Version 11 February 2014
Regional Innovation Monitor Plus
Regional Innovation Report – Lower Silesia
To the European Commission Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General Directorate B – Sustainable Growth and EU 2020
www.technopolis-group.com
Regional Innovation Monitor Plus
Regional Innovation Report - Lower Silesia
technopolis |group| in cooperation with
Jacek Walendowski, Technopolis Group Belgium
www.technopolis-group.com
Table of Contents
1. Main Trends and Challenges in the Regional Innovation System 6 1.1 Recent trends in socio-economic performance 6 1.2 Recent trends in regional innovation performance 9 1.3 Identified challenges 15 2. Innovation Policy Governance 17 3. Innovation Policy Instruments and Orientations 22 3.1 The regional innovation policy mix 22 3.2 Appraisal of regional innovation policies 24 3.3 Good practice cases 26 3.4 Towards smart specialisation policies 28 3.5 Possible future orientations and opportunities 31 Appendix A Bibliography 33 Appendix B Stakeholders consulted 35 Appendix C Statistical Data 36
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Economic Performance Indicators...... 8 Figure 2: Innovation Performance Indicators ...... 9 Figure 3: Share of R&D Expenditure Per Sector of Performance...... 10 Figure 4: Patterns in GERD and GDP ...... 11 Figure 5: GERD and GDP Trends...... 12
Tables
Table 1: Innovation Policy Governance in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia...... 19 Table 2: Innovation Policy Institutional Set-Up and Available Human Resources...... 21 Table 3: Existing Regional Innovation Support Measures ...... 23
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PREFACE
Launched in 2010, the Regional Innovation Monitor1 continues to be one of the flagship initiatives of DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission. From the outset, it aimed at supporting sharing of intelligence on innovation policies in some 200 regions across EU20 Member States. RIM Plus aims to help regions to improve their innovation policies based on better and harmonised policy intelligence. The new contract aims to contribute to the development of more effective regional innovation policies and promote policy learning. Building upon the experience gained and results obtained during the implementation of the RIM in the period 2010-2012, the RIM Plus service evolves towards providing practical guidance to regions on how to use the collected information, establishing a network of regional experts with thematic specialisation, and organising specialised workshops taking into account the relevance and potential interest among the regional innovation policy makers. RIM Plus covers EU-20 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This means that RIM will not concentrate on Member States where the Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics NUTS 1 and 2 levels are identical with the entire country (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Malta which only has NUTS 3 regions, Slovenia which has a national innovation policy or Cyprus and Luxembourg which are countries without NUTS regions. The main aim of 30 regional reports is to provide a description and analysis of contemporary developments of regional innovation policy, taking into account the specific context of the region as well as general trends. All regional innovation reports are produced in a standardised way using a common methodological and conceptual framework, in order to allow for horizontal analysis, with a view to preparing the Annual EU Regional Innovation Monitor Plus report. European Commission official responsible for the project is Alberto Licciardello ([email protected]). The present report was prepared by Jacek Walendowski ([email protected]). The contents and views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Regions, Member States or the European Commission. The Regional Innovation Access Point and Knowledge Hub presenting further details of the regional innovation measures, policy documents and regional organisations in Lower Silesia is accessible through the RIM Plus online inventory of policy measures here: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/regional- innovation/monitor/region/select Copyright of the document belongs to the European Commission. Neither the European Commission, nor any person acting on its behalf, may be held responsible for the use to which information contained in this document may be put, or for any errors which, despite careful preparation and checking, may appear.
1 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/regional-innovation/monitor/
1 Regional Innovation Monitor Plus – Lower Silesia
Executive Summary
1. Main Trends and Challenges in the Regional Innovation System The Voivodeship of Lower Silesia is one of the most advanced industrial regions in Poland. The relatively better socio-economic situation can be partly explained by higher labour productivity in industry and high concentration of foreign investors. However, the region is also characterised by significant intra-regional differences between the North-Centre (so called ‘Copper Valley’ between Legnica-Głogów) and the southern part of the region (Wałbrzych) which underwent structural changes in the mid-1990s as a result of the liquidation of mining and textile companies. Two of the most important branches of economy are the automotive and electro- mechanical sectors. Traditionally, Lower Silesia has been a leader in terms of manufacturing white goods. There is also a large grouping of IT companies operating in the region. Moreover, the region is characterised by a dynamically developing pharmaceutical sector. This is just an illustration of the existing sectoral specialisation of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia and by no means should be considered as exhaustive. With regard to the innovation performance, it is important to note that that the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia is characterised by a high concentration of R&D investment. It is ranked fifth out of 16 Polish regions. Another issue relating to human capital is a shortage of skills for innovation matching the industry needs. This report also highlights the important role played by large enterprises (> 250 employees) which account for three-quarters of total innovation investment in the manufacturing sector, in addition to the overall low share of R&D investment. During the last decade, there have been no major shifts in these indicators that would reveal structural changes taking place in the Regional Innovation System of Lower Silesia. There is also evidence that the innovation sales have recorded a downward trend over the recent years, while the sales of manufacturing production have been steadily growing (except the year 2009). The development of clusters has been a relatively new development. Clusters in Lower Silesia are at different stages of development. Similar observation can be made in relation to science and technology parks. At present, there are six such initiatives which include Wrocław Technology Park, and Technology Park of Legnica – Legnicki Park Technologiczny KGHM LETIA. Based on the analysis of main trends in the Regional Innovation System of Lower Silesia, complemented by a series of face-to-face interviews with the regional stakeholders, the following three main challenges have been identified: Challenge 1: Set out new pathways of regional development by shifting from traditional manufacturing to a modern and innovative economy In recent years Lower Silesia has been recording the economic growth and falling unemployment. During the 2000-2010 period, the economy grew on average 7.5% per annum, while the unemployment dropped by almost 9 percentage points (Oct. 2002- 2013), i.e. some 120 thous. less unemployed persons. Despite the overall positive performance of Lower Silesia in comparison with other Polish regions, the main issue of concern is the long term sustainability of regional development which is still based on traditional manufacturing industries. In other words, the relatively higher labour productivity in the manufacturing industries, high concentration of foreign direct investments, new investments in special economic zones or even a surge of investments related to automatisation of production processes are clearly important factors that have an influence on the
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regional development. Nonetheless, they will not be sufficient alone to contribute to the transformation of the regional economy from a typical industrial centre towards a more modern and innovative economy. Consequently, there is a real and unique opportunity for taking actions, in order to ensure better territorial cohesion and reduce socio-economic disparities with more advanced EU regions. Challenge 2: Promote the development of new skills for innovation While the demographic changes will have an impact on the functioning of higher education institutions (especially private-run entities which are not performing R&D activities in general), the key challenge is to ensure the supply of highly skilled specialists and creative personnel who would meet the needs and expectations of potential employers. This is in line with the findings emerging from the review undertaken in 2012 by OECD, which put a spotlight on the need to develop industry collaboration, skills and foster entrepreneurship activities. The lack of funding has been often identified as one of the major barriers to the development of innovation activities faced by the SMEs sector. However, experience also shows that there is a deficit of innovation specialists in the labour market. A similar observation can be made with regard to the establishment of start-ups. All in all, there are only few outstanding projects ready for investment, in addition to a general lack of funding for risky and innovative undertakings. Challenge 3: Concentrate the funding on selected priority areas of strategic importance to the regional development Due to a large number of enterprises with comparable innovation potential and high concentration of scientific research institutions active in almost all scientific disciplines, it will be in practice a challenging task to focus public interventions on few selected priority areas with the highest development and innovation potential. Establishing a higher concentration of funding on selected priority areas is expected to contribute to the higher effectiveness of public interventions. This would be certainly a novelty in comparison with the current programming period during which no strategic/priority area has been set out in the Regional Operational Programme (2007-2013). The funding has been allocated to all eligible beneficiaries who had submitted successful proposals and were selected during the selection process. 2. Innovation Policy Governance Overall Lower Silesia has some competences in the area of regional development and innovation policy. Nonetheless, in practice a part of the regional budget is fixed in agreement with the Central government. While the regional authorities are seeking to influence the decisions taken at the national level, they have to follow the guidance provided by the Ministry of Regional Development. Despite the fact that this guidance is subject to negotiations, it is important to point out that the Ministry of Regional Development is responsible for the overall coordination of Regional Policy. The analysis of innovation policy institutional set-up and available human resources confirms that innovation strategy development is led by a small team within the Marshal Office. As a result, the preparation and strategy development is commissioned to external contractors. For example, the Marshal Office selected the consortium of Wroclaw University of Technology – Wroclaw Centre for Technology Transfer and a consulting company. Another issue is the high rotation within the regional administration which poses a challenge to ensuring optimal governance of regional innovation policy. There is also lack of a strong entity overseeing the trends at the strategic level taking place in the regional innovation system and at more operational level fostering innovation activities. Despite the plans to appoint the Regional Innovation Council, no decision has been taken in this regard. So far the activity of the Lower Silesia Economic Council (known as DRG), which is the regional platform of cooperation
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between the regional-, local authorities, business intermediary institutions, scientific research institutions and representatives of business associations, has been limited. The involvement of various departments of the Marshal Office in the preparation of the Regional Operational Programme 2014-2020 deserves to be positively assessed. The challenge is two-fold. Firstly, it is necessary to ensure inter-departmental coordination. Secondly, it is important to strengthen the vertical cooperation between the national and regional level with a view to develop successful policy responses. With regard to monitoring and evaluation of public interventions, the challenge is to strengthen evidence-based assessments and draw up lessons from the implementation of Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 with a view to develop result-oriented and successful regional innovation support measures during the forthcoming 2014- 2020 programming period. 3. Innovation Policy Instruments Overall the policy focus during the 2007-2013 programming period has been clearly on improving the competitiveness of enterprises through business investment grants. The supported projects concern mainly the purchase of existing technologies rather than the development and implementation of new innovative solutions. With regard to the financial instruments, it is important to note that activities eligible for funding are similar to those supported through direct subsidies (grants). The substantial funding earmarked for this form of support is rather modest given the number of enterprises operating in the region. There has also been a substantial allocation of funding (comparable to the JEREMIE initiative) for the development of innovation and business intermediary institutions. In practice, the funding has been channelled to more traditional investments such as the development of industrial parks and entrepreneurship incubators. The projects undertaken in the framework of advisory services have mainly concerned the support for the participation in international fairs. Consequently, there has been a lack of specialised services provided within this specific regional support measure. Comparatively, there has been less funding earmarked for developing skills for innovation. In practice, several rather small-scale projects have been undertaken in this area. One of the underlying characteristics of the regional support measures is that investment grants are not targeted at more complex interventions involving a joint cooperation or another form of partnership. It is also important to note the limited funding earmarked for the innovation voucher scheme supported in the framework of the national programme ‘Human Capital 2007-2013’, in addition to a general lack of support for cluster development and projects aimed at fostering science-industry cooperation. 4. Conclusions: future actions and opportunities for innovation policy Based on the existing evidence, it can be concluded that possible future orientations and opportunities for regional innovation policy in Lower Silesia lie particularly in: • Putting in place tailored and effective measures in support of innovation activities So far the focus of regional RTDI policy mix has been on providing support for improving the competitiveness of enterprises and entrepreneurship through traditional investment grants targeted at individual beneficiaries. Taking into account a general lack of instruments in support of innovation activities, there is a need to design new forms of support during the 2014+ programming period. Particularly important will be to develop and implemented dedicated instruments to foster RTDI activities in metropolitan areas, which are characterised by the highest scientific research and innovation potential.
