A Marriage of Convenience
The marriage between business and science, a crucial factor in driving an innovative economy, can be a win-win situation. But some concessions need to be made first: entrepreneurs must think beyond profit, while scientists should look for a practical rationale for their projects.
Professor Jerzy Lis, rector of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, is optimistic. “We are already cooperating, for instance with the IT sector. However, it is important to think about it differently, not just in terms of great Nobel-winning projects. It is about day-to-day work, expert opinions, transfers of people, implementation-based doctorates,” he enumerates. “Right from the start, AGH partnered with KGHM, the copper company. But that is not all. Before the pandemic, war and high inflation, over 40% of AGH’s income came from funds raised through its cooperation with industry, including from the ceramics and construction sectors. Our technologies can be found in surface-finishing products such as gypsum or paints.”
Professor Lis points out that thanks to Poland’s EU membership, achievements cannot be subdivided into domestic and foreign ones. “We often see a situation where a company orders an analysis, some of it being performed, for example, in a German laboratory, and some of it in a Polish one. There is a mutual intermingling of people and projects. If there are no borders between the countries, there are no borders in science, either. Each of our 17 departments at AGH is like a research and teaching company: each has its own business partner. What is important in these relations is to jointly identify needs,” he emphasises.
Materiał chroniony prawem autorskim - wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.
Dalsze rozpowszechnianie artykułu za zgodą wydawcy INFOR PL S.A. Kup licencję.