New Grupa Azoty R&D centre with financial support from Ministry of Development.Grupa Azoty will create its own R&D centre in Tarnów. On September 2nd 2016 in Warsaw, Grupa Azoty and the Ministry of Development signed an agreement on a PLN 20m grant for the construction of an R&D centre, marking the launch of the project with a total value of almost PLN 88m. The grant amount received as part of the “Support for Investment in R&D Infrastructure” measure of the Operational Programme Smart Growth covers almost 30% of the project’s eligible costs.“The main goal of the Research and Development Centre in Tarnów will be to build competitive advantages based on knowledge to enhance the innovativeness of our product portfolio and technologies,” said Mariusz Bober, President of Grupa Azoty. “The agreement we have signed today with the Ministry of Development to provide funding for the Centre brings us closer to this goal,” added Mariusz Bober. “One of the pillars of the Responsible Development Plan is increased innovation and competitiveness of Polish companies on the domestic and foreign markets,” said Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister. “Polish companies can achieve this by growing and modernising their business based on their own R&D centres. This is where scientists’ ideas, inspired by business needs, are transformed into practical solutions, which are later commercialised,” the Minister emphasised.The project’s principal goal is to expand the R&D infrastructure to strengthen the scale of companies’ own research activities, create conditions for verifying the results of their work and for semi-industrial scale research, and also to increase the Grupa Azoty’s potential in terms of R&D staff.It is planned that extensive R&D infrastructure will facilitate research on advanced materials, modern fertilizer products, new technologies and environmental care products. The project envisages the construction of a new laboratory and office building including a semi-industrial process space, and the purchase of necessary R&D equipment and software.In accordance with its Strategy, Grupa Azoty will allocate up to 1% of its revenue to R&D projects. Increased activity in the area of R&D and innovation will be supported by the Chemical Technology and Development Centre in Tarnów.