The Government is launching a cybersecurity accelerator to cluster all major companies and start-ups in the segment in one place

The Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Technology is planning to create a technological campus to cluster all Polish cybersecurity specialists in one place. This autumn, the project’s operator is going to be selected. The business accelerator is based on solutions applied in Israel and its role is to reinforce Poland's security and attract investors from the IT sector to our country.

“We would like to increase the number of Polish companies dealing with cybersecurity. Moreover, we would like them to provide Polish administration bodies with their services and also to popularise their operations and showcase them abroad. This is why soon we will announce a competition for a cybersecurity accelerator, and we hope that by autumn we will be able to select the operator to cluster all cybersecurity companies and talents in one place on the basis of the acceleration programme,” Jadwiga Emilewicz, the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology, told the Newseria Innowacje news agency.

The Ministry invited public administration bodies, which should be the most interested in projects focusing on improving data security, to cooperate and co-create the accelerator. The Minister also admitted that Polish specialists responsible for implementing the Cybersecurity Doctrine of the Republic of Poland are strongly inspired by the solutions developed by Israeli authorities in the last few years.

As early as in 2014, Israel announced the plans of constructing the CyberSpark Israeli Cybernetic Park where scientists, businesspeople and start-up owners cooperate on implementing new cybersecurity mechanisms. The campus in Beersheba is now one of the major technology and business centres in Israel, gathering the major companies and experts from around the world.

“We are learning from the best. Today the main question is how to make all cybersecurity instruments in Poland work together. Here Israel also sets a good example for us,” the Minister argued.

If Polish authorities recreate the solutions applied by Israel, companies and start-ups cooperating within the accelerator will be able to take advantage of tax reliefs, pay subsidies for employees and training in cybersecurity. The Ministry is also counting on close knowledge-based cooperation between experts from the Polish and Israeli technological campus.

“We expect that as a result of joint acceleration programmes we are working on together with the Israeli Start-up Nation, Polish-Israeli companies will be established to develop interesting shared solutions appealing not only to Poland and Israel but to the whole world,” Jadwiga Emilewicz said.

According to the report developed by Cybersecurity Ventures from 2017 to 2021 expenditures on cybersecurity will increase by more than a trillion dollars. The report’s authors project that by 2021 the market will have grown at a rate of 12-15 percent annually.

The Cybersecurity Doctrine of the Republic of Poland was published in response to the growing threat of organised cybercrime.