Nicolai Vitanov, Deputy-Minister for Education and Science, and Georgi Angelov, Deputy-Minister for Innovation and Growth hosted a European Commission delegation led by Marc Lemaître, Director-General in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. The visit marks the opening of the Enhanced Dialogue between Bulgaria and DG R&I.
The meetings took place on 17-18 June in Sofia and centered around the development of Bulgarian research and innovation in the European context. The discussions covered the new European Research Area Policy Agenda, the Start-up and Scale-up Strategy and the preparation of the next framework programme. Increasing participation in Horizon Europe and retaining and attracting talent are especially pertinent for Bulgaria so they got special attention.
The Enhanced Dialogue was combined with the dissemination event of the Policy Support Facility Bulgaria exercise, which provided an independent expert review assessing the Bulgarian R&I system. The experts provided recommendations in eight policy areas guiding Bulgaria to address fragmentation, increase efficiency of funding and support talent development.
Wide participation among stakeholders enriched the talks. Beyond the Ministry for Education and Science, the Ministry for Innovation and Growth and the Ministry of Economy and Industry, members of the Parliamentary Committee of Education, the president of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, the President of the National Agricultural Academy and representatives from the National Science Fund, the Council of Rectors, Bulgarian SME Promotion Agency were also present. Jean-David Malo, Éva-Mária Szávuj, András Inotai, Eva-Maria Wutte-Kirchgatterer and Dario Capezzuto from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation also joined Marc Lemaître in the meetings.
The European Commission delegation also met several stakeholders, including Raycho Raychev, the founder of EnduroSat, and learnt about his experience as an EIC beneficiary. They also visited the Sofia Tech Park, which hosts a EuroHPC supercomputer.
Background
Enhanced dialogues with EU countries are a new, bottom-up channel of cooperation with the European Commission. These dialogues aim at creating a country-tailored approach to foster Research and Innovation in the participating EU country. They are organised on a voluntary basis and built around topics matching the interests of the country. Bulgaria is the 15th country having an enhanced dialogue with DG research & Innovation.
Policy Support Facility Country exercises are in-depth assessments of a country’s Research & Innovation system carried out by a panel of experts and peers, leading to actionable policy recommendations to the national authorities on reforms necessary to strengthen their R&I system.
