10.10.2014 Technologies
On Thursday, October 9th Life Science Park was opened in Kraków. Three modern buildings intended to be used by companies engaged in research in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, chemistry and medicine.
More than 30 companies (including 16 start-ups) operate in Life Science Park. Among them are: Biomantis, a company that prepares dressings for slow healing wounds, Egzotech, a manufacturer of robots used in rehabilitation, and Selvita SA, a biotechnology company that develops new drugs. In the buildings with a total area of approximately 20 thousand square metres, approximately 9 thousand square metres are laboratories.
“We want to create a Centre for Clinical Research in the Park, and to start a pharmaceutical production line for small batches of drugs. This will enable the production of medicines from the clinical trials phase to marketing” – said Paweł Błachno, the CEO of Jagiellonian Center of Innovation (Jagiellońskie Centrum Innowacji, JCI), which manages the Park.
Life Science Park was opened by the Rector of the Jagiellonian University Professor Wojciech Nowak, the former rector Professor Franciszek Ziejka and the CEO of JCI Paweł Błachno.
“Life Science Park is a combination of two spheres: public university and business. Projects of this kind not only involve challenges and risks, but also require commitment. People who are able to engage in this work and lead to the realization of the idea in our conditions, deserve the Oscars” – the Rector of the Jagiellonian University Professor Wojciech Nowak said at the ceremony.
The former Rector of the Jagiellonian University Professor Ziejka wished the founders and employees of companies in the Life Science Park that inventions worthy of the Nobel Prize were created in its walls.
Iwona Wendel, the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development said that the marriage of science and business is the best practice.
“This is the road in front of our science and our entrepreneurs. If we want to talk about the economy based on knowledge, the commercialisation of research and development, we must look at what is happening in the Park” – said Wendel. She congratulated the creators of the Life Science Park on having managed to attract start-ups.
Jacek Guliński, the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, emphasised that the Life Science Park in Kraków is one of the most vibrant centres of its kind in the country.
“This park is based on the powerful potential of the human mind focused on the University and the Campus” – said Guliński.
Marek Sowa, the voivodship marshal said at the ceremony that biotechnology is a sector in which Małopolska sees its chance to develop and to attract entrepreneurs.
Life Science Park operates in the vicinity of the 3rd Campus of the Jagiellonian University. The project, implemented in two stages since 2005, cost a total of 184 million zlotys, 158 million of which were funds from the European Union and the state budget, and 26 million from the Jagiellonian University.
