13.10.2023
Bulgaria and the region can be leaders in Europe in agricultural produce as we have excellent environment and climate. However, to be sustainable we need the technologies that help us respond adequately to climate change. High technologies are Bulgaria’s future.
This is what Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov said as he cut the ribbon of the new building of the Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology in Plovdiv, built under the PlantaSYST project. In 2017, it was the only Bulgarian research project that was approved to get European funding so as to become a center of excellence in the said domain. Today it is a leading institute in the region and in Bulgaria and is specialized in the development of new biologically pure varieties of crops that are drought tolerant and survive extreme temperatures. Seven research departments function in the newly built research compound while researchers and students work in an innovative research section consisting of two subsections: greenhouses, six research laboratories, eight controlled environment rooms and twenty specially equipped premises.
Earlier this day the Prime Minister attended the launch event of the European Initiative for European Innovation Valleys. Over 200 applicants from all over the European Union have applied for support under this program. An innovation valley, a candidate from Bulgaria, has been approved in the field of food security. The valley is under the umbrella of the Regional Innovation Valley Plovdiv for Deep Technologies in the Bioeconomy and Food Systems in which 84 partners from the South Central Region participate. The Plovdiv Innovation Valley already has a partner from Belgium with whom it will create an innovation cluster in the field of bioeconomy and food systems.
The first one hundred regional innovation valleys that will be eligible for EU funding will be selected by March 2024. The rest will be awarded a certificate and given the right to apply for European funding at a next step.
