Institute’s Council Meeting – Positive Assessment of Łukasiewicz – PORT’s Plans for 2025

Friday’s session of the Institute’s Council, meeting for the first time in this composition, brought decisions on key issues for Łukasiewicz – PORT. The council positively approved the candidacy of Prof. Jarosław Bosy as the director of Łukasiewicz – PORT, accepted the directions of our scientific activity and gave a positive opinion on the draft work plans (including financial) for the coming year. The session was led by the chairman elected at the beginning of the meeting – the council members decided to entrust this function to Prof. Adam Maciejczyk.

It is worth recalling that the Research Network Act 2019 precisely defines the tasks and formal framework for the functioning of the two bodies of the network institutes: the directors and the councils of the institutes. The statutes of the individual institutes specify these responsibilities further.

Currently, the Łukasiewicz – PORT council consists of 11 members, including one employee of our institute, in whose election, according to the institute’s statutes, all employees have the right to participate – as of December 2023, this member is Dr. Krzysztof Czyż, head of the Materials Technology Laboratory.

All other members of the council are appointed by the president of the Łukasiewicz Network, based on the proposal of the director. Prof. Jarosław Bosy, director of Łukasiewicz – PORT, emphasises that the council is not an advisory body to the director: ‘This is the institute’s council, so we conducted internal consultations, with each center discussing the composition of the council that would best support the development of the institute. I thank all my interlocutors for their comments, suggestions and proposals. As a result, we were able to recruit people for the institute whose competences, experience and capabilities really match our strategic goals and needs,’ says Prof. Bosy.

The scientific community within the institute’s council is represented by: Prof. Anja-Verena Mudring, who specialises in biological and chemical engineering; Dr. Katharina Summermatter – an expert in biosafety working closely with the WHO; and Prof. Adam Maciejczyk, a specialist in radiation oncology.

Each representative of the business community brings years of experience to the council: Dr. Martin Strassburg, who represents technological innovation in experimental physics; Dr. Stanisław Rogozinski, an effective manager in the venture capital funds and commercialisation sector; Dr. Tomasz Han, responsible for business strategy and R&D at Hasco-Lek Co.; Dr. Włodzimierz Kubiak, who has been a manager at pharmaceutical companies for many years.

Łukasiewicz – PORT aims to be an important player on the map of Wrocław and the region, which is why the voices of the representatives of the city’s public institutions will be equally important in the council. These include: Cezary Przybylski, a long-time activist of the local government of the Lower Silesian Voivodship; Jakub Mazur, Vice Mayor of Wrocław, with business and strategic experience; Justyna Młynarz, an expert in the development of Polish–German relations.

The director of Łukasiewicz – PORT emphasises that every member of the institute’s council is able to support the most important tasks in PORT’s new strategy, which align with the strategy of the entire Łukasiewicz Research Network. This includes commercialisation and networking, understood in the context not only of the region, but also of the country and international cooperation. What is crucial is that each research center within PORT has a substantive representative on the council.

On 13 December 2024, the first meeting of the new council provided an opportunity to present the idea for the development of the centers, as each center has its own way of moving from basic research to collaboration with business and commercialisation. Each center also has its own level of networking in the plan: the Population Diagnostics Center – regional and national networking, the Materials Science and Engineering Center – networking within the Łukasiewicz Research Network, the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Center – internationalisation. A good prognosis for the institute’s development plan as seen in this way is the presence on its council of individuals experienced at each of these levels.