site.btaBulgaria Attends 16th European Space Conference in Brussels

Bulgarian Minister of Innovation and Growth Milena Stoycheva attends the 16th European Space Conference in Brussels.

"Space is of strategic importance for society, long-term competitiveness, economic growth and jobs. The sector contributes to the development of new markets and business opportunities for industry and SMEs and start-ups, as well as to strengthening the innovation position of the European Union," Stoycheva said at the conference.

"Bulgaria has over fifty years of experience in space and the capacity to contribute to the development of space technology in Europe. We are actively supporting the sector, including small and medium-sized enterprises, to develop new markets and realise new business opportunities," the Minister underlined.

In her words, the cooperation with the European Commission and the European Space Agency contributes to strengthening Bulgaria's space technological and economic capacity. "We have the ambition to increase the number of new companies in the sector, of entrepreneurs and young people benefiting from the programmes," the Innovation and Growth Minister announced.

In recent years, Bulgaria has implemented successful space projects in important areas such as space food production and construction of space greenhouses, information systems for monitoring hydropower reservoirs, development of communication satellite terminals, software platforms for aggregation and analysis of satellite data, nanosatellite power systems, ground-based monitoring of agricultural and forest areas and many others. "Also, one of the nine new space companies selected to join the Copernicus programme is Bulgarian," Stoycheva added.

The Minister of Innovation and Growth also noted the development of international cooperation in the sector - Bulgaria became the 32nd country to sign the NASA Artemis Accords. "Promoting key technologies such as artificial intelligence, microelectronics, robotics, aerospace communications will give us an advantage to drive future progress in the sector. This in turn will boost the development of innovation and its benefit to humanity," Minister Stoycheva stressed.

On the sidelines of the conference, she also held talks with the Belgian State Secretary for Economic Recovery and Strategic Investment, responsible for science policy, Thomas Dermine. The two discussed cooperation in the field of innovation in the space sector. Minister Stoycheva also held meetings with Chris Peters, Vice President of the European Investment Bank, Timo Pesonen, Director General for Defence and Space at the European Commission and representatives of Airbus.