Minister of Education and Science Dr Przemysław Czarnek, Professor of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), Dr Marta Kosior-Kazberuk, Professor of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PB), Rector of the Białystok University of Technology, Prof. Zbigniew Pater, Rector of the Lublin University of Technology and Prof. Piotr Koszelnik, Rector of the Rzeszów University of Technology, presented the most important ideas of the Via Carpatia Technical Network at a joint briefing at the Centre for Modern Education of the Białystok University of Technology.

The Via Carpatia Technical Network named after Polish President Lech Kaczyński is a joint project of the Białystok University of Technology, the Lublin University of Technology, and the Rzeszów University of Technology under the auspices of the Minister of Education and Science. Its main objectives are to support education, development, and commercialisation of science in the provinces of the Eastern Poland. Each of the universities received PLN 9,990,546 for the implementation of the Network’s tasks.

The project started on 1 October 2022 and covers the cooperation of universities in three areas: education, science, and commercialisation. 

As it was informed during the briefing, the Network has so far organised 270 hours of classes for students at technical schools under the motto ‘From Technicians to Technical Universities’, which were attended by a total of 2,400 people from all over Eastern Poland. Meanwhile, 4,150 additional teaching hours in subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and directional subjects have been realised for newly enrolled students at all three universities under the measure “To even the chances”.

“The Via Carpatia Road connects three cities, three technical universities, also in terms of commercialisation”, said Professor Piotr Koszelnik, Rector of the Rzeszów University of Technology. These three technical universities account for a very large share in terms of solutions, claims and patents, we have the potential to deal with commercialisation”, he added.

Minister Przemysław Czarnek stated that “cooperation between the Białystok, Lublin and Rzeszów technical universities along the Via Carpatia is the future of Eastern Poland; it is the future of excellent technical education at our excellent universities”.  

Adrian Andrzejewski