GridCoord d 1

Funding Structure and Co-ordination

The main funding body in Poland is the Ministry of Science Research and Information Technology (MNII) (http://www.kbn.gov.pl and http://www.mnii.gov.pl) (former State Committee for Scientific Research - KBN). KBN was a governmental body, which was set up by the Polish Parliament on 12th January 1991. The Act has established the Committee as the supreme authority on State policy in the area of science and technology. According to the Act, the Committee is the major central governmental source of funds for research. The Committee became active during the period of transition from a centrally planned system to market economy. The attitude of KBN towards funding the grid-related projects is very positive, but of course limited due to the budget constraints.

The Minister of Science and Information Society Technologies is responsible for two budget sectors: “science” and “information technology”. In administering public funds allocated to scientific research the Minister is assisted by the Council for Science which has replaced the State Committee for Scientific Research. The Council for Science is an advisory body composed of representatives of scientific circles.

The main tasks of the MNII are to:

• 
  Present to the government and the parliament guidelines for the country's scientific policy;
  
• 
  Submit to the government plans for budgetary expenditure in the area of research in science and technology;
  
• 
  Distribute funds among institutions and research teams and to control their spending;
  
• 
  Sign international agreements on cooperation in the field of science and technology.
  

In short, the Ministry, through its Council of Science combines the role of a "typical" ministry of science and technology with that of a funding agency. The work of the Council of Science is headed by its chairman (Prof. Michał Szulczewski).

Except for military R&D projects (which are financed through direct transfers from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Defence), all government support for separately budgeted research is channelled entirely through the Council of Science. There are six ways of financing:

• 
  Core funding for statutory R&D activities, i.e. institutional finance provided selectively to designated research establishments, units and university departments for covering the costs of their own research activities. Schools at the university level cannot use those funds to finance their educational or training activities.
  
• 
  Investments in R&D infrastructure, such as buildings and equipment.
  
• 
  Peer-reviewed research grants based on research proposals, presented by small research teams or individual researchers, no matter where they are employed or what scientific degrees they hold. Applications are evaluated by an appropriate group of the Committee twice a year. Research projects should deal with new scientific problems and must not be financed from the state budget in any other form.
  
• 
  Subsidies for R&D programmes of national importance commissioned by enterprises, state administrative bodies or local authorities. The financial means are allocated for the implementation of projects and the utilization of research findings.
  
• 
  Subsidies for international scientific and technological cooperation resulting from intergovernmental agreements.
  
• 
  Subsidies for selected R&D support activities (e.g. information services).
  

Links to International and EU activities

As a member of EU, Poland is involved in the 5th and the 6th Framework Programme (FP) of the European Union. Poland is also a partner of international programmes such as EUREKA, COST, CERN, DESY and NATO Science Programme. Poland is also active in bilateral co-operation. The number of Polish applications for funding in the 5th Framework Programme amounts to 5700 (compared with 46470 of all applications). 1323 of Polish teams were chosen and their projects financed by the European Union. It constitutes 1,82% of all teams chosen for financing. Polish teams received 152 M€. Poles co-ordinated 192 projects in 5th FP. Since 2003 Poland actively participates in 6th Framework Programme.

The following presents the Grid projects POLAND was/is participating in:

• 
  FP5: GridLab, GRIP, GRIDSTART, CROSSGRID, EUROGRID, ENACTS
  
• 
  FP6: EGEE, COREGRID, HPC-Europa, INTELIGRID, GRIDCOORD, MUPBED, UNIGRIDS, MAMBA
  

Links to Industry and Business

The PIONIER programme has strong industry and business links. All the projects are funded 50% by the Ministry of Science and 50% by industrial partners. So far the vendors such as IBM, Sun, HP participated in the project. Additionally a partner from media industry, Polish national TV broadcasting company, and some other IT companies participated in the projects bringing their own, significant contribution.

Future Activities

The definition phase of the PIONIER Programme is ongoing; therefore it is difficult to say what will be the final structure.

Joint Initiatives and Projects

Several joint bilateral initiatives have been established with a number of countries and promoted by means of workshops and exchange visits. Joint project funding is difficult as a result of different funding mechanisms and rules. Usually the EU RTD projects are used to foster collaboration.

In this place it is worth mentioning another important joint initiative in Poland. Since 2001 ACC Cyfronet AGH, Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) and Institute of Computer Science AGH organizes the Cracow Grid Workshop. The main objective of the Workshop is to create and support a collaborative community of researchers, developers, practitioners and potential users in Poland and in the neighbouring countries who work in the fascinating field of grid technologies. This year (2005) for the third time the event is organized as the Central European Grid Consortium event and it will cover:

• 
  Current advances in research in grid systems and grid applications,
  
• 
  Overview of research in the main European grid projects,
  
• 
  Overview of national grid projects,
  
• 
  Grid tutorials