The President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Corr. Memb. Evelina Slavcheva and the Executive Directors of the “Fund Manager of Financial Instruments in Bulgaria” Fund of Funds Victoria Hristova and Biser Petkov have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation. The ceremony has taken place today at the Academy.
The document provides for the exchange of knowledge and ideas between the scientific field, business, government institutions and society and the organisation of joint initiatives. The focus is on cooperation in applied research in the field of intellectual property and technology transfer.
During the meeting, Corr. Memb. Evelina Slavcheva noted how important was the work towards bringing science and business closer. An instrument to finance the science-business link is to be announced, Viktoria Hristova said. The “Best Youth Start-up in Bulgaria” competition is among the examples of how scientific developments can be commercialised, the Fund explained. The Scientific Secretary-General Prof. Neli Koseva pointed out that BAS units were implementing 39 research projects funded under the National Recovery and Resileince Plan and stressed that these developments of scientists had the potential for commercialisation.
The current programmes of the Fund of Funds will be made known to BAS institutes. Supporting PhD students and scientists to start their own business or entrepreneurial activity through training and mentoring, organising public lectures and discussions for PhD students and other joint activities are the subject of the memorandum.
The first upcoming initiative – “From Science to Business” round table will be held on 25 February at the National Student House. The event is organized for students, postgraduates, young scientists and entrepreneurs by the Fund of Funds, the Association of Young Scientists, the PhD Training Center of BAS and the Career Center at the PhD TC-BAS.
The meeting was attended by the Vice-Presidents of BAS, Corr. Memb. Evdokia Pasheva and Prof. Emmanuel Moutafov, as well as by the Scientific Secretary-General Prof. Neli Koseva.
