participants of the Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy, which is the national coordinating unit (NCU), Dr. Konrad Wojnarowski. He also expressed his belief that funding from the programme will translate into important discoveries and patents.

Opportunities and Scope

Our country is the largest beneficiary of the Second Swiss Contribution. The development of common goals and assumptions of the current programme was discussed by Nathalie Barbancho, Head of the EU Member States Section, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and Małgorzata Zalewska, Deputy Director, Department of Assistance Programmes, Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy. They unanimously concluded that, unlike the first Swiss Funds, which was of a project nature, the shape of the newly-inaugurated programme was developed jointly based on the identified needs of the recipients.

On the other hand, the participants of the panel, which took place during the conference, discussed the opportunities and possibilities of research cooperation between research centres as well as enterprises in Poland and Switzerland, created under the program. Agnieszka Ratajczak, Director of the International Cooperation Department at the National Centre for Research and Development, who led the discussion, pointed out, among other things, the aspect of promotion in the programme of women researchers in the context of the latest Eurostat data on human resources in science and engineering. In Poland, women make up almost half of scientists and engineers. With a result of 49 per cent, our country ranks sixth in the EU in this statistic. The scientific community is becoming more and more friendly to women, although barriers are still visible.

As if to confirm the statistics quoted, examples of successfully completed projects were presented by Prof. Sylwia Rodziewicz-Motowidło from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Gdańsk and Dr. Joanna Dąbrowska from the National Veterinary Research Institute in Puławy. Both presentations showed the benefits of cooperation under the previous Swiss Funds programme on many levels.

   

The Practicalities of the Programme

Last but not least, there was a presentation of the basic principles of the Research and Innovation Programme in both its parts. The principles applicable to basic research were presented by Barbara Świątkowska from the National Science Centre, the operator of the programme in this field.

Maciej Jędrzejek, Deputy Director of the International Cooperation Department, spoke on behalf of the National Centre for Research and Development, which manages the programme in the field of applied research.

On 2 April 2024, the call for applications for scientists who want to receive funding from the Swiss Funds to conduct basic research was launched. The call for multilateral research projects  MAPS – Multilateral Academic Projects was announced by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). It envisages the cooperation of entities from Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Hungary in partnership with Swiss entities.

On April 22, 2024, the call for proposals in the applied research program managed by will be launched. We invite you to apply!

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The Swiss-Polish Cooperation Programme (Swiss Funds, the Swiss Programme) are funds allocated by Switzerland to the development of our country, based on arrangements with the European Union and Poland. The previous contribution was carried out in the years 2007-2017. The current programme was officially inaugurated in December last year and will run until 2029. It includes the Research and Innovation Programme and the Urban Development Support Programme.

For more information about the Swiss Funds, please visit: https://www.programszwajcarski.gov.pl