site.btaNational Audit Office Report: Bulgaria Remains Most Poorly Performing State in Implementation of Horizon 2020 Programme

National Audit Office Report: Bulgaria Remains Most Poorly Performing State in Implementation of Horizon 2020 Programme

Sofia, July 7 (BTA) - The Bulgarian National Audit Office (BNAO) has carried out an audit of the implementation of Horizon 2020 - the 8th EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the BNAO said in a press release Thursday. The audit was carried out in cooperation with the European Court of Auditors and the Portuguese Court of Audits.

Bulgaria is a "timid investor" and remains the most poorly performing country of the 28 EU Member States due to structural underfunding, weak connection between science, education and business, uncoordinated funding in various spheres, and lack of strategic focus of interventions in this field, the press release reads.

The audit also shows that the contribution of Horizon 2020 as a financial mechanism for supporting science and innovations in Bulgaria is insignificant. This conclusion is drawn from a comparison between the 656 million leva of expenditures for research and development (R&D) activities in this country in 2014 (based on preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute as at late 2015), and the cost of 27 million leva for the 91 Bulgarian projects funded under Horizon 2020.

As at February 2016, the projects funded under Horizon 2020 in all Member States numbered 5,306 and amounted to over 9.5 billion euro with a total of 23, 212 participants. The Bulgarian participants were 121 (0.52 per cent), the projects funded under the programme in Bulgaria numbered 91 and the financial contribution was 13,898,848 euro, which is 0.15 per cent of all projects funded in the EU-28.

The audit team gives 11 recommendations to the Education and Science Minister and 5 recommendations to the Economy Minister, and the term for their implementation is six months.

Horizon 2020 is the 8th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation implemented by the European Commission with the goal of building a EU society and economy based on knowledge and innovations. The programme has an important role for the achievement of the targets set in the National Development Programme Bulgaria 2020 (NDP BG2020). The NDP BG2020 sets a national target for investments in N&D to the amount of 1.5 per cent of Bulgaria's GDP, the press release reads.