Experts from the Applied Research and Communications Fund and their colleagues from the YES Foundation in Skopje joined forces and jointly developed the methodology for the first national contest for innovative enterprises in North Macedonia. Experts from the YES and MIR Foundations, North Macedonia also developed the first online innovation management training in Macedonian and a mobile application for technology transfer.
Following the example of the well-established initiative to support business innovation in Bulgaria – the Innovative Enterprise of the Year contest, the first similar competition was held in North Macedonia. 3 companies from different economic sectors out of 31 applicants were awarded in May 2019. YES Foundation partnered with prof. Theodora Georgieva, Dr. Fani Koleva and Daniela Tchonkova, experts at the Applied Research and Communications Fund, who shared their know-how in organizing and running the competition in Bulgaria.
Prof. Mialche Santa and prof. Snezana Bilic, together with their Bulgarian colleagues, trained Macedonian entrepreneurs how to manage the innovation processes of their companies. They shared with them their knowledge and experience in applying for the Horizon 2020 programme, including the protection of the results of funded projects through the intellectual property system, as well as various aspects of their dissemination, transfer and licensing. With the assistance of Bulgarian specialists, MIR Foundation has also developed two guides – in the field of innovation management and SME innovation financing.
In the framework of the support for increasing the competitiveness of SMEs, the first online course on innovation management in Macedonian language was launched in North Macedonia, as well as a mobile application for technology transfer. Both innovations will help businesses in the country to develop their innovation capacity.
For more information on the joint activity of experts from Bulgaria and North Macedonia and its results, see here.
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