Polish Academy of Science - Institute of Fundamental Technological Research - Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials and Structures

The Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IFTR) of the Polish Academy of Sciences is one of the largest Polish research centres in the multi-disciplinary area of mechanics of solids, structures, fluids and biomaterials, engineering acoustics including non-destructive testing methods and ultrasonic applications in medicine, information technology, mechatronics, robotics and ecologically oriented construction engineering. Created in 1953, the IFTR was soon recognised as a leading research centre not only in East and Central Europe, but also in the world scale. Research achievements of IFTR, reflected in frequently cited publications in best international journals, resulted in wide contacts with international community outside the Soviet block, in spite of the existing "iron curtain". Both professors and younger researchers from IFTR visited frequently leading universities from Western Europe and the US, bringing home the knowledge of recent trends and methods in their research field. In turn, the high quality of IFTR staff attracted a number of doctoral students and young researchers from Poland and abroad, so that the IFTR became also a leading educational centre at the advanced level in numerous research areas.

In the 1980s there was a stagnation period in further development of IFTR due to budget limitations and employment reduction. The critical situation got worse after 1989 when the newly created democratic government introduced drastic economical measures with significant reduction of the research budget. An improvement became visible after 1996 with a new development plan for the IFTR worked out jointly by the Scientific Council and the management staff of IFTR. The main points of this plan were:

• to develop programs aimed at significant technological applications, while preserving high standard of fundamental research,
• to concentrate on modern research fields with potential applications in industry,
• to expand IFTR activities towards market-oriented research,
• to participate in European projects within FP4, mostly Copernicus,
• to intensify activity in attracting funds from the State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) under research grants,
• to develop spin-offs in most advanced technological areas,
• to establish the Innovation Transfer Centre and start co-operation with Polish industry and SMEs,
• to develop a network with universities in central and eastern regions of Poland,
• to make the IFTR more attractive for students by combining doctoral studies with a contribution to research projects,
• to involve the IFTR in higher education by opening two university type schools to which the IFTR contributes (Collage of Sciences and Polish-Japanese Institute of Information Technologies).

The development plan was successfully implemented, however it was rather concentrated on networking in Poland, without development of a satisfactory number of international links. The critical year was 1998 when the IFTR joined several international projects and was nominated as the National Contact Point of 5FP for Poland.