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The development of new instruments should continue, notwithstanding the ongoing negotiations with the central Government about the types of instruments and financial allocations to be managed by the region. • Developing new innovative collaboration spaces This report has put a spotlight on a series of practical suggestions that can be made in order to strengthen the current methodological approach used to identify areas of regional specialisation and niches of innovation. Taking into account the ongoing cooperation between different actors of the regional innovation system, which is often the result of bottom-up initiatives, there is a unique opportunity for establishing new innovative collaboration spaces in Lower Silesia. All this requires the involvement of regional stakeholders in the long run which would motivate them to actively participate in shaping the regional innovation policy. • Introducing changes in the governance of regional innovation policy There is a necessity of ensuring coordination at the strategic level, in addition to the involvement of regional stakeholders in the long run. If the above mentioned innovative collaboration spaces are established and leaders from each area actively participate in taking strategic directions within their areas of competences, arguably there is no need to establish a separate Regional Innovation Council. Nonetheless, there is a need to appoint a coordinator who would have a helicopter view of innovation activities taking place in the region.
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1. Main Trends and Challenges in the Regional Innovation System
1.1 Recent trends in socio-economic performance Lower Silesia is one of the most developed industrial regions in Poland. According to the national data (GUS, 2013) there were some 327 thous. registered companies in 2011 and the share of industry in the regional GVA accounted for 35.4% in 2010. It is thus not surprising that the level of employment in industry is significant. According to the latest available Eurostat data for 2010, the share of employment in industry accounted for 34% of total regional employment. Figure 1-1 provides an overview of regional economic performance and recent trends. Among important branches of economy are automotive and electro-mechanical sectors. The region has attracted large investments in both the automotive and transport sectors. Among the main investors in the automotive sector are companies like Toyota, Volvo, Volkswagen, Bosch, Zakłady Samochodwe Jelcz (specialised in production of buses since 1952) and in the transport sector Greenbrier Company S.A (a leading supplier of transportation equipment and services to the railroad industry). Traditionally, Lower Silesia has been a leader in terms of manufacturing white goods. There are active strategic investors like LG Electronics, Whirlpool, in addition to a network of potential sub-contractors and suppliers. There is also a large grouping of IT companies operating in the region. It is estimated that one third of IT software production and services in Poland originates from Lower Silesia. Moreover, the region is characterised by a dynamically developing pharmaceutical sector, including such companies like Hasco-Lek, Jelfa and US Pharmacia. A concrete example of innovative company in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia is Selena Group – a global manufacturer and distributor of a wide range of construction chemicals for professional contractors and home users. Recently, Metal Master which is a start-up company has developed within the support of the national programme ‘Innovative Economy’ a prototype of a single-engine jet aircraft with a very lightweight composite construction, known also as FLARIS LAR 1. Another known example in the region concerns the development of supplements based on linum (EMO-Len technologies) and a new generation of dressing with healing properties based on the research undertaken by Prof. Jan Szopa-Skórkowski from Wrocław University. This is a mere illustration of existing sectoral specialisation of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia and by no means should be considered as exhaustive. In terms of performance, Lower Silesia scores above the country average on a number of socio-economic indicators. For example, it has recorded a higher GDP growth rate as well as higher GDP per capita. The overall positive economic performance can be partly explained by higher labour productivity in industry and high concentration of foreign investors. By the most recent count, it is estimated that slightly less than one- tenth of foreign companies are located in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia (GUS, 2013). Nonetheless, the Region is also characterised by significant intra-regional differences. The sub-region Legnicko-Głogowski popularly known as ‘Copper Valley’ is an important centre of economic growth. One of the leading companies is KGHM Polska Miedź, which is the 9th producer of copper and the 3rd largest producer of silver in the world. This area has recorded the highest GDP per capita (respectively €16,674 in 2010) and a relatively lower unemployment rate than in other parts of the region but still high (i.e. 13% as of the end of August 2013).
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Comparatively, the sub-region of Wrocław and the city of Wrocław recorded lower unemployment rates, notably 12.7% and 5.7%, respectively. Over the last decade, the convergence in terms of employment in the metropolitan area of Wrocław has been the most dynamic in comparison with other metropolitan areas in Poland. On the other hand, the sub-region Wałbrzyski had the lowest GDP per capita (€6,958 in 2010). It has also the highest level of unemployment (19.7%), which is above the regional average of 13%. In the mid-1990s, this area underwent significant structural changes as the result of liquidation of mining and textile companies. Established in 1997, the Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone “INVEST-PARK” has recorded rapid development. At present, it is composed on 41 sub-zones of which 25 are located within the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia. The total area of “INVEST-PARK” is estimated at 2212,23 hectares. Up to now, it has managed to attract some 200 entrepreneurs, including a number of known foreign investors.2 The Legnica Special Economic Zone and the Kamiennogórska Special Economic Zone (known also in Polish as KSSEMP) are the other two main zones located in the region, in addition to a sub-zone in Kobierzyce which belongs to the Tarnobrzeg Special Economic Zone (known also as TSSE EURO-PARK WISŁOSAN). Reducing economic disparities with more advanced EU regions is certainly a significant challenge. In 2010, GDP per capita in Lower Silesia accounted for slightly more than €10 thous., compared to the EU27 average of €24,500. While in recent years the region has undergone significant structural changes and continues to be catching up, it needs to find new pathways of regional development to ensure sustainable growth and jobs in long run. Another issue of concern is a shortage of skills for innovation matching the industry needs. The 2012 OECD Review of Higher Education in Wrocław put a spotlight on the needs to develop industry collaboration, skills and foster entrepreneurship activities. The key emerging finding is that the relevant activities are generally the result of city-driven or bottom-up processes and are not fully reflected in higher education policy or institutional set-up. The review also identified a series of barriers such as for example a lack of strategic anchoring of local and regional development within universities and a co-ordination deficit within the higher education system as well as the lack of a long-term vision and inter-institutional mechanisms. As background information, it is also important to note that during the last ten years (since 2003) the inflow of persons from other Polish regions to the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia accounted for some 4,200 persons. Comparatively, the migration abroad during the same period was slightly less than 26 thous., which places Lower Silesia among the three regions with the highest level of migration, following Silesia and Opolskie.
2 See: http://www.invest-park.com
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Figure 1: Economic Performance Indicators
PL51 Dolnoslaskie
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
GDP per capita
GDP growth rate (2000‐2010)
Long term unemployment rate
Labour productivity growth
Regional Competitiveness Index 2013
Employment in agriculture (%)
Employment in industry (%)
Employment in business sector (%)
Employment in public sector (%)
Employment in Science & Technology (%)
LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY
B‐E Industry (except construction)
C Manufacturing
F Construction G‐I Wholesale and retail trade, transport, accomodation and food service activities J Information and communication
L Real estate activities M_N Professional, scientific and technical activities; administrative and support service activities
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Performance relative to PL Performance relative to EU
Source: Eurostat. NB: In case of long term unemployment rate, values below 100 imply worse performance.
