On 17 June 2026, Sofia Tech Park hosted the SustainX Sofia Workshop, bringing together small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation intermediaries, researchers, public institutions and project partners from Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Greece, Germany and the Canary Islands.
The event was organised within the SustainX: Fostering Sustainable Digital Innovation Investment project and created a practical space for exchange, visibility, interregional networking and cooperation between innovative companies and the organisations that support them.
The workshop opened with contributions from Ruslan Stefanov of the Applied Research and Communications Fund and Mihail Iliev of Sofia Tech Park. Their opening messages underlined that an effective innovation ecosystem must be accessible, understandable and genuinely useful to companies. Support for SMEs is not only about the availability of programmes, funding instruments or institutions. It also depends on listening to companies, understanding their development challenges and translating policy, technology and finance into clear and actionable opportunities.
The first session focused on the Bulgarian innovation ecosystem and the support available to SMEs. Mihail Iliev presented the role of Sofia Tech Park as a place where companies, research organisations, technology teams and public institutions can connect. He highlighted the importance of specialised infrastructure, laboratories, test environments and expert support for developing, validating and scaling innovative solutions.
Maya Deneva from Fund of Funds Bulgaria offered participants a practical overview of the financing opportunities available to SMEs and how different financial instruments relate to different stages of business development. The discussion helped participants distinguish between grants, loans, guarantees, equity financing and blended instruments. It also addressed the importance of selecting the right form of support based on a company’s level of maturity, investment readiness, risk profile and growth ambitions.
The programme continued with a panel discussion entitled “Innovation Synergies for Innovation and Interregional Collaboration”, moderated by Georgi Dobrev from the Applied Research and Communications Fund. The panel brought together Cristina Vărvăruc from Digital Innovation Zone in Romania, Ints Viksna from the Latvian Technology Center, Svetlana Ormanova from AgroHub.BG / AgroDigiRise, and Plamen Ivanov from Sofia University.
A central message of the discussion was that SME support should be organised around real company journeys rather than isolated instruments or institutional boundaries. The speakers explored how European networks, digital innovation hubs, universities, research organisations, public authorities and business intermediaries can work more closely together to give companies access to expertise, technology, testing infrastructure, finance, international partners and new markets.
An especially valuable part of the workshop was the guided visit organised by Sofia Tech Park. Participants visited several specialised laboratories and learned more about the capabilities of the Discoverer supercomputer. The visit provided a practical insight into the scientific, technological and high-performance computing infrastructure that can support companies in testing, data analysis, prototype development and technology validation.
The afternoon programme shifted the focus directly to the companies. Fifteen SMEs from across the SustainX partner regions presented their solutions, technologies and cooperation interests to an international audience. The presentations covered a broad range of fields, including health technologies, laboratory solutions, artificial intelligence, smart industry, agri-innovation, bioeconomy, circular economy, sustainable tourism, digital education and skills development.
The pitching session was followed by five thematic matchmaking rooms: Health & Labs, AI & Industry, Agri & Bioeconomy, Circular & Tourism, and EdTech & Skills. This format enabled participants to move beyond general introductions and explore concrete opportunities for technology cooperation, pilots, access to laboratories and testbeds, internationalisation, joint project development and participation in emerging value chains.
The Sofia Workshop has created a strong basis for follow-up. SustainX partners are now collecting feedback from companies and participants to identify the most promising contacts and opportunities for targeted support. The next steps include direct introductions between relevant organisations, short bilateral meetings, thematic follow-up discussions and the preparation of an SME catalogue featuring participating companies and their cooperation interests. The catalogue will be circulated through project, innovation and business-support networks across the partner regions.
On 18 June 2026, the SustainX consortium also met at the offices of the Applied Research and Communications Fund in Sofia. The meeting provided an opportunity to review project implementation progress, discuss the results of training and stakeholder-engagement activities, and define priorities for the next phase of work. Particular attention was given to follow-up support for SMEs, the development of interregional links and the conversion of event contacts into practical cooperation opportunities.
SustainX continues to work towards more practical, connected and SME-oriented innovation support. The Sofia event demonstrated that when companies, innovation intermediaries, research organisations and public institutions are brought together around concrete themes and cooperation opportunities, interregional collaboration can become a practical driver of growth, resilience and technological development.
