The second WIB competition announced

Over PLN 380 million – this amount can be applied for by teams of scientists conducting research in the field of medical biotechnology – oncology. On March 10th, the second competition of the Virtual Research Institute started. It aims to finance innovative research projects with high commercialization potential.

The second competition of the Virtual Research Institute (WIB) was announced by the Minister of Education and Science, Przemysław Czarnek. The competition is addressed to the most outstanding and talented Polish scientists – representatives of universities and scientific and research institutes conducting research in medical biotechnology – oncology. Łukasiewicz – PORT acts as the entity managing the WIB program.

The call for proposals in the competition will last from 19th to 30th September 2022. Before its launch, Łukasiewicz – PORT (the Entity Managing the WIB program) will conduct informational meetings and advisory activities. They will help scientists prepare the applications properly. PORT will also carry on the recruitment of experts – specialists in biotechnology and commercialization. They will sit on the international panel evaluating the applications in terms of content. Their task will be to verify the scientific and socio-economic value of the projects. The results of the competition we will know in early 2023.

Allocation of funds from the WIB program

The funds awarded under the competition are appropriate for financing teams scientific activity as well as commercializing the results of their work and the know-how related to these results. The program enables financing up to 100% of the costs of carrying out research tasks and offers team members and their institutions a significant share in future revenues from the commercialization of research results. Łukasiewicz – PORT, as the Managing Entity of the WIB Program, will care about protecting the developed intellectual property and be responsible for its subsequent commercialization, taking over costly, time-consuming, and complicated procedures.

The announcement and all documents related to the competition are available on the WIB website: https://wib.port.org.pl/en/homepage/.

No Research Teams Selected

The second competition of the Virtual Research Institute (WIB), announced on March 10, 2022, aimed to fund innovative research projects in the field of medical biotechnology, with a particular focus on oncology. The competition’s budget exceeded 380 million PLN.

As part of this competition, eight applications were submitted by consortia comprising a total of 20 research institutions from across Poland. An international panel of experts evaluated the applications in terms of both scientific and socio-economic criteria. Despite the high scientific quality of the proposed projects, none of the applications met the socio-economic criteria to a degree that would justify funding.

As a result, the Minister of Education and Science decided to expand the scope of research supported by the Polish Science Fund to include the entire field of medical biotechnology. Łukasiewicz – PORT has begun preparations to announce the third WIB competition, which aims to select research teams conducting scientific activities in a broader range of medical biotechnology.