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1.2 Recent trends in regional innovation performance In terms of R&D investment measured as % of GDP (business, government and higher education) Lower Silesia scores below both the country and EU average. It is also important to underline relatively high concentration of total R&D investment in Lower Silesia. Figure 1-2 shows the regional performance on key innovation indictors. According to the latest available data for 2011 (GUS, 2013), the Region is placed on the fifth position among all 16 Polish regions with the highest GERD. The four regions outperforming Lower Silesia are the capital Region of Mazovia, Malopolskie, Silesia and Wielkopolskie. Figure 2: Innovation Performance Indicators
PL51 Dolnoslaskie
RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY INDICATORS
Employees with ISCED 5‐6 (%)
Business R&D (% GDP)
Government R&D (% GDP)
Higher Education R&D (% GDP)
EPO patent applications (per mln pop)
Empl. in medium‐high/high‐tech manufacturing (%)
Employment in knowledge‐intensive services (%)
Total R&D personnel (%) Structural funds on business innovations (per mln pop) Structural funds on core RTDI (per mln pop)
BUSINESS INNOVATION INDICATORS
Product or process innovators (%)
Marketing or organisational innovators (%)
Innovative SMEs collaborating with others (%)
SMEs innovating in‐house (%)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Performance relative to PL Performance relative to EU
Source: Eurostat. Another underlying characteristic is that Lower Silesia performance is above the country average on all Community Innovation Survey business innovation indicators (cf. Figure 1-3), including technological (product or process) innovators (% of all SMEs); non-technological (marketing or organisational) innovators (% of all SMEs); innovative SMEs collaborating with others (% of all SMEs) and SMEs innovating in- house (% of all SMEs). Nonetheless, as shown in Figure 1-4 the shares of R&D expenditure per sector of performance and per capita do not differ significantly among the Polish regions.
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Figure : Technological & Non-technological Innovators
SMEs innovation data - CIS2008 0.45 0.40 0.39 Technological
a 0.38
t 0.37 0.40 innovators 0.35 0.29 Non‐ 0.30 technological 0.25 0.22 0.23 innovators Innovative SMEs 0.19 0.20 collaborating 0.14 with others 0.15 0.12 0.11 0.11 SMEs innovating 0.10 in‐house
% of all SMEs, normalised da 0.05 0.00 PL51 PL EU27 Source: Community Innovation Survey. A more detailed analysis of regional data allows the drawing of three key observations. Primarily, three-quarters of total innovation investment is incurred by large enterprises with ≥ 250 employees. Secondly, the share of investment on R&D activities represented only 14.3% of total innovation investment. According to the latest available data, there have been no significant changes in these indicators over the last six years (since 2005). Thirdly, Lower Silesia has been recording falling innovation sales in the manufacturing sector, following the same pattern as at the national level. During the period 2005-2011, the innovation sales in Lower Silesia fell from 11.9% to 6.46%. Figure 3: Share of R&D Expenditure Per Sector of Performance
Business R&D (Euro per inhabitant) 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 PL51 PL EU27
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Government R&D (Euro per inhabitant) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 PL51 PL EU27
Higher Education R&D (Euro per inhabitant) 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 PL51 PL EU27
Source: Eurostat. Overall Lower Silesia has recorded continuous upward trends in GERD except the year 2006 when GERD fell by almost 14%. Similar to other EU regions, in 2009 the Region recorded an economic slowdown compared to the situation of 2009 and picked up again subsequently in following years (cf. Figure 1.5). Figure 4: Patterns in GERD and GDP
GERD (% change) - PL51 Dolnoslaskie 40%
e on 20%
ear 00%
e chang ‐20% ag vious y t e ‐40% pr cen 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 per
PL51 PL EU27
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GDP (nominal) - PL51 Dolnoslaskie 30% 20% e on 10% ear 00% e chang ‐10% ag vious y t e ‐20% pr cen 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 per
PL51 PL EU27
Source: Eurostat. The data presented in Figure 1-6 confirm that public scientific research organisations are the main performers of R&D activities. In 2010, the share of R&D investment in the sector of Higher Education Institutions accounted for 52% of GERD. The shares of both the business and Government R&D investment have continued to be significantly lower, representing 36% and 12% respectively. Figure 5: GERD and GDP Trends
Share of R&D expenditures (% GDP) - PL51 Dolnoslaskie 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3
percent 0.2 0.1 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Business R&D Government R&D Higher Education R&D Source: Eurostat.
With regard to the regional innovation system and recent changes, it is important to note that similarly to other Polish regions the development of clusters in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia has been a recent development. The origin of the first cluster initiative dates back to 2006, whereas the majority clusters was launched around 2010.
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According to the Innovation Portal of Lower Silesia, there are the following six clusters operating in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia: • Lower Silesian Eco-energetic Cluster EEI - Energy, Ecology, Innovation3; • SIDE-Cluster4; • Lower Silesian Resources Cluster5; • Lower Silesian Renewable Energy Cluster6; • INNOvative MAnufacturing TECHnologies (CINNOMATECH)7; and • Knowledge and Innovation Community for Information and Communication8. Based on other sources of information, notably the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia 2011-2020, there are some 13 cluster cooperation networks. Most recently, there have been attempts to form a cluster in the area related to the production of dimension stone which has various applications in the construction sector, according to our interview stakeholders. Among the major scientific research organisations are the Wrocław University, the Wrocław University of Technology and the Agricultural University of Wrocław. The three major higher education Technology Transfer Offices are: the Wrocław Centre of Technology Transfer (WCTT)9, Dolnośląski Ośrodek Transferu Wiedzy i Technologii (DOTWIT)10, and Centre of Innovation and Technology Transfer of Wrocław Medical University. One of the recent flagship investments is the Wrocław Research Centre EIT +11. Building up the experience of the Lower Silesia Centre of Advanced Technologies (known also in Polish as DCZT), the decisive moment was a strategic decision in 2006 to ensure the development of Wrocław as world-class and innovation centre. Established in 2007, the main goal of the Centre is to undertake interdisciplinary research and foster technology transfer. The Centre is undertaking the largest R&D infrastructure project in Poland which concerns the development of a complex of labs (23,5 thous. square meters). Altogether there are some 230 leading researchers and specialists in various domains working at the Centre. The research teams are structured around the four main areas of activities, notably biotechnology, nanotechnology, climate-energy and geology- geochemistry. The Centre is collaborating with other key R&D institutions. A concrete example of recent cooperation concerns the development of shale gas extraction technologies with the involvement of Research and Development Centre - KGHM CUPRUM Ltd. The Wrocław Research Centre EIT + has some 13 laboratories equipped with the state- of-art R&D infrastructure. Although it is a recent initiative, the Centre has developed different business models and comprehensive offer to both the private and science sector. One of such model provides support for joint research projects (known also as
3 See: http://en.klaster-eei.pl 4 See: http://www.side-cluster.pl 5 See: http://www.innowacje.dolnyslask.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=149 :fundacja-dla-dolnolskiego-klastra-surowcowego-&catid=56:dolnolskie-klastry&Itemid=80 6 See: http://www.dkeo.pl/index.html 7 See: http://www.cinnomatech.pl/en/pages/1017.html 8 See: http://www.ict-cluster.wroc.pl/english 9 See: http://www.wctt.pl 10 See: http://www.dotwit.pl 11 See: http://www.eitplus.pl/language/en
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Forum A2B). This is the first initiative in Poland of this kind. In a nutshell, the support is provided during the final stage of research before the actual commercialisation. The project’s cost is shared between the company and EIT+. Provided that the R&D results are successful, the company obtains the licence with exclusive IP rights. The Centre has developed a track record of cooperation with the construction market, such as manufacturers of mining machinery and equipment, white goods industry and many other innovative companies providing custom-designed solutions. Apart from facilitating the access to funding for technological start-ups, the Centre focuses also on the development of social innovation. To this end, the ‘Humanitarium’ educational park has been established. It organises a series of workshops in laboratories targeted at different age groups and concerning various thematic areas. There are also several R&D institutions located in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia. One of them is Research and Development Centre - KGHM CUPRUM Ltd.12 Altogether it employs some 145 persons and performs R&D activities both internally (for KGHM) and externally. Launched in February 2011, CUPRUM is the coordinator of the Polish Mineral Resources Technological Platform. Among concrete examples of projects undertaken by the Centre are: the I2Mine – Innovative Technologies and Concepts for the Intelligent Deep Mine of the Future, LAGUNA – Pan-European Infrastructure Project of Greater Detector, ProMine – Products containing nanoparticles from new sources of mineral resources in Europe, and MIN-NOVATION project – Waste management of the Baltic Sea Region mining industry, etc. CUPRUM is also involved in the public-private partnership concerning the development of extraction methods of shale gas. The company’s activities are also concentrated on the extraction of copper, development of sustainable brown coal extraction technologies as well as recycling of waste that allows recovering a series of chemical elements (known also as Lanthanide). Other important entities are the Institute of Open Cast Mining13; and Prof. Józef Kosacki’s Military Institute of Engineer Technology. In addition to several industrial parks and academic incubators of entrepreneurships, there are the following six science and technology park initiatives in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia: • The Lower Silesian Technology Park14; • ChemiPark15; • Technology Park of Legnica – Legnicki Park Technologiczny KGHM LETIA S.A.;16 • Wrocław Technology Park17; • Data Techno Park18; and • Lower Silesian Innovation and Science Park19.
12 See: http://www.cuprum.wroc.pl 13 See: http://www.igo.wroc.pl/index.php?lang=en 14 See: http://www.t-park.eu/index.php 15 See: www.chemipark.pl 16 See: http://www.letia.pl/EN/index.php 17 See: http://www.technologpark.pl 18 See: http://datatechnopark.pl/english 19 See: http://www.dpin.pl/en
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The recent report prepared by the Supreme Audit Office (known also in Poland as NIK) noted the highest effectiveness of enterprises located at Wrocław Technology Park. Out of 120 enterprises, 49 of them implemented some 130 innovations, which represent roughly about 85% total innovation developed in all science and technology parks subject to control. Altogether there are some 150 innovative enterprises located in the Park. Among the most important recent achievements has been the construction of the X-Ray Free- Electron Laser XFEL. It is also important to mention the creation of the NUTRIBIOMED Cluster20 which brings together six Universities, three Business Supporting Institutions and 30 SMEs in the area related to the production of dietary supplements. Currently, the Park is undertaking an investment aimed at establishing an industrial park with the view to provide production facilities in the future for some of its high-tech companies. It is also important to mention the Wrocław Academic Hub (known also in Polish as WCA)21 which is a community platform designed to engage universities in the development of Wrocław. Established in 2008, it is Poland's first city-led initiative of this kind. The Hub portfolio aims at promoting university transformation towards more third mission engagement while catering to the needs of academic excellence and academic talents.
1.3 Identified challenges Based on the available information complemented by a series of face-to-face interviews, the main challenges facing the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia can be summarised as follows: Challenge 1: Set out new pathways of regional development by shifting from traditional manufacturing to modern and innovative economy In recent years, the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia has been recording economic growth and falling unemployment. During the 2000-2010 period, the economy grew at some 7.5% per annum, while the unemployment dropped by almost 9 percentage points (Oct. 2002-2013), i.e. some 120 thous. less unemployed persons. Despite the overall positive performance of Lower Silesia in comparison with other Polish regions, the main issue of concern is the long term sustainability of regional development, since the economy is based on traditional manufacturing industries. In other words, the relatively higher labour productivity in the manufacturing industries, high concentration of foreign direct investments, new investments in special economic zones or even a surge of investments related to automatisation of production processes are clearly important factors that have an influence on the regional development. Nonetheless, they will not be sufficient alone to contribute to the transformation of the regional economy from a typical industrial centre towards modern and innovative economy. Consequently, there is a real and unique opportunity for taking actions, in order to ensure better territorial cohesion and reduce socio-economic disparities with more advanced EU regions. Challenge 2: Promote the development of new skills for innovation While the demographic changes will have an impact on the functioning of higher education institutions (especially private-run entities which are not performing R&D activities in general), the key challenge is to ensure the supply of highly skilled specialists and creative personnel who would meet the needs and expectations of potential employers.
20 See: http://www.nutribiomed.pl/?locale=en 21 See: http://wah.wroc.pl
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This is in line with the findings emerging from the review undertaken in 2012 by OECD, which put a spotlight on the needs to develop industry collaboration, skills and foster entrepreneurship activities. The lack of funding has been often identified among the major barriers to development of innovation activities faced by the SMEs sector. However, the experience also shows that there is a deficit of specialists on the labour market who would have significant experience in dealing with innovation-related aspects. With the regard to the establishment of start-ups, a similar observation can be made. All in all, there are only few outstanding projects ready for investment, in addition to a general lack of funding for risky and innovative undertakings. Challenge 3: Concentrate the funding on selected priority areas of strategic importance to the regional development Due to a large number of enterprises with comparable innovation potential and high concentration of scientific research institutions active in almost all scientific disciplines, it will be in practice a challenging task to focus public interventions on few selected priority areas with the highest development and innovation potential. By establishing a higher concentration of funding on selected priority areas, it is expected that such approach would contribute to higher effectiveness of public interventions. This would be certainly a novelty in comparison with the current programming period during which no strategic/priority area has been set out in the Regional Operational Programme (2007-2013). The funding has been allocated to all eligible beneficiaries who had submitted successful proposals and were selected during the selection process.
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2. Innovation Policy Governance
With regard to the degree of general regional autonomy The degree of regional autonomy of the Polish regions including the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia can be assessed as medium-low. Although the members of Regional Parliament (Sejmik) are directly elected, the Region has only minor tax raising powers. This means that a part of regional budget is fixed in agreement with the central Government. The regional authorities are directly responsible for drawing up strategic development documents such as the Regional Development Strategy. In the case of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia the Regional Parliament (Sejmik) adopted the 2020 Regional Development Strategy back in February 2013. Despite a certain degree of autonomy at the regional level, the central Government plays an important role in the area of regional policy. For example, the Ministry of Regional Development coordinates the preparation of Regional Operational Programmes. It also leads the preparation of the so-called ‘demarcation line’ which is a document defining both the types of instruments eligible for funding and their budgets at both the national and regional levels. Based on the principles and specific conditions defined by the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Regional Development concludes the so-called ‘Voivodeship Contracts’ with the Executive Board of the Marshal Office. In essence, this type of contracts defines both the level and conditions of funding of the regional operational programmes. The Ministry of Regional Development also coordinates the preparation of Territorial Contracts which are neither linked to concrete operational programme nor national funding. These contracts foresee the major investment projects in the region which are agreed between the national government and region during the process of negotiations. Concerning the taxes, the income from taxes of self-government territorial entities which exceeds the defined thresholds goes directly to the State budget. Subsequently, the funding is redistributed to the regional and local self-government entities. The planned share of taxes constituting the income of the State budget foreseen in 2013 Regional budget accounted for PLN 604,717,200, which according to the current exchange rate is about €144.6m and represents almost 36% of the total Regional budget. The deficit of the Regional budget in 2013 is capped at PLN 122.9m or €29.4m. According to the recent Draft of Multiannual Financial Plan, it is planned that the debt will be decreasing from the current level of PLN 939.4m or €224.7m (in 2014) to PLN 39.05m or €9.3m (in 2026). In other words, it is planned that the debt in relation to income will decrease from 52.6% to 4.3% (Marshal Office, 2013) With regard to the degree of autonomy in innovation policy Although the only legally binding document is the Regional Development Strategy, the Polish regions including Lower Silesia develop their own Regional Innovation Strategies. On 30 August 2011, the Executive Board of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia adopted the Regional Innovation Strategy for 2011-2020. Nonetheless, when it comes to the programming of interventions and earmarking financial allocations for measures in support of RTDI activities, the regional authorities negotiate these aspects with national Government. This means that they cannot independently from the national level set out the regional innovation policy.
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With regard to the set-up of the regional governance system The set-up of the regional governance system is centralised to a large extent within the Marshal Office of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia. The Department of Regional Development of the Marshal Office (Unit of Economy) plays a key role in the formulation of regional innovation policy. The Regional Innovation Strategy 2011- 2020, proposed to establish the Regional Innovation Council which would play an advisory role to the Executive Board. So far the decision has not been taken in this regard. The Lower Silesia Economic Council (known as DRG) is the regional platform of cooperation between the self-governance, local authorities, business intermediary institutions, scientific research institutions and representatives of business associations. To this day, the Council’s activity has been marginal. Established in 2007, the Lower Silesian Intermediary Institution (known also in Polish as DIP) implements a part of Priority 1 – Enterprises and Innovation of the Regional Operational Programme of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia, notably Measure 1.1 Investment for enterprises and 1.2 Advisory services for firms and support to business intermediary organisations. With regard to the nature of the process of strategy development Overall the process of Regional Innovation Strategy Development is top-down. It is also important to mention that the only legally binding document is the Regional Development Strategy. Taking into account that the gap between the adoption of these strategic documents is quite short (16 months), this poses a real challenge for developing a wide consultation and partnership in relation to the Regional Innovation Strategy. With regard to intra- and inter-regional co-operation According to the 2011-2020 Regional Innovation Strategy of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia, the cooperation between regional competence centres with relevant foreign entities should constitute one of the main elements of comparative advantage of these centres located in the Region. So far the inter-regional co-operation has been limited to the Interreg Central Europe Programme. Among the most recent projects in the area of innovation in which the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia has been involved are: Innovation transfer in the medical sector from clinics to companies22; Transnational Network of Leading Automotive Regions in CE23; Smart Framework for SME´s focused on Modern Industrial Technologies24; and Improving of Key Supporting Services for Young Innovators across Central Europe25 etc. With regard to future intra-regional cooperation, it is important to point out to the initiative launched in cooperation of five regions (Lower Silesia, Lubuskie, Opolskie, Wielkopolskie and Westernpomerania) which has resulted in the preparation of Directions of the 2020 Macro-Regional Strategy of Western Poland. One of its specific objectives concerns the support for fostering STI cooperation. It is expected that the Draft Strategy will be prepared by the Ministry of Regional Development. In parallel, the work in the group of five regions is ongoing and concerns the preparation of pan- regional projects which will contribute to achieving the objectives set out by the Strategy. The interviews carried out during the preparation of the present report
22 See: http://intramed-c2c.eu 23 See: www.autonet-central.eu 24 See: http://www.smart-frame.eu 25 See: http://www.inoplace.eu
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confirmed that in practice it proves to be a challenging task to draw up the Strategy of Western Poland. Table 1: Innovation Policy Governance in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia Description Comment
Degree of general • The Region is responsible • The members of regional autonomy for the preparation and Regional Parliament implementation of Regional (Sejmik) are directly Development Strategy. elected but the Region has minor tax raising • At the national level, the powers (part of regional Ministry of Regional budget is fixed in Development (MRR) agreement with the ensures the overall Central government). coordination of Regional Policy. Degree of autonomy with • In addition to the Regional • The process of defining regard to innovation Development Strategy the types of activities policy which is a legally binding eligible for funding and document, the Region can financial allocations is prepare and develop its own top-down and mainly Regional Innovation driven by the Central Strategy. government. Set-up of regional • The Executive Board of • The institutional set-up governance system Voivodeship oversees the of regional governance (centralised/de- regional innovation policy. system is centralised. centralised/fragmented) • There are plans to establish the Regional Council but the decision has not been taken in this regard. Nature of the process of • Top-down • The preparation of strategy development Regional Innovation (top-down/bottom- Strategy and the up/participatory) overarching Regional Development Strategy has taken place practically in parallel. As a result, the focus has been placed to a large extent on the development of a legally binding Regional Development Strategy. Intra- and inter-regional • To foster intra-regional, five • Both the intra- and inter- co-operation Polish regions launched the regional co-operation is preparation and at early stage of development of a joint development. macro-regional strategy in August 2010. The work has entered into the final stage and it can be expected that the Draft Strategy will be subject to public consultation early 2014. So far the inter-regional co- operation is limited to EU programmes (Interreg and FP7). Source: Own assessment based on desktop research and a series of interviews.
