site.btaFunding for Research Should Reach 1.5% of GDP by 2020 - Minister

Funding for Research Should Reach 1.5% of GDP by 2020 - Minister

Sofia, October 8 (BTA) - By 2020, funding for research should
reach 1.5 per cent of the GDP, Bulgarian Education Minister
Todor Tanev said here Thursday. He was speaking at a forum on
reforms in science and innovation in the EU member states held
with the participation of European Commissioner for Research,
Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas.

Funding for research in Bulgaria currently stands at around 0.6
per cent of the GDP.

The problem is that reforms in science produce a result in the
long term and one has to be patient, Commissioner Moedas said.

He said that Bulgaria needs to look at science and innovation in
 a different way.

He also said that he is the first Science Commission visiting
Bulgaria and added that he is here because he sees a wish in
Bulgaria for work in this field.

Commissioner Moedas spoke about the need of smart reforms: not
structural but smart because there has been talk of structural
reform in Europe for decades.

He argued that Bulgaria needs an independent authority on
science and innovation and this is one of the recommendations in
 a European Commission report on research and innovation in
Bulgaria prepared with support from the Horizon 2020 programme.

Another recommendation is for the Bulgarian universities and the
 Bulgarian Academy of Sciences to adopt the European Charter for
 Research.

Education Minister Tanev said that the report is not about
closing down the existing Reseach Fund which operates under the
government and finances research projects.

There has been a lot of controversy over the efficiency of the
fund and the transparency of distribution of funding among
research projects.   

Tanev said that the European Commission report says that the
Research Fund should have a clearer format and maybe continue to
 operate as an agency which is closer to life. The details are
for Bulgaria to work out, he commented

Moedas added that the report recommends how to make this agency
stable and capable of taking adequate decisions based on peer
field checks. He said that peer checks are the best way of
making sure the funding goes to the best research projects.

The whole project will be put up for a public discussion.

Tanev also said that he now knows that "the longstanding circles
 in research can be broken and there are instruments available
for that".

Also on Thursday, Commissioner Moedas visited the construction
site for the future Sofia Tech Park which is due to open
November 26. He was accompanied by Prime Minister Boyko
Borissov, Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev and Education
Minister Tanev.

"The State has invested over 100 million leva here and I believe
 this will be much appreciated years from now," the Prime
Minister said.

In the words of the Education Minister, the territory of the
Sofia Tech Park is where the war between fundamental and applied
 research must end.

Deputy Prime Minister Donchev said that Bulgaria has a smart
specialization strategy which identifies the most promising
sector in this country. "We have a dynamic picture and things
can change but the focus is now on IT, biotechnologies,
pharmacy, machine building and electronics," Donchev said.

Commissioner Moedas and Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev
agreed that Bulgaria has potential for more projects for
innovation ecosystems similar to the Tech Park, and that
Bulgaria has a huge potential for innovation in general. The two
 held a one-to-one meeting.