Monika Smoleń

A graduate of socio-economic geography at the Jagiellonian University (MA thesis entitled: Cracow's cultural heritage as a factor of regional identification in the Małopolska region), post-graduate studies on management at the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Law and Administration and the Jagiellonian University Pedagogical Studium.

In 2003 she defended her Ph.D. dissertation with distinction at the Jagiellonian University Faculty of Management and Social Communication (Ph.D. dissertation entitled: Culture industries - impact on the development of cities) and received Ph.D. title in liberal sciences in the branch of management. During her Ph.D. studies she was a grant holder of the scholarship awarded by the Netherlands Minister of Education, Culture and Science at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. From 1998 to 2007 she worked as an academic teacher in the Jagiellonian University Institute of Public Affairs. At that time she gave classes on, inter alia, regional policy and culture management. Co-author of the National Strategy for the Development of Culture, author of several academic articles and expert's opinions on the culture management and financing from the European funds, inter alia, The role of local governments in the implementation of tasks within the scope of culture, Culture industries - the economic dimension of culture, Structural Funds for culture, Development strategies for culture industries in cities, Financing of culture from European Union funds, Cultural functions of the post-industrial cities, The impacts of culture on the development of cities.

In the years 2003-2004 the Manager of the Structural Funds and Culture Strategies Task Force in the National Culture Centre and the Minister of Culture Plenipotentiary for the National Culture Programme. Since 2004 the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage employee, first as the Head of the Department of Cooperation with Local Governments, next as the Head of the Department of Cultural Strategy and European Affairs and finally as the Head of the Department of Cultural Strategy and European Funds. At that time she was responsible for, inter alia, coordination of the implementation of the National Strategy for the Development of Culture, planning and implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism, programming of the EU Structural Funds in the field of culture, operation of the Culture Contact Point, as well as for the European affairs. She represented the Ministry in teams responsible for, inter alia, monitoring of the cohesion policy, implementing the Lisbon Strategy, implementing Structural Funds at the central and regional level.