site.btaInnovation Minister Stoycheva Presents Ministry Priorities to Employers Organizations

Innovation and Growth Minister Milena Stoycheva presented the Ministry's priorities to representatives from the Association of Bulgarian Employers' Organizations, the Ministry said on Tuesday.

Minister Stoycheva outlined five priorities for her team. Among them are making Bulgaria a destination for high-tech investments and intellectual capital, building a sustainable basis for the development of the entrepreneurial and start-up ecosystem, creating opportunities to stimulate key sectors with high added value, technology transfer and education, creating a favourable environment for sustainable economic growth, involving all stakeholders in the model of the so-called "open innovation". Stoycheva also pointed out that an analysis and evaluation of all instruments and measures available to the Ministry through its structures is being prepared in order to fully implement the policies towards a green, digital and socially just transition.

Employers have raised a number of issues whose resolution has been delayed by the lack of a regular government. Among the cases discussed at the workshop were the draft of the new Law on Research and Innovation, which should come into force in early 2024, the activities and funding for the National Innovation Fund and the Research Fund. Among the topics of discussion were the need for normative changes in relation to the provision of grants from the European Structural and Investment Funds, the management of grant contracts concluded under ongoing procedures, the conditions and deadlines for upcoming procedures with European funds, the huge interest in the procedure for "Technological Modernization" under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, etc.