The PIONIER Consortium was founded in Kazimierz Dolny by the Vistula River on 25th October 2003. The Consortium is a formal agreement between MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) and HPCC (High Performance Computing Centers) Leading Units. The objective of the Consortium is to build the Polish Optical Internet and develop, on the basis of this network and the IT infrastructure belonging to the Leading Units, the activity aimed at achieving the statutory objectives of the Leading Units willing to develop the Information Society.

On 14th August 2008, in Poznań, members of the PIONIER Consortium concluded an arrangement to establish common rules of applying for the European Union funds from the Innovative Economy 2007-2013 Operational Programme, priority II " R&D infrastructure " measure 2.3 "Investments in development of IT infrastructure of the science" aimed at funding the Project entitled: "PLATON - Service Platform for e-Science".

On 2nd April 2009, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education has approved the PLATON Project which will be implemented by 22 Leading Units of the PIONIER Consortium.