Businesses Flock to Technopark Gliwice
The Warsaw Voice: 2008-10-09
The Science and Technology Park in Gliwice in southern Poland provides a congenial working environment for innovative businesses, both well-established companies and start-ups launched by students from the local university of technology.
The science and technology park, also known as Technopark Gliwice, opened in June as a joint venture of the Katowice Special Economic Zone, the Silesian University of Technology, and the municipality of Gliwice.
The project’s founders say the country’s economic growth should be supported by transfer of innovative methods from the research sector to the marketplace. This transfer is particularly important in Poland’s southern Silesia region, which has been based on heavy industry, in particular coal and steel, over the past 50 years. As a result of its excessive reliance on heavy industry, Silesia is lagging behind other regions in Poland in terms of advanced technology. At the same time, with its seven universities, five research institutes and 13 R&D centers, Silesia is one of the regions with the strongest research and development potential in Poland.
Redefining the region
Technopark Gliwice is expected to create conditions to channel this potential for innovation and business incubation activities. The first three innovative businesses were launched at Technopark Gliwice in early 2006, even before the park began to be built. Today nearly 20 high-tech businesses have their headquarters in Technopark Gliwice.
To facilitate technology transfer, Technopark Gliwice has compiled a database of some 500 advanced technologies available from local companies in sectors such as information and communications technology, electronics, medical technology, biotechnology, and environmental technology. The database also contains data on several hundred businesses operating in the region.
Some 75 percent of the funds to launch Technopark Gliwice came from the European Regional Development Fund, which has a pool of money set aside for the development of business incubators and technology parks. Technopark Gliwice is expected to create conditions for the development, transfer and promotion of advanced technology. Its activities focus on three areas: supporting the transfer of innovative technology from the Silesian University of Technology to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME); stimulating business incubation activities and the start-up of innovative businesses; and attracting and promoting high-tech companies.
Jacek Kotra, director of Technopark Gliwice, says the project has already achieved its goals, attracting a large number of companies active in specific sectors. However, the project’s development potential is much larger, Kotra says, and there are plans to expand the park. At present, 160 people, most of them engineers, are employed in Technopark Gliwice.
The big
Technopark Gliwice has drawn many well-established companies that have been attracted by the favorable business conditions available in the area. These companies include AutoR Komputerowe Systemy Inżynierskie, a company that has supported businesses in using computer engineering systems for nearly 20 years; Wasko SA, one of Poland’s largest information and communications technology companies providing ICT solutions to both small and large customers; and elVision, an electronics company that specializes in the production of microprocessor controllers for lighting systems. After relocating to Technopark Gliwice, elVision has developed many new products and continues to upgrade them.
The small
MES-Tech is one of the small businesses that were launched in Technopark Gliwice in 2007. It provides analytical services to customers dealing with machine design, mainly small and medium businesses. MES-Tech helps customers reduce the size and weight of their machine components and improve their operating properties by increasing their rigidity, decreasing tension and changing the frequency of vibrations.
Parallel Systems, a company set up in January 2006, is working to develop a technology for building high-capacity electronic processing systems.
One of a kind
One of the businesses operating in Technopark Gliwice is i3D Wizualizacje Interaktywne. It offers interactive 3D visualizations and presentations of models and objects such as buildings, production lines and means of transportation. The company’s products are intended for businesses, local governments, central government agencies and research centers.
In its projects, the company uses state-of-the-art visualization software. Together with software supplier EON Reality Inc. and a consortium of hardware suppliers Microsoft, Christie Digital, NVidia, Philips and Hewlett-Packard, i3D Wizualizacje Interaktywne is setting up an Interactive Digital Center (IDC), the first such facility in this part of Europe. As part of this 4-million-euro project, extensive equipment for interactive 3D presentations will be installed in Technopark Gliwice, including a cinema with a ConCave screen, the first of its kind in Poland.
In association with the Silesian University of Technology, i3D Wizualizacje Interaktywne is conducting R&D work to further develop its virtual reality technologies.
Mechatronics, acoustics and intelligent materials
Mechatronic company EMT Systems is also doing its best to respond to market needs. The company designs and builds mechatronic facilities and laboratories for secondary schools, universities and training centers. It also offers training courses in mechatronics, automation and design technology.
Another Technopark Gliwice company, Biuro Ekspertyz i Analiz Środowiskowych Eko-Noise S.C., deals with acoustical engineering and noise and vibration protection. The company’s specialists draw noise maps of urban areas and make environmental noise impact assessments for roads and industrial and construction projects. They also design noise protection systems, take noise and vibration measurements, and provide training courses in environmental acoustics.
Smartpol, a company set up to develop intelligent materials, is a model example of a close relationship between science and industry. The company manufactures actuators made of shape memory alloys such as Nitinol and Flexinol. These actuators have been developed by Smartpol experts together with researchers at the Silesian University of Technology. The team is now working to find practical applications for these materials.
Meanwhile, Technopark Gliwice managers are in talks with other companies interested in launching their operations in Gliwice.
Ewa Dereń
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