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With regard to the innovation policy institutional set-up The Department of Regional Development (Unit of Economy) of the Marshal Office is responsible for the development of Regional Innovation Strategy. Innovation and competitiveness is one of the areas overseen by this Unit. The team comprises 28 members and eight are directly dealing with innovation and competitiveness aspects. The Marshal Office of Lower Silesia commissioned back in 2010 the preparation of the Regional Innovation Strategy 2011-2020, in the framework of the project “Rozwój, koordynacja, monitoring i ewaluacja dolnośląskiego systemu innowacji”. This project was implemented within the national programme ‘Human Capital, 2007-2013’, Measure 8.2.2 Regional Innovation Strategies by the consortium of Wroclaw University of Technology – Wroclaw Centre for Technology Transfer and a consulting company, namely Zachodniopomorska Grupa Doradcza. The responsibilities over programming are within the remit of the Department of Regional Development (Unit of Regional Policy Coordination). Overall the team of seven persons is involved in planning and programming of regional development, in addition to a team 18 persons dealing with the programming of EU Structural Fund interventions. It is also important to mention that other departments of the Marshal Office are directly involved in the programming of the EU Cohesion Policy, European Investment Funds 2014-2020 and preparation of Territorial Contracts. This means that the programming is a joint effort led by the directors of various departments of the Marshal Office and management of the Lower Silesia Intermediary Institution (DIP) and Labour Office of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia. The Department the EU Structural Funds of the Marshal Office (Unit of the Implementation of the Regional Operational Programme) oversees the implementation of specific priorities defined in the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013. The team of 10 persons oversees the implementation of first priority of the Regional Operational Programme dedicated to innovation and competitiveness. In addition, there are some 57 persons at the Lower Silesian Intermediary Institution (known also as DIP) overseeing the implementation of the Innovation and competitiveness priority of the Regional Operational 2007-2013. The Department the EU Structural Funds of the Marshal Office (Unit of the Management of the Regional Operational Programme) is responsible for evaluation, monitoring, reporting, processing appeals and providing technical assistance. Half of the team members (in total 14) of this Unit undertake activities related to monitoring and evaluation. The interviews also pointed out to frequent rotation within the regional administration, which has creates an additional challenge of ensuring an optimal governance of regional innovation policy. Table 2-2 on the following page provides an overview of the innovation policy institutional set-up and available human resources.
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Table 2: Innovation Policy Institutional Set-Up and Available Human Resources Policy stage Primary organisation Number of Total Change in Summary assessment personnel number of personnel directly in employees directly in charge charge over the last five years Strategy Department of Regional 8 28 n.a. • The four main areas of activities undertaken by the Unit of Economy development Development of the include: innovation and competitiveness, development of economic Marshal Office, Unit of programmes, science-industry cooperation and activation of the labour Economy market. The relatively small team of eight persons is responsible and deals with innovation and competitiveness related aspects. Programming Department of Regional 25, in 42 This is an area • Apart from the responsibilities over planning and programming (incl. the Development of the addition to where the biggest European Social Fund), the Team of Planning and Programming of Marshal Office, Unit of 13 WG change in Regional Development is tasked with monitoring and management of the Regional Policy members personnel can be EU Structural Funds information centres. Coordination from other reported. • Altogether, a team of seven persons is responsible for the regional departments development planning and programming, in addition to 18 persons /institutions overseeing the programming of the EU SF interventions. • The recently established WG is tasked with the preparation of Territorial Contracts and Regional Operational Programme of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia 2014-2020. • The challenge is to ensure swift and effective inter-departmental cooperation, but above all vertical cooperation between the national and regional level. Implementa- Department the EU 10 84 n.a. • Within the main responsibilities of this department are: implementation tion Structural Funds of the of specific priorities of Regional Operational Programme, monitoring of Marshal Office, Unit of priorities and processing request for payments. the Implementation of • All in all, 10 persons oversee the implementation of first priority of the the Regional Operational Regional Operational Programme dedicated to innovation and Programme competitiveness in addition to two other priorities (notably 2 and 5) of the Regional Operational Programme. The challenge is to remove the existing bottlenecks and put in place professional management of measures in support of RTDI activities. Lower Silesia 57 57 n.a. • The DIP is responsible for the implementation of part of Innovation and Intermediary Institution competitiveness priority of the Regional Operational Programme. (known also as DIP) Monitoring Department the EU 32 14 n.a. • The main areas of activities performed by the Unit of the Management of and Structural Funds of the the Regional Operational Programme concern evaluation, monitoring, evaluation Marshal Office, Unit of reporting, processing appeals and technical assistance. the Management of the • The policy stage which requires actions to be taken in the light of further Regional Operational prioritisation on regional smart specialisation areas. Programme Source: Own assessment based on desktop research and a series of interviews.
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3. Innovation Policy Instruments and Orientations
3.1 The regional innovation policy mix During the current (2007-2013) programming period of the EU Structural Funds there are the following measures in support of innovation activities in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia: • Measure 1.1 Investments for enterprises (Regional Operational Programme 2007- 2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); • Measure 1.2 Advisory services for firms and support to business intermediary organisations (Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); • Measure 1.3 Support to financial instruments for SMEs (Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); • Measure 1.4 Infrastructure supporting innovativeness and entrepreneurship in the region (Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); and • Measure 8.2 Knowledge transfer (Human Capital Operational Programme, 2007- 2013).
The focus of the regional innovation policy mix has been mainly on providing direct support to enterprises for increasing their competitiveness and innovation potential. The next measure with the highest financial allocation for improving the access to external sources of funding for SMEs is the JEREMIE initiative26. A substantial part of funding has been also earmarked for the infrastructure supporting innovativeness and entrepreneurship (e.g. science and technology parks, technology incubators, centres of technology transfer, innovation centres, competence centres undertaking R&D activities for enterprises, industrial parks, entrepreneurship incubators and inter-, intra-regional cooperation). Concrete examples of infrastructure projects include technology incubator in Nowa Ruda led by the Regional Development Agency, known also as ‘AGROREG s.a.’27, development of the Technology Park of Legnica – Legnicki Park Technologiczny KGHM LETIA S.A.28 and Wrocław Technology Park29. Comparatively, there has been little funding earmarked for activities in the area of developing skills for innovation with the regional component of the national programme Human Capital (2007-2013). For example, there was a series of systemic projects at the initiative of the Marshal Office which led to the preparation of the Regional Innovation Strategy 2011-2020, Lower Silesia Innovation Voucher30, Lower Silesian Network of Industrial Design31 and GRANT Plus – scholarship programme for STI PhD Students.32 Other concrete examples of individual competitive-based
26 See: http://www.jeremie.com.pl/dolnoslaskie/ 27 See: http://www.agroreg.com.pl/oferta/noworudzki-inkubator-technologiczny.html 28 See: http://www.letia.pl/pl/ 29 See: http://www.technologpark.pl/ 30 See: http://dolnoslaskibon.pl/ 31 See: http://siec.asp.wroc.pl/ 32 See: http://www.umwd.dolnyslask.pl/gospodarka/projektyrealizowaneprzezwrg/grant-plus/
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projects include: Innowacyjny Transfer33 – scholarship programme for scientific R&D personnel in innovative enterprises led by Agency of Innovation Development s.a., Zielony Transfer34 – scholarship programme related to green economy led by the Wroclaw City Town Hall, Creative Engineer35 – promotion of academic entrepreneurship led by the Wroclaw University of Technology and Wielka Nauka36 – fostering process of technology transfer led by Wrocław Technology Park. In case of advisory services for firms and support to business intermediary organisations, the financial allocation was the lowest among all the discussed above support measures. Table 3: Existing Regional Innovation Support Measures Title Duration Policy priorities Budget Organisati More on informatio responsibl n e Investments for 2007-2013 • 4.2. €340.3m Lower Silesia Measure 1.1 enterprises Organisational, Intermediary process and other Institution - non-R&D DIP innovation • 4.1. Direct funding to business R&D and innovation Advisory services 2007-2013 • 5.4. Innovation €1.9m Lower Silesia Measure 1.2 for firms and management and Intermediary support to business advisory services Institution - intermediary DIP organisations Support to financial 2007-2013 • 5.6. Support to €99.3m Marshal Measure 1.3 instruments for venture capital Office SMEs funds • 5.5. Seed and early-stage capital vehicles, business angel networks Infrastructure 2007-2013 • 1.3. Research €88.7m Marshal Measure 1.4 supporting infrastructures Office innovativeness and • 5.2. Science-, entrepreneurship technology parks in the region and incubators Knowledge transfer 2007-2013 • 3.3. Promotion of €46.7m Marshal Measure 8.2 science, Office education, PhD studies and S&T career awareness • 2.2. Mobility between academia and business
Source: RIM Plus repository (Lower Silesia/Poland).
33 See: http://www.it.arisa.com.pl/strona.php/5_o_projekcie.html 34 See: http://wca.wroc.pl/Zielonytransfer/strona/o-projekcie 35 See: http://kreatywny.wmech.pwr.wroc.pl/plakat-informacyjny/ 36 See: http://big-science.pl/en/
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In sum, the annual financial allocations earmarked for broadly defined innovation activities in Lower Silesia (EU and regional funding combined) accounted for the total amount of some €576m.
