ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE EU FUNDS IN POLAND 2014-2020

The objective of this paper is to present how the requirements of the EU funds in Poland 2014-2020 force or foster academics to establish and run their own businesses, and/or cooperate with industry. Poland is one of the major beneficiaries of the EU funds in Europe, receiving over EUR 80 billion distributed through operational programmes. Entrepreneurs and researchers receive money mainly through Operational Program Smart Growth (EUR 8,6 billion). Its aim is to stimulate research and development (R&D) and transferring the innovative results to the industry. In this article, we present the results of interviews with academics who established and run their own companies with support of the EU funded R&D projects. The following aspects have been explored: 1) profile of companies established by academics; 2) EU-funded projects submitted and realised by the company; 3) difficulties with running the company; 4) motivation of academics behind establishing their businesses (and benefits thereof).