site.btaEU Commissioner Ivanova: EUR 100 Mln Are Envisaged for Development of Regional Innovation Valleys in Europe, Plovdiv among Applicants

A total of EUR 100 million are envisaged for development of Regional Innovation Valleys within the Horizon Europe programme, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova told journalists in Plovdiv on Thursday. She pointed out that there are two good applications for the procedure in Bulgaria and one of them is in Plovdiv. It is planned to have a hundred of these valleys in Europe.

Ivanova was a guest at a round table on issues related to the innovation ecosystem in Plovdiv region, organized by the city’s Agrucultural University.

She stressed that the Regional Innovation Valleys provide for interaction between business, education and research organizations, with the aim of helping the regions lagging behind to catch up. "We try in every way to stimulate and support the convergence of regions, not only through cohesion policy but also with programmes like this," she explained. Ivanova noted that this is a wonderful opportunity and Plovdiv has extremely good research communities, universities and businesses. "I would like us to spread this opportunity and encourage other good examples like Stara Zagora, the Northeast region and other regions in the country," she stressed.

Ivanova expressed the opinion that the development of the Regional Innovation Valleys is the future because even strong innovators cannot be competitive on the international stage by themselves and must work collectively.

She stated that it is very important to fill the chronic deficit of EUR 100 billion, but this cannot be done only with local, public, state funding, and there is also a need for private capital, which is the idea of the Regional Innovation Valleys.