3.2 Appraisal of regional innovation policies The most recently undertaken evaluation of the entire priority dedicated to RTDI activities of the Regional Operational Programme of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia 2007-2013 was published in October 2013. Led by a consulting company CBS, the evaluation was focused on the following four regional innovation supports measures: • Investments for enterprises (Measure 1.1 of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); • Advisory services for firms and support to business intermediary organisations (Measure 1.2 of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); • Support to financial instruments for SMEs (Measure 1.3 of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia); and • Infrastructure supporting innovativeness and entrepreneurship in the region (Measure 1.4 of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia).
One of the emerging findings of this evaluation was that the target in terms of the number of created jobs (i.e. undetermined contracts and not flexible forms of employment) set out in the priority dedicated to RTDI activities will be missed. It is explained that this is due to the 2008-2009 economic crisis which has had a negative influence on the development of enterprises. According to the respondents, investment projects lead to the increase in employment, whereas highly innovative projects have less impact on the level of employment within enterprises. Overall the evaluation of Measure 1.1 Investments for enterprises is positive. The evaluation has put a spotlight on limited interest among the beneficiaries in R&D projects, due to weak science-industry cooperation in general, but also because of the level of funding that had been set out at PLN 400 thous. and later (in 2012) increased to PLN 2m. It is also mentioned that Measure 1.2 Advisory services for firms and support to business intermediary organisations has not been popular among the potential beneficiaries. Both lack of demand for this type of services and the fact that business intermediary institutions have had access to various other types of support explain the current state of play. According to the evaluators the support to participation in trade fairs, economic missions and advisory services to the SMEs sector has been highly popular among the beneficiaries, however, in the view of practitioners this form of support is questionable. Despite the delay in the launch of the JEREMIE initiative (Measure 1.3 of the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia), it is noted that there has been systematically an increase of interest in the financial engineering instruments. Until end of April 2013, it is estimated that more than 1,600 contracts were signed for the total among of PLN 218m or some €52m. Particularly, the lack of availability of direct subsidies (grants) and attractive conditions offered by banks has contributed to the increase of interest in the financial instruments. On the other hand, the two main barriers for the development of financial instruments are a short period for the repayment of loans and the level of loss set out for the financial intermediaries).
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With regard to Measure 1.4 Infrastructure supporting innovativeness and entrepreneurship in the region, the evaluation pointed out that the demand for services from the potential clients of business intermediary institutions was insufficient, which is due to relatively limited interest among the private sector to cooperate with the scientific research institutions. In summary, the evaluation has put forward in the context of the next financial perspective the following key recommendations: • To abandon the employment criteria during the assessment of applications; • To develop solutions which combine the proposed consulting services with the investment process within the enterprises; • To increase the financial limits and intensity of measures in support of R&D activities; • To foresee measures in support of the establishment and functioning of clusters; • To combine the revolving financial instruments and direct subsidies grants to support the development of entrepreneurship and innovation; • To extend the maximum period of the repayment of the loan in the framework of the JEREMIE initiative (proportionally to the size of the project) and increase the level of loss set out for the financial intermediaries; • To introduce a change in the definition of employment indicator to take into account flexible forms of employment as well as agreements signed in the framework of projects supported through the financial instruments; and • To enhance promotion-information activities concerning the rules and procedures for the 2014-2020 programming period.
Overall the policy focus during the 2007-2013 programming period has been clearly on improving the competitiveness of enterprises through business investment grants. Apart from the fact that some projects related to the development of tourism infrastructure (hotels, wellness centres, agro-tourism), the majority of remaining projects concerned the purchase of existing technologies rather than the development and implementation of new innovative solutions. According to the latest publicly available information (until end September 2013) some 2,45 thous. enterprises from the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia have obtained funding in the framework of the JEREMIE initiative. To put both the number of beneficiaries and the funding earmarked for this type of support into perspective, it is important to mention again the number of registered companies (some 327 thous. in 2011). More importantly, the activities eligible for funding are similar to those supported through direct subsidies (grants). There has been also a substantial allocation of funding (comparable to the JEREMIE initiative) for the development of innovation and business intermediary institutions. In practice, the funding has been channelled to more traditional investments such as the development of industrial parks and entrepreneurship incubators. Due to the issue of State Aid rules, there have been no flagship projects undertaken by the higher education institutions. The projects undertaken in the framework of advisory services have mainly concerned the support for the participation in international fairs. Consequently, there has been practically a lack of specialised services provided within this specific regional support measure.
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One of the underlying characteristics of the regional support measures is that investment grants are targeted at individual beneficiaries. It is also important to note limited funding (PLN 5.4m or €1.3m) earmarked for the innovation voucher scheme supported in the framework of the national programme ‘Human Capital 2007-2013’, in addition to a general lack of cluster support and projects aimed at fostering science-industry cooperation. Based on the interviews carried out in the framework of this assignment, the following barriers to the development of innovation activities can be identified: • The system of incentives for scientific research personnnel does not reward science-industry coopearation; • The lack of mechanims and financial suppport for commercialisation of scientific R&D results (there is a general belief that the private investor will incurr all the costs related to innovative and risky undertakings); • The activities of higher education institutions are overly focused on education; • The limited technology transfer can be partly explained by the actual mindset of researchers who are seeking the novelty but to a much less extent the development of applicable solutions; • The manufacturing rarely concerns the entire value chains and due to existing licenses in particular with foreign companies the opportunities for undertaking joint R&D projects are limited; • The institutions with special status of R&D Centre (known in Polish as CBR) are not eligible for funding for innovation suppport measures; • In special cases the private R&D Centre is considered as a large enterprise because it performs part of its activities for its owner who is de facto a large company; • The modest financial support in case of innovation vouchers; and • The absence of consistent follow-up of some initiatives.
3.3 Good practice cases One of the good practice cases is the Mozart - Business-Science Partnerships Programme37. Launched in July 2012 by the Wrocław City Council, the programme aims at activating the local labour market and support job creation by connecting business and science and strengthening knowledge transfer between these two sectors. The Mozart Programme is based on projects performed by partnerships built between entrepreneurs and academics. In general, the projects should be in response to the needs of companies but also they could lead to the improvements, e.g. in curricula and engaging students in practical dimension of scientific research. The management and implementation of this programme is overseen by the Wrocław Academic Hub (WCA). The City of Wrocław plans to provide funding for businesses-science partnerships that offer the most innovative solutions. The funding is being granted to the company as public aid (de minimis). It covers the remuneration of a researcher in the company for 32 hours per month for the period of up to 12 months. The gross salary per month is set out at PLN 5 thous. which is slightly less than €1,200. Since the launch of the programme, some 50 business-science partnerships have been supported.
37 See: http://wah.wroc.pl/artykuly/1236/Mozart-business-science-partnerships
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The emerging results from the pilot project (known in Polish as ‘Zielony Transfer’) were positive and can be summarised as follows: • More than 20 new work places created; • The development of some 30 new products and services; • The increase of income from a couple of percent to 30 percent; and • The improvement in curricula programmes.
Overall the Mozart Programme has proved to be an innovative and successful policy response in fostering knowledge transfer to companies. The programme has also opened up new opportunities for researchers and led to the establishment of closer cooperation with the industry. In concrete terms, the programme has reduced the risks associated with the employment of researchers for companies. On the other hand, it has provided the scientists with a possibility of continuing their scientific research activities. To conclude, the key to success seems to be the ability of developing a flexible model, which has mutual benefits for both the company and researchers. The second good practice example identified in consultation with the regional administration is the system of scholarships for PhD students undertaking innovative scientific R&D projects. During the period 2012 – 2015 the Marshal Office overseeing the implementation of the project “Grant Plus”38 plans to support some 250 PhD scholarships with the assistance of the regional component of the national programme ‘Human Capital Operational Programme, 2007-2013 (Measure 8.2 Knowledge transfer). The financial support is granted for the period of 9-12 months up to PLN 50 thous. or according to the current exchange rate is slightly less than €12 thous. The underlying characteristic of this project which is different from similar projects in other Polish region is that the payment of scholarship is linked to the requirement of initiating the cooperation with the company from Lower Silesia. According to the publicly available information (Gazeta Wrocławska, 6.12.2013), the results emerging from the beneficiary survey can be summarised as follows: • 90% of PhD students initiated cooperation with experts in areas of their specialisation; • 80% considered the actual progress of their PhD thesis to be higher than during the traditional research process; • 45% declared the continuation of established cooperation after the project is completed; • 21% successfully implemented their R&D results; and • 70% of beneficiaries foresee the take-up of their R&D results in the nearest future.
The scholarship programme has been implemented in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia since 2008. So far, it is estimated that some 440 young researchers have obtained the financial support. The third edition of the competition is planned during the period 2 April 2014 – 30 May 2014. It is foreseen that altogether some 80 additional scholarships will be granted.
