In 1996 the Senate of the Warsaw Institute of Technology adopted a resolution to create inter-faculty units specialized in research activity for the purposes of the industrial sector and technology transfer. Following the implementation of this resolution four units were formed:

• Centre for Technology Transfer – CTT and Academic Research Centre for Power Engineering and Environment Protection – UCBEiOŚ (1997)
• Academic Research Centre for Functional Materials – UCBMF (2001)
• Academic Research Centre for Aerospace Engineering – (2011)

 In 2010 Centre for Technology Transfer was merged with Centre for Entrepreneurship Development creating Centre for Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship Development. The Centre was carrying out tasks related to the technology transfer,  including delivering opinions on innovation, arranging meetings between enterprises and the academia, consultancy in the area of commercialization of research and the protection of the intellectual property. The Centre’s primary activity is the implementation of projects related to research on the knowledge transfer models.

In 2012, in accordance with Article 81, Paragraph 1, Law on Higher Education, the Senate of the Warsaw Institute of Technology adopted a resolution on the creation of the special purpose vehicle – Centrum Transferu Technologii Sp. z o.o, which took over the tasks of the previously formed Centre for Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship Development. It was also strengthened by the potential of the Academic Research Centres (UCB)

At the beginning of 2013 the name of the entity was changed to Institute of Applied Research - Warsaw University of Technology (IBS PW) with two centres functioning within its structures – the Centre of Technology Transfer and Research Centre.

In the years 2013-2016, upon receiving funding from the National Centre for Research and Development, numerous works were undertaken as a part of the SPIN-TECH project, namely systematization of the procedures related to the management of intellectual property,  commercialization of the technologies developed by the researchers at the Warsaw Institute of Technology and creation of 11 spin-off companies, in which shares are held by the researches, the equity and professional investors and the Warsaw Institute of Technology, through the IBS PW Sp. z o.o company.

Since the February of 2016 IBS PW is the leader of the “Incubator of Innovation+” project, implemented together with the Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer Management (CZIiTT) and PIAP-Scientech – company of the Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements.

Following units are currently functioning at IPS UW:

• Centre for Commercialising the Results of Research (CKWB)
• Research Centre for Power Engineering and Environment Protection (CBEiOŚ)
• Centre for Anthropogenic Materials Engineering (CIMA)
• Centre for Geotechnical and Hydrotechnical Analyses