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MP Paweł Pudłowski, Chairman of the Committee of Digital Affairs, Innovation and New Technologies, the Polish Parliament
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three decades or the whole network of think-tanks and academic institutions (National Foresight Network). The Fins attach great importance to technological development, as attested by the founding of the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize (often called the Nobel Prize in technology).
In Poland, there are some academic centres (e.g. Forecasting Committee "Poland2000plus"
of the Polish Academy of Sciences and independent research centres, involved in forecasting future development trends. They often focus on sectoral studies (which assess e.g. demographic prospects, changes in the labour market, energy strategies, etc.), but interdisciplinary analyses, combining political, social, economic and technological assessment are lacking. One important problem is that there is little demand for such analyses from government bodies responsible for long-term strategic planning.
The years 2006–2008 saw the implementation of a National Foresight Programme, which covered three research areas: Poland's sustainable development, ICT and Security (the project was coordinated by the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, acting under a mandate from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.) Methods associated with forecasting have been also used in developing the document "Poland 2030". Third wave of modernity", i.e. a long-term national growth strategy prepared by the Chancellery of the President of the Council of Ministers, under the direction of minister M. Boni (in the years 2011-2012). This document identified the main trends, challenges and social & economic growth scenarios for Poland, as well the guidelines for spatial planning. It focused on the following priority areas: competitiveness and innovativeness of the economy, balancing the growth potential of Poland's regions and the effectiveness and efficiency of state institutions.
Poland is not perceived as one of the world leaders in the development of modern technologies. Nonetheless, it does have certain achievements in this area. Some particularly promising areas include e.g. research on new materials (including graphene - our national speciality), medical technologies or ICT solutions.
Building an innovative economy is one of the priorities of Poland's growth strategy.
Devising mechanisms allowing the practical application of research work and support for the implementation phase of new inventions should be seen as crucial. State institutions, such as the National Centre for Research and Development and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development have an important role to play with this respect. The appropriate use of EU funding is an opportunity to increase innovativeness.
Poland ranks low in innovation rankings. According to the report The Global Innovation Index 2015, Effective Innovation Policies for Development198 we stand somewhere in the middle of innovation rankings. Poland ranked 46th among the 141 countries listed. This is the penultimate place in the EU (with only Romania behind us). Many economists feel that our country may fall in the so-called middle income trap, due to insufficient innovation levels (such economies grow mostly as suppliers of semi-products for more developed countries). An unfavourable regulatory system, the shortage of capital and/or fear of taking business risks, poor collaboration skills (low social capital) can be named as the main barriers responsible for that state of affairs.
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98 https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/content/page/GII-Home
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A report of the Central Bank of Poland published in May 2016 - Innovation potential of the economy - Conditions, determinants, prospects - presents a thorough analysis of factors related to innovation in Poland's economy. The report hypothesises that the basic growth factors, which have been crucial to the growth of Poland's economy in the past two decades - capital accumulation and growing employment - are being gradually depleted. In the coming years, Poland's economic growth will be increasingly dependent on the increased productivity of production factors, which can be achieved by increasing the economy's innovation potential99.
The competition Poland's Product of the Future (Polski Produkt Przyszłości) organised by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development is one of the initiatives designed to promote innovation and identify modern technological solutions with high market potential. The idea behind the competition is to promote modernity, innovation and entrepreneurship.
The competition identifies products, which can significantly contribute to improving living conditions. Award-winning projects included e.g. equipment using new technologies to treat hearing impairments in children, low invasion orthopaedic implant systems or a thinner, innovative photovoltaic module.
In 2013 the plebiscite for Poland's invention of the year was won by Cyber-eye - the work of a team headed by Professor Andrzej Czyżewski from the Gdańsk Technical University.
This system is made up of hardware and software allowing the integration of equipment designed to follow eyesight, the analysis of brain waves (EEG) and olfactory stimuli. This invention makes it possible to check the state of consciousness of patients in vegetative state. The Cyber-eye allows the patient to establish contact with the outside world, which would be totally impossible using standard methods.
