About us

Over the last several years, Małopolska has built a coherent innovation system and developed a strong culture of networking between economic, scientific and business environment entities, which results in the presence of several well-established clusters, including 3 National Key Clusters. In the strategic dimension, the functioning of the regional innovation system is defined in a participatory document prepared with an outlook until 2030. An important element of this is Małopolska's smart specialisations, whose flexibility, and thus relevance to regional needs, is guaranteed by an original model of the entrepreneurial discovery process.

Malopolska - here we create innovation!

 

In Małopolska there are 800 entities conducting research and development activities (including 740 in the business sector). Both in absolute terms (on a par with the Śląskie Voivodeship) and in relation to population numbers, this ranks second in the country (2022). The results of scientific and research work are commercialised thanks to thriving university and non-university technology transfer centres and a number of other innovation and entrepreneurship centres, of which there are 251 in the region (second result after Silesia). Among them, the Kraków Technology Park, which has the status of a Digital Innovation Hub and also manages the Kraków Special Economic Zone of one thousand hectares. The Voivodeship is also implementing the SPIN project, in which cooperation between business and universities takes place in Knowledge Transfer Centres - long-established and effective models of regional intersectoral cooperation. Thanks in part to this experience, Małopolska ranks third in the country in terms of both submitted inventions and granted patents - both in absolute numbers and per capita (2022).

The Małopolska business services sector has seen dynamic growth in entities and employment. Kraków has the largest number (261) of shared services centres after the capital. They provide almost 17% of all jobs, which is the highest rate among national metropolises. The average employment in centres is also the highest, which means that these centres are relatively less dispersed. It is worth noting that 12.5% are research and development centres, i.e. concentrating jobs that are a source of potentially above-average added value. This value is clearly higher than the national average. Amongst others, Aon, IBM, UBS, Motorola, Hitachi or GE Healthcare² have their headquarters in Kraków. The IT market is developing strongly in the region. Kraków's 100 largest companies in this sector employ over 37,000 specialists. A total of 55 thousand of them work here, which constitutes 17% of their national population. The largest employers in the sector are HSBC, Comarch and Aptiv³.

If you want to study and work, only in Małopolska!

 

Małopolska is taking initiatives to make it easier for local entrepreneurs, especially SMEs, to strengthen international cooperation. Among other things, it is an active member of the Vanguard initiatives involved in four pilots: Bioeconomy, 3D Printing, Efficient and Sustainable Manufacturing and Artificial Intelligence, and since the end of 2023 it has been co-ordinating a pilot project on hydrogen. Małopolska marked its activity related to building a regional hydrogen ecosystem by joining the Silesian-Malopolska Hydrogen Valley in 2023. The region has been implementing activities financed by the European Commission under the Science Meets Regions model, the idea of which is to effectively network representatives of science and public administration. Małopolska continues its activity the the BERRY+ partnership (established on the S3 Platform within the industrial modernisation strand), and is also a member of the NEREUS association, focusing on the development of space technologies.

Małopolska has 25 mother universities and 15 branches, which educate nearly 150,000 students, and over 70% of Małopolska's population aged 19-24 is studying. Students account for 4.3% and PhD students for 0.04% of the region's population. All these indicators place Małopolska in second place, behind the Masovian Voivodeship. There are more than 22 000 full-time equivalents (FTE) in R&D, of which more than 65% are in the business sector (2022).

Małopolska has 107 accredited research laboratories, which is the fourth best result in the country, and 13 calibration laboratories (fifth result) (2024). Małopolska is also home to almost 30% (20 out of 70) of all projects included in the Polish Research Infrastructure Map (2020 edition). These projects represent the following fields: technical sciences and energy, biological, medical and agricultural sciences, physical and engineering sciences, digital research infrastructures.

Of the remaining key innovation indicators, the following are worth mentioning (according to the most up-to-date data for Q1 2024):

• the highest values in the country for GERD (total R&D expenditure) and BERD (business expenditure on R&D) in relation to GDP: 2.56% and 1.67% respectively;
• average provincial share of business outlays on R&D in total R&D outlays: 65,5%;
• second place among the voivodeships in terms of the absolute amount of internal expenditure on R&D: PLN 6.3 billion;
• second place in terms of R&D expenditures per capita: PLN 1,841;
• third among the voivodeships in terms of the ratio of R&D outlays to R&D personnel: PLN 183 thousand per position;
• second place in terms of total R&D personnel (22.6 thousand FTE) and in companies (14.9 thousand FTE);
• second place in terms of the share of R&D personnel in total employment: 2,4%;
• third place in terms of entities with R&D equipment included in fixed assets: 202;
• fourth place among provinces in terms of the share of revenues from the sale of innovative products in industrial enterprises: 11%;
• fourth place in terms of the share of revenue from sales of products of entities classified as high and medium-high technology: 40%.

Regional innovation is supported by a number of cyclical events that are the initiative of the local government. The #StartUP Małopolska acceleration programme, which has so far covered 80 companies, supports young innovative companies in accelerating their development by giving them access to expert advice in the form of individual mentoring and specialised workshops. The programme ‘Malopolska - here technology becomes business’ supports the organisers of the most important events in technology and for the creative industries, which have so far recorded over 100,000 participants. Global Entrepreneurship Week in Małopolska, in turn, is part of the global Global Entrepreneurship Week initiative. As part of it, workshops and meetings with entrepreneurs are held (attended by around 7,000 residents each year) to promote entrepreneurial and innovative attitudes. The series of regional conferences ‘Innovative Małopolska’ allows information and know-how to reach almost every corner of Małopolska. The Małopolska Researchers' Night serves to promote the achievements of Małopolska's scientists and innovative solutions emerging from the region's research centres.

Footnotes:

1. SOOIPP (2021), Ośrodki innowacji i przedsiębiorczości w Polsce; Raport z badania 2021
2. ABSL (2022), Sektor nowoczesnych usług biznesowych w Polsce 2022
3. Motife (2024), Krakow IT Market Map – Q1 2024