Dear Readers...

The monthly magazine Welcome to Cracow and Małopolska has prepared a special issue of the magazine devoted exclusively to the world of Cracow academia for 12 years. We treat it as a natural obligation of a periodical that was created and has been published for 16 years for foreign visitors to Cracow and the region. The people of academia make a considerable group among them. They come to our city to do common research with their colleagues, to participate in numerous scientific congresses here, and the most distinguished of them to obtain honorary doctorates awarded to them by local universities. The younger of them more and more frequently arrive in Cracow to study and get diplomas certifying a high quality of education they received here and later to promote Cracow as a unique and exceptional city.
Science has been one of the pillars of the development of Cracow, one of the oldest academic centres on the continent, for over six centuries. After the breakthrough of 1989 it started developing rapidly and when Poland joined the European Union the pace of change became even faster. The arrears in the scientific and educational infrastructure of the last half a century are gradually eliminated. Numerous non-academic institutes representing a wide range of specialties also developing here.
I am pleased that the Welcome to Cracow and Małopolska can contribute to the promotion of  knowledge of the potential of Cracow academia in the world. I would like to thank all the partners of our special issue and express my hope that it will serve you well.