Research on new materials, including graphene are very promising. Graphene is a flat, extremely thin structure, one atom thick, made of carbon atoms combined in hexagons. This material is light and flexible. The electrical and mechanical properties of graphene make it a substitute for silicon in many applications, allowing the production of new-generation integrated circuits, which may revolutionise electronics. Polish scientists were the first to develop an industrial method of manufacturing graphene. In 2011, the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology and the Department of Physics of the Warsaw University informed that they had jointly developed a technology to obtain large fragments of high-quality graphene. In 2015 the Technical University of Łódź presented a device to produce graphene from the liquid phase, which allows the production of large graphene flakes with properties close to its theoretical properties. This product was called HSMG (High Strength Metallurgical Graphene). A spin-off called Advanced Graphene Products Sp. z o.o. is dealing with its marketing and developing prospective applications. In 2016 the HSMG method was patented in the EU and USA.
For a long time science has not played a sufficient role in Poland's economy. This is beginning to change. In August 2011 the Council of Ministers adopted the National Research Programme drawn up by the Committee for Scientific Research of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. One of the goals of the programme is to increase innovation in our industry through closer cooperation with scientific circles. This is supposed to translate
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into an increased effectiveness of Poland's economy and narrowing the gap between Poland and the more developed countries.
The National Research Programme lays down the strategic guidelines for scientific research and development work, which should significantly contribute to Poland's economic growth.
The Programme identifies seven strategic directions. Three are related to technologies dealing with power engineering, materials and one to IT, telecommunications and mechatronics. One deals with the natural environment, agriculture and forestry, another with Poland's economic growth in globalised markets and the two remaining with medicine and national defence.
Increasing innovation in our industry calls for mechanisms, which will boost demand for research useful to the economy. Developing systems, which will promote private investment in the scientific sector is worthwhile. Cooperation platforms are required to ensure that scientific institutions and business organisations decide to collaborate in developing innovative solutions for the economy. We need programmes, which will secure funding for applied research oriented on practical applications, which can be then implemented in the industry. Such programmes are developed and co-financed by the National Centre for Research and Development - an executive agency supervised by the Minister of Science and Higher Education. The NCRD finances R&D work in applied research, as well as the marketing and transfer of R&D results to the economy.
Programmes designed to support scientific research and R&D financed with EU funds in the framework of dedicated operational programmes play a special role: Innovative Economy (2007-2013) and Smart Growth (2014-2020). It would appear that especially small and medium-sized enterprises should invest in R&D and implementation. As a general rule, such enterprises have a greater capability to develop and adapt innovative solutions. On the other hand, they face the greatest problems with securing external funding. This is why it is precisely small and medium-sized enterprises should be an important beneficiary of EU funding.
National parliaments may play an important role in stimulating debates on the prospects of technological development. Parliaments are natural places for unbridled debates between speakers holding different views, but enjoying public trust. They are a ground for the confrontation of different views and building consensus. MPs also have a controlling role in supervising government activities, which often deal with issues concerning the development of science and technology. In Poland's parliament this is the role of the standing Committee for Digitization, Innovation and Modern Technologies (this thought to be potentially developed in the presentation with additional information of the Committee's work).
When designing public policies, decision makers should aim for evidence-based policies, take account of worldwide trends, new standards and other countries' experiences. This is why it is important to develop an appropriate expert base and apolitical advisory institutions, which will support the MPs in their law-making activities. Summing up, we should salute the Finnish initiative, as the conference "For the next generations" has allowed the sharing of experiences and the presentation of good practice in developing long-term, responsible development policies for future generations.
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Law-making and debates on new challenges should never take place without regard for global dynamics or megatrends, i.e. economic, social or cultural trends, which seriously affect all the aspects of our lives. Observing trends and forecasting their influence on the global order could take place in a dedicated research unit working for the parliament (modelled e.g. on organisations, which make up the EPTA network). Such activities would promote change in the ways public policies are developed, from reactive to proactive, capable of reacting to elusive, not immediately visible, but significant global changes. Such an institution, working in support of parliamentary committees, would help define new, long-term challenges facing Poland. It could also assess proposed legislative solutions in the aspect of long-term national and social interests. As of today, there is no institution effectively performing this function. In the past, this role was to a certain extent played by the Government Centre for Strategic Studies, but it worked mostly for the Council of Ministers, rather than the parliament (this centre was liquidated in 2006).
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Mr Michael Nentwich, President of EPTA 2016, Director of Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA/Vienna)