The 3W Interdisciplinary Innovation Center (ICI 3W) is to help in the implementation of this vision. The project was launched at this year’s ImpactCEE’22 conference, during which BGK signed an agreement with Łukasiewicz Research Network, Poznań University of Technology, and other ten leading Polish universities.
- The 3W ICI will be the place of knowledge transfer. It is here that dedicated working teams will be created and new ideas will be developed on how to make precise use of the competences of each partner – announced Maciej Przybyła, Managing Director in the Strategy and Business Support Division at BGK during the discussion panel which accompanied the establishment of the Center. – We will support them financially, in terms of competence, and finally in terms of effective commercialisation, so that the economy has new fuel for development based on these three assets: water, hydrogen, and carbon.
Synergies and interdisciplinary character
The key word of the 3W Idea is “synergy”: of both resources and potentials. These three assets: water-hydrogen-carbon correlate with each other in the environment and respond to the challenges faced by Western civilisation in the 21st century. The best example of this is the production of green hydrogen: the fuel of the future, which requires crystal clear water, which can be effectively purified and treated thanks to carbon technologies.
The interdisciplinary character of the 3W Innovation Center consists in the participation of various entities in the project: the teams will focus on implementing specific actions and building a joint research agenda.
- We gain from the fact that we can cooperate very closely with various scientific units. It may seem obvious that two institutes or departments cooperate, but in practice there is a lot to be done in this regard, notes Piotr Dardziński, President of the Łukasiewicz Research Network. - What is valuable is the ability to build a consortium and the impulse, i.e. the 3W ICI, to create joint teams.
Communication and support in commercialisation of inventions
For academic centers, cooperation with the business world is particularly important. At the initial stages of the development of research projects, there is sometimes a problem with financial resources. The 3W ICI is to respond to this challenge and help connect scientists with investors and effectively market new technologies. Innovative patents can become an additional value for the Polish economy - thanks to them we can also obtain foreign capital.
In addition to improving the commercialisation process, proper communication between teams is also important. As part of the 3W ICI, representatives of science, business, and finance sectors will create a platform for the exchange of knowledge, but also of information on the specific needs of individual participants in the 3W ecosystem. This will be done by open communication between business, which signals the needs, and the world of science that responds to them and is open to improvements in its projects.
Future challenges
As emphasised by prof. Michał Wieczorowski, vice-rector for development and cooperation with the economy of the Poznań University of Technology:
- We must be aware that the world of the coming years will be the world of alternatives, as demonstrated by both the pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Recent geopolitical events have highlighted in particular the importance of ensuring energy security – we need a substitute for gas and hydrogen can be that substitute. Due to limited resources, other gaps also arise in different economic areas and they need to be filled. This role can be played by carbon technologies and nanotubes, which are already being used, inter alia, in the weapon industry.
ICI – another step in the implementation of the 3W Idea
The 3W Interdisciplinary Innovation Center is an important step towards the implementation of the 3W Idea and an element of the vision of transformation of the Polish economy, which will thus become more competitive and innovative.
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