38 See: http://www.umwd.dolnyslask.pl/gospodarka/projektyrealizowaneprzezwrg/grant-plus
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3.4 Towards smart specialisation policies Based on the previously undertaken analyses in 2009 and 2010, the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia (2011-2020) identified the following five key branches of economy that exhibit high innovation potential: • Chemical sector; • Pharmaceutical sector; • Automotive sector; • Electrical industries, including the production of electronics and white goods; and • Information technologies. Due to the fragmented potential within the metal processing industries, this branch was not included among the regional priority areas. In contrast, the mining/resources industries were considered as key for the development of innovation activities in the region. The Regional Innovation Strategy also pointed out to several areas with high development potential which currently do not have major contribution to the regional economy, notably production of healthy food, development of modern materials, industrial design, electronics and construction of machinery. Building upon the results of reach undertaken by the IBnGR in 2009, the Regional Innovation Strategy concluded that with regard to the scientific and technological specialisation activities are concentrated on the four following areas: • Medical and life science; • Chemical science; • ICT; • Mathematics and physics. In addition, the Strategy emphasised the importance of interdisciplinary areas, namely biotechnology and genetics, biochemistry and engineering of environment protection. With regard to the methodological approach, the research potential of scientific institutions was assessed mainly on the basis of results from desktop research, 77 face-to-face interviews and 15 in-depth face-to-face interviews. The research potential has been assessed against the following indicators: • Human capital (e.g. the number of students and graduates in 22 disciplines, Central Statistical Office Local Data Bank); • Publications (e.g. the number of scientific publications classified along some 14 different thematic areas, Scopus); • Research activities (e.g. the number of research projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and average funding across 65 scientific research areas, SYNABA database); • International projects (the participation in the FP6-7, CORDIS database); • Goal oriented projects (e.g. the number of projects and their average value per beneficiary, SYNABA database); • FNP programmes (e.g. information on the number of projects provided by the FNP classified for nine areas of activities); • NCBiR programmes (e.g. the number of projects across 14 different scientific research areas, OSF system);
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• Regional support for PhD students (e.g. the number of granted scholarships per scientific research institution was presented); • Regional Operational Programme (e.g. the names of beneficiaries, thematic areas and the projects’ values co-financed within the national Operational Programme ‘Innovative Economy’ 2007-2013); and • Patents (e.g. the number of granted patents and patent applications in some 35 different technological areas, based on the sources of information from the Poland’s Patent Office). Whenever it was possible, the LQ (location quotient) index was calculated in relation to the country performance, in addition to the regional share. The assessment of regional specialisation of economic structure and performance was based on the analysis of 13 sections of the Polish Classification of Activities (PKD/NACE), in addition to 12 divisions of the manufacturing sector. The following set of indicators was used (i.e. the number of enterprises, the employment, the number of the largest enterprises, income from sales, export, income from innovation sales, number of beneficiaries of the national Operational Programme ‘Innovative Economy’ and Regional Operational Programme of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia). The 2020 Regional Development Strategy of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia makes a direct reference to the need of creation of intelligent specialisation of different sub-regions. Within one of its priority area ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation’, it is also foreseen to support the development of new technologies, notably the following interdisciplinary areas which to a large extent had been mentioned in the Regional Innovation Strategy 2011-2020: • Chemical science (material engineering and nanotechnology); • Medical sciences; • Biotechnology; • Biomedicine; • Pharma; • Food; • Mechanical and automatic control; • Hydrology and civil engineering; • Nanophotonics and environmental technologies; • Measuring technologies; • Space; • Micronization of biological materials; and • ICT.
Overall the planned financial allocation for Priority ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation’ of the Regional Operational Programme 2014+ accounts for €380m which represents roughly about 25% of the total programme’s budget, according to our interview sources. According to the Draft Regional Operational Programme of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia 2014+, it is planned to prepare the next Action Plan of the Regional Innovation Strategy for the years 2015-2017.
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The interviews carried out in the framework of this assignment pointed out to the following analyses which are plannned to be undertaken in the first half of next year: • Summary of projects funded during the programming period 2007-2013; • Analysis of regional specialisation based on the statistical data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS); • Update of the analysis of scientific and research potential carried out by the IbnGR in 2009; • Analysis to appraise the results of regional measures in support of clusters that are overseen by the Marshal Office; and • In-depth analysis of the companies’ needs.
A concrete challenge when analysing the types of projects funded from both the national programme ‘Innovative Economy’ in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia and Regional Operational Programme is the lack of common classification of companies’ areas of activities. With regard to the process leading to the identification of regional specialisation areas and niches of innovation, it was formally launched on 11 January 2011. During the period January – June 2011 four workshops with the involvement of working groups were organised. According to the Regional Innovation Strategy, altogether 37 experts representing scientific research institutions, Regional Development Agencies, Science and Technology Parks, private sector, clusters and local authorities participated in these workshops. Launched on 18 April the public consultation ran until 25 May 2011. In response to the electronic invitation to some 3,000 regional stakeholders and mailing to some 100 key actors of the regional system, 24 responses to the survey were submitted. It is also important to note that on 9-10 May consultation meetings took place in Wroclaw, Szczawno and Legnica. Altogether 66 persons have participated in these meetings. Overall it is a commendable effort to obtain not publicly available sectoral statistics from the regional statistical office. Also, the attempt to collect the information about scientific and technological specialisation deserves to be positively appraised. On the other hand, there is a series of practical suggestions that can be made in order to strengthen the methodology: • To use the regional statistical data at the level of PKD/NACE groups (potential sources of information are the Regional Statistical Office and Tax Chamber); • To develop a typology of functional areas of economy; • To involve regional stakeholders from the beginning to validate such typology (the local authorities can also provide valuable information about innovative enterprises); • To analyse the data (2010-2011) of the OPI database in order to strengthen the analysis of scientific research potential; • To foresee a survey addressed to the private sector and scientific research institutions; • To plan other types of analysis like the social network, value-chain of economy, cluster analysis and specific benchmarking studies.
To conclude, the assessment of regional specialisation areas and niches of innovation needs to continue with the view of providing a reliable data that is necessary for developing evidence-based policy. It is also important to bear in mind that the objective is not to artificially define strategic directions and niches of innovation. On the contrary, it is about proving a solid analysis which would constitute the basis for the regional debate. To this end, the establishment of specialisation forums for each
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area could be foreseen with the involvement of key regional stakeholders and policy- makers.
3.5 Possible future orientations and opportunities Based on the existing evidence, it can be concluded that possible future orientations and opportunities for regional innovation policy in Lower Silesia lie particularly in: 1. Putting in place tailored and effective measures in support of innovation activities Primarily, the focus of regional RTDI policy mix has been on providing support for improving the competitiveness of enterprises and entrepreneurship through traditional investment grants targeted at individual beneficiaries. Taking into account a general lack of instruments in support of innovation activities, there is a need to design new forms of support during the 2014+ programming period. The development of new instruments should continue, albeit the ongoing negotiations with the central Government about the types of instruments and financial allocations to be managed by the region. One concrete opportunity is to use the public procurement as a tool to foster innovation, e.g. in the health sector, which is an area where the regional authorities have competences and responsibilities. Another area of intervention could be foreseen for activities relating to recycling of industrial waste containing useful mineral resources and revitalisation of former mining operations. It is important to note that the biggest in Europe waste sites containing post-flotation materials (known also in Polish as ‘Żelazny Most’) is located in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia. What should be avoided by all means is the provision of support for overlapping investments or interventions that are not considered even by the potential beneficiaries as priority investments. Particularly important will be to develop and implemented dedicated instruments to foster RTDI activities in metropolitan areas, which are characterised by the highest scientific research and innovation potential. Due to considerable investments made (not only within the Regional Operational Programme) during the 2007-2013 programming period, it is often stated during the discussions with the regional stakeholders that there is a need to ensure optimal functioning and performance of flagship investments located in the region during the 2014+ programming period. It will be of the utmost importance to design complementary and smart instruments, so that major investment projects prosper and mutually contribute to the achievement of common policy objectives. With regard to science-industry cooperation, a decisive role should be given to the private sector that will be able procure the services based on its real needs and opportunities. The forthcoming programming period offers also new opportunities for developing support for pilot actions in support innovative and more risky projects in areas of regional specialisation. The overall idea would be to link the funding to the actual performance of such projects. At a different level, a similar measure that is currently implemented within the national programme ‘Innovative Economy’ (1.4 and 4.1) concerning goal oriented projects could be foreseen. Taking into account that the support for the development of skills for innovation has been fragmented and limited to regional component of the national programme, the 2014+ programming period offers also new possibilities of developing relevant
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and effective measure to ensure that the available skills match the needs and expectations of potential employers. Besides the need of developing new forms of support to foster RTDI activities, it will be required to tackle various operational aspects. Building upon the experience gained during the implementation of the Regional Operational Programme of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia 2007-2013, the regional authorities can make a difference on how the selection process and actual implementation are designed and put into practice. 2. Developing new innovative collaboration spaces So far the process concerning the identification of regional specialisation and niches of innovation in the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia is at the initial stage of planning. Despite some earlier attempts made back in 2009, there are currently plans to undertake at the beginning of 2014, a series of analyses with the view to establish a better understanding about potential regional specialisation areas. In the meantime, the programming of the 2014+ Regional Operational Programme and negotiations with the central Government are taking place. This report has put a spotlight on a series of practical suggestions that can be made in order to strengthen the current methodological approach. Since the analytical work can provide a solid baseline of the situation and capture at best some recent trends, it is important to recognise some limitations of such an approach from the outset. For example, the assessments tend to be both backward and inward looking. Apart from that it is important to bear in mind that the emerging results from these analyses will neither provide immediate solutions nor give complete answers to the question about how to prioritise future investment. Overall the strategic intelligence is a long term investment which should continue with the view of developing evidence-based policies. Taking into account the ongoing cooperation between different actors of regional innovation system, which is often the result of bottom-up initiatives, there is a unique opportunity for establishing new innovative collaboration spaces in Lower Silesia. To this end, dedicated forums in each area of regional specialisation with the involvement of both regional stakeholders and policy-makers could be foreseen, in addition to the establishment of thematic groups to be appointed and represented in the future Committee overseeing the monitoring of the 2014+ Regional Operational Programme. All this requires the involvement of regional stakeholders in long term, which would motivate them to actively participate in shaping the regional innovation policy. 3. Introducing changes in the governance of regional innovation policy There is a necessity of ensuring coordination at strategic level. The Regional Innovation Strategy 2011-2020 put forward a recommendation to establish the Regional Innovation Council. So far such a decision has not been made. If the above mentioned new innovative collaboration spaces are established and leaders from each area actively participate in taking strategic directions within their areas of competences, then the appointment of another body, such as the Regional Innovation Council will not be necessarily required. Nonetheless, there should be a coordinator appointed who would have a helicopter view of innovation activities taking place in the region.
