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Innovation.bg 2007

ARC Fund’s latest report Innovation.bg 2007 analyzes the state of the national innovation system and makes recommendations for enhancing the innovation performance of the Bulgarian economy. This year’s report makes a review of the European innovation policy and the opportunities it offers to Bulgaria.

This year the report was enriched with a special Innovation Index of the Bulgarian enterprises, based on the results of the annual surveys of the Innovation Relay Center and with a profile of the Bulgarian innovative companies based on panel data and in-depth statistical analysis. The Innovation Index of the Bulgarian enterprises indicates that most of them (over 65%) have not implemented any innovations during the last year. The index shows signs of the low ability to combine several types of innovations and of the implementation of innovations mostly with low degree of novelty by the Bulgarian companies (novelties only for the company or the national, but not the international market).

Innovation.bg 2007 draws a few groups of conclusions and recommendations:

  • The market component of the Bulgarian innovation system is at early stage of development: Bulgarian enterprises have low degree of innovativeness.
  • The innovation and the R&D product are being developed structurally independent of each other in the national economy – the relations between them are weak.
  • The national innovation system is developed and influenced mainly by the integration and the financing in European innovation networks and the changes in the public innovation policy and financing.
  • The major drawbacks in the development of the national innovation system are the lack of appropriate sources of financing (in the short term) and the lack of qualified personnel (in the long term).
  • The national innovation system has started to improve its performance. This is a clear sign that the time for action in this area has come.
  • Ensuring of greater political, administrative and financial resources for executing the national innovation policy.
  • Improvement of the coordination between strategic papers, policies, administrative and financial instruments that have influence on the national innovation system.
  • More precise channeling and coordination of the innovation funds of the Cohesion and Structural funds of the EU on national level and with other European programs.

Download the Innovation.bg 2007 Report (in English, PDF, 11 MB)