Social-economic impact of an innovation centre development in local context: an empirical analysis for Poland

There are many institutionalized forms and initiatives supporting technologytransfer between university and industry. They include science parks,centres of technology transfer, centres of innovation and incubators.Although their primary role is to encourage technology transfer, they alsoprovide for job creation and regional economic development. Most countriesimplement a policy supporting the commercialization of research. The paperpresents a picture of innovation centre system in Poland and proposes aframework to identify and evaluate costs and benefits of innovation centrein the local context. The framework takes into consideration efficiency andeffectiveness of the different forms of innovation centres and their directand indirect local effects. The analysis shows that the impact of theinnovation centre on the local economy depends on the type of theinnovation centre and characteristics of the local economy, and short andlong term external effects should be taken into account. Moreover, theresearch connects the idea of innovation and infrastructure innovationdevelopment with the concept of sustainable development.