An ultra-modern Competence Centre for safety, operational analysis, and management of hazardous situations in industry will be established at the Silesian University of Technology. This is the result of an agreement between the Silesian university and the Institute of Mineral and Energy Economy of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The establishment of the Centre is the first result of an agreement between the partners to cooperate in the implementation of research programmes, project initiatives and commissioned work aimed at improving the innovation, technical and economic efficiency of European mineral resources management. The agreement was signed by Prof. Marek Pawełczyk, Vice-Chancellor for Science and Development, and Prof. Krzysztof Galos, Director of the Institute of Mineral and Energy Economy of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The Competence Centre will make it possible to create one of the most modern, in this part of Europe, teaching and research centres for safety education in large industrial enterprises. The centre will enable responsible education in professions where information and decision-making processes related to safety management and efficiency in large industrial enterprises are of great importance.

Comprising six laboratories, the centre will represent a new quality on a European scale in terms of research and training, using simulation and virtualisation in laboratory conditions of dangerous situations related to cyber threats, natural and industrial hazards.

Based on the latest developments in automatics and computer science using artificial intelligence, the facility will allow simulation of industrial, technological processes and emergency situations, linking distributed monitoring, control and security systems responsible for the operation of an enterprise.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński