Warsaw Academic Entrepreneurial Incubator “Cambridge Python” - a launch of the second phase, February 2008.

• Dolnośląski Innovation and Business Park (DPIB): Together with Dolnośląskie voivodship, the City of Wrocław, Wrocław Regional Development Agency and Wrocław Agglomeration Development Agency we are setting up an Innovation and Business Park in Wrocław. The DPIB will serve as a platform for the Polish scientists who want to work with SMEs on commercialisation of their ideas. The Park will showcase UK business - academia collaboration model based on Coventry University model.
  
• Warsaw Academic Entrepreneurial incubator “CambridgePYTHON ”: We have helped in establishing and running an academic entrepreneurial incubator in Warsaw which draws upon Cambridge best practice.  This is the PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences) led project. The aim is to promote the UK model of business - academia co-operation, of which the so-called Cambridge Silicon fen is, possibly, the best example. On 28th March 2007 Charles Crawford, the then HM Ambassador to Poland and Professor Andy Hopper, Head of the Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University, officially launched the project. The launch of its second phase took place on 14th February 2008 at the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Present were Prof. Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Higher Education and Prof. Shai Vyakarnam, Cambridge University. The Embassy was represented by Paul Fox, Consul General and Counsellor EU/Commercial. More information about the CambridgePYTHON project can be found at: www.cambridgepython.pl 
  
• UK-Poland Partnering Event for Polish Scientists and UK partners: The British Embassy in Warsaw, together with the DTI GlobalWatch Service and the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education co-organised  an inward delegation of fourteen leading Polish life scientists and materials engineers to the UK on 27th and 28th February 2007.
  
  The so-called Partnering Event was held on 28th February in the DTI Conference Centre in London. The aim of the meeting was to provide the UK business and academia community with insight into top quality Polish science as presented by the leading Polish specialists in life sciences and materials engineering. The keynote speakers during the opening part of the Partnering Event were Richard Jones, the then Deputy Director, Science & Innovation Group, FCO, and Dr Jacek Gierliński, the then Adviser to the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education. 
  
• Science Diplomatic Club (SDC):  On the initiative of the Adviser to the Polish Science and Higher Education Minister, BE Warsaw/S&I Unit became one of three co-founders of the Science Diplomatic Club based on the example of the London Diplomatic Science Club. The remaining two founders are the French and the German Science Attaches. The aim of the club is to jointly learn about initiatives via study visits to the key Polish scientific institutions and to exchange information on Poland’s S&I developments.  
  
• Projects with the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN): Throughout 2007 and 2008 we have helped facilitate further collaboration between Polish and UK scientists representing various branches of science, including nanotechnology, social sciences and molecular physics. In some cases results of this co-operation may lead to joint Poland-UK bids for funding from the 7th European Framework Programme later this year.

Policy insight

• Policy monitoring: In order to exchange experience between our countries, we maintain bilateral contacts with Polish institutions that shape Poland’s science & innovation policy. We continue to monitor developments on the Polish science policy arena and inform the UK stakeholders about any changes of high importance in Poland's science policy.
  
• S&I press summaries: We continue to report on key Polish S&I developments with particular emphasis on the S&I priority areas. We inform our UK contacts on top S&I developments in Poland. They have been received with plaudits and follow-up enquiries. Following one of our  summaries, we were asked to prepare an article on Polish nanotechnology sector  which was placed in a new UK magazine - called NanoNOW.
  
  We invite Polish scientists to sending us information about their latest achievements at: andrzej.wajs@fco.gov.uk