Poland's Promises

Before drawing into an enthusiastic report of my three day visit to Warszawa, I would like to reiterate a warning. First refrain from doing commercial offers, sending research proposals or CV’s to apply for jobs. We have serious procedures for each of the above, in which I have no role. I block everyone who sends such offers. Second I receive daily invitations to speak at a conference or to visit anything of interest. As a rule of thumb I have budget for visiting each member state once a year (if further than three hours by train from Brussels). I visit countries holding the presidency twice, provided that they invite six months ahead. Clever organisations invite me more than three months ahead so invitations less than two weeks ahead of time are unlikely to fit in the agenda or in the budget.  I am willing to do a video recorded message, or to intervene through a video connection is it is asked four weeks in advance. I am not bureaucratic, I am simply very busy.

Well and then Warszawa. The occasion of my 8th visit to Poland since 1990 was the CEE Deep Tech Summit. The Summit has the ambition to become the annual event for deeptech in Central in Eastern Europe. It has the support of Hello Tomorrow (the ultimate boutique event), and the EIC fosters the establishment of 4-5 annual events for deeptechs with a full European coverage. The programme in three days meant for me 6 speaking engagements, with a focus on investors, a focus on start-ups and a focus on deeptech scientists. This adheres to our recently launched Trusted Investors Network and our programmes: Accelerator as well as Pathfinder/Transition.

Poland's Potential

Poland is a country with great potential, but also underperforming in relation to its size, GDP and quality of science. On the basis of the size of the country, 38 Million inhabitants a fair share would be 42 funded projects under the EIC accelerator, the reality is 7 projects. For the Pathfinder projects, the score should be around 100 participants, the reality is 25. It is not the quality of these projects are low. The Polish beneficiaries are amongst the best of the EIC portfolio. The success rates of Polish applicants are slightly below (10%) the average, but the number of applications is far below the potential and a fair share (25%).

I can not be exhaustive in factors of explanation but I will mention three of them: technology transfer from Universities, regional emulation and the maturity of the VC market.

Tech Transfer

On the first point, there are too many barriers - cultural and institutional to be successful in tech transfer. I do not like the cultural factors, because it is often the way they are embedded in regulations that matter. Universities should do more in having entrepreneurship (and innovation and industrial economics) modules in STEM curricula. A module on technological entrepreneurship should be compulsory in PhD programmes. Transfer of patents should be standardised, preferably in a convention underwritten by all universities. The EIC recommends a standard fee of 10% royalty and or shareholding. More involvement (without a contribution in cash) stifles startups.

Emulation

The second factor is regional emulation. Poland is a relatively big country, but also rather centralised. The success of Spain and The Netherlands in the EIC is partly based on a relatively higher decentralisation of economic policies to regions. Regionalisation of policies forces regions to take sharper profiles, to adhere closer to the regional strengths but also to develop specific narratives of change. It also enables to build up skills in innovation management. Poland would be probably more successful with 5-10 regional hubs with long term governance and resources. And such a mechanism would also lead to jealousy, emulation, imitation and cooperation and also enables more fluid cooperation across borders. Technically regional instruments entail funding for incubators, for shared facilities, for pre-accelerators and for Seal of Excellence.

VC Market

The third factor is the structure of the VC market. This is an important fair as VCs provide seed money, co-invest alongside the EIC and pick up start-ups that are not enough deep tech and a quicker road to market. Poland has the best VC market of the CEE, but too many technologically agnostic (ignorant) VCs and not able to be lead investor. And too many VC focus on digital startups (apps and SAAS) that no longer have competitive edge or unique competences. And with almost all EU Countries, Poland lacks financial instruments that attract private savings and institutional funding into startups, albeit indirectly through VCs or funds of funds.