The European Commission has identified accelerating and strengthening innovation in European ecosystems and bridging innovation gaps as a flagship initiative.
This flagship initiative aims to accelerate innovation and unlock excellence in the EU through various instruments. It is focused on creating the basis for the emergence of connected regional ‘innovation valleys’ across the EU, in particular involving regions with lower innovation performance, drawing on strategic areas of regional strengths and specialization in support of key EU priorities.
The action will be launched by the end of 2023 and will identify up to 100 regions that commit to improving the coordination and focus of their research and innovation investments and policies at regional level. These regions are expected to prioritize 3-4 interregional innovation projects, including in the field of deep innovation related to key EU priorities. Action will build on smart specialization strategies and, where applicable, participation in Regional Innovation Partnerships (RIPs) 71 – a pilot initiative with 74 EU territories launched by the European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions in April 2022 Mr.
In order to meet the current wave of deep technological innovations and to contribute to the transformation of Plovdiv into a valley of industry and business of the future, the management of Plovdiv Tech Park initiated the creation of the Association for Public Benefit “Valley for Deep Technological Innovations – Plovdiv” (DDTI-Plovdiv) .
This initiative of Plovdiv Tech Park AD is supported by more than 40 founders – legal entities and individuals from Plovdiv. On 06.04.2023, the founding meeting of the association was held. The association was registered in the Commercial Register of the Registration Agency on 18.04.2023.
Thus, in Plovdiv, the Second Deep Technology Innovation Valley in Europe was created.
The first initiative of “DDTI – Plovdiv” is the regional round table held on 25.04.2023 on the topic “Innovations on the agenda of Europe”.
The event took place in the “Mahatma Gandhi” event center on the territory of “Plovdiv Tech Park”, as it is innovative, both for Plovdiv and for the Plovdiv region, announced Prof. Ivo Dimitrov – Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Association.
“In the regional round table, our partners from India, from Europe took part, in order to consider quite extensive topics that are related to innovation and artificial intelligence, which is currently quite a topical topic,” said Venelin Yordanov, who is the CEO of “Plovdiv Tech Park” AD.
Dimitar Gishin – Chairman of the Board of Directors of “DDTI – Plovdiv”, Leena Thomas – from Global Business Inroads Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, India, Prof. Ivo Dimitrov, Prof. Dr. Yosif Avramov, Lyubomir Blagoev – Manager of USW Ltd, Prof. Gancho Ganchev from the Union of Economists in Bulgaria, representatives of Chandigarh University, India also took part online. At the forum, the first version of the platform “Talent goes to Talent”, created and presented by Atanas Kostov – executive director of “IT Academy” AD, was presented.
