Małopolska ranks third in the country in terms of both reported inventions and granted patents, but already the first in terms of granted patents per million inhabitants (2018). There are almost 600 entities conducting research and development activity in the region, which is the third result in the country, but translates into second place in terms of population. Moreover, there are approx. 15 cluster initiatives, including the LifeScience Krakow Cluster and the Sustainable Infrastructure Cluster, which have the status of Key National Clusters. Companies such as ABB, Aptiv, Motorola, CH2MHill and Ericpol chose Krakow as a place for the development of their R&D activities. There are technology parks in Małopolska and industrial, such as the Krakow Technology Park, which has the status of a Digital Innovation Hub, and manages the Krakow Special Economic Zone with an area of 1,000 ha. In the Małopolska business services sector, there is a dynamic increase in entities and employment. Krakow, with 238 centers, is the second, after Warsaw, one with the largest number of such institutions. It is also an employment leader – around 90,000 people work in the local BPO centers (business process outsourcing), SSC (shared service centers), IT (information technologies), and R&D (research and development). people. Additionally, it has the highest share of R&D centers among the 8 largest centers, amounting to 17% (2019).
The results of scientific and research works carried out in scientific institutions and research and development units are commercialized thanks to the dynamically operating university and non-university Technology Transfer Centers and a number of other innovation centers. The voivodeship is also implementing the SPIN project (Małopolska Knowledge Transfer Centers for Entrepreneurs’ Support), in which cooperation between business and universities takes place in Knowledge Transfer Centers – models of regional inter-sector cooperation that have been established over the years and are effective.
There are 106 accredited research laboratories in Małopolska, which is the fourth result in the country, and 11 calibration laboratories. There are also 3,100 regular laboratories in the region. 807 of them are located in Małopolska research units (universities, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and research institutes). In Małopolska there are also almost 30% (20 out of 70) of all projects included in the Polish Map of Research Infrastructure (2020). These undertakings represent the following areas: technical sciences and energy, biological and medical sciences and agriculture, physical and engineering sciences, digital research infrastructures.
There are 29 universities in Małopolska, educating over 150,000 people. students, and nearly 65% of Małopolska residents aged 19-24 are studying, which is the third result in the country. In addition, over 1.7% of the region’s inhabitants pursue doctoral studies, which is the second result in the country and translates to 6,000 people. 17,000 people are active in R&D. full-time jobs (full-time equivalents), of which over 60% in the enterprise sector.
Among the remaining, the most important indicators of innovation, the following are worth mentioning (according to the most recent data for the first quarter of 2020):
• the highest values of GERD (total expenditure on research and development works) in the country and the second BERD (expenditure on research and development works by enterprises in relation to GDP): 1.85 and 1.17, respectively;
• the average share of enterprises’ outlays in R&D outlays in the voivodship scale: 63.4%;
• second place among voivodships in terms of the absolute amount of outlays ext. for R&D activity: PLN 3 billion;
• second place in terms of R&D expenditure per capita: PLN 1,087;
• the third ratio of R&D expenditures to R&D personnel among voivodships: 140 thousand. PLN for the position;
• second place in terms of total R&D personnel (34.5 thousand) and with a doctoral degree (7.3 thousand);
• second place in terms of the share of people working in R&D in total employment: 1.9%;
• third place in terms of entities with research and development equipment included in fixed assets: 168;
• second place among voivodships in terms of the share of revenues from the sale of innovative products in the total revenues of industrial enterprises: 12.1%;
• fifth place in terms of the share of revenues from the sale of products of entities (more than 9 employees) classified as high and medium-high technology: 39.1%.
Regional innovation is supported by a number of cyclical events initiated by the regional government, such as “innovative Safari”, “Małopolska Innovation Festival”, “Małopolska at the Innovation Fair”, “Patent for a good start” seminar or a competition of offers for the implementation of public tasks in the area of Supporting activities development of technology, inventiveness and innovation as well as dissemination and implementation of new technical solutions in business practice.