We’re still cooling off after the two very busy days of Impact’18, and today we’d like to bring you another sneak peek at the numerous contributions of one of our event’s Strategic Partner- The National Centre for Research and Development (NCBR).
Throughout the two days of Impact’18, NCBR’s team participated in numerous stage discussions and fireside chats. The crowds had a chance to hear NCBR Director, prof. Maciej Chorowski’s perspective on staying relevant in the age of industrial disruption, as well as a talk about creating tools for AI research. You can watch one of these firechats below:
Later that day, Kornel Koronowski held a Challenger Talk with NCBR’s Deputy Director, Aleksander Nawrat about the problems and risks the Centre has to face in the process of building an ecosystem of innovation. Nawrat also described one of NCBR’s investments – the synthetic blood project developed by a Warsaw-based startup called Nano Sanguis.
Our event’s participants also had a chance to attend numerous workshops hosted by NCBR, which aimed to familiarize them with the centre’s offer, a well as present the current state of the venture capital market in Poland. In fact, the latter experienced quite a breakthrough right there in the ICE Krakow Congress Centre, as NCBR announced the establishment of the first corporate venture capital fund in Poland. The project, called EEC Magenta, came as a collaboration between NCBR, PFR, and TAURON, and will focus on funding innovative solutions in the Polish energy sector.
By taking bold but well-thought-out and consistent decisions, we have become the pioneers of introducing innovative solutions in the ecosystem of financing innovation in Poland. When creating FoF CVC, we laid the foundation for a system supporting the development of R & D projects by corporate venture capital funds which were missing from the Polish market. The launch of EEC Magenta is the first, important step on the way to creating a few professional and effectively investing in high-risk projects of CVC funds – said prof. Maciej Chorowski, Director of the National Centre for Research and Development.
The EEC Magenta fund wasn’t the only announcement from NCBR that weekend – together with Poczta Polska, the Centre has signed a Letter of Intent which established a collaborative project between the two institutions in the sphere of innovation and electromobility. According to the letter, the collaboration will result in the development of vehicles which could transform the way in which Poczta Polska delivers our mail – not just in terms of efficiency, but also by promoting eco-friendly means of transport.
Apart from NCBR’s presence in the several workshops and discussions on the agenda, the Centre also contributed an all-hours consultation space where all participants of our event had a chance to get more information about their ongoing funding programs. Visitors had the opportunity to not only talk to NCBR’s team, but also get to know previous beneficiaries of the organization’s projects while enjoying a hot cup of coffee at the same time.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s edition of our event! See you next time!