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Appendix A Bibliography
Documents: 1. Marshal Office (2013) Regional Development Strategy of the Voivodeship of Lower Silesia until 2020. Available at: http://www.umwd.dolnyslask.pl/fileadmin/user_ upload/Rozwoj_regionalny/SRWD/SRWD_2020-final.pdf 2. Marshal Office (2013) Complement of the Regional Operational Programme 2007- 2013. Available at: http://rpo.dolnyslask.pl/fileadmin/user_upload/ documents/13pazdziernik/29/URPO_z_dnia_29_10_2013.pdf 3. Marshal Office / CBS Ultex Ankieter (2013) „Ocena realizacji Priorytetu 1 RPO WD „Przedsiębiorstwa i Innowacyjność” ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem wsparcia przedsiębiorstw prowadzących działalność w zakresie B+R+I, wsparcia instytucji otoczenia biznesu wspierających przedsiębiorczość i innowacyjność, wsparcia udzielanego w ramach inicjatywy JEREMIE oraz stopnia osiągnięcia wskaźnika dotyczącego tworzenia nowych miejsc pracy”. Available at: http://rpo.dolnyslask.pl/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/ 13listopad/6/raport_koncowy_CBS_Ultex_Ankieter.pdf 4. Marshal Office (2013) Projekt Wieloletniej Prognozy Finansowej. Available at: http://bip.umwd.dolnyslask.pl/plik.php?id=31218 5. Supreme Audit Office/NIK (2013) Wdrazanie innowacji przez szkoly wysze o parki technologiczne. Available at: http://www.nik.gov.pl/plik/ id,5291,vp,6860.pdf 6. Gazeta Wrocławska (2013) Artukul “Juz szosty rok Urzad Marszalkowski Wojewodztwa Dolnoslaskiego wspiera doktorantow prowadzacyh innowacyjne badania naukowe, 6.12.2013). 7. Wroclaw University of Technology – Wroclaw Centre for Technology Transfer / Zachodniopomorska Grupa Doradcza (2011) Regional Innovation Strategy for Lower Silesian Voivodeship for years 2011-2020. Available at: http://www.innowacje.dolnyslask.pl/images/attachments/aktualizacja_rsi/rsi_w d_ang.pdf 8. Regional Parliament (2012) Uchwala Sejmiku Wojewodztwa Dolnoslaskiego na rok 2013. Available at: http://bip.umwd.dolnyslask.pl/plik.php?id=25219 9. Ageron/People Matters (2010) Analiza zapotrzebowania na kadry w branżach uznanych za strategiczne dla dolnośląskiego rynku pracy. Available at: http://www.innowacje.dolnyslask.pl/zalaczniki/250_raport2.pdf 10. IBnGR (2010) Potencjał dolnośląskich jednostek B+R oraz priorytetowe obszary badawcze. Available at: http://www.innowacje.dolnyslask.pl/zalaczniki/ 251_potencja%C5%82%20B+R.pdf
Web sources: 1. Central Statistical Office Local Data Bank http://www.stat.gov.pl/bdlen/app/strona.html?p_name=indeks 2. District + Project http://districtplus.it 3. INNOvative MAnufacturing TECHnologies (CINNOMATECH) www.cinnomatech.pl
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4. Innovation Portal of Lower Silesia http://www.innowacje.dolnyslask.pl/ 5. Knowledge and Innovation Community for Information and Communication www.ict-cluster.wroc.pl 6. Lower Silesian Eco-energetic Cluster EEI - Energy, Ecology, Innovation http://www.cedres.pl 7. Lower Silesian Renewable Energy Cluster www.dkeo.pl 8. Lower Silesian Resources Cluster http://www.cuprum.wroc.pl/dolnoslaski-klaster-surowcowy-14 9. SIDE-Cluster www.side-cluster.pl 10. Wrocław Academic Hub (Wrocławskie Centrum Akademicze) http://wah.wroc.pl 11. Wrocław Centre of Technology Transfer, Wrocław Technical University http://www.wctt.pl/ 12. Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ http://www.eitplus.pl/language/en/ 13. Wrocław Technology Park http://www.technologpark.pl
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Appendix B Stakeholders consulted
1. Mieczyslaw Ciurla, Director, Department of Regional Development, Unit of Economy of the Marshal Office (09.12.2013). 2. Agata Zemska, Deputy Director, Department of Regional Development, Unit of Economy of the Marshal Office (09.12.2013). 3. Justyna Lasak, Head, Department of Regional Development, Unit of Economy of the Marshal Office (09.12.2013). 4. Markek Winkowski, CEO, Wrocław Technology Park (09.12.2013). 5. Prof. Monika Hardygóra, CEO, CUPRUM KGHM (09.12.2013). 6. Leszek Zaremba, Deputy Head, Department of Contracts and Project Management (09.12.2013). 7. Prof. Jerzy Langer, CEO, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (an interview in 2012). 8. Tomasz Gondek, Deputy CEO, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 9. Maciej Litwin, Office Director, Office for University Relations, Municipality of Wrocław (10.12.2013). 10. Magdalena Ćwikowska, Director, Department of Biotechnology, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 11. Beata Lubicka, Head of Unit, Project Acquisition, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 12. Patrycja Radek, Deputy Director of Business Development, Sales & Marketing, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 13. Cezary Lejkowski, Director, Climate and Energy Department, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 14. Agnieszka Skotarczyk, Senior Specialist, IP Protection and Contacts with the Industry, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 15. Paweł Wielgus, Deputy Director, Commercialisation, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 16. Kamila Rak, Head, Humanitarium - Social Innovation, Wrocław Research Centre EIT+ (10.12.2013). 17. Prof. Jan Koch, Director, Wrocław Centre of Technology Transfer, Wrocław University of Technology (10.12.2013).
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Appendix C Statistical Data
PL51 Dolnoslaskie Country EU27 Year Performance Performance relative to relative to PL51 PL EU27 EU27 PL ECONOMIC INDICATORS GDP per capita (Euros) 10400 9200 24500 2010 42,4 113,0 GDP growth rate - (2000-2010) 7,55 6,68 2,93 2000-2010 257,9 113,0 Long term unemployment rate 4,37 3,59 4,14 2011 94,7 82,2 Labour productivity growth (%) 4,24 4,20 2,20 2000-2010 193,0 101,0 RCI 2013 -0,54 -0,62 0,00 2013 63,7 109,1 Share of employment in agriculture 0,06 0,13 0,05 2011 126,5 49,4 Share of employment in industry (including construction) 0,34 0,31 0,25 2011 137,9 112,8 Share of employment in business 0,28 0,28 0,30 2011 91,6 99,0 Share of employment in public sector 0,21 0,20 0,25 2011 84,1 105,0 Share of employment in S&T 0,07 0,06 0,09 2011 79,3 119,8
RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY INDICATORS Employees with ISCED 5-6 (% all employees) 28,7 29,0 30,4 2011 94,3 98,8 Business R&D (% GDP) 0,18 0,23 1,26 2010 14,3 78,3 Government R&D (% GDP) 0,06 0,26 0,26 2010 23,1 23,1 Higher Education R&D (% GDP) 0,26 0,27 0,49 2010 53,1 96,3 EPO patent applications (per mln population) 5,70 5,03 114,99 2008 5,0 113,4 Employment in medium-high & high-tech manufacturing (% total employment) 9,65 5,27 6,39 2011 151,0 183,1 Employment in knowledge-intensive services (% total employment) 30,77 26,86 35,32 2011 87,1 114,6 Total R&D personnel (% active population) - numerator in head count - all sectors 0,66 0,74 1,53 2010 43,1 89,2 Structural funds on business innovations (Euros per mln population) 198,32 210,75 77,74 2007-2013 255,1 94,1 Structural funds on core RTDI (Euros per mln population) 100,54 113,11 63,01 2007-2013 159,6 88,9
LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY B-E - Industry (except construction) 38.066 27.460 71.853 2010 53,0 138,6 C - Manufacturing 56.378 2010 100,0 100,0 F - Construction 28.472 27.556 43.792 2010 65,0 103,3 G-I - Wholesale and retail trade, transport, accomodation and food service activities 37.843 2010 100,0 100,0 J - Information and communication 79.994 2010 100,0 100,0 L - Real estate activities 387.941 2010 100,0 100,0 M_N - Professional, scientific and technical activities; administrative and support service activities 39.717 2010 100,0 100,0
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PL51 Dolnoslaskie Country EU27 Year Performance Performance relative to relative to BUSINESS INNOVATION INDICATORS Technological (product or process) innovators (% of all SMEs) 0,22 0,14 0,40 2008 55,2 154,1 Non-technological (marketing or organisational) innovators (% of all SMEs) 0,12 0,11 0,38 2008 31,7 111,8 Innovative SMEs collaborating with others (% of all SMEs) 0,29 0,23 0,37 2008 78,1 125,7 SMEs innovating in-house (% of all SMEs) 0,19 0,11 0,39 2008 48,9 178,4
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