New technologies are not only a driver of economic growth but also an increasingly important element of national security. Poland therefore needs a detailed assessment of its technological capabilities and an action plan identifying the areas in which it can build genuine international advantages.
Magdalena Hajduk, an adviser to the President of Poland and chair of the Presidential Council for New Technologies and Digitalisation, argues that technological sovereignty should become one of the country’s strategic priorities.
Experts see particular potential in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, space technologies, quantum computing and biotechnology. However, Poland’s ability to benefit from these sectors will depend on financing, public procurement reform and more effective cooperation between business, science and the state.
Presidential council prepares recommendations
The Presidential Council for New Technologies and Digitalisation was established in December 2025 as a forum for dialogue on matters important to Poland’s technological and economic development.
Its members have been consulting representatives of the technology industry and preparing recommendations for the president, including potential legislative initiatives supporting digitalisation and domestic technology companies.
“The objective is to move closer to becoming a cyber power, preserve our independence and ensure that, in the event of specific threats, we are capable of restoring critical technologies,” Hajduk told the Newseria news agency.
She stressed that Poland must also establish reliable sources of financing for projects that strengthen technological sovereignty.
In this context, sovereignty does not necessarily mean producing every technology domestically. Instead, it involves retaining control over critical systems, competencies, infrastructure and supply chains while reducing excessive dependence on foreign suppliers.
Government sets digital targets for 2035
The Polish government is also working on the country’s long-term technological development. On 10 June 2026, the Council of Ministers adopted the State Digitalisation Strategy, which defines the main objectives of Poland’s digital transformation through 2035.
The strategy aims to make all key public services fully available online by 2030. It also envisages placing every household within reach of fibre-optic broadband and 5G networks by the end of the decade.
By 2035, 85% of citizens are expected to possess basic digital skills, while 80% of public offices are to use artificial intelligence. Spending on digitalisation is planned to reach 5% of GDP.
The document covers four main areas: cybersecurity, coordination of the digital transformation, electronic communications and future skills. Its implementation is to be reviewed every two years.
According to the Ministry of Digital Affairs, the strategy is intended not only to improve public services and economic competitiveness but also to address the potential negative effects of technology, including exclusion, disinformation and harmful online mechanisms.
Experts want an operational plan
Although Hajduk broadly supports the strategy’s objectives, she argues that strategic documents do not always adequately reflect the practical problems facing Polish businesses, start-ups and companies with the potential to become future unicorns.
She believes that experts working in various technology and digitalisation councils should cooperate more closely and identify a limited number of areas in which recommendations could be jointly presented to both the government and the president.
The final document, she said, should be more than another strategy. It should be an operational plan specifying how Poland intends to achieve technological sovereignty, which sectors will receive priority and how individual projects will be financed.
The starting point should be a comprehensive diagnosis of Poland’s current technological position, including its scientific expertise, domestic companies, infrastructure, supply-chain dependencies and ability to commercialise research.
Public procurement could support domestic innovators
Public procurement is one area in which changes may be needed. Polish technology companies, particularly young businesses, often struggle to win government contracts because procurement procedures favour established suppliers with extensive experience and financial resources.
Hajduk argues that procurement rules should be designed in a way that allows public institutions to support Polish innovators without abandoning requirements related to quality, competition and security.
“There has been a long-running discussion about how to build technological sovereignty through developing young companies when public procurement law effectively prevents them from winning tenders,” she said during the SET Foundation’s “Ambitious Poland” congress.
According to Hajduk, Poland has considerable room to develop procurement procedures that better recognise domestic technological capabilities and create a stronger bridge between science and business.
The government’s Cybersecurity Strategy also includes measures intended to strengthen domestic technologies, protect supply chains and introduce cybersecurity requirements into public procurement. The strategy was adopted on 10 March 2026 and sets the direction of state policy through 2029.
Poland should focus on technologies it can deploy
Dr Karolina Grenda of the SET Foundation argues that Poland should select priority technologies according to several criteria.
The first is national security, particularly in the context of the current geopolitical environment. The second is market potential: priority should be given to technologies capable of achieving widespread adoption within the next five to ten years.
Poland must also consider its existing skills. The country has strong mathematicians, cryptologists and software engineers, which may provide an advantage in selected advanced technology sectors.
The maturity of the technology is equally important. Solutions expected to be deployed within a decade must already have reached a sufficiently advanced stage of development.
AI applications rather than competing on foundation models
Artificial intelligence is one of the most promising areas, although Grenda does not believe that Poland should focus primarily on creating its own large foundation models to compete directly with the United States and China.
A more realistic opportunity may be the adaptation of existing AI solutions to sectors in which Poland already has knowledge, companies and market demand. Potential applications include cybersecurity, logistics, medicine and biotechnology.
Grenda also points to the combination of generative artificial intelligence and edge AI.
Unlike cloud-based systems, edge AI processes data directly on a device or close to where the data is generated. This can reduce delays, limit the need to transfer sensitive information and increase resilience when access to external infrastructure is disrupted.
Such solutions could be particularly important in defence, critical infrastructure, healthcare, industrial production and autonomous systems.
Space technologies offer civilian and defence applications
Space technologies are another area in which Polish expertise could be developed.
Grenda highlighted ICEYE, a Polish-Finnish company producing radar satellites for Earth observation. Its satellites use synthetic aperture radar, which makes it possible to obtain images regardless of daylight and most weather conditions.
These systems can be used in agriculture, environmental monitoring and crisis management, as well as in defence and other dual-use applications.
The use of satellite data during the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the strategic importance of having rapid access to reliable information about events on the ground.
For Poland, developing domestic competencies in satellite technology, data analysis and secure communications could therefore generate both economic and security benefits.
Quantum technologies remain an emerging opportunity
Quantum technologies are not yet ready for widespread commercial deployment, but experts believe they may represent a strategic opportunity for countries that invest early.
Poland’s expertise in mathematics, computer science and cryptography could provide a foundation for developing solutions in areas such as quantum communication, sensing and post-quantum cybersecurity.
The government’s Cybersecurity Strategy already calls for a migration plan towards post-quantum cryptography and the development of domestic cryptographic and quantum technologies.
Grenda cited Finland as an example of a country that invested heavily in quantum technologies between 2020 and 2024 and has since strengthened its position as a European centre for research and development in the field.
Commercialisation remains a major weakness
One of Poland’s biggest problems is not the absence of research or technical talent, but the difficulty of turning scientific results into commercially successful products.
According to research cited by Grenda, knowledge and technology transfer in Poland remains dominated by the provision of research services rather than the commercialisation of intellectual property.
For most types of research institutions, approximately 80% of related revenue comes from research services, while less than 20% is generated through commercialisation.
This suggests that Poland’s universities and research institutes often cooperate with companies as service providers but are less successful in building scalable products, licensing technologies or creating businesses based on intellectual property.
Closing this gap will require better access to long-term financing, stronger incentives for researchers, more experienced management teams and closer cooperation between public institutions, universities and private investors.
Without those changes, Poland may continue to produce promising technologies but fail to retain the companies, intellectual property and economic value created by them.
The debate over technological sovereignty therefore concerns more than selecting AI, space or quantum technologies as strategic sectors. It also requires building a system capable of financing innovation, purchasing domestic solutions and transforming research into products that can compete internationally.
