POLAND SCIENCE & RESEARCH NATIONAL CENTRES III

The purpose of the project is to finance the operations of the National Science Centre (NSC) and the National Centre for Research and Development (NCRD) in 2015 and 2016. The NSC procures and finances basic research projects while the NCRD procures and finances applied research and development projects. The projects will be implemented by research teams based at public scientific institutes, universities and business enterprises (the latter for NCRD only) located in all regions of Poland.

The project furthers the EU priority objectives of Europe 2020 and Cohesion Policy. It also aims at implementing Horizon 2020, as it includes funding for research centres of excellence and the Polish roadmap for research infrastructures. In Poland, the GDR, gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) (current prices) represented only 0.9% of GDP based on the latest statistics (2012), one of the lowest in the EU and well below the 3% national target, despite having grown by almost 12% per year. A major limitation of the Polish R&D system is the low contribution of the business sector; for instance only four Polish companies figure among the 1 000 EU companies ranked in the 2013 industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. The current project should address this bottleneck by providing incentives to Polish companies for R&D investments.

Part of the project will concern activities in research and development that are expected to be carried out in existing facilities already used for similar activities, and are therefore not covered by Directive 2011/92/EU on environmental impact assessment (EIA). The directive can, however, apply to the construction of new research facilities if included in the project. Any possible environmental and ethical issues, including coherence with the principles underlying the EU directives, will be verified during the appraisal. Activities not eligible for the EIB will be excluded from the Bank’s lending. The legal and organisational framework in place to ensure respect of the relevant directives will be assessed.

The Bank will require the promoter to ensure that contracts for the implementation of the project have been/shall be tendered in accordance with the relevant applicable EU procurement legislation (Directives 2004/18/EC and/or 2004/17/EC as well as Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC) as interpreted by the Court of Justice of the EU, with publication of tender notices in the EU Official Journal, as and where required.